Mark IV scouts are amazing

[Reality]

So I'm finishing up my first epic length game at the moment, and it all went reasonably smoothly with 2 level 6 ai's (i'll probably try 7 and a realistic map next). One thing I've found is that I love scouting - searching for factories, research stations, and fabricators is the most exciting part of the early/mid game for me. I was having trouble however, even with full waves of mark 1/2/3 scouts (maybe 35 scouts to a group) - I couldn't scout anything past 2 or 3 jumps out, because the AI had tachyon guardians at pretty much every warpgate (I'm not sure if this is something specific to a certain AI type, I chose random easier).

Then I found my first advanced factory and built my single mark IV scout, which I provided to send all over the galaxy, uncovering the entire map without a hitch! To be honest, I'd prioritise the factory highly even if that scout was all it provided me. Being able to find all the targets of interest, including the homeworlds, relatively early on, let me really strategise about where to take territory.

So I guess the purpose of this thread is to express my great appreciation for the capabilities of the mark IV scout! but also to ask if it's unusual to have such a hard time without it?

[icedude94]

Hey, I'm a relatively new player myself but I'm quickly picking up this game and I have to say it's one of the best strategy games I've ever played.

For scouting, try building transports and loading the scouts into those ships. Use the transports to ferry the scouts through the wormhole and outside the range of the tachyon detection guardians and then unload them. Remember that transports lose health for every wormhole they pass through that is outside of supply and they quickly regenerate their hull points when in friendly territory. For me, I can typically get my transports about 4 jumps out from the nearest friendly system.

What you really need to watch out for are the AI counterspy defenses. They're basically like the tachyon defenses but have a de-cloaking range that covers the entire system and a weapon that kills scouts in 1 go. You can always pop scouts back into transports after you get the intel summary, but it's worth using the transports to do deep strikes or use raider starships to knock out counter spies.

[TechSY730]

Not sure how hard the devs want scouting to be, but I do know they have been tweaking scout balance over the past few beta versions, and are continuing to do so as well.

Anyways, Mk. IV scouts are freaking amazing. They are supposed to be. This is offset by the special circumstances you need to get one, or for the Mk. IV scout-starship, how expensive in knowledge it is.

Heed icedude94's warning on counter-spies. Unlike pretty much any other thing in the game that deals with targeting cloaked units, it does NOT respect immunity to tachyon beams. This means that even Mk. IV scouts will be targeted and killed by it. I think Mk. IV scout-starships are safe though, as starships are immune to instant-death. The only other class of ship in the game that can reveal cloaked stuff that are immune to tachyon beams are warheads, and those come with AI progress cost for that power.

[BobTheJanitor]

I'd just like to echo the freaking amazing opinion. I unlocked the mark IV and then saw that I only got one. I was a little disappointed, but I should have known with a ship cap of 1 that it would be fantastic. I just left him parked on the AI's doorstep and enjoyed the fact that they couldn't see him at all.

[Reality]

I love being able to look at the map, cover it in priority sticers, and forge a leapfrog pathway out of systems with useful stuff. I'm really glad too, because traditionally I'm very much an "expand in a perfect sphere, devour everything in your path, consolidate everything" kind of player. I was worried it would be hard to adapt, but it's more intuitive than I thought it would be.

That said, about 13 hours into my game and a cluster of far flung planets is under a lot of threat because an AI wave hit at the same time as a Neinzul roaming enclave! So I'm having an interesting time dealing with that.

[Mánagarmr]

After playing with scouts ever since the 2.0 beta, I've actually gone over to having the whole galaxy map revealed on game start. It offers a different kind of game, sure, but it's nice to try it out for once.

Other than that, yes, the Mk IV scout is amazing and rightly so. Scouting is hard, but not impossible to do in the new betas.

[Red Spot]

.....I just left him parked on the AI's doorstep and enjoyed the fact that they couldn't see him at all.

You just made me giggle a bit ..... out loud ..