Random Spawns

[Phonantiphon]

Random Spawns, a contentious subject most of the time - too many? Too few? How, and when...


For those of you looking for a masterclass in how to hamstring a really not bad at all JRPG through the use of Spawns, I would bid you look no further than "Asdivine Hearts"...


Don't get me wrong, for a mass-produced JRPG it's not bad and I've put over 30 hours into it, and am still going. But, dungeons have random Spawns somewhere in the region of every 5 to 10 seconds.


This is way too much, it puts you off exploring, it's incredibly frustrating, and it effectively ruins the game.


So as a benchmark, play that, learn from it, and never have random Spawns at that frequency, and never use the same music every single time, because you will irritate everyone who plays it!

 

[AceOfAces_Mod]

I've never seen this mechanic outside of multiplayer FPS/Action games. Usually the mechanic is used to prevent spawn camping (unless they are behind a filter type of invisible wall to not allow the opposite team attack the other team on their spawn point). I don't find this mechanic useful in JRPGs (except the random encounters). If there's a balance between exploring and fighting, then it's fine (although I am quite the grinder).

 

[Phonantiphon]

I've never seen this mechanic outside of multiplayer FPS/Action games. Usually the mechanic is used to prevent spawn camping (unless they are behind a filter type of invisible wall to not allow the opposite team attack the other team on their spawn point). I don't find this mechanic useful in JRPGs (except the random encounters). If there's a balance between exploring and fighting, then it's fine (although I am quite the grinder).

See, I'm a big fan of The Grind in general, it's a means to an end and actually can be a very Zen experience to waste time building up.


But there's a difference between grinding and simply trying to navigate through something where, LITERALLY, every few seconds there's an encounter. You end up simply wanting to get through the section, rather than being challenged by it, or enjoying it.


Now don't get me wrong, I modded Skyrim and Oblivion purposely to get more spawns more often, but I could choose to fight or not, it's rubbish when you are penalized to the extent that there is effectively no choice; and because you can't move very far between encounters, you get no idea of the context of where you are.


It's self-defeating...

 

[captainproton]

Yeah, I like random battles, but they need to be more spaced than that, especially in places where healing is limited and negative states abound.  (Viridian Forest!)


And the battles should be fun and engaging enough that you don't mind what random encounters there are.