Scout and Vision?

Acleacius · Post by **Acleacius** » Fri Feb 10, 2006 8:27 am

Anyone use these?
Do they basicly increase the base amount of area, your map reveals or fog it removes as you move?

I dont really like how I can see further than my map reveals, forcing me to walk twice or three times as much as necessary.

Speaking of fog, does that blue fog that blends with the sky during the day there to keep the graphics from crippling our machines, if not can we remove it?
As it is seems odd not to be able to see very far.

Thanks

Frodo1 · Post by **Frodo1** » Fri Feb 10, 2006 9:18 am

[QUOTE=Acleacius]Anyone use these?
Do they basicly increase the base amount of area, your map reveals or fog it removes as you move?

I dont really like how I can see further than my map reveals, forcing me to walk twice or three times as much as necessary.

Speaking of fog, does that blue fog that blends with the sky during the day there to keep the graphics from crippling our machines, if not can we remove it?
As it is seems odd not to be able to see very far.

Thanks[/QUOTE]

I just started an adept character and am using crystals of vision. They are really great at revealing the whole map for a short period of time. I find them quite useful for finding treasure chests from far away and spotting enemies from a greater distance than I can with a low level scout skill. If you plan to pump up celestial magic, then this spell will last a while. I haven't done any calculations yet, but my crystals seem to last for at least 2 minutes at level 9. The only problem I have with CoV's is that if you get near the border of the map then it reveals the edge of the map, like on a paper map. Goodness, couldn't they just have put in a larger area of gray beyond the borders so that the world map doesn't reveal itself to be a finite box?

For Scout, I have never taken the skill beyond level 3. I was wondering to if higher levels of the skill extend the distance at which you can see objects and monsters, and the area of the map that is revealed. Since the CoV shows objects from a greater distance, I think it is possible that scout does to.

Damn Snakes! · Post by **Damn Snakes!** » Fri Feb 10, 2006 12:58 pm

on scout 'level 6' I don't see much difference....

swcarter · Post by **swcarter** » Fri Feb 10, 2006 2:30 pm

[QUOTE=Frodo1]For Scout, I have never taken the skill beyond level 3. I was wondering to if higher levels of the skill extend the distance at which you can see objects and monsters, and the area of the map that is revealed. Since the CoV shows objects from a greater distance, I think it is possible that scout does to.[/QUOTE]
When I was in the lower level of Ulm, I took my scout skill from 3 to 9 trying to detect the loose brick there, and I definitely noticed an increase in viewing range. Sadly, I didn't detect the brick... in fact, so far, if I haven't been able to detect secret things with a scout of 3-4, I haven't been able to detect them at all. HP didn't implement scout, identify, or repair very well.

SWC

chamr · Post by **chamr** » Fri Feb 10, 2006 3:19 pm

[QUOTE=swcarter]When I was in the lower level of Ulm, I took my scout skill from 3 to 9 trying to detect the loose brick there, and I definitely noticed an increase in viewing range. Sadly, I didn't detect the brick... in fact, so far, if I haven't been able to detect secret things with a scout of 3-4, I haven't been able to detect them at all. HP didn't implement scout, identify, or repair very well.

SWC[/QUOTE]

Really? I thought I read somewhere that it makes secret bricks and stuff glow or be highlighted in game, not on the mini-map. Did you look at the brick and see if it was highlighted in any way, or were you looking for it on the mini-map?

Also, what's wrong with Repair?

swcarter · Post by **swcarter** » Fri Feb 10, 2006 5:53 pm

[QUOTE=chamr]Really? I thought I read somewhere that it makes secret bricks and stuff glow or be highlighted in game, not on the mini-map. Did you look at the brick and see if it was highlighted in any way, or were you looking for it on the mini-map?[/QUOTE]

Scout doesn't make anything glow, at least not that I've seen. I was walking up to the brick in the game. The brick in the abandoned theater is broken in the CE, I could only detect the brick in the lower level of Ulm with a crystal of vision, and every other button and brick has shown up with a scout of 3-4, making me wonder if they need to be detected at all.

