Overland encounters

Variety is the spice of games. At the moment all overland mobs move toward the player, which makes them essentially the same in the overland. How about

-Dog moves away
-Bandit moves toward
-Skeleton is stationary (makes more sense then, since the POP UP when the player approaches them, usually at the ruins, which obviously can't chase you.)
-Wolf acts randomly as they do in the scenes (wolves should stalk you in packs in normal scnees, btw, not attacking until they sense their opportunity, and not being leashed to a location. That would be a lot more scary and unique.)

 

I love how the stag runs me down on the world map.

 

Advanced:

When you run out on bandits.
On overland
Wait half the bandit detection distance (75% if that's too close) then spawn bandits at player return point. Now player get the thrill of being chased for a bit, but will probably outrun them due to the head start. (unless they are encumbered. So sad.)

 

I like it. I'd go for a slightly different set of behaviors:
- Cows, sheep = just stand there and let you approach if you want, but basically passive
- Stags = run away from you, have to be chased
- Dogs = approach slowly, because hey, they're dogs and they're friendly to start with
- Wolves = mostly ignore you, until you get close, then they attack (not unlike their in-zone behavior...also be nice if there were bear encounters which would be similar)
- Bandits = always chase you if they see you
- Skeletons = not even visible as an encounter until you draw near, then they pop up; possible to escape, but you have to run

In short, have the overland encounter behavior match how they are inside the zones. Also be nice to have even greater variety, such as Ulfheims, elves, spiders, zombies and so on.

 

I think the trick is to let them chase you, then engage at a spot away from their spawn point, because you re-spawn there, and they don't... They do have a fairly large radius of agro, even though I can skyt them, it's very hard and out of the way... One of the tips was to use our coconuts to move faster... I just wish I had a "mount, dismount" button...

 

I was just suggesting enhanced design for the bandits on the overland map for immersion purposes. If you run away from bandits in a story, you may escape the original encounter and yet be being tracked by them for many chapters. Perhaps I poorly wrote it up, but my point was that (sometime in the distant future) they could still exist if you ran, instead of disappearing. It would raise issues with players getting nailed right away, which would be frustrating, hence waiting until they are X distance away before having the bandits appear again.