Visible Enemies & Escape

[Vati]

In my case, I have enemies pushed back and stunned for a few seconds, so the player has a chance to move away.

Even if you technically have the option to move around enemies that are visible, I still don't like taking the escape option away. In my own experience there will always be situations where a battle comes at just the wrong and most annoying time, and not being able to run in such a case would just be frustrating, so I'd rather leave it in.

 

[M.I.A.]

I've done things a couple of ways for different projects that had on map encounters. Most as similar to what others have already said, so I will be brief in my descriptions.

1: Upon escape, the on map enemy will be bright red, then the red fades to normal. There were different speeds that this occurred base on the "perceived" speed of the Troops in battle. "Slower" Troops would fade from red to normal in about 4 seconds. "Faster" Troops would fade to normal in about 2 seconds. Then they would resume their normal "Route of Engagement" (which is either chase, run, rando, or idle.. depending on the Troop).

2: Another way was to show a Stun above the frozen monster that had a countdown above their sprite until they returned to their normal "Route of Engagement".

3: Third, this one is a little tricky. I had on map encounters and random encounters. The random encounters were usually weaker enemies with essential loot (potions, antidotes, etc.). If you escaped from those battlers, 100% success, then the battle would simply end. On map encounters were un-escape-able, with the exception of a few limited skills. If a player used one of those skills to escape, the on map enemy would change it's "Route of Engagement" to Random/Walk Away From Player for a few frames before returning to it's normal "Route of Engagement". Unless the skill used was "Banish", which essentially forces all foes to escape, removing the on map encounter entirely.

Hope this helps!
-MIA

 

[Tai_MT]

I think the way I would personally handle it would be like this:

1. Escape from combat, the enemy is semi-transparent and "flashing" a bit to indicate it is "stunned.
2. You can walk through the enemy while it is in this state so that it can no longer "block" any potential path the player has.
3. Enemy requires "line of sight" to resume the chase again (so if you go around a corner, or step out of range, it won't pursue).

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In regards to "no escape from combat with a visual encounter style", I think it would be more "annoying" than "immersive".

Just from my personal opinion on the subject:

1. If I'm already overleveled for this area and don't want to engage in combat, I now have to spend time "maneuvering around" the enemies. Running a straight line into them and hitting "escape" immediately so that I can "walk through them" is far preferable despite how tedious this would also be. But, at least I'm not having to bait enemies around the map, maneuver around them, and generally take the longest route possible through a section of map.

2. If I'm underleveled for an area... instant game over if I run into combat. Lack of ability to escape would mean I'm guaranteed a game over at this point. Especially since I have no way to know what the stats of any given enemy are until I've engaged them in combat.

3. If there's no real "reward" for avoiding combat, then there's little reason to really avoid any of the combat. However, "Escape" is generally used as a "safety net" when a player is "in over their head". It isn't meant to be used as a common way to avoid combat you don't want to engage in.

4. A great many "Visual Encounter" games (not saying yours is one) have "choke points" full of "unavoidable combat". A lack of ability to "escape" these fights is frustrating whether they're on the map or not. It's the main reason so many dislike "random encounters". The lack of ability to evade those fights altogether in the most straightforward way possible.
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Hope that helps.

 

[NamEtag]

I hate being forced to grind, and I don't like running around enemy encounters, especially when the outcomes are only: avoid the fight, slap them on the butt for turn advantage, or you wasted all that effort to get a normal battle.

-Just allow escape and remove the enemy. I don't care if it costs resources, as long as it takes less time than the fight itself.
-A special fight or condition that rewards you the option to toggle encounters in the area/dungeon. Lets you have your attrition cake and eat it with removing backtracking slog.
-Design a nuke skill specifically for clearing smallfry. Not advisable because it will encourage a nuke build across any playthrough, rather than having particular effectiveness on bosses or having narrative impact.
-Allow escape but add the various move restrict/opacity tricks to the field sprite. My least favorite for the amount of extra work you'll need to put in compared to what I experience, but it IS most standard for jrpgs.
-Design movement skills that let you reach the edge of the map quickly but have some sort of downside so you don't spam them willy nilly for actual combat. Gimmicky, but a requirement for the kind of escape that requires map movement.
-Add field encounter mechanics. Bait that distracts the enemy to let you keep walking, traps that have an impact in the actual battle, character skills that control the initial distance or resources, etc.