Overscouting Good/Bad/neutral

[Tehya1]

Can somebody buy me an expansion? I have an egg to hatch lol jk

 

[Deborah M]

I was like I can tell you that you have no idea what a mod says to other players so don’t judge that. I know I have gotten into it on forum before but I can say that it usually works better to basically say OR…. and explain your way.

 

[StarLoad]

@Dew Spinner And knowing that you are breaking the rules you keep reposting stuff you should not and all to make someone else look bad, and yet all it does is make you look bad and surely get the mods negative attentions. Like I tell my adult children when they act like that - Grow up

 

[SoggyShorts]

What the heck is wrong with admitting to buying premium expansions?

As usual, you are correct: There is absolutely nothing wrong with it, in fact, I encourage everyone to do so.
But let's face it: if someone is giving players the advice that there is no need to overscout in order to gain more space while ignoring the fact that they have purchased 28(!) premium expansions themselves (several for RL$$)...well... I think "misleading" is putting it gently.

@SoggyShorts and I have never played the game with the same play style. Often we would be considered polar opposites. The way that has played out over the years is that he offers a whole lot of practical advice that has and does help innumerable players, including me. At the same time I have never felt that I could not offer up what many might consider not so practical.

Not once have I ever felt that you belittled my style of play nor have you ever made me feel that I (or anyone else for that matter) doesn't have a valid opinion. That's why you've always had my respect.

 

[SoggyShorts]

He is and always has tried to portray me in a bad light

If I shine a light on your errors it's not the light's fault, nor mine.
Facts shouldn't hurt you.

 

[Deborah M]

So here goes. I know this will sound crazy to some. I am reevaluating my city because I am running out of space even with 164 expansions. I definitely will not have enough space when the next chapter comes out. I discovered that, after at least a year of only catering the Spire, I can battle to the top now much easier than catering 2 levels. I'm thinking that now I don't need as many factories. I had settled on 6 of each T1-T3 and 2 of each T4-T8. Building T8 now. I cannot do like @SoggyShorts. It isn't possible for me to be that efficient because I believed Inno when they pushed replacing event buildings with each new event. I just looked and boy am I jealous of some of the ones I sold off. Anyway, at upper levels, how many T1-T3 factories do people generally keep? I also built another armory bringing me up to 9 since I want to battle more now. I'm looking at needing nearly 3M Orcs for AWs at level 30. I did sell off 6 AWs for the space already. Pretty sure I will definitely be getting rid of a T1 so 1 more armory fits. I think I need the increased troop production now. Again, I checked Soggy's city and that seems about right. The other question is I'm thinking I could store a couple more magic residences since I won't be needing tons & tons of coin to cater the Spire. Maybe better to have that allocated to magic workshops I have stored if I'm making more troops & feeding the armories. Battling the Spire is such a big change for me that I'm not sure what is best at this point.

 

[Alram]

@Deborah M
I'm interested in hearing about your city and any advice given but I think you should make it a separate post so it isn't buried in the overscouting thread.

 

[SoggyShorts]

I did sell off 6 AWs

That sucks, I know you enjoyed having a full collection. Bad inno!

.... I checked Soggy's city and that seems about right....

Ooooh which city? My Khel & Beta are neglected disasters on the brink of abandonment.

Winyandor is currently set for once-per 24 hour log-ins, so it's a little screwy too.
Also, it's perma-parked at the start of chapter 16.
The few T1 & T2 buildings I have are only there for the FAs and trades for the FS

TL;DR don't use my cities as an example, they are designed for a player who is traveling for the foreseeable future and plans to spend any screen time playing Diablo2 rather than Elvenar.

 

[Mykan]

Overscouting is a term that came about so many years ago when the combat system changed and people were stuck for up to a year unable to progress on the world map. That issue has long since passed or those people have quit. There are also numerous game mechanics introduced since then that benefit a person from scouting a lot.

In current times it really only refers to a couple scenarios that I am aware of:

• Hitting orcs in catering before producing them
• The ability to combat on the world map
  • First 5 chapters or so when even the minimum provinces puts you into very hard fights

I bet most people haven't got a clue of what is the "correct" provinces to scout, so how can I overscout if there isn't a defined amount? And before some bright person thinks it is the number of provinces to unlock a chapter you best do some research first. While there have been some indication from CM's (maybe inno staff but I ain't looking for the quote) around what this might be the reality is that it completely changes from chapter to chapter and your scouting strategy has a huge impact on how far you can stretch the world map combat difficulty.

Oh and for those saying the are 2 camps of "don't overscout" or "do overscout", well there is a 3rd group "there is no such thing".

 

[ajqtrz]

@Mykan The idea that "there is no such thing" is, of course, true, if your definition is taken. But like most things, there are situations where if you've scouted so many provinces you arrive at all the provinces left being too hard to fight and too expensive to cater. That would be, for that person, "over scouting." Thus, since there is not a set number of provinces to scout per chapter, it is also true that players are very tempted to scout as many as they can to expand their city. This can be dangerous and frustrating if they unexpectedly arrive at everything being "too hard." In the end the term is useful, therefore, to describe the results of scouting more provinces than your city can easily handle and, in the process to suggest to newer players a road block they might encounter. All of which might open the door to discussing of what it might mean to them and how they might avoid it.

AJ

 

[BrinDarby]

Reasons ppl overscout :
1) Tasks .... both personal/event
2) Trade .... BS discovered rule ( +50% fee )
3) Tournament .... wanting to get 1600+ ( min is 6x6 )
4) Relics .... more relics = more boost % ( 700% max )

Its common to hear that earlier chapter players have the most
problems with overscouting, and that after a certain point its
good to scout as much as possible.....
Its no fun to have everything "very-hard", and its way too easy
to fall into that trap, and just quit ( usually in CH 1-2-3 )

the current deffinition of OverScouting is :
Exceeding the # of provinces need'd, to start next Chapter
before finishing current chapter .....

 

[kctanzen]

I am for sure in the "no such thing as over scouting" category, with a few caveats:

My play style is glacial, I enjoy the slow pace and working on my own wonders and helping my fellows.

I don't always *clear* the scouted provinces -- many of them lay dormant for events, especially on my primary city which has reached the cap on expansions from scouting. I know that some wonders use completed provinces as multipliers and that has some impact on my choices getting to where I am now, with 611 cleared. I'm at about 4 days, 11 hours and around 11 million gold per scout.

The major caveats to the "over scouting" camp --
=== difficulty clearing the scouted provinces (can be overcome with lots of patience and a great deal of resources devoted to the wonder support necessary but more realistically by building up a massive warehouse of goods)
=== the orc restriction, where you need orcs to scout but cannot yet produce them
=== main hall can't hold enough coins to scout the next available province (alt city found this out)

 

[Moho]

I didn't know and later care about overscouting when I developed my first city. I was curious to see what would happen if I took a different approach and that was part of my motivation to begin a new city. Here is how my two new cities fare in this respect: