Scouting Through Scout UAVs

[SilentTracker]

@Thodin

I’ve seen light vehicles just sitting around at the spawn and hop into helis/jets with absolutely no efford.

You don’t fully understand the change then. The changes make it harder for light tanks to do that with UAV’s, not easier.

I highly suggest you read the announcement again, and read through all the previous comments before going further.

EDIT:
Read my extended comment below: Scouting Through Scout UAVs - #95 by SilentTracker

TL;DR:

@Necronomica

this is in practice a nerf that will 3x the time per scout and 1/2 the air spawn point reward. So effectively a 6 times nerf to the mechanic but it’s made more available to all players instead of those few in the know.

[Thodin]

@Necronomica

I’m thinking the same. This gives Gaijin an actual way to balance it as well so if it turns out that it is to op they can increase the cooldown timer even more or change it in other ways to balance it out. But there are also issues with their survivability being to high currently.

There is no low enough cooldown to balance this ever out. Its a sitting-in-spawn-do-nothing, but getting everything mechanic.

[Thodin]

@Der Zerkquetscher

So, actually, it could be not too bad after all :-)

The old method was tricky, cause its not that easy to get the scouting with just the map marker from the drone. Especially on bigger maps. Now its foolproof, the higher countdown won’t balance this out.

[SilentTracker]

@Thodin

There is no low enough cooldown to balance this ever out.

@Stona_WT

We expect these changes to balance the introduction of Active Scouting from Scout UAVs. We’ll be monitoring its effectiveness and if necessary, will adjust it to ensure an interesting and balanced gameplay experience.

It will almost certainly change/be modified. Take a breather man. It is brand new, everyone needs to test it out and come back with feedback. Not just freak out before we even fully understand what is going on, or how it will affect matches.

@Thodin

Its a sitting-in-spawn-do-nothing, but getting everything mechanic.

Speaking in absolutes is pointless. Again, go read the entire thread before you keep blowing things out of proportion.

If after fully understanding the changes, and testing them out for yourself, if you still have constructive criticism (or still absolutely hate the changes), great. Come back and post your feedback. But simply posting hyperbolic statements wont change anything.

[Thodin]

You’re right. GRB makes it too easy to scout or to mark targets (like just shooting in its direction to get a onmap marker). Camoflaging and flanking get mostly inefficient, since you get marked too easily and everyone see’s you.

Now you don’t even need to move out of the spawn. Drone up, thermal view…see everyone, mark?? Thats too easy, especially since you’re sitting safe inside the spawn. Reminds me on Ka-50 helis lobbing Vikhrs from their heliport, as these still had npc AA guns. Or KH-38 jets lobbing GPS guided cruise missiles from their own main air base. Game devs should really avoid mechanics like this.

[SilentTracker]

@Thodin

Now you don’t even need to move out of the spawn. Drone up, thermal view…see everyone, mark??

@Thodin

since you get marked too easily

It seems like you still have not read the entire announcement, or at least you obviously still do not fully understand the changes. Here, I even colorized the text to make it easier to read and understand:

@Stona_WT

When a Scout UAV is up in the air and operational, the delay before reusing Active Scouting after a successful scout has been increased:

• In Arcade Battles, the cooldown after a successful scout is now 12 seconds, and in Realistic Battles it is now 18 seconds. In both modes, this extended cooldown occurs regardless of whether you scouted with a UAV or a tank.

• [However,] when no Scout UAV is up in the air and operational, the cooldown time in both modes remains at 6 seconds, [the same] as [it was] before.

@Stona_WT

• When the Scout UAV is up in the air and operational, the reduction in the aircraft’s spawn cost (in spawn points) for each target destroyed by an ally you scouted is halved, regardless of whether you were using a Scout UAV or a tank during scouting.

TL;DR:

@Necronomica

this is in practice a nerf that will 3x the time per scout and 1/2 the air spawn point reward. So effectively a 6 times nerf to the mechanic but it’s made more available to all players instead of those few in the know.

[SilentTracker]

@Killme262-live

Yippie i cant wait to get railed even more than I already do because some dude in his spawn scouted me with a drone and can now likely spawn a plane

Really? What is with you so many of you guys misunderstanding and misrepresenting the changes. Read my message right above yours: Scouting Through Scout UAVs - #95 by SilentTracker

TL;DR:

@Necronomica

this is in practice a nerf that will 3x the time per scout and 1/2 the air spawn point reward. So effectively a 6 times nerf to the mechanic but it’s made more available to all players instead of those few in the know.

[joetato]

you can scout all you want but, you need your team to get kills for you. more than a few teams just can’t manage the kill shot and you don’t get your close air support. you forgot about that.

[WalletWorrier]

Good change!

