Scouting pre-T2 lacking?

I made this suggestion in a topic pertaining to Zerg lacking T1 AA options, and it occurred to me, this suggest affects more then just that, as well more then just Zerg.

Scouting your opponent should not come with out cost/risk - but the option should always be available. This concept is perfectly up Blizzards train of thought. They want you to make choices, but at the moment, it feels like if you can't scout your enemy, you aren't making a choice as much as you are making a gamble/risk they go the way you think they might.

Currently, aside of sending a worker into your enemy's base before they wall it off (Zerg can't wall of clearly) can yield you a vast amount of knowledge, if you know what to make of it all. The issue is a player can quickly change plans after being scouted early game pre-wall off, and if you have to wait till T2(Terran's being the only race capable pre-T2 with Scan) to scout again, then you play not so much a competitive early game as a gambling early game.

Why would Blizzard not want you to, again, at a cost...scout your enemy despite what point the game is at?

Until T2 and fast air units, what options past early worker scout do each race have?

Terran again, at a cost, can scan. Protoss and Zerg have to fast tech - and fast tech leaves one vulnerable to heavy early game attack - sure players take that risk...but why can we not have other options?

As far as Overlords go, they are an option, and indeed they are perhaps most useful at the moment vs Protoss very early, being they are actually the slowest to get to AA... or at least it comes at a different build; yet the issue remains that the cost is too heavy to scout early game with a Overlord once AA is out, because you truly must sacrifice that overlord...which is not the issue as the lack of information you can gather before that overlord dies with out getting the information you craved.

Currently, in my honest opinion, I think Terran are fine with scan. It's certainly not free, but it's there as an option as well a risk if they scan where the army isn't there.

I can't truly vouch for Protoss, but I want to say they are in the same boat as Zerg.

[This is only a suggestion, I'm not debating this as a balanced idea/suggestion as much as to give a idea as to how one could help pre-T2 scouting]
At least as far as Zerg go, I think the Overlord speed upgrade dropping to T1 is an option. Adjust the cost so it's not cheap, as well consider that's 100mins and supply we risk sending out to spot enemy information. It's hard to truly compare it to Scan, and I'm just tossing it out there to see how people react to said train of thought, not per-say to state an unbalanced idea.

Edit: Another option of making Overseers available T1 without Changling till T2 a viable option - for that cost you get a fast overlord.
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I'm only 1 player however, and the common mistake we make is that we think we know best...yet if others agree scouting pre-T1 is an issue overall to how the game currently is, and offer reasonable suggestions, then we can go from there...and just maybe convince Blizzard of said issue...if one even exists.

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I agree with you. But if overlords were to get fast movement in T1. Then for balance reasons the Protoss wouls also have to get a scouting friendly unit or ability also bumped back to T1.

 

Observers T1 from Nexus FTW!!!!!

ARE YOU READING THIS BLIZZARD?

On a serious note: I have no worth while comment

 

@Thark - I'm only throwing out ideas to let others know what I mean by viable options to insert Scouting in T1, I'm not arguing it's balanced the way I present it.

The concept is you are more gambling in a game where you don't have an option to see what your enemy has. Is this what Blizzard wants? I'm not sure...yet is it what other players want, a rather scout-less game till T2? That's what I'm asking at least to find out.

@DeckardLee

For someone as wise as you, it saddens me for you to not put it to use! ;]

But seriously, think a little more outside the box, if Scouting pre-T2 was an issue to a lot of early game-play, then we can think up reasonable ways to add in scouting so it's not overpowered....what about in your suggestion non-invisible observers in T1, and cloaking added [maybe even cost free] in T2.

 

If you're lucky and skillful, you can hide a worker in their base.
Zerg has speedlings,and suicidal overlords at tier one.

Protoss have halluncination(pheonix)

Terran have scan, floaty buildings.

 

RationalThought:

Fair enough. Initial ideas don't have to be balanced. They get balanced later. And as I said above I like your ideas and way of thought. But I always tend to think in terms of balance. That's just how I think.

 

I think you mean just plain lucky, I don't think getting a drone in and stashing it in a corner is skillful ;]

Speedlings don't get you past a wall(and that's more along the lines of aggressive scouting, aka constantly attacking to know what your enemy has)....and I've already addressed how Overlords only serve you a purpose at scouting the enemy's base if they don't have anti-air for some crazy reason or are far too slow to react being how slow they fly at T1

Hallucination on air is T2....which is not the point of my thread ._. Edit: Blasted all! I'm not entirely familiar with Protoss Hallucinate...I recall now you don't need to click a unit like you did in SC1 - Sorry for that novice mistake!

Hallucination in T1 is a bit costly to use purely for scouting imo, but I dunno, I'd think if you're gonna use energy to send a fake ground unit to scout, why not send a 50min probe instead? Neither of these scout past a wall though.

Walling off should be more a defensive strategy from attacks, the additional mystery it gives that you can't see what they're doing unless they are Terran or in T2 is the part I'm concerned about.

 

i've seen the hallucinated phoenix and scouting factories in play. changelings, too.

still, scouting IS both important and hard to do... like expanding. seeing inside your opponents base shouldn't be that easy, especially at the beginning of the game when it's so much easier to switch builds.

 

Blasted all! I'm not entirely familiar with Protoss Hallucinate...I recall now you don't need to click a unit like you did in SC1 - Sorry for that novice mistake! - yet note changeling is T2.

I agree it shouldn't be easy, but should it be near-impossible on the flip side(pre-T2 at least)? That's what I'm driving at.

 

Easy to do and easy to counter is Blizards mantra. And I think this should apply to scouting too.

 

If you're zerg, speedlings serve to scout what unit they have in front, if they expanded, or if they are moving out. Those speedlings serve as a contain, until they actually come out. If they don't you can expand and exploit this, and if they go banshees, you can see it coming with an OL by the time they get one, and you can easily change tech quickly to compensate.

For terran, I put something on my blog just today, to evaluate pre-T2 scouting for terran.

Protoss, a lot of people either just go use a probe, hallu phoenix, or just obs, because it's so easy to get there in the tech tree.

Let me remind everyone that scouting is not free, and it does hurt your economy. Just depends how effective you make your scouts. Either you play in the dark, or sacrifice something to get info. As Day(9) once said, you don't play starcraft based on pure scouting. You play respective to the match up. Scouting is used to "ALTER" your build to compensate what your opponent does differently from standard.