Scout

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Overview

Northern Faction Scout

Imperial Scout

The Scout class is well-suited for forward reconnaissance and stealth. As the scout you can opt for short range sub-machine guns or a light scoped rifle. You also spawn with a set of binoculars, which can be used to call for an artillery strike. To call out a target simply zoom in and press the fire button. A red attack diamond will appear at your target. Scouts also spawn with smoke or concussion grenades.

The scout class' skills at evasion and detection more than make up for its less powerful weaponry. At the forefront of the list is the scout's Hide ability, which makes him invisible to enemies when crouching for a long period of time. To use this, simply crouch and wait. You are semi-transparent when crouching against a single wall, and all but invisible when hiding in a corner.

Knowing the tricks of his trade, the scout can use his Enhanced Senses to detect nearby enemies, even those who are hidden. As you approach an enemy an arrow signifying his location will appear on your minimap, faintly at first, but with growing brightness as you near him. Surprise attacks just got a whole lot harder.

But what spec ops kit would be complete without a Weapon Silencer? In Empires this ability's effects are twofold - not only does it cut the noise made by every shot in half, but it also hides your kill and death messages from other players. How sure are you that the scout is dead?

The final two skills of the scout affect vehicles that he drives. The first, Radar Stealth, makes electronic detection of the vehicle almost impossible. The second, Vehicle Speed, increases the vehicle's speed.

History

It should be noted that the role of the Scout has changed drastically through the many wars following the demise of the Great Empire. In fact, the ubiquitous name of "Scout" which refers to all stealth-based infantry was popularized only after the discovery of the ruins of the ancient capital of the Great Empire, making it a fairly recent development from a historical standpoint. During the so-called "Cold War" between the Brenodi and Jekotia, conflict revolved primarily around stealthy subterfuge. This being the case, the "Scout" was actually an assassin--the name was used as propaganda and to cover up political machinations. Equipped with state-of-the-art camouflage and a powerful sniper rifle, scout-snipers often infiltrated enemy territory and struck down select infantry targets. They were, however, ill-equipped to tackle fortified positions or tanks, which severely limited their use. Nonetheless, quite a few Scout-assassin squads are renown in military history, such as the Brenodi Blue-Shirt Zealots, whose signature blue vests were feared by frontline Jekotian forces everywhere.

The role of the Scout has evolved a great deal in current conflicts between the Northern Faction and the Brenodi. Most battles involve some type of Guerrilla warfare, and almost every standing military has adapted the Scout to this issue. The Unit has become something of a saboteur, armed with the tools to infiltrate an enemy base and then disable the equipment inside. This new application of stealth infantry comes at a cost, as almost all of the powerful Scout-Sniper Rifles of the Cold War have fallen into disrepair. The current Scout Rifles are not as intimidating as the old models, but they are far cheaper, more durable, and are much easier for a hastily conscripted Scout to use.

One of the most innovative modern uses of Scout units is their deployment as lightning-strike squads. A famous battalion officer named Commander Dominic "Bodrick" Light has been known to deploy large numbers of scouts in cheap but incredibly fast jeeps to harass and impede enemy assaults and 'scout' adjacent terrain. This technique, which has begun to be mimicked by opposing armies, has led to large skirmishes consisting almost entirely of jeeps attempting to out-maneuver each other to gain a foothold on a battlefield before the main forces have clashed.

Binoculars

The scout has the ability to spot multiple targets from extreme distances with much greater ease than any other unit. His spotted targets stay spotted longer, and can be locked onto by artillery tanks. However, without artillery or other long range attack, calling for frequent artillery strikes can be both pointless and distracting, so don't frustrate your team-mates. The scout will gain a rank point for every unit that he spots and is then destroyed by a teammate. The binoculars have two zoom levels at 4.5x and 22.5x.

Sabotage

A new addition to the scout's abilities is sabotaging enemy structures. You can do this by approaching the enemy building and pressing the 'use' (default: 'e') key when an electrical hazard icon appears. Hold the 'use' key until the bar is filled. Once filled the structure emits purple smoke and is damaged by 50% with the added bonus of negative effects to the enemies operations. A list of buildings and it's sabotaged effects:

Building	Sabotaging Effect
Refinery	Outputs half as many resources
Barracks	Spawning players receive half their total amount of health
Radar	Shows friendly units to the enemy instead of enemy units to friendlies
Armory	Ammo and health crates take twice as long to give ammo/health
Repair Station	Takes twice as long to repair a vehicle
Vehicle Factory	Vehicles are built with half of their total health and armor
Turrets	Turrets refuse to target and fire upon enemies when sabotaged.

