Idea : Unforseen events on overworld map

One thing I miss about many oldschool rpgs is unforseen random battles on overworld map.
It is realistic in the sense in real life you don't have the luxury of an overworld map
indicating every event your gonna run into. Just like the old ultimas, random battles
when walking around overworld map with no indication. This mechanic could be improved
upon too. You could have common, rare, epic and legendary events. When a person is
exploring or just trying to find way from point a to point b, theres always a risk
and the experience is not forseen. This would allow for more focus on depth without
a laundry list of graphical indication. You could have situations where text pops up
saying "this and that apears suspicious over yonder, do you want to check it out?"
This would add more of the unforseen and unexpected which i think is lacking in many
games today. This is the kinda mechanic indie devs bring back with huge success and
have big companys scratch their head. You could run into a riddle or a riddler. And when not battle oriented
you could simply have a text box with a picture pop up saying something like
"you come accross an odd rock, you should find someone to identify it."
Tons of simple content could be added this way, graphically supported or not.
you could have legendary events that are extremely rare. Or events put in the game or
taken out during updates.

 

The impression I've gotten so far from what I've heard and read is that Random events will appear on the map ... but there's been little to expand on what they'll contain beyond, allowing you access into an instance with a minor story, side quest or global event.

I like your ideas for expanding their purpose, as it seems like the event system from the map will play not only a big part of the overall, but provide much of the enjoyable filler content and expand the world beyond simply being points of interest.

I would guess that, event grading would naturally be part of the event system ... I think it's definitely a good thing, but personally, I'd dislike meta-ing the event system by specifically having This is a Legenday Event! or Oh this is a Purple Event! defining my expectations rather than coming to my own conclusions regarding the importance of the content to me and my avatar.

 

Definitely a big fan of random encounters. They have stated that encounters will happen on the map, but it sounded like it would be like the early Ultima's where you would see the enemy and thus be able to avoid them. If I remember correctly in the older Ultima's those things would chase you, so if you were noticed it was possible you could not get away.

In addition there will also be events that you will see on the map. They used a campfire as an example. You might go to the map and see a campfire on a hex, and when you visit find a gypsy caravan. I think we will have some really nice encounters of some sort on the map if nothing else.

 

Well heres hoping for random ecounters with no indication that can't always be avoided.