Der Scout hat zwar schon einige Einsatzmöglichkeiten zu Land und auch auf dem Wasser, aber ich
finde der Informationskrieg bricht noch nicht so aus wie ich das gerne hätte. ;)
Beispielsweise fände ich Folgendes ziemlich interessant: Beim Klicken auf eine gegnerische Flagge hat
man die Option, einen verkleideten Scout loszuschicken, der sich dann zu eben dieser Flagge auf den
Weg macht. Dort angekommen wandert er die Wegestruktur des Gegners entlang, wobei an jeder
Gabelung per Zufallsprinzip die einzuschlagende Richtung gewählt wird. Ausnahme hierbei sollten
bereits abgelaufene Wege sein.
An dieser Stelle sei erwähnt, dass ein geringerer Sichtradius für den getarnten Scout Sinn machen
würde... der soll ja nicht gleich die komplette Karte erkunden ^^

Was das angeht: Der verkleidete Scout läuft so lange Wege sb, bis er:
- in den Sichtbereich eines Spähturms kommt
- ihn ein Scout des Gegners ihn entdeckt
- ihn ein Soldat des Gegners entdeckt (zB auch während eines Angriffs)
- er eine bestimmte Anzahl an Nodes auf feindlichen Straßen passiert hat (kA... 75?)
- er an einem Lagerhaus oder dem Hauptquartier des Gegners vorbeikommt

In letzterem Fall geht er in das Gebäude hinein und beschert dem glücklichen Spieler eine
Momentaufnahme des Lagerbestandes dueses Dpielers (insgesamt, nicht nur von diesem Lager). Der
Scout ist damit jedoch verloren.
Bei allen anderen Möglichkeiten bricht er seine Mission ab, wechselt sofort zu normalem Aussehen
und macht sich auf den Heimweg. Zu überlegen wäre, ob Soldaten ihn direkt umbringen...


So... das war's :) Ich fände das glaube ich eine sehr interessante spielerische Herazsforderung, da es ja
mit dem Wissen, dass Spähtürme das verhindern können, sehr leicht zu unterbinden ist. Wenn man
jetzt aber den Gegner sieht, bevor er widerrum einen selbst entdeckt, kann man ihn damit sicherlich
überraschen und hätte somit auch mal einen Vorteil durch frühzeitige Erkundung.
Wenn man das noch weiterspinnen will, kann man das Handeln optional auch für Feinde einstellen,
wo man mit dem Wissen um seine Rohstoffe natürlich einen tollen Vorteil hätte ;)

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Love the idea of the camuflaged scout and how it works, but I have one question. How would you send the military after them? :S

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Writer for http://addict3dtogames.blogspot.com Got a tip? e-mail us! Also a major Settlers 2 Fan!

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Well, while attacking, the soldiers already have a pathfinding algorithm to the targeted enemy soldier, so that could be used for pursuing the Scout as well. As for everywhere else, I would limit it to "soldiers walking past disguised Scouts while they roam the roads" (such as when on the way to occupy a military building), as in if they coincidentially meet up on enemy roads, the Scout will be executed.

Während dem Angriff haben Soldaten ja einen Wegpunktmodus zum nächsten Soldaten, den man auch in Richtung Scout dirigieren könnte. Alles andere würde nur in Kraft treten, wenn die Soldaten dem Scout zufällig auf den gegnerischen Straßen begegnen, also z.B. beim Besetzen eines Militärgebäudes. Wenn das passiert, wird der Scout kalt gemacht.

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I don't like the idea, that I lose my scout just to see enemey goods... this would help me only in the case of no statistics Oo. I also ask my self how this works if I send more than 1 scout to the flag? Or what happens when I destroy the flag? or what happens when I cut is roads?

