Random encounter cooldown

Can we implement some sort of cooldown on the random encounters? Like 30 seconds or something.

Last night I got into a random encounter on the way to Ardoris, completed it, reloaded the overworld map, turned around so I was facing Ardoris again, took one step and got pulled into another random encounter. Today running between Solace Bridge and Solania I got pulled in to three random encounters, spent more time loading up the scenes than I did running along the road.

I'm fine with a journey that short getting interrupted in return for the resources, but getting repeatedly interrupted ends up being annoying.

 

I agree, I have had similiar experiences on occasion. I like the concept of random encounters but all the loading can definetly put me to sleep.

 

I'd rather we have an on/off switch. Don't want any? Turn it off. Want it real bad? Turn it on.

It would save me from running around the map so much, hoping for one.

 

I'm totally against having players able to turn off key parts of the game experience just because it inconveniences them.

A cool down I can get behind however....lots of games JRPG's for instance would have your character flash for a bit after an encounter where you can't be attacked again.

 

Good idea from Wintermute in the opening post.

 

I agree with OP here, too. One encounter is fine, but sometimes the encounters along the Perennial Coast happen so often that I forget where it is I'm headed

 

Yeah, they need additional logic so you don't get griefed 5x in a row with RE's. In addition to the cooldown timer, I propose the following:

A dialog box pops up briefly describing the encounter and asks Y/N if you would like to engage. The devs measure how many no vs. yes and should work to improve the RE's so players are enticed into clicking yes.

Sure, you'd still get the travel interruption, but now you have a choice. And it's the onus of the devs to make those RE's interesting, rewarding, and fun that every player would want to click Yes.

 

Why do you get a choice if a monster wants to attack you?

 

There will likely be many different kinds of REs, one category of which may be monsters attacking you. We can certainly design this proposal so that those categories of REs are unavoidable where you aren't prompted. Or, we can design it so this category of REs have a % chance to escape / evade. Furthermore, while I didn't blatantly state it, the proposal was for pre-launch telemetry, giving the devs the opportunity to see where they need to improve, which kinds of REs need more love, etc. But we can certainly extend it as an actual feature post-launch too.

 

Yeah, that makes sense. Though I think this has to be pretty fleshed out before launch, which I think is coming this year.

 

I didn't think any one really believes they'll make an end of year launch. Alpha...maybe...kinda?

 

I listened to the interview by lord british today...he said there would most likely be only a couple more character whipes(along with a hoping comment on the story)...what does that mean in time frame anyones guess...

 

The only problem with that may be if my first experience of a particular type of encounter is poor I might never click yes on it again even if it later gets improvements.

 

I love random encounters, but I feel like they should happen less often on a road and more often when you leave the road. I run around in circles for what seems like a ridiculous amount of time trying to trigger them sometimes.

 

If a player saw something as a real inconvenience is it still fun and enjoyable?

I can honestly say that random encounters drive me mad........At the moment they feel meaningless whether I have an encounter with a group of low level bandits, wolves, cows? or even a random trader. If the encounters themselves led to something meaningful like the start of a quest or the trader sold unique items/buys at a higher price......I then wouldn't be quite so anti.

As things stand I get pulled into an encounter.....wait for it to load.....run out....wait for the load again and just hope I don't get pulled into another.

 

Well obviously they should:

A) be a challenge to your current character level, so this is where level scaling should come in within reason.

B) have a purpose.

If they are in game and all they are is meaningless them they are not an inconvenience set by the game to challenge you. I was kind of hoping that was obvious.

 

Which is why they should probably be turned off until they actually fulfil a purpose.

It would have been interesting to see how many people would have actively taken part in encounters if the key for the cell in Shuttered Eye had come from one of the mobs.

 

I agree with the OP. I was getting my hat and circled for hours to get pulled into a scene to gather cotton and hides. Then had a devil of time getting back to Solania because I would get pulled into a scene every time I exited another. Would have loved that to happen when I was gathering rather than trying to tie up the quest and go to bed.

 

I suppose this would be a good place to reiterate my support of a skill system with random encounters, such as is found in wasteland 2.

If you have the Outdoorsman skill (or whatever the name of it is, i forget), you then have an automatic chance of being able to avoid the random encounter. The higher the skill, the higher the chance of being able to avoid it if you choose.

This makes sense logically (a highly trained ranger should be able to hide from a wandering tribe of headlesses) and still allows those who want more encounters to accept as many as they like.

 

This skill could tie into terrain speed, too, as they keep yanking it when people complain that they're moving too slowly.