Which do you prefer visible Enemies or Non-visible enemies?

[AcosmicDevi]

My game uses visible enemies, randomly spawned. That's to say, most of my small maps have perhaps 6 enemies on them, but each only has a 30% chance of spawning (more or less). Sometimes I include rare enemies that have a very small % chance of spawning, too. So on any individual runthrough only 2 or 3 enemies appear per map, and each time it's different. I find this a nice compromise between randomness and player control.

Do you use a script to produce this effect?

 

[Zoltor]

I don't know if I would call Super Mario RPG, a good RPG, but I guess we can call it good for what it is.

As for enemy sprites on map in that game, It's far more acceptable in a game like Mario RPG, because it doesn't use traditional mapping to begin with, nor is the mapping format that is used, designed for exploration(so there's no conflict). It's basically a hybrid between a platformer, and a RPG, so having the enemy sprites on the map, really doesn't hurt it.

 

[MasterLagger]

I don't know if I would call Super Mario RPG, a good RPG, but I guess we can call it good for what it is.

As for enemy sprites on map in that game, It's far more acceptable in a game like Mario RPG, because it doesn't use traditional mapping to begin with, nor is the mapping format that is used, designed for exploration(so there's no conflict). It's basically a hybrid between a platformer, and a RPG, so having the enemy sprites on the map, really doesn't hurt it.

What's 'traditional mapping?' Were you referring to the perspective the maps are in? Flat instead of isometric?

 

[LanceGardner]

Do you use a script to produce this effect?

No. At the entrance to an area I have a playertouch event which resets all the variables between 1 to 20 to a random number between 0 and 1, (or 0 and 2 for rare enemies). Then each enemy event within a dungeon only exists if its individual allocated variable is at 1 (or 2 for rares). If you win a battle, the individual variable is reset to 0, s it doesn't spawn again till you reach the exit and touch that event.

 

[Zoltor]

To MasterLegger: Yea, that's it.

 

[LanceGardner]

Not sure I explained well, let me give an example...

the first three lines of the player touch event at the entrance to all dungeons are

Control Variables: ( 0081: Enemy 1 ) = Random No. (0... 1)

Control Variables: ( 0082: Enemy 2 ) = Random No. (0... 2)

Control Variables: ( 0083: Enemy 3 ) = Random No. (0... 3)

Then, the first enemy in the dungeon (for example) will have the requirement

Variable: 0081: Enemy 8 is 1 or above

and then in battle processing if you win it resets variable 81 to 0, where it will stay till you exit the dungeon.

 

[Lars Ulrika]

No. At the entrance to an area I have a playertouch event which resets all the variables between 1 to 20 to a random number between 0 and 1, (or 0 and 2 for rare enemies). Then each enemy event within a dungeon only exists if its individual allocated variable is at 1 (or 2 for rares). If you win a battle, the individual variable is reset to 0, s it doesn't spawn again till you reach the exit and touch that event.

No need to have a playertouch event, just make the enemy events on autorun generating randomly one variable (you can always use the same one for every enemy it works perfectly and spares a lot of time ). 

Other advantage : when you win the battle,just erase the event as it will generate itself again randomly when you enter the map again. 

 

[LanceGardner]

But my dungeons are several maps, and I don't want them to regenerate every time I reenter the room.

Also, I try to avoid autorun processes to keep lag down.

 

[Insidious Mental Pollution]

A little late to the game here, but I prefer visible encounters over random (not that I would ragequit over random), particularly when the visible ones allow you to choose how to approach them.  Many games that go random feel grindy, even some of my favs like Cthulhu Saves the World.  To be fair, at least in that one you can choose to fight all of them right at the beginning, and then be free to explore.

 

[Kes]

@lancegardener

I'm unclear about the advantages of your method over the more obvious one (with much less work) of simply selecting 'as random encounter' in your event. It will then generate at whatever weighting you give the troops you've put onto Map Properties.

 

[LanceGardner]

The enemy sprite on the map correlates to the enemy you are fighting, and they have different movement patterns depending on enemy type. This way, they score in different places too.