Scouts For 0 A.d.

[Tutle]

Not sure whether this has been suggested already, but I think scouts would be great to have in this game. It would be very beneficial to have a specific class, that when spotting an enemy sends a pop-up to you and shows his location on the mini-map. It is really annoying sometimes, while you are recovering, the enemy AI decides it wants to launch a second attack. I had prepared for this by putting up those towers things, but I lost some of my ladies whom were harvesting in the area. Also, one of the downsides of this scout could be poor fighting skills. In other words, he cannot take damage or he will die (same strength as the women). However, this scout can travel faster than all other units.

In summary,

Scout Unit:

Pro:

Can travel fast

find out where the enemy base is located.

report possible sneak attacks from the enemy on your base

discover area around your base for mineral, great area of water (you are going to need a boat for travel), choke points, etc (I dislike the shadow effect after leaving a territory ).

Con:

same health as women

very poor fighting skills

Edited May 28, 2011 by Tutle

[Mythos_Ruler]

Couldn't you use a Basic Cavalry Skirmisher or something for this purpose? Except for the map flare warning of course.

[Tutle]

Couldn't you use a Basic Cavalry Skirmisher or something for this purpose? Except for the map flare warning of course.

I am not to familiar with the game concepts (not sure what Cavalry Skirmisher means), but I don't believe I seen something like my suggested scout idea. I know they are some horsemen that run quick, but as you probably know they don't send you a pop-up warning or are very good at scouting ahead (they attack without your permission).

[satchitb]

The hippeus or equivalent serves exactly this purpose. But can we PLEASE reduce its Line of Sight? It's ridiculously high. On a small map, merely by walking in a line across the map, you can easily scout over 95% of the map.

[chaosislife]

Need to make the hippeus more cowardly if it's going to be used as a scout, they run straight at the enemy no matter how many times you order them to run away. Not surprisingly, they die very quickly. Also i think we need to reduce the line of sight of most everything except the outposts. If the engine is anything like aom's engine then all those huge LOS calculations are whats causing me so much lag. I'd say remove the LOS completely for all the gaia units like deer and trees and make the women nearly blind, they don't need to be scouting around if they can't defend themselves.

Edited June 4, 2011 by chaosislife

[Ykkrosh]

If I remember correctly, the LOS/FOW computations are pretty cheap now. A much more expensive thing is checking whether any enemy units have come within vision range, which is heavily affected by the size of that range, but it should be possible to improve that significantly through engine optimisations since the code is currently a bit stupid. So I think any changes should be motivated just by gameplay and not by performance.

[Jubalbarca]

Am I allowed to feel a glow of pride that the AI is actually causing you problems?

[chaosislife]

The AI isn't causing me problems, it's great, but easy to beat. All I do is use the javelin units for everything and groups of garrisoned outposts and the AI gives me the pleasure of running headlong into their deaths. After that, all I have to do is wait for them to run out of resources because they refuse to build new settlements or collection buildings near the outlying resources. Then I build a few super units and mow them down.

[Mythos_Ruler]

The AI isn't causing me problems, it's great, but easy to beat. All I do is use the javelin units for everything and groups of garrisoned outposts and the AI gives me the pleasure of running headlong into their deaths. After that, all I have to do is wait for them to run out of resources because they refuse to build new settlements or collection buildings near the outlying resources. Then I build a few super units and mow them down.

LOL, yeah, this is pretty much my strat as well.

[chess007_phoenix_clan]

Take some credit, the AI beat me -- or well I gave up. Its a win for the AI either way. The first time I tested the game, I tried to built up a mass of soldiers (of varying types) to go in and kill the AI. The AI defended the hell out of its base, then counter attacked mine. As I had little to no defensive capabilities, I quit.

I like the scouts idea though. But rather than a pop up it could "auto flare" (i.e. aoktc when a team member uses flare to mark something). Perhaps a red X auto flared means "an enemy is here". Or there could be an option to "auto flare" or "generate pop up". Stances would certainly be useful too. I.e. aggressive "the unit always attacks any in range enemies" stand ground "the unit attacks if an enemy is in range but never pursues" passive "the unit never attacks no matter what". Some form of way-point assignment would be good too; i.e. goto point x, then point y, then point z (etc). If the patrolling unit finds any enemies it sends an alert and engages them. If not it eternally wonders along its patrol route.

The main issue I had was I didn't know what unit was strong vs what unit, but that's me being uninformed not a failing of the game.

[Rasunadon]

The main issue I had was I didn't know what unit was strong vs what unit, but that's me being uninformed not a failing of the game.

Just move your mouse over icons of units when training them in town centre / barracks. There is a label Name/Bonus vs.../Cost.

[Mythos_Ruler]

Rather than have a dedicated scout unit, we could allow cavalry the option of being Scouts with a button in the UI.

[satchitb]

Rather than have a dedicated scout unit, we could allow cavalry the option of being Scouts with a button in the UI.

I like the scouts idea though. But rather than a pop up it could "auto flare" (i.e. aoktc when a team member uses flare to mark something). Perhaps a red X auto flared means "an enemy is here". Or there could be an option to "auto flare" or "generate pop up". Stances would certainly be useful too. I.e. aggressive "the unit always attacks any in range enemies" stand ground "the unit attacks if an enemy is in range but never pursues" passive "the unit never attacks no matter what". Some form of way-point assignment would be good too; i.e. goto point x, then point y, then point z (etc). If the patrolling unit finds any enemies it sends an alert and engages them. If not it eternally wonders along its patrol route.

An excellent idea. Preset behavioural stance and autoflaring would be great. However, we have to be careful with this. If the scout is on the fringes of the enemy's town, the player could get bombarded with distracting flares. Also, this could continue way into the game if the player forgets about the scout. How about soldiers (especially cavalry) who have been idle for x amount of time to automatically be set to scout mode?

[chaosislife]

An excellent idea. Preset behavioural stance and autoflaring would be great. However, we have to be careful with this. If the scout is on the fringes of the enemy's town, the player could get bombarded with distracting flares. Also, this could continue way into the game if the player forgets about the scout. How about soldiers (especially cavalry) who have been idle for x amount of time to automatically be set to scout mode?

That could be bad if you've got a platoon of cavalry guarding an area since the scouts wouldn't or at least shouldn't aggressively attack enemy units that come into the area.