Getting sucked into "encounter" scenes on the world map...

Skeletons are the worst. I can't even express how tired I am of being chased by them (and bandits) on the world map.

 

I don't know if it's been mentioned before, but just had a random thought of old school JRPG game design for those people who dislike the encounters or want to avoid them. A simple repellent potion that lasts a certain period of time (or maybe even an artifact). Could even be something to add to the obsidian potion merchants.

 

Thats odd that you cant access Dash on your non combat bar, I have it on 2 characters' bars.

But yes, I did mean to charge it just before you exit the scene, as @Alley Oop said. If you are level 80, or even level 40, and charge Sprint to max glyphs/charge, it lasts a couple of minutes. Dash is shorter timespan, so I combine the pot of wolf speed with Sprint for longer length.

 

SotA is old enough to have nostalgia. The thing is, I don't remember him selling anything particularly interesting that you couldn't get in a town. So add a few unique items (maybe even one or two at a time out of a set of ten or so) and he could be the encounter that stays around the shortest time.

Not on the overworld you can't. Nor the strength buff, but sometimes I even remember to cast that one before leaving a scene when overloaded.

 

I like the premise of the wandering monster encounters, but the load times aren't the swift transitions that Ultima V had.

Perhaps a chance for randomized chests appearing with increased monster spawns inside to match? Perhaps scale it to party size, to reward marching around the map in a group - all of the people being brought into the instance when one is caught?

 

I'm sure we can all agree that roving encounters are a great idea, but there still is work to be done to make them more enjoyable. As @Deadly Habit mentioned, a repellent would be a great asset.

 

Like the last 10 or so times this topic has come up, same still applies -
Make them meaningful, or make them skippable. A simple yes/no (Do you want to investigate?) would do the trick.

 

For all intents and purposes, they're all pretty much skippable, no? You might have to take a little detour off the road, but I don't remember the last time I was forced into one of the Bandit or Skeleton encounters unless I was lazy or careless.

The Troll encounter in the overworld southern pass isn't that skippable, but it's also pretty meaningful as a quicker shortcut around the actual pass scenes.

 

Eh, not really. These engage me from MILES away and can't be outrun without an artifact. With a fleet flute, even if I do outrun them, they aren't even showing on my screen anymore, and I get pulled in. I have to waste time with 1-2 of these (which is 4 unnecessary load screens) anytime I try to get someplace since they are camped in the middle of the road. Even giving a huge berth slogging slowly through the countryside, they come find me more often than not. It once took me over 45 minutes just to travel from where I live (over by Desolis) to Resolute, due to encounters (and sieges at the start and end point). This was something like 12 load screens from point A to point B and I was going to do NONE of the in-between content - just run through - because I was just trying to get someplace. The control points/passes I can deal with they are static and anticipated. The random encounter nonsense is easily out of control.

I group up to go do things with other players, often. Never once in the history of the entire game has someone joined my party, started walking toward me, gotten sucked into an encounter and said "Oh, I'll just be 10 minutes I'm going to gather all these low xp nodes." No, its "grr, stupid encounter" and immediate zone out. If you're going to just let us walk out, then for the love of the oracle, just let us decline to enter them to begin with.

 

That's weird. I can go back and forth across Novia all day without getting sucked into any of these. Do you travel with the camera up close? I typically have it pulled back and I just give the creatures a wide berth, and take advantage of them looking the other way. I don't use any speed-running or stealth abilities. [Edit: I suppose your hardware running the game and the internet connection may have an effect on the visible locations, and the actual locations handled by the server.]

Right, they were more like Dragon Warrior where you had to be economical with your steps to reduce your encounter chance. These ones are more in-line with previous Ultima games where there is a tactical aspect in avoiding them, but I've never found it a big challenge.

I completely agree with the troll. I like that you mostly get caught, but occasionally can get by. Or, just get lucky with another adventurer recently clearing him. It would be nice to have more of these kinds of overworld challenges.

 

I understand the 'troll pass' one being difficult to avoid, but all the other random tier 1 stuff on the road should really be more 'avoidable'. You're essentially just forcing a player who has no intention whatsoever of clearing the encounter waste time waiting on two load screens, and if they're going to meet up with other players then all those folks just sit around twiddling waiting for them to zone in, run 3 steps to exit, and zone out. This is my whole issue with it. If the intention was, I'm running along and see "Oh look, a bandit encounter, I want to go fight those" having the option to go, the mark has been missed. Instead, its 'crap, bandits, let me take the long way around and oh crap, despite being miles away giving them a huge berth, once they 'spot' you they cannot be outrun, even with a fleet flute'. I like the idea of 'less avoidable' at key passes sure, but wasting time loading in and out of load screens over and over is not an enjoyable game mechanic.

 

Even without speed enhancing items/spells/abilities, I have generally had little issue outrunning an Encounter Mob on the world map by the time it aggros. Also, aside from an earlier Release that DID have Encounters spawn and trigger right on top of you when you left a prior encounter, in R52, I've yet to see this happen. Even trying to target Encounter mobs, earlier tonight after exiting an encounter, I spent a couple minutes literally running circles around a Skeleton encounter mob TRYING to trigger it. I had to run off a bit and come back for it to finally aggro and send me into the scene.

Personally, the Sieges' frequency is more of an annoyance than the roaming encounters. Seems like the cities I'm trying to get to with a purpose are ALWAYS under siege. Fortunately, I have my house in a town that does not (Yet) seem to come under siege.

 

On the overworld? I've managed to do it two or three times myself. I always put up Silent Movement and try to sneak by him when I'm going that way, but it's not very effective at that close range. I'm taking it from 60 up to 80 now to see if that helps any.

I noticed that when I was trying to get a bunch of skeleton encounters to see if it was easier to see garlic, nightshade, and mandrake. Big if true!

You know it's about having devotionals in the town, right? Some POTs are going to be under siege a lot because they put up 8 or more of them.

I don't know why you have such trouble avoiding them. You need to be at least 3 or 4 avatar heights away from them, but Silent Movement makes sure they won't see you unless you walk right over them.

 

My original location was in Eastmarch but have since moved to Celestis. Eastmarch was often under siege, Celestis, much like Soltown seems never to be under siege.

 

It's not a "seem", they are never under siege because they don't have devotionals. Those are the little monuments with a pool that have caretakers around them in NPC towns.

 

Last time I was paying attention, mobs didn't have the same terrain hindrances as players so could outpace you if you were slowed down by hills and so on. Has this been fixed?

 

Yeah, I get that one. I think my issue with the Sieges are not their existence at all, just their frequency. Thinking about it more, I think the main issue (in both cases) are that both Sieges and Encounters become an annoyance when they are mostly encountered when the player is more focused on doing something OTHER than those scenes specifically.

Case in point, 100% of the time I have to deal with a Siege is when I need to get into the town being sieged vs the vast majority of times when I hit an Encounter is when I am specifically aiming to enter them (whereas many people in this thread dislike them for happening when they are trying to get from Point A to Point B). However, again, I have found the Encounters to be MUCH more avoidable than Sieges on the whole and as such, they do not bother me nearly as much as it's "move a little out of the way to stay out of aggro on the world map" for encounters vs "I have to run through this extra scene" for a siege.

Because I do not seek out Sieges, they are a hindrance... because I seek out Encounters, they are more fun.