Scout III and far exploration

[Nibelung44]

Hi,

How do you manage to explore far, with tachyon detectors on every WH, I guess even Scout III can't pass (even teamed up?). I reckon I only unlocked Scout II but I don't see how much better Scout III would be, having say +15.000 health won't last long against high level defenses.

I also built the 5 Scouts starships, they are pretty weak for their cost I found...

[RCIX]

The best advice i can give you is:

 * Hit the wormhole(s) with raid starships first which usually solves the problem
 * send a whole bunch (like 10 at once) and micro them away from the wormhole so that at least a few survive
 * get an advanced factory and use a Scout IV

[Inglonias]

Scout IV's are twice as slow as missile cruisers. The best strategy I found is to send as many as possible through, or if you can spare AI Progress, detonate an EMP missile just before sending scouts through. Then send the scouts as far away from the wormhole as possible, and leave them there.

[x4000]

I tend to just use the Scout IIIs in as larg eof groups as possible, until I get Scout IV.  As long as I have some shorter-term goals to focus on, I can then just set that Mark IV scout on a path to slowly take it around all the other planets, so that by the time I am finished with the goals I am working on in the shorter term, the Mark IV will have revealed some new goals.

[Nibelung44]

you mean that scout IV can't be decloaked??

[x4000]

you mean that scout IV can't be decloaked??

Exactly.  It's super slow, but 100% effective.

[Revenantus]

I don't tend to use scout starships for long-range scouting, but it's a good idea to keep one with a fleet in order to ensure you have access to the planetary summary. Their tachyon beam emission also makes them handy for mopping up those pesky stealth tachyon emitters the AI leaves lying around after you've conquered a planet.

[El-Ravager]

Just send in a big mob of drones, you are generally able to get past a few lvl 3-4 planets with a big enogh mob of scouts. You can just build all availavble ones for all levels and send them all out at once.

[x4000]

You can just build all availavble ones for all levels and send them all out at once.

Very yes.  That's something that a lot of people overlook, I think.  Group-moving them is also a good idea.

[Grok]

It also helps to micro the scouts around astro trains and command stations. With micro I have been able to scout, or will be able to scout an entire 40 planet map with scout II's.

The astro trains are huge. As are redirecting around. I usally let this occupy me while I'm managing construction stuff, waiting for a fleet to be built, so i'm not bored.

[Alex2290]

Great.. now I have some ideas for scouting.. I've been wondering how the pros do it..

I'm glad I joined this forum...

[Spikey00]

I actually don't really care for scouting beyond the adjacent planets.

--

Oh, and welcome to the community, Alex!  Glad to see you've registered from IRC.

[Ktoff]

How come?

How else do you know in which direction to develop? or do you try to take all planets until you happen onto the AI Homeworld?

[Haagenti]

How else do you know in which direction to develop? or do you try to take all planets until you happen onto the AI Homeworld?

The AI Homeworlds are the worlds that are furthest away from you. Most of the time there are only a few options where they can hide.

For all other recon, I use Recon-in-force. I send out my fleet (with a bunch of scouts, colony ships and research labs) on a large scale research raid, and while I'm there scout everything adjacent. I keep doing this until I have enough knowledge and then launch the CoreKiller deep strikes.

I played a lot against the AI that instakills cloaked ships which kinda hinders scouting, and the playing style sticked, as the information I got from deep scouting rarely influenced my strategy. The new Golems and other capturables may change this.

[Spikey00]

I just brute force my way through everything!

Eco/Military/Efficient Defenses > AI Progress/Extensive Scouting