Scouting (activity)
Scouting is getting a group of players together, forming a squad, and going out into the wilderness to fight either NPC pirates or NPC traders. It is not necessary to get a group together, but scouting in a group is usually safer than scouting solo, and is more fun (more often than not).
Scouting distance
The distance you travel on your scout affects how strong an enemy force you may encounter, the further out you go the more selective you are. As a result, longer scout distances will often result in a more advantageous (read: equitable) encounter. The minimum return time for a scout is 1 hour, it increases if you go out farther than 20 miles.
Solo Scouting
Scouting solo means scouting without other players in the squad. It often means scouting with a single car, but many players who solo scout use multiple vehicles. For more information about solo scouting, read the Ultimate Guide to an Early Grave.
Encounters
General information about encounters can be found on the Encounters page.
After-action Report
A scouting event can have three possible outcomes:
- You win
- You lose
- You run away
Winning
If you win the event by demoralising all the enemy cars and pedestrians or causing them to run away, you will be allowed to loot the remaining enemy vehicles.
Detailed information about looting is on the Looting page.
Losing =
If you lose the event, and you have surviving characters, they will form a footsquad, and start to walk back to town. Walking back to town is ten times (10x) slower than driving, and it is highly probable that your footsquad will have at least one encounter with the creatures in the area, or groups of on-foot bandits or mutants.
The walk back to town also exposes your characters to the aurora (they are protected while in their vehicles) and the blistering sun. As a result, characters who have to walk may become sick due to radiation poisoning and/or sunstroke. Stronger characters will be less affected by the environment than weaker characters.
NOTE: Be sure to equip each of your characters with a personal weapon, otherwise they will have to fight any encounters unarmed.
If your characters have formed a footsquad any encounters it has can be initiated from your gang's Squads page.
NOTE: Anyone with a character in the footsquad can initiate the encounters as there is no designated squad owner as there is with vehicle squads.
Running Away
When you reach more than 350 meters from the nearest opponent you have the option to Escape from combat. This is available via each vehicle's contextual menu, and will remove the vehicle from the map at the start of the next turn. When all of your vehicles have escaped the event ends.
NOTE: Be sure you do not abandon any demoralised vehicles or you could end up losing the combat rather than simply running away.
Auto-Escape
When any vehicles become 500 meters away from the closest enemy they will automatically be removed from the map at the start of the next turn. This applies to both your vehicles and the NPC's.
NOTE: Be sure you do not abandon any demoralised vehicles or you could end up losing the combat rather than simply running away.
Town Safety Zones
There is a safety zone around each town (except Firelight) that simulates the desire of the general populace to keep the warfare out of the town proper.
When your vehicle is within this zone you will receive a message that your car is within the town limits and can escape safely. It is not necessary to be beyond the 350m escape distance in order to escape safely into a town.
It is important to note that the NPC vehicles have this capability as well, and they will use it if they become demoralised or if they are "losing" the battle and decide to escape. As a result, it is not uncommon to have enemy cars disappear in the middle of the combat if you are fighting close to the city limits.
Firelight is currently the only town without a safety zone. When attempting to escape 'into the city' you must reach the standard escape distance of 350 meters regardless of your proximity to the city walls, gates, or buildings.
NOTE: The town safety zones do not exist/function when participating in the Militia v. Pirates Town Defense PvP events.