Encounter Rating Steps

[Elliott404]

Straight to the point: How many encounter steps for:
1) low rate encounters?
2) average rate encounters?
3) high rate encounters?
For medium, and large sized maps?

 

[Animebryan]

I'd say about 20-30 for Low Encounter Rate, 15-20 for Average, & 10-15 for High Rate. The bigger & more complex the map, the lower the encounter rate should be (even more so in areas that are literal mazes/labyrinths and/or have puzzles to solve, because nothing is more irritating than trying to solve a maze or puzzle only to lose your concentration or train of thought due to constant encounters).

 

[Elliott404]

Yea. . And worst, when you actually lose your progress through a regular battle, AND you're far from the previous save point, but were close to the next save point (I kind of suffered that from Star Ocean the 2nd Story lol)

Thank you very much, sir!

 

[MushroomCake28]

Since my battles a bit longer than average, and I have medium sized maps (between 30x25 and 50x35 in average), that's what I do:

• [40, 50[ steps for high encounter rate.
• [50, 65[ steps for medium encounter rate.
• [65, 80[ steps for low encounter rate.

I used to have between 30-45 steps for all my maps, but people told me there were too many encounters while testing.

 

[Elliott404]

Thank you, @MushroomCake28 !

 

[Kes]

Looking at Animebryan's figures, I would say that those belong in quite a punishing game. The rates I have seen in a wide variety of games have been more like 10-20 for high, 25-35 for medium and 40-55 for low. However, as has been pointed out, it does depend enormously on the type and layout of the map. If it is a map which involves a lot of backtracking to get to a side chest, for example, then the extra walking could end up doubling the number of encounters. In which case, I would recommend making the rate lower than on a more linear map.

 

[Elliott404]

Thank you, @Kes !

 

[TheoAllen]

I feel like 30 ~ 50 is still too high. I use 120 steps instead

 

[bgillisp]

The problem with the encounter rate in the engine is there is nothing stopping it from giving you a fight 1 step after you just had a fight. Last time I looked at the code, all the encounter rate did was set the average, and the engine then picked a random number between 1 and 2 * your encounter rate to decide when a fight will occur.

To get around this I actually coded some code where I could set, via a notetag a minimum number of steps between fights on a map. I think I ended up using 51 in the end on the only map that has random fights in my game as anything lower than that felt like it was too frequent and was punishing you for exploring.

 

[TheoAllen]

Yeah the default encounter count sucks, I had to remake from

  def make_encounter_count
    n = $game_map.encounter_step
    @encounter_count = rand(n) + rand(n) + 1
  end

to

  def make_encounter_count
    n = $game_map.encounter_step
    @encounter_count = n + rand(10) - rand(10)
  end

But since assuming MV is basically a conversion from Ruby code, they might also do the same.

 

[Elliott404]

@TheoAllen That's way too many steps lol

@bgillisp oh. . .

 

[TheoAllen]

That's way too many steps lol

To put a context, I use a mixed visual and "random" encounter. If you decide to engage battle with visual encounter, the counter will reset. But if you keep evading, something will be spawned and chasing you at a high speed.

 

[MushroomCake28]

That's actually a terrible way to set encounter rate... I don't know why the default engine chose to do it that way.

 

[Kes]

It's very easy in Ace to amend the way the encounter rate is calculated so that you can guarantee a minimum number of steps before an encounter. Doesn't even need a notetag. If that can't be done in MV then I think you have to either set the notional rate quite high or drop random encounters altogether. I think the days of players putting up with "3 steps and a fight" are over.

 

[MushroomCake28]

@Kes It's the same formula in MV. It's not hard to change, but they should really have a better default algorithm because a lot of people won't even dare to open a script page.

Game_Player.prototype.makeEncounterCount = function() {
    var n = $gameMap.encounterStep();
    this._encounterCount = Math.randomInt(n) + Math.randomInt(n) + 1;
};

EDIT: I just changed mine (I didn't know the formula was terrible before this thread lol). People can copy paste it and use it. I use the approach of encounter rate +/- 20%:

Game_Player.prototype.makeEncounterCount = function() {
    var n = $gameMap.encounterStep();
    var s = Math.round(n * 0.2);
    var r = Math.randomInt(s * 2);
    this._encounterCount = n - s + r;
};

 

[bgillisp]

@Kes : I use a notetag as I want to vary it per map and I want it to load the correct value when the map is loaded from an old save.

But I hear you on the 3 steps and fight. I was playing Wizardry 7 a while ago and due to all the fights in that game I jokingly sang:

(To the tune of Every Breathe You Take by the Police, though Missing you by Puff Daddy works too)
Every breathe I take
Every step I make
I get in a fight and it's getting old.

 

[Elliott404]

@MushroomCake28 Which js file is this? I couldn't find it in the rpg's core.

 

[TheoAllen]

@MushroomCake28 Which js file is this? I couldn't find it in the rpg's core.

rpg_objects.js

 

[Elliott404]

Thank you, @TheoAllen