Auto Scout is a mechanic that enables AI control of a unit to automatically scout the map for the player. It features in Age of Empires: Return of Rome, Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition, Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition, Age of Mythology: Retold, and Chronicles.
Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition[]
Auto Scout was introduced in update 35584 and was originally only available to the first scout unit presented to the player at the beginning of a game. Since update 111772 it is available to all scout units: the Scout Cavalry line, Eagle Scout line, Camel Scout line, Horse, Hunnic Horse, and Camel.
Enabling the option will have the scouting unit explore the entire map in a pre-determined, yet somewhat random pattern. The benefit to this option is that it is one less unit the player has to worry about, allowing the player to keep more focus on other units elsewhere. This is very helpful when there is more than one scout unit, as a player can have an AI-controlled scout, coupled with a player-controlled one - covering areas of the map the AI is not covering.
The downside to this feature is that the auto scouting is not programmed to immediately seek out the enemy's base, ally's base or other helpful resources. It also does not scout in the most efficient way that benefits players most, due to the random, sporadic way the AI will scout. This means it will most likely be faster for the player to control the scouting unit for the purpose of gaining helpful resources fast. Because the AI of this feature does not follow the mentality that a human player would, it doesn't understand the grouping that resources come in. For example, when finding herdable animals, the AI will not understand that those animals are commonly found in pairs, meaning that the AI-controlled scout may find just one herdable, then go in a completely different direction without finding the others near it.
This also affects the sub-games using the engine.
Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition[]
Unlike in Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition, Auto-Scout in Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition is available for use by scout units such as the Explorer and Explorer's Dog, and is an ability available from the start of the game. Otherwise, the feature is generally the same as in Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition, as the AI controls the unit to scout the map based upon normal AI scouting patterns.
Age of Empires: Return of Rome[]
The release of Return of Rome introduced the Auto Scout feature to Age of Empires. It functions the same as described in the Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition section. The units which can have the Auto Scout feature are the Scout and the Explorer.
Prior to update 111772, Auto Scout was unusable in most standard games as the players do not begin with any scouting unit.
Age of Mythology: Retold[]
All scout units have a toggleable auto-scout ability in Retold. The units for the various civilizations are:
- Greeks: Kataskopos, Pegasus, Hippocampus
- Egyptians: Priest, Baboon of Set
- Norse: Berserk, Raven
- Atlanteans: Oracle, Oracle (Hero)
- Chinese: Pioneer
Auto scouting Oracles periodically stop at appropriate locations to enlarge their Line of Sight to the maximum, before continuing. While Sky Lanterns are also scouts, they do not have Auto Scout. Pioneers also deploy Sky Lanterns if Release Sky Lantern is set to activate automatically.
Chronicles[]
It functions the same as in Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition, though it is limited to the Scout Cavalry line. It is not available to the Lembos, despite it being described as a scouting unit in-game.
Trivia[]
- When first announced in Age of Empires II, the feature was highly criticized by a great amount of players (especially the competitive ones), due of the potential of taking away one of the player skills which is manual scouting.
- The Auto Scout icon in Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition uses the same one as the Cartography technology that was removed in patch 5.7.
- A similar feature called "Explore" was originally considered during the development of Age of Mythology according to unused action parameter lines in the executable file. Most likely the feature was cut due to being buggy or poorly received by Ensemble's playtesters (much like Auto-Scout's reception).
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