I''ve played it Landfish, and I know what you are talking about. You also got to admit that it''s way of breeding (or mixing) different creatures and combining them to form others is awesome as well.

Humm.. some very entertaining and interesting ideas here.. Kylotan, i deffinately agree with the fighting thing. I dislike how the Final Fantasy just simply lines up characters, some over here and some over there. I can''t help but think of a gang war showdown, where each takes sides. It''s so flat

Anyways.. the really cool thing to remember is this: monsters have patterns. With the winter, birds move south. With the summer, north. For each creature.. develop migratory patterns. If they''re unsocial, then the roam in low numbers. If they''re social, in parties will they roam
Social creatures should prolly be the focus. Anti-social ones will still be mostly random. A bear will wonder about a particular wooded area without straying far unless something happens. Social creatures will send out hunting parties for food and such. They''ll have a den. This makes a great sub-quest in an RPG. If the person finds the hunting party and wipes them out, oops.. can''t find the lair now. Well, if the person follows them.. hehe Also, keep track of the numbers in then den. If one passes nearby to a bear, have a random thing check to see if the bear eats it hehehe. This is a dynamic world.. a real world.

Also, the fixed and non-fixed plot lines. There should be certain things which are unchanging in the game. Plot elements and side-plots. Anything people might scedual There should also be some random ones that can take place anytime, and perhaps those start the ball rolling on a plot item that will be fixed X days afterwards. This allows you to have plot elements that can develop anytime and has a set plot to follow. This could make life hard on the hero(s). If two plot elements happen at once.. well.. they''ve got to pick which is more vital to them. HEHEHEHE notice the evil programmer/designer laugh. This is something you should all learn and master, as you will often have evil ideas like this one, to which your players will have much stress. All items should be checked, some things happen any time, some happen set times, maybe. I personally like them to start anytime. In this case, you can say Plot A will start between the 1st and 5th days of the game, and plot B will start between the 2nd and 10th. This way they can overlap. Also, subplot item A can happen anytime, while subplot item B can happen only after main plot item A has been failed.

This creates a realistic world which changes based on what the player does. Very entertaining, very hard to design I do wish everyone luck in this.. and, as always, i''m here to talk to in case you have a mental breakdown like Landfish oh.. yeah, so i caused his breakdown.. but still

J

I agree that your generic random encouter leaves a lot to be desired.
But if you add a few things (most already mentionen i guess) like different monster status (awake, asleep, grumpy, happy), perception rolls to determine placement, preparation time and the option to run away we should be in the clear.

But don´t do them away. Where should all the heroes go to hone their skills and collect treasures if the Desert of Random Encounter is gone.

I think random encounters are essential to a RPG. If you walk down the road in real life you have random encounter all the time. The art is in how a random encounter chart operates.

Say your walking along a see side in a RPG, then not every orc you meet might be looking for a fight. You might catch one off guard who''s doing some fishing (hey, i caught a landfish ;-).

A random encounter chart has to go into more depth i think. The best random encounter chart i came up with in my paper/pen days of DM''ing was the one that not just held Hit Points for this monster but also contained an "Act" that monsters were doing.

Don''t lose random encounter, they ARE real!

The measure of intelligence is in the question not the answer.

I think we are seeing the link here between random encounters and the combat system.

Random encounters in games such as Final Fantasy are often annoying as they yank you unceremoniously out of the ''real'' game and force you to deal with the new situation. Then you are deposited back where you were a second ago, with a little more money and experience for your troubles. The encounter is a forced event breaking the flow.

Whereas in games such as Ultima 7 onwards, a random encounter is something you can choose to address, or run from, or even just ignore entirely if they''re too weak to hurt you The encounter is an optional event augmenting the atmosphere.

I figure this is part of why I dislike the FF combat system. I don''t like arbitrary shifts of game style. It''s very modular and limiting. I''d rather deal with the entire game within one set of flexible rules. I think real-time combat as opposed to turn-based is the obvious answer. But let RPGs learn some lessons from RTSs here. This combat needs to be facilitated with more customizable party members and perhaps scriptable AI so that it isn''t just a hack-till-they''re-dead affair. On individual levels, let your characters specify what weapons they attack with, whether they will stand their ground, wander a little to attack, or pursue relentlessly... allow them to protect or follow someone else, to work in groups. And allow the player to override the default orders with a couple of clicks. I guess I am thinking of something like Ultima VII meets Total Annihilation. I think Baldur''s Gate takes a lot of this on board.