Scouting with Boats

Scouting with boats is very similar to scouting with land scouts in many respects, you send them out in the same way, and if they find something interesting they disappear.  The problem is the cost in resources and time:

Land scout cost:  30 food, 30 wood and 3 mins 30 secs - very reasonable.

Boat scout cost: 200 food, 1000 wood, 400 iron and 1 hr 54 mins - extortionate!

Ok the initial cost of a boat is acceptable, but when it vanishes and you have to replace it, there should be a significant reduction in cost of resources and time! or it will become too expensive to make exploring worthwhile.

Then, as I am on a roll here - land scouts have  a positive 2 cultural points per level of the Observation Post whereas boat scouts have a negative 2 cultural points  per level of the Shipyard - where is the justice in that!

I totally agree with Dordiana. The cost of the boat-scouts is very unreasonable and it makes scouting unprofitable rather than a happy search for new land as it should be. 

I agree - good point and well made. I love scouting and I think Boats should carry positive culture, just like Explorers. I understand that the process of training boats is more expensive than that of Explorers but surely Boats should be located in a building similar to the Observation Post. Currently, there is no maritime equivalent.

I am sorry Bers but I cannot agree with you, we all love maps and it is one of the great advantages of being in an Alliance is the maps.

The maps help us find people - friend and foe if you take away the chance of having decent maps we might as well stop playing.

May I add that these boats are not only "scouting vessels". Their descriptions list them as naval units, designed to participate in battle and in plunder as well as explore the world. Thinking in this manner, it answers the question as to why the culture follows the norm of a fighter unit and not an explorer unit.

I just want to know why our heroes keep picking captains for their boats that keep on deserting the moment they find something shiny at sea :/

You think they would have to return to dock to brag about the shiny things they found first.

Sorry for digging up an old post but the point I want to make is about boat scouting ...

Would be possible for a different "eye" for the boat scouts?  When you have a blank area of fog which you think you are scouting with land scouts you can inadverently also send your boat scouts, as the eye does not change.  Sometimes an area is easy to reach by land, but I do not necessarily want to send my boat scouts as I want to task them separately and as they can only travel in shallow water, and the continent is very indented, my boat scouts can vanish for hours.

I know the scouting screen then shows the scouts that are going, which I click through quickly and not necessarily notice I have boats going too.

There is also the option of sending the boats out first, so it is not a major problem, but a niggle that stings me every so often!