If it at least dropped on LoS it would provide a way for players to remove it, and reposisition without the entire enemy team knowing where you went to.
Drones are still incredibly strong without the scouting aspect, i use them all the time to scout out an area to see if its safe to move, being able to also scout and keep tabs on people if they are there is just cherry on top.
For instance maybe I capped A on sveresk and dont know if someone is waiting for me to leave the cap I can just pop the drone and within seconds know how many and where they are. If this isnt strong already without scouting idk what is.
If anything drones should be given to every vic and slap a 200sp spawn cost to them, its dumb light vics that already get scouting have this incredible situational awareness tool at their disposal and it costs nothing. Would also stop people from scouting half the entire enemy team as soon as the match starts.
For everybody who still doubts this is an issue:
Just watch random replays, especially between 8.0 - 10.7 and you will see people mainly focusing on scouted targets anymore. People play RB almost like Arcade, this is not RB anymore. Scouted players most of the times have to serve as distraction from not scouted teammates, it’s just completely unfair. The only reason people might not think this is a problem is because they don’t realise when they themselves got scouted, the times when they experience scouting are when it shows them the targets.
No more freedom of movement as it was without scouting, no more ambushes, no more flanking.
SB is the last gamemode that has these elements but the issues that SB has does not make it an alternative.
The rewards for the scouting itself, and the technicalities on how you get rewarded for it. When you aren’t the first to spot it before it gets hit you don’t get as much.
Whilst they’re still revealed all the time, I’m sure this change will make a few people not be as reliant on it as they were prior.
We have a light tank meta in War Thunder. It may not be seen everywhere, but it’s especially clear in battle ratings 8.0-10.7. From my experience, in most battles around BR 9.3, players prefer light tanks. As why choose a Leopard 1 over a DF105, an AMX-30 over a MARS, an AMX-50 over a Char 25T, or maybe a Leopard a1a1 over a TAM? While these medium tanks aren’t bad, the lighter versions always seem better. This is mainly because they offer free scouting abilities, otherwise these mediums and lights would be pretty equal.
In other battle ratings where light tanks aren’t as comparable to medium tanks, they still have a huge impact on the battle.
Light tanks, especially in lower BRs, can’t be balanced by making them as easy to use as other tanks. Light tanks have to be situational to be balanced.
They are high-risk vehicles requiring careful handling, which makes them harder to play. However, they have more potential than average tanks, as their mobility allows them more tactical freedom.
They don’t need scouting to offset their weaker armor; their high tactical potential already makes up for this.
Here is a comparison for everybody that plays CS2:
Giving scouting to light tanks in War Thunder to make them easier to play is like giving the AWP Counter-Strike an autoloader in to match the handling of an SG553. Just because the AWP is more situational doesn’t mean it’s worse.
That’s the least that can be done.
The cleanest solution, in my opinion, is to remove scouting.
Maybe, it should be done in Arcade so that enemy names aren’t always visible, so you can identify them through scouting, among other things - just like in WoT. Scouting fits better in Arcade anyway. And out of RB and AB, AB has always been the less popular mode, so why not put some changes into that.
In Realistic Battles, you should be able to move without being shownto everybody. Only when you’re involved in a fight, i.e., when you’re hit, you should you be briefly shown on the map.
Arcade should be the mode where you can easily identify enemy targets (maybe with a twist, as I mentioned)
RB should be the mode again where you can move without worrying of instantly getting shot by any enemy you are in his line of sight because every one knows where you are.
Scouting as a feature is alright, but the marker should be cleared if the marked unit uses smoke or enter somewhere where they are no longer in LOS of any of the enemy team, that should be a way to remove them not just with a fixed timer. They already has this feature in arcade since the beginning of the time, maybe just copy pasta the codes to rb, only replace the handler from nametag to scout marker. Doesn’t make sense the target still carry that marker when it’s already moved completely behind a hill and or several blocks of buildings, it’s like the commander toss a gps tracking device with a slighshot and it has a 30 seconds battery life and it has magnet or elephant glue to stick on the vehicle lol
I don’t think Gaijin can detect if somebody is in LOS precisely enough.
I’d rather have it removed than some semi-functional mechanics.
Also would it still be annoying as light tanks would still be able to scout you in a deadlock situation by looking over a rich line or behind a corner.
