Random Battles or Enemy on Map?

[RavenTDA]

The hate for random encounters is just because there's easy ways to mess it up. I'm perfectly fine with it as long as it's not every two steps and out of my puzzles. The issue with on screen encounters is that it can look samey (especially vx & ace) because the graphics for monsters is so few, and you have to design the maps with the idea that the player should be able to avoid it or not avoid it sometimes. Personally I like designing my maps around the directions the players should go rather than that. For my game I have a weird mix-mash of on-screen and random encounters... probably sounds really confusing but when you play it, it's pretty obvious.

 

[Ronove]

I've never been a fan of random battles because I like to have puzzle oriented dungeons. When you mix that with random battles, it gets really frustrating (I recall playing FF9 a while ago and in that one dungeon where you had to flip these switches to get this ride thing going the right direction, I got so lost because of the random encounters. I'd forget where I was going or what I was doing, so as a game developer I decided I'll never use random battles if my dungeons are puzzle based (which I like doing)). So, enemies on map all the way for me. I also like the enemies on map so I can avoid them if I'm low on items or health.

I don't mind playing games with random battles as long as it doesn't happen every other step! But I figure developers now know not to do that. Or at least I'd hope.

 

[amerk]

Random encounters are fine as long as they are balanced so they don't occur every few steps (like some of the earlier DQ games), and whenever a complicated puzzle (pushing rocks, stepping/pressing switches, solving multiple clues, etc), random encounters should not be included in the room with the puzzle. Unfortunately, even well known console games makes that mistake (Wild Arms is really big on this).

 

[kampmichi]

Ok, so I think by now it is clear that random encounters can be good if done right.

But what are the pitfalls of enemy encounters that are on screen?

I only know not to place them so that they are unavoidable.

 

[Julien Brightside]

Depending on the area, you may want to make them disappear when you defeat them. THen have them re-appear when you re-enter the room.

You should however avoid to have visisible encounters and random encounters in the same room. That be confusing.

 

[zacheatscrackers]

I honestly prefer being able to actually SEE the enemies I'm going to battle, so enemy on map hands down. Random battles are just inconvenient, especially if the lot of them have high level monsters.

 

[Jawnsunn]

I've been playing Dragon Warrior/Quest 7 and noticed that the game balances puzzles and random encounters

For example: if you're in some kind of puzzle room, there would little to no encounters at all, while no puzzles in the room give out a moderate encounter rate.

DQ 7 is a pretty cool game to steal ideas from.

 

[FlamingWolf - Zezaph]

I'm a anti-random encounters league ( as Indinera says ). As such I often use set encounters. The reason is that they give me way more control over experience and events in general. Plus you can create any sort of event related to your encounter ( monsters following/escaping from you, etc... ). Plus, without random encounter, you can solve puzzles and explore dungeon without having to say obscenities any time a damn level 3 bat interrupts you while moving rocks around in a dungeon ( yes, I'm referring to a specific game here ).

 

[Fafnir]

Ok, so I think by now it is clear that random encounters can be good if done right.

But what are the pitfalls of enemy encounters that are on screen?

I only know not to place them so that they are unavoidable.

I'd like to hear more opinions about this. Random encounters have been discussed at lenght so by now we know what to do and what to avoid; but on-screen encounters are still a mystery to me. Any suggestion on sprites, respawning, tracking methods etc.?

 

[RavenTDA]

Downfalls of on-screen encounters:

-The need for monster graphics. It can look really boring/strange and the same otherwise. There's only so many monsters and spriting them is rather hard. (requires heavy sprite knowledge and time to make graphics).

- The maps need to be designed to keep avoidance in mind. (Sometimes maps can get ugly or lose direction when you constantly have to keep this gameplay element in mind.)

- Encounters are on screen but you can't avoid them. You MUST fight them because developer didn't consider making it possible to avoid them.

- When grinding you have to constantly switch screens once all the encounters are fought or even worse the inability to grind when encounters disappear forever.

- When running away from battle the encounter doesn't give you enough time to escape the on-screen trigger, forcing you to run away from the battle several times. (can be extremely annoying especially if it's hard to escape.)

- Swarmed by several on-screen triggers at once, forcing player to have to engage in one battle after the next with no time to access the menu in-between.

 

[timk1980]

DQ 7 is a pretty cool game to steal ideas from.

I generally find the entire series offers ideas; in a sense, it's the series that has probably more than any other really laid out a lot of the rules and frameworks for the genre. For better or worse, a good number of the Trope Namers in RPGs are also in this series.

 

[FlamingWolf - Zezaph]

Downfalls of on-screen encounters:

-The need for monster graphics. It can look really boring/strange and the same otherwise. There's only so many monsters and spriting them is rather hard. (requires heavy sprite knowledge and time to make graphics).

- The maps need to be designed to keep avoidance in mind. (Sometimes maps can get ugly or lose direction when you constantly have to keep this gameplay element in mind.)

- Encounters are on screen but you can't avoid them. You MUST fight them because developer didn't consider making it possible to avoid them.

- When grinding you have to constantly switch screens once all the encounters are fought or even worse the inability to grind when encounters disappear forever.

- When running away from battle the encounter doesn't give you enough time to escape the on-screen trigger, forcing you to run away from the battle several times. (can be extremely annoying especially if it's hard to escape.)

- Swarmed by several on-screen triggers at once, forcing player to have to engage in one battle after the next with no time to access the menu in-between.

I don't think it's necessary to create a sprite for every monster ( as you said, it would be very hard ). I like how this problem has been solved in Eternal Eden: every secondary encounter has a smoke sprite ( maybe the smoke is not the best choice, but you can change it with a shadowy figure or stuff that's already in the RTP ).

For the avoidance, to which I agree, there's a script from Yanfly ( or Formar0153, now I don't remember ) that allows you to limit an event movement to a certain region. So you can forbid those events to go in small places where they can become unavoidable.

For the grinding, if I'm getting correctly your though, it depends from how the programmer manage exp points. I''d probably give 5 to 10 times more exp from a set battle than I would on a random battle. So you take less time to grind and, at the same time, you still need to fight a lot in order to reach a higher level. Plus you forbid the player to get too powerful too early in the game.

For the triggers, I agree with you. But there must be a way for the player to escape from the sprite ( this will probably be one of my biggest difficulties: find a solution for this problem )