Scouts need a self-preservation sense.

[Willem]

I don't know how many times I've watched my automated Scout walk right into a fight, even while knowing there was an enemy unit waiting there. And generally he loses that fight, if it's anything other than animals. Now I've noticed that automated Workers, when an enemy comes near, will scoot to the nearest city and lie low until the threat is past. So I don't see why the Scout can't have something similar built into it's algorithim. Except instead of heading into a city, it heads off in a direction away from the clearly visible enemy. It would certainly improve it's "shelf-life" in a game, they're usually pretty useless after the Barb Archers start appearing, partly for the very reason I mention here.

[Jaybe]

I think it's a design decision to restrict your exploration, or require you to continually rebuild scouts.

By reducing AI combat advantages vs. barbs, you could level the playing field in that arena (if you want). HandicapInfo.xml

[MasterDave]

I never automate my scouts because scouting is sort of fun (especially when you find goody huts or cool resources), and because there is not much to do in the early game besides move your scouts around. Even when moving them manually, it is impossible to avoid barbs sometimes, especially on tiles that take two movement points to enter.

[johnmcd]

It does annoy me that you can manually hand out a two that way order with a drag and drop and if the first move reveals an archer on a hill above your final destination the idiot will carry on anyway.

[Axxaer]

I agree with MasterDave, exploring is really fun. I like to gradually reveal the land around me as I control my scout. Also it means you actually do something other than click enter for a dozen turns.

[petermarkab]

As scouting is so important in the early game, preservation of said scouts must take priority, so why assign them to the game? As the Dutch say, "Shtop, thish unexshplored map ish not ready to be revealed yet. You need to wait until your shcout hash a shafe foreshted hill to finish hish turn on. Take your time and do it manually!"

[Willem]

I do it manually for the first while, until I've revealed enough of a map to plan out my city spots, but after that it just gets tedious. My main concern at that point is just trying to find out where the other civs are so I can plan my first locations. And going auto works just fine for that purpose. I've got other things I'd rather think about than where I'm going to move my scout next. Usually when I reach that point, I have my first Settler on the go and my first Worker to keep busy, so I'd rather focus on developing my cities.

[petermarkab]

yeah sure its tedious after a fashion but at the stage of the game you're talking about the scout is part of the medium term game - revealing second-tier cities, possible resource locations, finding other civs, and animals are less of a problem, barbs more - send out some warriors if you're scared of getting jumped. These factors are just as important as where your first city is built. By definition automation isn't perfect - the AI are there to be beaten and can be beaten, so why use their imperfect algorithms to decide the fate if your important early units?

[Urban Ranger]

Scouts are cheap, workers are expensive

That said, I still agree that they should not charge along blindly. If they discover an enemy unit a tile ahead, double back.

[Willem]

Originally posted by Urban Ranger

That said, I still agree that they should not charge along blindly. If they discover an enemy unit a tile ahead, double back.

Exactly. Workers are programmed to run for cover when an enemy unit is near so I see no reason why a Scout should just walk right next to a unit that is going to take him out. I'm not talking about units that suddenly appear from the blackness, there's nothing you can do about that. But if a barb Warrior of Archer is on top of a Hill clearly visible, the Scout should head in a direction that will try to avoid them instead of ending it's turn right next to them.