Honestly landfish.. i disagree.

Random encounters are there to make up for a lack in computing ability. If you had a big enough processor, you could track several entities at a time in terms of NPC''s. This tracking ability would allow random encounters to be.. less random, in a way. But.. i think monsters wondering through the forest randomly, are perfectly acceptable. It''s not my fault people hate them when they pop up at the "wrong" moment. You can''t blame the game for that. It''s your fault for sucking

As far as random monster movement.. that''s realistic. I''d say have X number of monsters to begin with who aren''t set. Those then roam around. The computer makes checks of their daily movement if the character isn''t near to them. otheriwse it makes checks according to how close he is. If he''s nearby, obivously the computer will check to see if either one notices the other, and if not.. the creature will continue randomly roaming. It might roam right towards the person. This is where having a "mood" comes in great. If the creature is hungry, it might be hunting. Or thirsty.. it might be heading towards water. Well, assuming your character wishes to hunt something, he can track it down

Animals do move about rather pseudo-randomly.. so this would work well. They know they need certain food and water and temperatures. so the computer can keep track of things and keep them in their place. This way, the guys still show up randomly.. but they''re there before you run into them, and they''re limited. If you destroy all things along a certain path.. chances are nothing will be in that area anytime soon Trust me.. i hate purely random encounters.. but random encounters aren''t all bad. it''s true to life. i''d like to see you walk through the forest and not happen along a bear or anything hehehe.

J

Ya know Niphty, that is really something to ponder on! I''ve never thought about that until now. Can you imagine how could it would be to have creatures with thier own moods, wants, needs, ect? To go even farther, monsters can be kind, or evil, you could make friends with one by sparing it from death, and as long as the computer keeps track of the monster states...it can live and grow. Kinda adds a demented twist to an RPG, kind of like being on a Nature show...

quote: Original quote from a Nature show

We have been tracking the goblin for days now, after we had marked him. He seems to have found a mate and is enjoying himself now. Everyday at four he goes to the watering hole.....

Whoa...that just got too weird for any rpg....hmmm

Wow, imagine an over-the-shoulder game that played like Ultima IX, until you switched to combat mode (at -your- option, not the game''s). When you did this, the camera swings round 90 degrees so it becomes a side-on view, and you get to fight with moves such as those in SoulCalibur Now that would be neat (if impossible to do online, for latency reasons.)

Random encounters suit the kill-to-level kind of game. RPGs with more depth might find that the random encounters start to break up the flow of the ''real'' game and become an annoyance. A system to make weaker NPCs not bother attacking you is a must, I think. I generally prefer the idea of placing monsters as a hazard in a predefined place, perhaps letting them wander, but once dead, they stay dead. With a few exceptions: things like deer in the forests or rabbits, which are there mainly for atmosphere rather than as an ''encounter''.

Also, I hate the Final Fantasy style of combat. Seems like all eye-candy and no game to me. Makes it something of a chore. I''d rather it was worked into the main engine, so that you can flee or hide or whatever.

Ok, so no amazing revelations in this post, sorry

Here, free of charge, is a cool idea I have had for a long time.

What if there were specific NPCs/monsters roaming around according to their ai, and they could change their environment?

For instance, what if they left "tracks" (visual or in the code, depending on your game) which the hero could notice or not, depending on her/his tracking ability? The tracks would fade/become harder to find over time.

What if trolls hunt deer and rabbits too (after all, are heroes common enough to subsist on?), and you could find fresh kills?

Or, my favorite. When I see this in a game one day (hopefully mine), this will floor me.

You''re walking through the forest, and suddenly a rabbit runs by. Then a flock of birds flies past you. You''re wondering what''s up, as a bunch of creatures all flow past you, and then you start to hear crashing noises. You see trees shake. And finally, a giant bursts through the brush!

Ah, I can''t wait until computers are powerful enough to run all the particle systems I want in games...

that is a really good idea. That will be the day when events like that happen, and aren''t scripted in for the story. one day we will be thrown in to a real world that lives and breathes off of it''s own creatures. A world that doesn''t need the playter to interfere, a wonderous place that grows, changes with the season, lives, and the player is there to watch.

one day it will happen