[QUOTE=chamr]
Also, what's wrong with Repair?[/QUOTE]
I think it's dopey that you have to unequip items if you want to repair them yourself. Just like it's dopey that you have to identify rusty longswords.

SWC

George_K · Post by **George_K** » Fri Feb 10, 2006 9:40 pm

The Crystal of Vision does not reveal the whole map for a short period of time, but it does reveal a large square pattern of the map for a time.

Frodo1 · Post by **Frodo1** » Sun Feb 12, 2006 9:18 am

[QUOTE=George_K]The Crystal of Vision does not reveal the whole map for a short period of time, but it does reveal a large square pattern of the map for a time.

[/QUOTE]

How do you know that? I based my statement on the fact that the whole map that you can view on screen is revealed when you use the skill. How is what you say different? Maybe I'm missing something? Is there a button that shows the whole world map for you?

I agree with SW's comment about identify and repair. Identify has become problematic. Not only might you have to identify that rusty sword once, you may have to do it dozens of times over the course of a game if you continue to collect and sell them. And, if you don't choose a character with the ID skill then you're stuck with the cumbersome process of getting everything id'ed in towns.

The Repair skill is a pain in the butt. I only put one point in and then let shopkeepers repair my stuff after I get out of the theatre. And what's with weapons not taking damage? That doesn't make any sense. BTW Have you noticed that headgear takes far more damage than any other piece of equipment?

The rest times between reuses of these skills is too long. Remind you of anything else? There should at least be an "identify all" button (that works) a "repair all" button, a 'sell all' button that sells all equipment in a category like junk, and which has a "confirm" message that pops up before being executed. Small things like this are not difficult to include. They are take a little time on the developers part.

ferncliff · Post by **ferncliff** » Sun Feb 12, 2006 11:17 am

I agree that identify and repair are dorky. With Identify I realized that unidentified items sell for the same price as identified items so.... just sell the hundreds of short swords and rusted axes and forget identifying them. D

ferncliff · Post by **ferncliff** » Sun Feb 12, 2006 8:43 pm

OK here is how Scout works as far as detecting hidden buttons as best I can tell. You have to have at least a point or 2 in scout or when you walk up to a button/ loose brick you can't interact with it. That is to say the words "loose brick" doesn't show up at the bottom of the screen and you can't press it. So there you go. I'm going to run back down in to the theater and see if that loose brick now works with 2 points in scout. D

dlowrey · Post by **dlowrey** » Sun Feb 12, 2006 9:25 pm

[QUOTE=ferncliff]OK here is how Scout works as far as detecting hidden buttons as best I can tell. You have to have at least a point or 2 in scout or when you walk up to a button/ loose brick you can't interact with it. That is to say the words "loose brick" doesn't show up at the bottom of the screen and you can't press it. So there you go. I'm going to run back down in to the theater and see if that loose brick now works with 2 points in scout. D[/QUOTE]
I just tried this in CE. I went back to the loose brick in the Theater and raised Scout to 3.

No dice. The brick is not identified and the door to the "secret" room below it remains hidden.... :-(

ferncliff · Post by **ferncliff** » Mon Feb 13, 2006 12:44 am

I don't know if that theater loose brick will ever work or if it’s worth trying with a higher scout skill. I discovered that scout makes the loose bricks interactive when I was down in the catacombs. Neither of the two loose bricks down there worked till I put points in scout. I tested it right in front of the loose brick down in the lower level. I wonder if the crystal of vision will allow you to interact with hidden buttons. D

chamr · Post by **chamr** » Mon Feb 13, 2006 1:03 am

[QUOTE=ferncliff]I don't know if that theater loose brick will ever work [/QUOTE]

It used to work in v1.3. Opened that little treasure nook in the theatre subfloor. Looks like they'll have to fix that in v1.6.

Acleacius · Post by **Acleacius** » Mon Feb 13, 2006 2:35 am

Anyone mind trying the button at level 5 or so?

swcarter · Post by **swcarter** » Mon Feb 13, 2006 3:40 am

I tried detecting the brick with a scout skill of 5, and no luck. I couldn't detect it with a crystal of vision, either.

SWC