It’s an old exploit, but still, it remains an exploit which never got fixed
32 Likes
completely agree that this should be fixed.
7 Likes
It’s far too long in the game to change it now. Also it absoluetly makes sence to not be able to build on enemy units/enemy buildings, the fact that you can gain information by this is neither bad nor good, it’s just how the game works. Changing this very fundamental behaviour just gonna lead to a ton of new bugs, there are far more important issues.
20 Likes
That’s quite the demand to make for someone that doesn’t play MP.
5 Likes
Well, I’ve been watching expert matches and I honestly find it stupid every time I see it.
3 Likes
It should just display unbuildable terrain on Fog of War areas. Easy fix.
1 Like
It should cancel and refund the foundation once you see that the space is occupied.
22 Likes
Agree this is quite legal cheat but it is bad.
It should work like it will allow you to place foundation which dissappear once you scout the area by unit and the area is already taken by enemy building.
Easy
4 Likes
I would find that much worse, personally. It would mean that I always have to be actively looking at an area to know if I can build there. Otherwise, I could sink a lot of resources into buildings, go there, they don’t exist, I get my resources back but in the meantime I wasn’t able to do anything with them, so now I’m doubly punished.
This is something I always wanted the devs to remove. While bulding scanning is not unfair strictly speaking (since all players can do it), I think this exploit is detrimental to gameplay because it counters forward building and other type of “sneak” strategies which rely on building or moving units outside of your enemy active field of view.
This punishes more aggressive/active playstyles and promotes more “stale” defensive gameplay…after all, why risk everything on a strategy which relies on catching your opponent by surprise if he can so easily discover your forward units/buildings?
If there is something you cannot see blocking the foundation of the building you want to place, the resources should still be allocated and the villager should still go the location. Once it finds something blocking the building foundation, the resourced can be given back to the player and some kind of alert sound should be played so that the player knows what is happening.
4 Likes
Actually agreed.
You should be able to place the foundation no matter if enemy units are there or not.
Once villagers get there they wait (surrounding the foundation) for enemy to move.
But yeah, if that’s the enemy building occupying the space you’re right.
2 Likes
I don’t think it promotes defensive/passive gameplay. The fact that you can place it on their planned foundation but not on a building that’s been begun makes it a good race, e.g. for a castle on a hilltop. True, the race would have even higher stakes if the game said you could build the castle on the hilltop and you only learn you can’t when half your villagers are shot walking to the space 
But I think provoking a reaction once you know you’ve lost the space leads to more interesting counters myself. Giving people an opportunity to react means that the first person there doesn’t have such a massive, punishing lead and tests your adaptability.
The mechanic I think is good — it’s just an unfortunate corollary that you can do a “sweep” foundation scan
4 Likes
I don’t think you should be able to check whether a vantage position is already taken with a building foundation, it just doesn’t make much sense even from a game design perspective. This should be done with preemptive scouting of the location and this is the responsibility of the player.
Still, one could argue that this exploit has been around for such a long time that it became basically a feature, though not one which I like. In the end I would rather have the devs focus on improving the pathfinding and fixing bugs right now, it would probably be wiser to discuss these things when the game is in a more polished state.
2 Likes
ROFL just because you and other vets have grown used to this massive crutch / game exploit doesnt justify it in the slightest… imagine starcraft had such a stupid game exploit…
i forget about this exploit, and then i watch a pro vid (which is rare) and get reminded of how lame it is
7 Likes
you mean like almost every other current RTS?? 
just imagine! 
5 Likes
Hey, if I want just about every other current RTS I’ll go play one of those instead of my beloved 20-year-old oddball AoE2 
3 Likes
Just get used to the standard game mechanics. It’s also a skill to actually remember the whole techtree + the little things and use them to the maximum.
it’s not lame at all
is an exploit? Yes
is unfair? No, all people can do it.
the real problem is now is so deep on the gameplay wich become a skill, so remove it its like change the feeling of the game.
for example the game was desined to play at 1.5 speed but cause a bug was released on 1.7 speed. Now 1.7 is te standart. so stop complain it and learn how to use it. is just another skill
3 Likes
Do you really call that a skill to wave around your base with a farm to check if there’s a building? That just makes Proxy harder which is already a risky strat per se.
By the way, while we’re talking about skills, wouldn’t it be better if you had to use a unit to check if there’s a Proxy or not? Would strenghten risky strats like forwards.
3 Likes
u still need to explore u can get jebaited with houses. u know something is there… u dont know what it is. And if u know hes doing fwd buildings u still need to react properly