I can have a base lit up like a christmas tree on the minimap, and nothing. Even with a busy fight. Then I can be at another base, not so busy and maybe one XP. I can do the killing myself while on the Flash and still no scout XP. Because of the buggy return on investment Im wary of spending that last 500 certs to max scout out. Shame since Flash is about the only thing I like pulling out these days all my other expensive toys collect dust. Unless a AMS is really needed. Then I just babysit my AMS play engy, rep and protect it from cloakers and LAs who can smell a deployed AMS from 1,000 meters away. Its like return of the zombies they just keep coming for the brains!
Yeah scout radar xp income is bad, imho it might be one of 2 things: a. It might have a very short detection duration that enemies rarely die when they're considered as detected. b. It's possible that other radar options have higher priority and deny xp to scout radar. Imho, it's less likely than the 1st option. Originally Scout Radar made everyone almost permanently visible on the map, the devs could just greatly reduce scan frequency without adjusting detection duration.
Thanks for the reply. Sad. I really liked learning Flash. Died a lot trying new things. I will keep the radar I just won't max it.
On most base fights, I see a ton of enemies on radar. Do you need to max out your certs on the Scout Radar so it'll have a longer range?
100m for Flash, 200m for Valkyrie or ESF, detects moving enemies, works only when you're inside of the vehicle. Allies can see detected enemies on the map.
The ANT also has scout radar, which is nice for providing radar support in infiltrator-infested bases. A kobalt with even a few ranks of max-ammo can tape the fire button down and take a lunch break without running out of ammo, and Night Vision (not thermals) let you see infiltrator distortion, while still maintaining visibility at night. Having stealth (not cloaking) on your scout flash is also quite important - the more savvy infiltrators know that where there is a stationary flash behind the lines in a base fight, there's most likely scout radar painting them on the minimap, thus... you are targeted frequently. Maxing stealth increased my longevity to the point where I don't typically go down unless i've gotten bored enough to put myself in the line of fire. A fun fact: If you are parked on a Flash while still in the drivers seat... you can tab out, and your tail-light will shut off (this works in other vehicles too.) - as long as the PS2 window does not have focus, brake lights shut off when stationary. You can use this to park in a dense bush to become virtually invisible, while still providing radar support. I've had enemy players literally climbing on my vehicle for better firing positions, and I had one guy claim he thought I was a rock (I asked him to stop standing on my face in /tell ) I've made ~10,000 certs in a week while driving a scout radar flash in the past, it's by far my favorite thing to do in PS2, the key is to not only depend on radar for XP. Go engineer and drop ammo packs near the front line. Park inside a building near a defended door, and the multi-XP-source spam adds up swiftly. (Repairing used to be a nice option as well, as you can do it from the rear seat... but the way they implemented the Harasser nerf made it so ALL repairs-from-vehicle-seating are severely diminished.) Medic is also a good option if you have shield-restore beacons, and while i'm not sure if this still works... Triage may potentially heal other players standing around your flash passively. Granted, this setup is potentially one of the most expensive things in PS2 - the flash eats certs like candy before you start getting any serious returns, there are MUCH better ways, and cheaper investments to get certs quickly. For me, however - learning how to drive a Flash well enough to get around in any base design, and being able to provide my team near map-omnipotence, while still providing fire support / heals or ammo... well, its been by far one of my favorite playstyles.
While I'm thinking of it - Radar XP is also dependent on the proximity of the radar to an individual scoring a kill on a radar-painted target. If there is a closer source of radar, that source will eat the experience. This is similar in functionality to ammo packs - if two packs are on top of each other, and one has a maxed-out rank, and one is stock / unupgraded, the upgraded pack will eat every resupply, and the stock one will get absolutely nothing. Given the prevalence of Infiltrator deployable radar / radar darts, this is responsible for most of the scout-radar XP losses. It may not be being buggy at all, there's just other radar eating the XP. Similar to the ammo pack scenario I described, maxing out your radar will give you the XP much more frequently, even when you aren't detecting more / higher range targets. You have more range, therefore your range eats the XP ticks that would have otherwise gone to inferior radar-platform owners.
