Scout Starship

[RCIX]

(Since tomorrowtoday is the final day before 3.0 release i'm trying to cram in as many suggestions as i can )
I think the big thing stopping me from using these is that you can't do anything with them that you can't do with a gaggle of regular scouts. To fix that i recommend dropping it's speed to around 20 or maybe 15, then boosting it's armor up to 500k-1 million. That way i can use it as sort of an MkIV scout and it will probably make it onto the planet i order it to, but could die against the toughest worlds.

[x4000]

These use for these is against things that insta-kill regular scouts, or in cases where there are counter-spies, that sort of thing.  There is a discussion about fleshing out the scout starship into a fully-fledged line to make more stuff that might be useful in more mainstream situations with them.  But, there's another topic for that somewhere (unit abilities, I think), and it's out of scope for me today.

[Rifleman]

I usually keep one of these with my attacking fleet as it's easier to keep track of than a scout, I also use them for their tachyon beams.

[Lancefighter]

is it possible to give a tachyon beam resistance? I realise thats the point of cloaking boosters, but it would be nice if the starship version would be able to get by one or two tachys unseen

[Minty]

Honestly, I don't mind Scout Starships as they are. They're faster than mkI scouts, a whole HEAP more durable, and have short-range tachyons to help clear out cloaked units if they're with your main fleet.

A capped stack of five can make it through just about any planet that doesn't have massdrivers and sensors combined, whereas a similarly capped stack of mkI scouts would be vapour in short order. Remember, they don't cost knowledge, just resources and time.

Personally, I've never bought mkII or III scouts, as I've got better (More shooty) things to spend my knowledge on.

[Lancefighter]

10mk3 scouts = 1 scout starship, in terms of cost. Thing is, i would think 10mk3 scouts are FAR more survivable (speed, cloaking booster) than scout starships.

Of course, a more appropriate measure is mk2 scouts, but even those are 1k knowledge (which I often find myself spending anyway. its less cost to station a single mk2 scout in a system than a single starship, as the starship is 1/5 of your amount, and a mk2 scout only 1/20th of your total)

What I'm saying is.. I just dont feel that scout starships are that great when it comes to actually scouting. And this is coming from an 'omg i love starships' guy.

[x4000]

Not planning on changing the existing scout starship, as I noted above.  Perhaps I will add more levels of scout starship in future DLC if you guys want, but making the scout starship too useful makes for a knowledge-free way to scout, which would then make regular scouts useless.  So the scout starship by design is always going to have the shorter end of things, and be more useful as scout support when making attacks on enemy planets, etc.

[psion]

They're not even really useful for moving with the fleet because of their cost and low health. As far as being a starship, I think they're either too expensive or have too little health. I think if either their health were doubled, or their cost at least cut in half (they cost more than light starships for some reason), then they'd start to be worth using. If they have more health, they would be somewhat likely to make it through a well defended planet (something scout blobs don't have trouble with). Less cost would at least justify their fairly low health. Despite that, the regular scouts would still be worth unlocking though, because of the much higher unit cap and speed.
They were more than a little too powerful before (way back before patch 2.0), but I feel you nerfed them well into uselessness.

[eRe4s3r]

Scout Starships are currently

fairly Broken

Reason is simple, you ever moved one with your fleet through a wormhole? No? let me tell you what happens

Ships warp in
Combat begins
Scout starship... moves to the border of the system and consequently dies because tachyon emitters have it spotted but the ship moves away from them, instead of staying with the fleet so they can be destroyed.

I know the scout evasion logic is there for a reason, but when i have a scout starship in my fleet, i do NOT want it to move to the border of the system (or anywhere at all) because then it dies with 100% guarantee (since enemy ships move to my fleet moving away from my fleet = death)

I see 3 things that i really hate about them

When you send them with a cloak starship (to boost cloak), they move away from it thus killing their cloak against tachyon emitters - dead

When you send them in groups, they do not move in different directions each, instead all ships move to 1 location, if its next to a fortress - dead , they

But, they can break through tachyon blockades that normal (Mk1) scouts can not, however, so does my fleet. They can detect cloak, but range is too low (doesn't even cover 20% of a fleet)

Suggestion

Disable "move to border of system" logic when the scoutship is in a group with other ships, INCLUDING cloak starships that way they could be viable as fleet ship and advanced scout. What scout ships absolutely need is more cloak detection ranges (in case you ever plan on making MK2 and MK3 versions) because there is no other mobile cloak detection in the game

[carlosjuero]

because there is no other mobile cloak detection in the game

Er... Tachyon MicroFighters, De-Cloakers, and the Tachyon Drone are all mobile and can detect cloak right?

[eRe4s3r]

Totally forgot about these hah  Ok, granted i meant it a bit differently

I mean detectors that give scout intel and have high HP - ie fleet ships - Tachyon Microfighters i have *never* seen in my games so far, De-Cloakers are good, but don't give scout intel, and Tachyon Drones.. they aren't very sturdy = don't survive in fleets

But yes, decloakers are detectors and very good ones, however they cost research

[carlosjuero]

Totally forgot about these hah  Ok, granted i meant it a bit differently

I mean detectors that give scout intel and have high HP - ie fleet ships - Tachyon Microfighters i have *never* seen in my games so far, De-Cloakers are good, but don't give scout intel, and Tachyon Drones.. they aren't very sturdy = don't survive in fleets

But yes, decloakers are detectors and very good ones, however they cost research

The MicroFighters are special ships, you can either get them w/ capturing an AF or by selecting them as a 'perk' planet start.

[I-KP]

The MicroFighters are special ships, you can either get them w/ capturing an AF or by selecting them as a 'perk' planet start.

...which no-one in their right mind would ever do when you consider the alternatives.   

[x4000]

The MicroFighters are special ships, you can either get them w/ capturing an AF or by selecting them as a 'perk' planet start.

...which no-one in their right mind would ever do when you consider the alternatives.   

Now that the fighter/bomber/cruiser triangle has changed, I would say they are a lot more useful as a starting perk than they once were.

[I-KP]

Probably, but still definitely among the third rate specials for a starting world.  Certainly wouldn't ignore them if they came c/o Adv. Research though.