I would like the idea of evil scouts, going into buildings, stealing goods, burning fields of farms, killing single soldiers in a building or even burn a building - I think that would be awesome as well :D but its close to my raid idea...

anyway, I like a new way, as long as ift its an addon ;)

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Personally, I think losing a Scout in exchange for knowing exactly which goods your opponent is missing, how many soldiers they have left or if they have a giant amount of coin in storage that's just waiting to be distributed is definately worth it... the statistics, enabled or not, only show you how many goods they have in total, as well as how many soldiers - you won't know whether it's all generals, or if those 5000 resources compared to your 3000 are a huge amount, but he still can't defeat you because there's not a single piece of stone in sight to build another building.

There really is no difference if you send one or more Scouts to the same flag or area. Just like when you'd send more than one Scout to a flag in your own country, they would roam the same area, not getting you any additional benefit. If you destroy the flag or the road he is on (and that would be the only thing the player can do if he spots an enemy Scout whichever way), the Scout would turn into homeless-soldier-mode (along with turning back to his true color), aka walking around randomly until hitting a flag of his own country to go back to headquarters.
I think lots of the original game mechanics can be recycled to do this. The only new things needed would be the ability to save a snapshot of a player's merchandise and send it as a message, as well as altering a method or two. I know it's still going to be a lot of work, but I mean to say it's not depending on new graphics or anything of the sort.

Also, are we really switching to permanently English now or something? ^^

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Well, I don't need it, it brings just nothing than only knowledge how propper the enemy economy is but it doesn't help me to change something:
I know he is stone missing so I know what? I know nothing.
He is missing iron? Okay he produces less soldiers this means for me... I will produce more... but I could see that fact in the statistics as well ;)

And well, I just try to write in a language everybody understands ^^

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Zitat von Spike:

Well I can see the advantages of this type of scout, it does create more strategy planning, and I as far I would love, I think the statistics should be removed until the end of the game, which in turn adds more to the mystery and once again planning. Although we don't always get what we want. It's a good idea bluescope, but I think it needs some limitations besides "soldiers can kill them" and the snapshot option would be helpful but it should be more of a message saying the critical things in its storage (Rock/Timber/Gold/Soldiers)

Oh and I don't know German :( hence me writing in english (which isn't a bad thing)

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Writer for http://addict3dtogames.blogspot.com Got a tip? e-mail us! Also a major Settlers 2 Fan!

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We already got a mod to hide the statistics of other players for you - I played with it a serveral times (it is like knowing nothing anymore of the enemy) but it didn't changed something because the limitations of space, knowledge of the map etc. are always given in the same way. You can't do something if you know something more of the enemy, or how would you react if you see he has more soldiers than you? IF you start now building more soldiers, you already failed at the beginning^^

but nevermind, maybe this would be a good idea I can't know without having played it :D

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@Spike: Yeah, I suppose it really depends on playing style... while personally playing with statistics off all the time (because I just don't like the all-seeing eye factor to strategy games... I dunno), I'd think even with enabled stats you'd get an advantage. Map knowledge is one thing, but when you play Europe (or a certain someone's world map ;o ) against multiple enemies that have all advanced differently, you might just lose the perspective of those. Nevermind playing on new maps that none of the players know.

@Thorpheus (wow, is that Greek AND Northern? O_o): The basic idea is to defend yourself against Scouts with watchtowers... well, not the military kind, but the ones manned by Scouts, basically to give that one another purpose as well. With those being relatively easy to get a hand on, it shouldn't be hard to defend yourself against Scouts if you know they're coming. Thing is: You don't know that they're coming, and until you know, chances are you will have been spied on.

@Topic: If spying on resources doesn't seem like such a good idea overall (while I still like it :) ), maybe something else would be more interesting or helpful?

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I like the idea of switching off the statistics and using scouts instead to find out, what is going on. Spike may condemn this, but his
opinion does not count much anyway :P (do not take it too serious ^^)
I have another idea according to this, how about a patrol of one soldier who is always moving around on your roads? That would mean
that there is one soldier who is always watching your roads and that would make it easier to recognize such a scout, but still not too
easy because this guy would also be moving around randomly.

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Thats an awesome idea! if the statistcs are switched off, you need scouts to refresh the statistics - he shows you what the enemy has maybe as far as he scouts (including storehouses etc.)

damn :D I already made this idea in an other thread xD

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