[Poll] Do you think the game would be better without these freebie scouting options?

Do you think the game would be better without these freebie scouting options?

Remove ability to see opponent's decks ingame
26
27%
Remove ability to see opponent score
22
23%
Remove ability to see opponent age
8
8%
Remove ability to see TP icons
39
41%
 
Total votes: 95

No Flag deleted_user
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Re: [Poll] Do you think the game would be better without these freebie scouting options?

Post by deleted_user »

Scouting is already important. More emphasis on it would lead to skewed age 1 and advantages for certain civs and less fun treasuring.
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Canada dansil92
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Re: [Poll] Do you think the game would be better without these freebie scouting options?

Post by dansil92 »

I've always thought for decks you should only be able to see the cards for the ages they have access too, like if your opponent is fortress you can see the first three rows but not industrial. That way you can count how many cards and stuff but don't know if that dutch player has 17 ruyters until they age or whatever.

Another alternative could be say, 200 coin to "bribe" to see deck or something
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Poland pecelot
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Re: [Poll] Do you think the game would be better without these freebie scouting options?

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Post by pecelot »

you see the trading posts of the opponent because the travois man is a babbling buffoon :hehe:
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Germany aligator92
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Re: [Poll] Do you think the game would be better without these freebie scouting options?

Post by aligator92 »

I guess removing trading post icons would be an interesting change
I think the rest should stay, especially score as sub captain games would probably go a lot longer because people would not realize how far behind they are
Once I was about to resign a water game and then realized that I am ahead about 100 points, kept playing and won :D
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Netherlands Mr_Bramboy
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Re: [Poll] Do you think the game would be better without these freebie scouting options?

Post by Mr_Bramboy »

Scouting is a lot less important in aoe3 than in other RTS games. I can pull off a semi-ff with any civ and get away with it against 99% of the strategies my opponents will use. Meanwhile, if you don't scout a rush in SC2 then you've already lost the game before you know it in most circumstances. I don't see the need to make scouting harder or to remove certain scouting possibilities. All of the options you've listed are fundamental parts of the game and removing them wouldn't necessarily impact scouting by that much, it would just make the game less fun and interesting.
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Re: [Poll] Do you think the game would be better without these freebie scouting options?

Post by Hawk_Girl »

Mr_Bramboy wrote:Scouting is a lot less important in aoe3 than in other RTS games. I can pull off a semi-ff with any civ and get away with it against 99% of the strategies my opponents will use. Meanwhile, if you don't scout a rush in SC2 then you've already lost the game before you know it in most circumstances. I don't see the need to make scouting harder or to remove certain scouting possibilities. All of the options you've listed are fundamental parts of the game and removing them wouldn't necessarily impact scouting by that much, it would just make the game less fun and interesting.




Like you say, scouting is a lot less important in aoe3. By then restricting some info, imo at least score should be hidden, scouting then becomes more important. Like you can sometime scout an age up or unit pops by looking closely at the score which makes no sense to me.
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Sweden Hawk_Girl
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Re: [Poll] Do you think the game would be better without these freebie scouting options?

Post by Hawk_Girl »

also any change that buff nat rushes im all for
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Re: [Poll] Do you think the game would be better without these freebie scouting options?

Post by amiggo1999 »

Comments like: seeing TP icons destroys surprise factor of Nat rush are simply not true. You can just simply build them to 95% and then as soon as you can pump out units finish the building. Only thing that makes (heavy) nat gameplay easily predictable is being able to see the decks.
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Re: [Poll] Do you think the game would be better without these freebie scouting options?

Post by Mitoe »

It still ruins the surprise factor for sure, even if you delay the TP until the last possible moment. It takes at least 15-30 seconds to train units AND walk into the opponent's base, depending on the nat and the positioning of the nat post, and seeing the nat TP in the score line definitely allows the opponent to setup that much faster for it.

I don't really see how you can argue that it doesn't ruin the surprise factor.

This is going to be an extreme comparison, but imagine how much worse aging up would be if the game also announced to your opponent when you started aging. It would just add so much extra time that your opponent has to punish you. That's what the nat TP showing up in score line does.
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Re: [Poll] Do you think the game would be better without these freebie scouting options?

Post by amiggo1999 »

@Mitoe depends on the bo. If you go for a forward tower and sent the shipment for nats, and only finish them at last second, then you lose only very little time (in which he has the possibility of knowing you went nat tps) for your original push. But many people just build their first nat tp asap, which is a missplay on their part.
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Re: [Poll] Do you think the game would be better without these freebie scouting options?

Post by Mitoe »

I agree that it's a misplay, but that's not the point. I don't see how you can possibly argue that 30 seconds of forewarning for free is not impactful.

Think about how big it is to see if Japan is going for 600w or 5 ashi as their first card, for example. It's game changing.

What if India had to announce which card they were sending first? Suddenly preparing for 12 sepoy, consulate rush, or boomy India is just so easy.

It's the exact same with the nat TP, just slightly less time.
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Italy Garja
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Re: [Poll] Do you think the game would be better without these freebie scouting options?

Post by Garja »

The point is not if it ruins the surprise factor (let's assume it does) but whether or not surprise factor is that good for the game. Unscouted nat rush can be really painful if nats are good. It's faster than iro rush and, depending on nats, just as good.
Rushes in aoe3 don't really rely fully on surprise factor anyway. It's more a combination of little time to react from the opponent and good follow up.
In any case, nat posts are counted in TM and it makes sense to have them displayed just like TPs. If anything they should be both be hidden.
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