How to know what difficulty to pick?

[x4000]

When you get mark III scouts, remember you get mark IVs as well.  Those are the ultimate ones, but they are slow.  Right now, mark III is apparently overshadowing that.  The balance of scouts as of about version 3.0 or so of the game is the goal, anything other than that -- in either direction -- is something I consider an imbalance.

[Red Spot]

Mk4 scouts mean very little to me ...

I assumed that mk4's would be some sort of ultimate cloaker that would balance its 'cant see me, cant shoot me' with a very low speed.
It sure didn't work out that way for me

They die at like the thirth gate they go through, roughly as far as you can get a transport before it blows up when entering the planet.
At a higher cost(iirc), 30mk3 scouts will get some info from the other side of the map, and you wont have to wait for 10min for the info you really want to come in.

I may be very wrong about the mk4 and just used them poorly, but at the moment they seem fairly useless to me.
(If not for the balance than for the fact that often by the time I do get a mk4 fab I already scouted 70+ of the 80 planets.)

[x4000]

Mark IVs are perma-cloaked and are supposed to be invincible.  If they ever died, that was a bug of some sort.  I have not observed this, though.

[Red Spot]

Perhaps I have playing a bit too much in the incorrect beta's when I started the game ...
I'll retry them when I unlock them and see from there

[Vinraith]

(If not for the balance than for the fact that often by the time I do get a mk4 fab I already scouted 70+ of the 80 planets.)

I rest my case.

[Red Spot]

At the cost of hundreds of human lifes!!

[Vinraith]

At the cost of hundreds of human lifes!!

 

[Wingflier]

Cause it is a choice you have to make early on in the game. Do you waste time and very very precious R-points on something as trivial as scouts and scouting? Or do you expand relativly uninformed?
If I do make the choice to get mk3 scouts and waste that many R-points on them, they'd beter be good ...  

I never understood why Suzera started with all planets revealed, but after understanding that MKIII Scouts can practically discover the whole galaxy alone, it makes a lot more sense.  3k knowledge (the cost for all Scouts) is significant, but I also agree with her that if they can really go that far, it's a giant waste of time and will just be hampering the game to go through it all.  I guess I had never discovered it because I always waited til I had an MKIV Factory to unlock MKIII Scouts, and for some reason the game always likes to put me against Counter-Spies every game ;p

[TechSY730]

My thoughts on the whole "game is sort of silly because you need to scout in order to know what to get and what to watch out for and which way to head" thing.
This is what partial-fog of war was made for. It lets you retain the depth of the game by needing to scout to find capturables and stuff to avoid (black-hole machines, alarm posts, raid engines, etc). However, it also lets you know what general direction you need to head towards because the ownership and Mk. lvl (and thus, home planets) of all planets are always available, even if knowing what is on them requires scouting.

[Fleet]

I'm not sure if the purpose of this topic is now scout discussion, but regarding what difficult to pick..here are some steps

1. Pick diff 7
2. Play game.
3. Win? Go up some step in difficulty, and return to step 2.
4. Lose? Go down one step in difficulty, and return to step 2.

[TechSY730]

I'm not sure if the purpose of this topic is now scout discussion, but regarding what difficult to pick..here are some steps

1. Pick diff 7
2. Play game.
3. Win? Go up some step in difficulty, and return to step 2.
4. Lose? Go down one step in difficulty, and return to step 2.

5. ???
6. Profit
...
Sorry, someone had to do it.  

[PineappleSam]

I'm not sure if the purpose of this topic is now scout discussion, but regarding what difficult to pick..here are some steps

1. Pick diff 7
2. Play game.
3. Win? Go up some step in difficulty, and return to step 2.
4. Lose? Go down one step in difficulty, and return to step 2.

This, but be careful: Some maps and AI types can make the game much harder. While you're finding your feet the 80 X-type map is fairly forgiving as long as you don't start within 2 hops of an IV world, and make sure the AI type is set to Random easier or choose an easy AI type.

Don't try and complete a 120 planet snake map with double raid engines and then think that the AI's difficulty level is set too high

I'd avoid modifiers as well, and keep away from the hard versions of spirecraft and broken golems when choosing minor factions... perhaps leave out enclaves as well. Oh, and there's always the chance that the ship type you've chosen is happens to the paper to the AI's scissors. Shield bearers vs. shield ninny (darn you, armour inhibitors!) is the only one I can think of in the easier AI types but there are a few other unfortunate combinations out there!

[Wingsofdomain]

Oh geez...I didn't know that this thread would be so large...I don't even have time reading it myself. My god what have I done. Howver I find a good way to choose difficulty. http://www.random.org/ On the right side, set max to 10 and press generate! Do this two times for each AI.

[Red Spot]

Oh geez...I didn't know that this thread would be so large...I don't even have time reading it myself. My god what have I done. Howver I find a good way to choose difficulty. http://www.random.org/ On the right side, set max to 10 and press generate! Do this two times for each AI.

It will never give me a 7.3 AI, or 7.6 or .....

[Wingsofdomain]

Oh geez...I didn't know that this thread would be so large...I don't even have time reading it myself. My god what have I done. Howver I find a good way to choose difficulty. http://www.random.org/ On the right side, set max to 10 and press generate! Do this two times for each AI.

It will never give me a 7.3 AI, or 7.6 or .....

I realized that but I hope you wouldn't xD