it will still help you with more complex problems but without it you will be lost. Thats what i mean.
If you get very good with one civ that doesnt mean you get worse with others. its still gonna help you in all aspects except for maybe house building when only playing Huns, but then again your pop-cap awareness doesnt get worse from playing huns. it just stays the same.
The Problem is that it might help you with a macro and eco heavy style but it wont help you as much with an agressive style so it influences your strategic play.
After testing out the feature for a bit, I find it really awkward that it works only for the starting Scout/Eagle in random map games. Here are some interface quirks related to that issue:
If you select a group of Scouts, the auto-explore interface button is displayed only when the âstartingâ Scout is the final Scout that is selected. If you click the starting Scout, then Shift+click another Scout, the UI button disappears.
If you select a âtrainedâ Scout, then Shift-click to select also the starting Scout, the auto-explore button appears in the UI. But the auto-explore hotkey does not make the Scout explore, only clicking the UI button explicitly makes him explore.
Thereâs no way to distinguish the auto-explore Scout from other Scouts. If I do decide that I want my Scout to start auto-scouting later in the game, thereâs no easy way to find it, other than clicking individual scouts and seeing which one has the icon.
In multiple-TC starts (e.g. the maps Budapest or ES@Metropolis) there is one Scout for each Town Center, and each Scout has the auto-explore ability.
I tried pressing the Idle Military button to get all 3 Scouts on auto-explore on Metropolis. But when I use Idle-Military to switch to from one Scout to the next Scout, the auto-explore hotkey does not work, and I have to click the UI button explicitly (on a standard Arabia map with only 1 Scout, I could use Idle Military and then the auto-explore hotkey to start the Scout auto-exploring).
All Scout-line or Eagle-line units that are placed in a Custom Scenario have the auto-explore ability (for example, see Saladin 1 or Montezuma 5), not just one. In some scenarios you end up with lots of units that can auto-explore.
If you select a group of Scouts, all of which have the auto-explore option, then only one of these units will auto-scout when you click the button. Clicking the button again stops that individual scout from auto-scouting.
Thereâs no way to remove the button completely from the UI. I personally do not want to use the auto-explore feature, but I find the button to be rather distracting when I glance at the unit panel to check the attack stance of my Scout.
Overall it seems like the interface may work ok for the obvious use case of Dark Age scouting, but begins to break down when you start exploring other aspects of the game.
And a few observations about the behavior of the Scout from playing a couple of games with it:
For the first 2-3 minutes the Scout does an ok job of making a small circle around the playerâs base.
But after that first circle, the Scout does not move intelligently. Instead of exploring for the extra resources around the playerâs base, I saw the Scout want to move to the corner of the map several times.
Even 12 minutes into the game, the Scout has not moved out to Scout the opponent, but is still Scouting the playerâs side of the map.
When the Scout eventually scouts the opponent, thereâs nothing stopping it from running directly underneath their TC.
If you do have multiple units that you set to auto-explore, then they may all run to the same corner of the map, rather than spreading out. They really seem to like running to corners.
I think it should apply to scout-line units rather than just the initial scout. Otherwise losing your intial scout will be even more of a bigger deal than it normally is.
I have experienced this feature myself. Iâm big RTS fan, I have played a lot of RTS titles from all AoE games (I started with AoE2 in 2003), AoM, RoN, StarCraft, WarCraft, Empire Earth, C&CâŠ
Iâm confident in myself being an upper-med to near-pro level AoE2 player, I have to say I pretty much like the idea behind it. Surely itâs a great QoL improvement feature. Similar feature can also be found in EE franchise (started by the same person who created AoE franchise)
I think the way the feature currently works still need a bit of improvements nevertheless. Itâs certainly more useful that auto-scouting fully explores oneâs own base first. This means to prioritise immediate resources like 2-3 goldmines, 2 stonemines, berries, 8 sheeps, 2 boars, etc⊠as opposed to wandering further and ignoring oneâs own base as it is doing now. Otherwise it is pointless and who would want to use it?
Cool! An auto-scouting feature! I like it. The more features the better Devs! Thank you and keep up the good work!
As an experienced AOE player Iâve used this feature tonight in a few games about as much as I expected. I needed to manage the scout to locate my most immediate and important objectives early in the match and when I was done, I experimenting with the auto-scout feature. When under a lot of pressure I switched back to manual control. I like how thorough the auto-scouting is to find all areas that are undiscovered, but itâs a little slow if I need to determine something specific about the map or my opponents that is important and I need to focus all my efforts on figuring it out. Iâd like to see this feature available on all units. Thank you for such a big update to the game! Just awesome!
I think having it on all units is a terrible idea. Having it on all scout-line and eagle-scout-line units is good. Having it on absolutely all units will change the game way too much.
And thatâs exactly where itâs going too far for sure and why I still think this change was a bad idea.
A lot of people donât see it as a little help to get started, but rather as reliable part of their gameplay they want more of - and following up that wish gets really problematic.
Right now itâs okayâish (still hate it^^), because it doesnât work too well. But people will ask for more and maybe they donât get it now, but I fear they will get it at some point.
