What's your take on wandering monsters?

[Guest]

Well I can see myself walking into a forest where life is going to have its cycle, with me as the intruder. why not
make it a forest that's alive. With actions that can change next time I enter. A monster with a brain and revenge lol
sounds good in my book. I guess I can keep dreaming.....

[fallen_hero]

I dislike random encounters. They often feel like they are only there to stretch the playing time. Additionally it's annoying to often have to fight against the same odd and low level monsters - there's no kick in there that make's the fight worth it. One should have a chance to choose if you want to fight or not. It's especially stressing if the party is in a worth condition after a heavy fight and a healer, a potion or something is unavailable - it mean's constant frustration, because you barely can move on.

A different thing comes into play when it comes to re-visiting areas. Normally I prefer them to stay cleared and no re-spawning should appear. But it's nice if something would have been changed based upon the progress of the story and/or other consequences of choices or outcomes. That would make appearing monsters in a already visited area a good thing.

[subbassman]

I dislike random encounters. They often feel like they are only there to stretch the playing time. Additionally it's annoying to often have to fight against the same odd and low level monsters - there's no kick in there that make's the fight worth it. One should have a chance to choose if you want to fight or not. It's especially stressing if the party is in a worth condition after a heavy fight and a healer, a potion or something is unavailable - it mean's constant frustration, because you barely can move on.

A different thing comes into play when it comes to re-visiting areas. Normally I prefer them to stay cleared and no re-spawning should appear. But it's nice if something would have been changed based upon the progress of the story and/or other consequences of choices or outcomes. That would make appearing monsters in a already visited area a good thing.

What if new and new kinds of monsters appear as time passes? Would it make this feature more bearable?

[fallen_hero]

What if new and new kinds of monsters appear as time passes? Would it make this feature more bearable?

It would make it a bit better, since the fights would be more interesting. For my taste of a good game they should be limited anyway. I like more to travel and explore the landscape, solving quests and doing progress in the main or side quests instead of doing numerous of fights all over.

[subbassman]

What if new and new kinds of monsters appear as time passes? Would it make this feature more bearable?

It would make it a bit better, since the fights would be more interesting. For my taste of a good game they should be limited anyway. I like more to travel and explore the landscape, solving quests and doing progress in the main or side quests instead of doing numerous of fights all over.

But after a while the areas would seem empty, wouldn't they?

[fallen_hero]

But after a while the areas would seem empty, wouldn't they?

Hmm, that's a argument pro spawning new monsters...
I agrre, empty areas can be boring but at the same time I like them. I often grab some time in RPG's to have a look around so I can have a closer look around and see and appreciate the work and time that has been spent to create a atmospheric setting. I often find myselfs in a moment where I enjoy this, e. g. watching at the water, the fire, rain or even the sunset.

[subbassman]

I wonder how this generic wandering monster thingie could be improved...

[sapient2k7]

I think tales of graces f has a pretty good way of handling monsters in dungeons. They respawn after you have entered another area. The areas are generally not huge so a dungeon cane be made up of several areas. Monsters are visible on screen so you don't have to fight them if you don't want to and the number and makeup of the attacking group is random. You can have 1 monster or 2 or 4 or 5 .

[subbassman]

I think tales of graces f has a pretty good way of handling monsters in dungeons. They respawn after you have entered another area. The areas are generally not huge so a dungeon cane be made up of several areas. Monsters are visible on screen so you don't have to fight them if you don't want to and the number and makeup of the attacking group is random. You can have 1 monster or 2 or 4 or 5 .

But what can they do with repetitiveness, if anything?

[DrHoo]

Maybe a general option to spawn or not? Maybe an ingame option like sign up at Monster Control Central (this is a hypothetical, does not exist atm) to collect monster heads--mostly we are not into endless collections. There are already various other activities that take plenty of time.