Too few overland encounters

I went from Soltown to Aldhaven and didn't encounter one single enemy or animal...

There definitely should be much more enounters or at least ambient animals roaming around.

 

No. It's frustrating enough as it is.

 

Are you a harvester/crafter and/or powergamer or are you in the game for the story, quests, exploration and immersion/atmosphere?

 

I'm playing the game to have fun. Getting sucked into the same scenes over and over is not fun.

 

I agree that the loading screens are annoying.
Yet the world feels empty as it is.
There should be more ambient animals roaming around which don't pull us into scenes but which make the world look more alive.

 

I'm having the opposite problem. I have difficulty making it anywhere on the world map. I'll see an encounter and sometimes try to avoid it because I'm on a mission. Sometimes it works, other times I get pulled into an encounter even though I clearly kept reasonable distance between myself and the mob. There's a synchronization issue here. Then, once I complete the encounter I've found a good 50/50 chance that there will be another encounter waiting for me as soon as I return to the overland map.

My suggestion, once you exit an encounter give the player a 1 minute encounter immunity.

 

There seems to be some disparity between the client and server that makes avoiding encounters much more difficult in MPO.

 

Thats what I meant by synching issue. It seems to be more noticeable on the world map than anywhere else. I'm generally not experiencing lag when fighting npcs for example.

 

Midmaer seems to have 3 or 4 when going from Brittany to Etceter.

 

I love the encounters, but I think it would be nice to have a flag of 30 seconds - 1 minutes after exiting where you cannot be sucked into another one. Because as it stands, one night in a low populated area I ended up doing 4 back to back without a chance to move. Now, I like them for gathering, so it wasn't an issue.. but I don't see a problem with giving folks a temporary pass after getting sucked into 1... might not be the most elegant "solution" though.

 

Going in the Hidden Value, there are way too many encounters! Its so annoying how you have to run through the thick forest to escape them and if they pull on you, there is no way go escaping. Also, its annoying because how weak the creatures are and there is no loot in the instances!! Its worthless really. If you want the ore, go to a mine, you will get 1185% more ore. If you want the reags, you can farm almost any scene and sell the loot to get more reags than farming at an encounter. The bandit camps chest also is completely worthless.

If there was a reason for the encounter besides being annoying, I would feel better about being pulled it.

One option I think would work well is to include these encounters into treasure hunting. I left my opinion in another post to explain more, and I believe it would work rather well.

 

I think that the area around Ardoris/Soltown has so few encounters because before they were visible, some people complained about too many of them. I can't remember ever seeing any between Solace Bridge and Ardoris when I go down there. There is one between Solace Bridge and Eastreach Gap, but that's it along that corridor.

They seem to have a spawn point that they can rubber-band back to just like adventure scene mobs and respawn in roughly the same area, so currently I notice they are often in the same places along the ways that I travel.

I also notice they are almost always on the road, so if I don't want to be bothered with them, I have to go way off the road to avoid them.

 

It seems I can't even cross a single region without getting pulled into encounters, despite giving a wide berth, clearly outrunning them and being miles away when I get sucked in, etc. It seems they are impossible to avoid and most of the time if I'm on my way to meet up with folks all its doing is giving me more load screens. I thought the purpose of having them visible was so you could choose to engage or not? No? I've tried outrunning them, various stealth skills, etc. nothing seems to work except going miles out of your way across really-slow-walking terrain.

 

This could be really interesting, as in seeing a bunch of potential encounters but not knowing which one or two will try to chase you down. It does seem rather empty now, and all but a few spots are easy enough to avoid for me.

 

The OP is joking, right? I mean these overland encounters and sieges are so irritating that I cannot even start to understand the point being made. So being an optimistic type, I give the OP an appreciative nod at this brilliant post that made me laugh. I hold out hope that the cooking skill will include a food that will make us immune to these "encounters", at a high cost of course that I will gladly pay.

 

I feel what we need is not a greater quantity of these OL encounters but greater quality/variety.
~ Adding more that can be challenging to higher level players. Color coded so lower level players can know to run away.
~ Loot and surprises that one can't get in other places.
~ Does that wandering merchant still appear in these encounters? He should sell things that one can't get elsewhere or give better sell/buy prices than city merchants.

 

Encounters are worthless.

They are fun in the early levels, but they are getting old, tedious, annoying and again worthless very soon.

 

What am I missing that's frustrating you guys? 90% of them are completely avoidable, and even if you get sucked in, you can just run out of them. The 30 second load screen in and out is a little annoying, but not so bad considering how infrequently I get sucked in.

I would say that I don't think they are being used optimally. Having them guard special places, having them be more dynamic and varied, and having them be incorporated into storylines would help a lot. In their current state, they seem like they are in 'basic system' state and not in 'fun gameplay' state. Hopefully they get there.

 

I for one like having a journey that is exciting and offers some danger on an overland view that feels alive.
Animals roaming around as well as monsters and enemies.
But I can understand that for some the overland map is just a means to travel from A to B as fast as possible.
But I want to enjoy exploring it, seeing lots of animals and encountering enemies and NPCs as well as being able to discover secrets.
What's wrong with wanting to play SotA this way?

 

I'd like a few more encounters on the map, not all of them being on the road, and more easily avoided because it seems that once they see you they catch you no matter what (I don't think that's a sync issue either). I agree that there should also be a 30 second timer to avoid being immediately drawn into a new encounter; I've had the 4-in-a-row happen to me, too, though I didn't mind because I was harvesting, but it's annoying when you actually want to get somewhere! Effective color coding would help, too, instead of displaying the color once you've been spotted.