Tips and Tactics

Concussion Grenades

These will jam a turrets sensors and blind enemy players for a few seconds, giving you precious time to sneak past. Furthermore, anyone familiar with Counter-strike will know that these grenades (which operate essentially like Flash-Bangs) will render an opponent absolutely helpless. If you arm yourself with an SMG and these grenades, you can be as effective in assaults as a rifleman. Concussion Grenades will affect a turret's sensors for up to 12 seconds.

Smoke Grenades

A good application of the Scout's tools are Smoke Grenades, the most powerful and close range SMG, and the hide skill. Sneak into an enemy base, score a kill, use a smoke grenade as cover to engage the hide skill, then relocate and repeat the process. Furthermore, don't hesitate to use smoke grenades to give your team some cover, or confuse the enemy. A smoke grenade at an enemy flag makes defense of that area nearly impossible. Just don't drop the grenades ON your team's territory, which will only confuse and annoy your teammates. Drop the grenades between your team and the enemy. (or better yet, ON the enemy.)

Effective Sniping

If using the scout as a sniper class, one must be very aggressive to be of any use to his team. If not sabotaging enemy buildings, it's inefficient to simply snipe the lone rifleman who is nowhere near an important area. The best Scout-sniper will impede the enemy's expansion and cause confusion in their ranks. This means attacking high traffic locations--these areas often place the Scout at high risk and divert a lot of attention to him.

Effective Sabotage

This is most useful in places the enemy doesn't worry about, like that refinery no one goes to because it's been capped and is far away from the enemy and the home base. Flat out destroying it will force the enemy to repair it, but if it appears to be fine, no one will bother to fix it. Likewise, this skill is not that useful when employed against front line bases, as the large enemy presence means that the buildings will often be repaired right away. But when used against a base deep in enemy territory, where no one is around to notice the damage, it's use is greatly enhanced. Suddenly that single attack that breaches the front and reaches the home base gains a huge advantage when the enemy reinforcements are incredibly handicapped!

Upgrade Guide

See Also: Scout Skills

Know Your Skills: Hide is without a doubt one of the coolest skills the Scout has, but it has limited use. If your goal is to kill many enemies on the frontlines, you might be better suited with some other upgrade. On maps where you have little cover, such as on the hills of Duststorm, or where you are advancing with the support of other classes, such as Crossroads, the ability to hide when not firing has limited use. If your goal is to infiltrate, then by all means use hide.

Melee Upgrade is a skill uniquely useful to the scout because you can remain hidden while attacking with melee. Two quick melee hits to an unaware target will be more then enough to kill him. If hidden and using Weapons Silencer, you will completely confuse the other team.

Weapons Silencer is another skill that has limited use, but when it is needed, it becomes incredibly handy. On flag capture maps this skill can save your team. Emp_cdr_canyon: For example, in this map, a hidden scout can capture an opponent's flag/spawn and force half the opposing team to sweep back and search for the infiltrator which, for all they know, could be one soldier or half a dozen men. Without being able to confirm that the scout has been killed, this can be difficult. And in maps where just one man is the difference between a captured flag (and therefore victory) or defeat, forcing the enemy to determine whether or not just one man threatened the area can earn your team precious seconds.

There are a few good skills for the scout to have. As stated above, if you wish to snipe the enemy deep in their territory, hide is a good skill. Other skills that work well are Health Regeneration, which you will use often if you are working without the support of your squad, and stamina increase, because, chances are, if you're deep in enemy territory, you're going to need to make a very quick getaway when something your trusty Scout Rifle can't handle appears.

If, on the other hand, you're working with the support of a squad, you might choose increased accuracy, for pinpoint accuracy, or health increase. Radar Stealth, is one of the less useful skills when not being stealthy or using a vehicle. It won't help you hide a tank, which is huge and noticeable by everyone, and if you're using a jeep, chances are you'll want Increased Speed to cross the frontlines as fast as possible, not this Radar Stealth to cross as quietly as possible. Furthermore, Radar Stealth applies only to vehicles. It doesn't hide the scout from enemy cameras at all.