Not too useful in my opinion but it is quite handy when youâre committing heavily into something early-mid game so you forget your scout. Otherwise i prefer manual scouting because I can pick which areas to explore first.
Also I have noticed an issue - at least I think itâs an issue - where the auto scout button disappears after feudal age or so? Maybe because it was a newly built scout unit instead of the original instance the game starts with. In either case, the auto scout button was gone !
Iâve played since the original AOE, but now find myself doing a lot of multiplayer vs AI casual game play for fun, not competition. Scouting the âludicrousâ maps is not fun (for me). Auto scouting helps with that.
Iâd like it on all scout line units.
To keep things fair, making it an âExplorationâ option (not explored, auto scout, fully explored) would be a great balance and that option could be locked out of ranked play, while keeping it available for folks who are looking for some easy fun after work.
After playing with it for a while⊠still did NOT change my opinion on the matter, feels like CHEATING, I really dislike auto aim in shooter games (adding another example), but to each his own!
Although will be hard to change my mind after 20 years, If this is what nowadays players need then wellcomeâŠ
I suspect this idea was taken from the development of AoEIV (?), I like it nonetheless. Some things are outdated and feel more like a tiring chore than actual fun gameplay, like the farm reseeding, which can be automatic now. Good job. Looking forward to more quality of life improvements.
How does auto-scouting change the way you play the game? Please explain.
I tried to use it in the very beginning of the game, but quickly realized I can find my own resources way more efficiently when doing it manually. Same goes for scouting the enemies base. I opted out of of unitil castle/imp (though in many games my scout would have been dead by then).
Would you consider auto-scouting âusefulâ given your skill level? Why or why not?
Lategame exploration of the corners for instance. Since the scout frequently runs into the enemy TC I do not think it is too overpowered.
Could you tell if your human opponents were using auto-scouting? How did it change the flow of the match?
I only played a handful of matches, in those - no.
Did you encounter any issues (not already listed in the known issues ) with the feature?
The horse canât use it on Steppe, which was kind of a surprise.
I do get that for ranked play this might be a bit too OP in lategame. On the other hand, It is only the initial scout with the auto scouting ability - thus he brings some extra value and could be protected by pros early on and not included in a scout rush for instance. Might swap up that meta a bit in high level play. Not sure if that is good.
I like it but I think the sweet spot would be to make it apply to scout-line units.
I understand people being against it for fear of a slipperly slope. But as long as it doesnât apply to all untis (which would, indeed, be awful) and only scout-line units then itâs a good feature, IMO.
finally had chance to try it out, and as expected im enjoying auto scouting⊠(i have 12 000+ hrs across various RTS)
How does auto-scouting change the way you play the game? Please explain.
early game: took out the excess waypoint laying for the usual opening scout, also helped find a lot of random resources mid-late game i might have normally missed
Would you consider auto-scouting âusefulâ given your skill level? Why or why not?
useful. removed tedious initial scout, i always make a double circle around my base, auto scout does it for me now. mid-late game, tedious scouting for random resources reduced by auto scout
Could you tell if your human opponents were using auto-scouting? How did it change the flow of the match?
couldnt tell, just assumed as much
Did you encounter any issues (not already listed in the known issues ) with the feature?
no, the horses issue was mentioned.
By the way, any ideas if the game difficulty affects the auto-scouting (similar to with wolves)? i.e. if you play on standard difficulty does your scout only scout as well as the standard difficulty AI does but if you play on extreme it scouts as well as the extreme AI does?
wrt applying to scout line units i think devs have to juggle between those who hate auot scouting and those that accept it/like it. and atm its the closest they can get to a happy middle
if all scout line could auto scout, it would significantly reduce a lot of tactics (which a lot of people seem to believe is a must for this game)
castle drops, various rushes, certain black forest onager sneak attacks etc, would be discovered a lot sooner if a few scuts were left on auto scout
i have no issue with it, but with the way people are knee jerking already, i can only imagine how bad it will be if we had fully implemented auto scouting
I like it but I think the sweet spot would be to make it apply to scout-line units.
I understand people being against it for fear of a slipperly slope. But as long as it doesnât apply to all untis (which would, indeed, be awful) and only scout-line units then itâs a good feature, IMO.
This would give a huge benefit to scout openings, making the feature even more problematic.
But is that worse than making losing your initial scout even more of a big deal than it already is?
And isnât it worse to have two players against each other and one still has their intial scout alive in imperial and the other doesnât? At least if it was for all scout-line units it would be something that both players could still do and therefore be fair. It may change the meta but at least it would change it equally for everybody instead of punishing people who run into a TC even more than they are already punished. Losing your initial scout is supposed to punish you but we donât need to make that punishment even bigger.
It will also mean that luring deer becomes more important out of an even greater fear of losing your initial scout ⊠which will mean less early game scouting which will mean less strategy and more just keeping your initial scout safe to auto-scout for you late game.
If you allow it for all scout-line units then itâs something that would be useful late game for everybody equally and scouting early game wonât be so risky.
Then again, one good thing about just having it for your initial scout is ⊠itâs less worth it to steal boars now!
