World Map Encounters

[CaptainTrips]

I'm not sure if their frequency has been increased in b31, or if I'm just noticing it more than in the past, but I've been running into a ridiculous number of bears and wolves on the world map. This wouldn't be a problem if these encounters were in some way interesting/dangerous/profitable, but as it stands, they are none of these things - they're just a waste of time. Waiting for the game to save twice so that I can kill 1-3 low level baddies just isn't worth it.

I suggest that these extremely low level encounters are either removed, or better, improved upon to be more interesting/dangerous/profitable. Adventurer parties are the golden standard here - they are all three of these things. They are something special, and I feel like any encounter of this sort should be in some way special, after all, I think we get our fill of killing bears and wolves in the Trollmire and Old Forest. Here are a few hastily thought out ideas about what could make these encounters more 'special':

- If we're going to stick with normal critter encounters, add a random boss-type critter to each encounter, with some sort of appropriate reward. Of course the correct balance of difficulty to reward must be maintained to discourage farming, but this shouldn't be too problematic.

- Instead of just having wandering critters, the player might 'stumble upon' an encounter/mini-quest. I'm thinking of two possibilities here: 1) random mini-levels that fit the surroundings the player is currently walking through -or- 2) pre-configured encounters; you might stumble upon the bandit fortress or some other large vault, or maybe you're ambushed, or perhaps you have stop a fight between two rival adventurers (whose letters to one another you've been finding all over), etc. Obviously the former would require less work, but the latter would be much more satisfying and interesting.

Ok, that's it for now, I hope others will chime in soon with other ideas or critique - I'm getting tired of these damn wolves chasing me around.

[marvalis]

Yeh I was having the same problem. Usually i just want to avoid these random encounters.

There are several ways games might handle these kind of random encounters. In ADOM, another roguelike, you could not see monsters running around the map, but you would get a dialogue 'pop-up' asking you if you want to flight, ambush them, or flee.

Something similar might be nice. There would be a chance that you can evade an encounter (possibly based on level, stealth etc.).

[Tom]

Yeh I was having the same problem. Usually i just want to avoid these random encounters.

There are several ways games might handle these kind of random encounters. In ADOM, another roguelike, you could not see monsters running around the map, but you would get a dialogue 'pop-up' asking you if you want to flight, ambush them, or flee.

Yes, and if you have the option to ambush, perhaps even check who and what they are before you attack.

[Jafar]

Yeah, it would be great, but it should depend on some skills - like new talent, or cunning and/or dexterity. Because I don't see some stinking zombie berserker with 10-20 dexterity stalking or ambushing some 20+ lvl adventurers group with some "professional" elven "rangers"