If i look at auto scout: It is bad for the dark age. You want to scout manually in this time frame. After that i just click auto scout, so he can scout the full map and i care much less about losing my scout. Having the option of auto scouting available from the start, doesnt mean you need to use it from the start.
If you dont wanna spend time for managing your scout at the start, then you have the risk of losing your scout. That seems as a fair trade off.
There are already comeback mechanics for preventing losing your Scout to the TC in the first place (spotting resources which typically spawn close to a TC, Scouts are fast enough to dodge TC fire with good timing,) so itâs your fault for losing a Dark Age Scout to the TC and not a fault of the game. Talk to pros and theyâll tell you the same thing.
Nothing I have read so far invalidates my argument that Scout into TC is a grave disadvantage in the very early game and thatâs poor game design.
We want a better game.
Wasnât it HC3 Semi-Final that was decided by a mis-scout? Itâs bad for the tournament and for the game at large to have games that are extremely lopsided from minute 4.
Well, losing a vil to a boar in the early game is also a big disadvantage, even more than losing the scout you could say.
Happens when you arenât paying attention to the lure, just like when youâre not paying attention to your scout.
Maybe we should also decrease boar speed and attack to prevent such a loss, because thatâs also poor game design 
Nothing about my suggestion is about beginner friendliness.
Not sure why it comes about as such. I think beginners actually suffer least from losing a scout! Because they donât know how to use it anyhow.
My point is that at a medium to high level, this is a game design problem. Many games are decided because of a lost or even damaged scout. I had people rage quit the game after losing their scout â and I completely understand.
My suggestions arenât ideal; maybe you have a good idea?
Agree here, losing a vil in Dark (or even in Feudal) is much more disadvantaged than losing the scout
IMO if you donât want to lose your scout donât scout to far from your base until you have army
I donât know what kind of game you are talking about but clearly in an RTS game where you start with little ressources/units and build toward a big base/huge army it clearly canât work that way. Think about it, how can you make one unit loss when youâve got like 10 units and not even 1000 ressources in the bank matter less than letâs say 10 of the very same unit lost but once youâve got 200 pop, half the map covered in production buildings and half the mapâs res in your bank?
Ez fix: hit your âlast notificationâ key as soon as you hear the attack alert and get your scout out of here. Or give a control group to your scout.
When I lose my scout this way I just focus more on building up my eco, as I know the enemyâs location and will just need a bit of scouting with my rush units to get the job done.
You should rather âthankâ yourself.
I think 99 out of the top100 players would disagree with this statement. Rather give up a vil than your scout!
Hera is satisfied to lose one vil for a trapped scout!!!
Do you see the problem now?
Good point. RTS is exponential growth, if you start behind you get more and more behind in linear terms.
Comeback dynamics are
May I ask what ELO you are playing in 1v1 DE? I find this an argument of low ELO. You always focus on your eco and youâre not supposed to drop eco seconds whether you have a scout or not. Like you canât pivot from losing a scout!
And not knowing where his wood/berries/gold is, cause you lost your scout, is a HUGE DISADVANTAGE to your rush!
source for hera ?
also, a dark age vil is worth so much that even idling vils with a drush is considered a successful action.
Also, itâs deriving from the argument of being attentive to what your scout is up to.
Good players lose their scout to tc maybe 1 in 50 games. It is an extraordinary rare thing to happen, and it is always the playerâs fault when it does. Every single one of your suggestions to âfixâ this non-issue would change the game in an exploitable way and make it worse.
At the end of the day, you need to watch your scout, and there should be penalties for failing to do so. If this was happening to you 1 out of 50 games, it wouldnât be an issue for you. Based on this topic, I can promise that even when you donât run into the enemyâs TC, youâre not using your scout to itâs full potential and probably have glaring weaknesses in your game. Is it harder to win without the scout? Yes, but youâre probably not playing against strong players anyways, so no game youâve ever lost your scout in was insurmountable.
See, thar be the dreaded âslippery slopeâ we here in the âwe already like the game how it isâ party fear. You may think an âauto scoutâ would be nice for newer players, and it certainly might be. But there will always be those who think itâs a good first start. Unfortunately, youâve conceded that one little bit is okay, so why not this step?
If you care about losing your scout to TC, get better. Donât use your failure as an excuse. Watch SOTLâs video on surviving TC fire. Or stop playing competitively and trying to change a game everyone else is fine with. Either works. I donât play competitively because I donât see the appeal. Iâm not trying to force the company to, say, make 256 tech mod a ranked queue option.
Uhhhh⊠how have I been playing this game 12 years and not know that button existed? 
To the original poster, I think itâs pretty silly to try calling a feature thatâs always been in the game evidence of bad game design⊠when the game has been around 20 years and is still thriving. Of all the things Age of Empires 2 is, poorly designed is certainly not one of them lol.
If any change here were made I like either a) unique straggler trees around starting TC. Or b) a special notification sound when your scout enters range of the TC. But ultimately leaving the game as is is probably the right call.
Since losing a scout is mostly a matter of decision-making based on information gathering you canât really put it into relation with resource efficiency. Itâd depend too much on actual game specifics. However, a lot of pro players seem to value the scout more than one vil. At least viper and hera frequenly stress that they are usually happy to lose a vil in exchange for the opponentâs starting scout. But I guess this is before players reach feudal age.
Ez fix: hit your âlast notificationâ key as soon as you hear the attack alert and get your scout out of here. Or give a control group to your scout.
What Dark Sorcery Is This???
I need to go check this right now!
Same - how did I not know this was a thing???
@Paulnternet Pretty sure I did in my post What I wrote yesterday that explained why it is not poor game design and is in fact excellent game design.
I agree with your comment but the TC has a little balistic, the best way to avoid arrows is doing âZâ or zig zag (I dont know if in english the Word is known)
A solution would be make the initial scout a unique unit that can be trained in TC (and always has the auto explore feature). So you decide if it is important to have vision and get set back in eco or leave it dead.
As soon as you hit feudal, it canât be trained.
This is fine the way it is. Donât want to lose your scout to a TC? Then be more careful with your scout.
TCâs are never close to hills and forests. So you just keep your scout next to them when you are exploring. Eventually youâll find a stone/gold pile or berries and you can already guess where is the TC.
Besides, TCs can only be located in certain areas of the minimap.
There is never bad luck when you lose the scout to a TC. Itâs just either you not knowing what I wrote above, or you being distracted/not paying attention. In both cases the player is the one to blame.
Pretty OP, train 2 scouts instantly, then send 3 to your enemy and keep them off wood and berries, and force them to do super early loom. Your investment would pay off quickly as you could easily rebound your untouched eco while harassing and stunting theirs.
To avoid this you could cap it at one scout in dark, but you would need the training time to be faster then from stables. The investment of 80 food and 30 sec TT in dark age would never be worth it. I think this would just double your losses, now not only did you lose your starting scout, you also idled your tc and spent 80 food before clicking up.
Best suggestion is just pay attention to your starting scout lol.