[Der_Zerkquetscher]

I mean it is true it also has its nerfs to scouting (increased cooldown once you have the drone up and a decrease of efficiency of the “lower sp cost of planes” mechanic) but also hes not wrong. with a cooldown of 18 seconds you can effectively permanently keep 2 enemies scouted (that most likely can do nothing about it) by an almost invincible drone on a flank where you (and a possible squadmate) are pushing. and thats despite the fact that you can simply mark every enemy on the map without cooldown for your squadmates anyways through squadmarker

[SilentTracker]

@Der Zerkquetscher

with a cooldown of 18 seconds you can effectively permanently keep 2 enemies scouted

Great comments, however with the 50% reduction in CAS spawn points (“6x” overall reduction because of slower scouting reset) the ability for light tanks to spawn CAS using UAV’s is very substantially reduced. I still do not see the changes being an issue. And if anything the changes will possibly greatly reduce the number of CAS spawns per match.

[Der_Zerkquetscher]

yeah well thats the part i definitely like about the changes, that using these 0 risk scout everything tactics will make it harder now to get into cas (cap also i think). So far i havent even played with that mechanic so if anything i can judge just by experience or what i think/am afraid it could mean, final verdict obviously only after really playing it for some time.

In the end, low tier is fun tier anyways so…

[Thodin]

Imagine there’s a guy sitting safe inside the spawn, while he’s droning around, spams some arty strikes on defenseless SPAA trucks and then spawns into a KH-38 jet for just pressing the scout button here and there.

[Der_Zerkquetscher]

as silent tracker already said, it is much harder now to spawn in cas since the effectiveness of sp reduction modification is reduced by 50% when using a drone. u seem to have missed that part. combined with a increase of scouting cd to 18 seconds while before you could scout static targets through squad marker set by drone, scout squad marker every 6 seconds (with some getting used to even moving targets) with full sp reduction for cas in place. It does exactly the opposite of what youre saying. Except for direct scouting every 18 seconds from the scout drone. And yes, that could be a problem but we’ll have to play it for more than 4 hours to see and also it is most likely a starter for the snail to see if/how that works and what could be changed further.

also you wont be able to put arty on spaa trucks from your spawn. they are a: inside or close to their spawn most likely (where it is impossible to call arty to) while b: being too far to put arty anywhere close to it from your spawn anyways

[Rinhord]

I mean sure, in theory, but neither me or people i plqy with ever even though of doing that in more then every 20th match for 1 or 2 enemys.

And i play with people that are almost at the level that i am, and thats very very very high up the ladder.

So in theroy it could, in practice u dont use that, or atleast no one around my level, very frequently. We already have enough points by min 3 by just killing the enemy.

But i get the point, someone good but not pro could definitly profit alot from this, or even a bad player if he wants to fuck people up.

At the end, CAS is absurd crappy balanced and its super frustrating to get killed by it, as u cant do shit agaimst it unless u die first and respawn then in smt to counter it and then again respawn back to a tank if u have enough points.

Its really time to make CAS less computeraided at 20km and more skillbased again, and also more expensive. Every single bomb and missle should cost from dummy to fire and forget between 100 and 500 sp.

I.mean, the attscker drone cost hoe much? Why do player get a CAS that is cheaper with 4+ of the same missles on a better platform that can also reload? Its absurd.

[Rinhord]

Jea but only because smt is possible doesnt mean that u can do it ir that people do it.

I just say, from my pov, as a high skill level player, i dont see the point of doing that tbh.

Getting more points by just killing the enemy and increasing my winchange with that as well.

And for lower skill levle players it will be just another troll mechanic.

Before we talk about how good or bad this could be, we should get rid of one spawns.

[Der_Zerkquetscher]

Obviously it is kinda a nieche mechanic (depending on maps/map layout it can be more or less effective). Especially as you said youre playing with several other very good players then a simple squad marker is way more convenient, faster and enough for the players you are in direct comms with to know what and where to look out for.

Im exclusively playing alone so yeah, on certain maps it can make a massive difference having something scouted for your team that you got no chance to get line of sight to. If they care thats a completely different can of worms, though as you said, when youre a good player it is certainly not necessary to do well or to get in cas. It’s enough to just scout everything from behind cover through binos or just kill it if possible.

And attacker drone, yeah those are hilarious. first broken and annnoying af, perfect revengekill tool, now a good way to make people waste sp.

[kingoftigertank]

feel like this could hurt people who use these drone to set up indirect fire attacks such as the youtuber loner

[Der_Zerkquetscher]

? it wont make any difference in regard to that mechanic. which is good. its such a mostly uneffective/different way of using it so theres no need to change that. ppl that want to do that, can play like this, if youre sitting in a position anywhere and hear a couple of he rounds impacting near you, just move around a bit

[SilentTracker]

@kingoftigertank

feel like this could hurt people who use these drone to set up indirect fire attacks such as the youtuber loner

Nah, he doesn’t rely on “Active Scouting”. Shouldn’t affect him at all. Only thing that changed with the UAV’s is the new scouting ability UAV’s can do themselves now, the cooldown of scouting once you have a UAV in the air, and the spawn points generated from getting the “Intelligence” awards if a teammate destroys a target you scouted.