Bear-that-isn't-even-hostile is my favorite encounter. It's so nonsensical it gets a laugh out of me every time.
What's so nonsensical? Unlike many other enemies in the game, bears are (obviously) real creatures, and it seems to me to make sense that a real creature should be represented in a way which echoes its known behaviour in real life.
Real bears are not usually hostile on sight except when hungry (although "when hungry" can be quite often, and almost always for a polar bear), but they rapidly turn hostile if approached closely or (of course) if attacked, so I reckon it's quite a nice touch by the original devs (and kept by Overhaul) that bears in the game also tend not to be instantly hostile.
So why is a "real bear" less likely to be hostile than a "real wolf" or a "real war dog"? Those are hostile from the start on ambush maps. If all of them are ambushing me, they are equally hostile. Plus, I fail to see how I can be ambushed by a bear that isn't in my visual range. Even if I would think of all bears as hostile... this one is in the fog of war.
Yeah, my recollection of the original game is that the Coast Way was more populated with human bandits, some more powerful than others (won't say more than that to avoid spoiling new players). It drove home immediately how powerful ranged weapons were in the game. I remember the very first character I created was a Mage. The next one I tried was a Fighter with a longbow, lol.
@KidCarnival: blimey, guv'nor, you're asking me to come up with RP explanations for real life! Lol!
Okay, well wolves (etc.) are quite shy when they're not out hunting, and stealthy hunters when they're tracking you. So by the time you get to see the wolf at all, it's found you and is charging you.
Bears, on the other hand, are great big things which can't do stealth, and amble around pretty openly so you can easily notice them, and don't have great eyesight so they might not see you first. They have a good sense of smell, but that doesn't help them notice you if you're downwind.
As for ambushes by enemies still hidden in the fog of war ... hmmm, well, I've only ever experienced that in areas where I've been boxed in by cliffs, never in an open ambush map. And when boxed in by cliffs, the hidden enemy is always blocking the only exit, so there's no way out except through the ambush. That's the very essence of a good ambush! Presumably the enemy caught sight of you (or heard you) blundering into the dead-end and knew you'd soon have to come out ... or if it's a bear, maybe it can smell that you're somewhere in the dead-end area.
I get ambushed occasionally, though not nearly as much as in vanilla BG1. Why? Because BG:EE (And BGT which I'm playing!) is based on the BG2-engine; and they cut down the chance of being "waylaid by enemies" in BG2.
In fact, being ambushed in BG2 is quite rare - it's also nonexistant in ToB. Very boring if you ask me, though ambushes seem to happen with more regularity in my BGT install - I'm guessing it's because you simply do a helluva lot more travelling in BG1, not to mention that there are more actual ambush encounters that can happen.
My advice is to just keep playing; I found that the ambushes are fairly frequent still, especially on long trips. I miss not being ambushed 2-3 times during a single travel, though! ^^
Am I the only one that doesn't enjoy being waylaid by enemies and having to defend myself?
No, I share a similar dislike of the situation.
Though I used to use it to hunt winter wolves back in the day, when I first played BG and had finished the entire map except Durlag's Tower in Chapter 2 because I somehow missed the entrance to where Mulahey was in the mines... I had many a fine pelt back then.
sometimes i get confused when I get Polar bears (I think it is polar bears) and winter wolfs as random encounter.... isn't BG climate little bit tooo hot for those creatures??? hmmm anyway I shouldn't nag about it or else they introduce the horrors of true pnp random encounter (like dragons or something worse)..
Am I the only one that doesn't enjoy being waylaid by enemies and having to defend myself?
It depends. Like @Eudaemonium mentions, I certainly like the extra winter wolves - I remembered way more of them on the mines map from vanilla. But at some point, it's just annoying - for example, leaving Durlag's Tower to sell all the loot... ambushed by 3 kobolds. Umm. Scary. What if I die? If the ambushes would scale a bit to the party's level, they might be interesting, i.e. a higher chance to get wyverns or spiders instead of kobolds and gibberlings around the non-Cloakwood maps, but with puny monsters like that, it's just annoying.
I dunno. On the one hand scaling random encounters would be good gameplay wise, but I think the sheer randomness of it adds a lot to the immersion of the game. I just pity those late-game kobolds. They must have low int and wis scores.
Am I the only one that doesn't enjoy being waylaid by enemies and having to defend myself?
I don't really care for it either. Although early on I thought it was a fun and immersive part of the game, at this point, I've played through so many times its more like a nuisance. Especially when you get wild dogs or kobolds or something; I'll often reload because its easier than a fight for no return. Now if the fight is a a Wyvern or Ogre Mage I still may get excited and do it, that's definitely worth the trouble. But those silly blow off fights are so tedious. (I am NOT advocating removing them! Only stating that they are often skipped).
@Gallowglass and @KidCarnival, I think what is meant by those random encounters and the opening that you receive is that you have encountered a "Potentially Hostile" force. Granted 99% of those encounters are Actually hostile right out of the gate, but not all of them are. The bear is only actually hostile if you piss it off, but that could take the form of getting in too close to it.
LOL. Yeah. There is even a quest out of Nashkal to bring the shop keeper a winter wolf pelt. And I am assuming that you meant you haven't encountered one as a random encounter because there are several in the game as static encounters, including the various ones in the island out of Ugoth's Beard.
Comments
I had been assuming that your reference to a "pink hammer" meant Aegis Fang, Wulfgar's hammer in BG2, but now you've got me confused. Explain?
Okay, well wolves (etc.) are quite shy when they're not out hunting, and stealthy hunters when they're tracking you. So by the time you get to see the wolf at all, it's found you and is charging you.
Bears, on the other hand, are great big things which can't do stealth, and amble around pretty openly so you can easily notice them, and don't have great eyesight so they might not see you first. They have a good sense of smell, but that doesn't help them notice you if you're downwind.
As for ambushes by enemies still hidden in the fog of war ... hmmm, well, I've only ever experienced that in areas where I've been boxed in by cliffs, never in an open ambush map. And when boxed in by cliffs, the hidden enemy is always blocking the only exit, so there's no way out except through the ambush. That's the very essence of a good ambush! Presumably the enemy caught sight of you (or heard you) blundering into the dead-end and knew you'd soon have to come out ... or if it's a bear, maybe it can smell that you're somewhere in the dead-end area.
(Ambushed in Jellystone!)
In fact, being ambushed in BG2 is quite rare - it's also nonexistant in ToB. Very boring if you ask me, though ambushes seem to happen with more regularity in my BGT install - I'm guessing it's because you simply do a helluva lot more travelling in BG1, not to mention that there are more actual ambush encounters that can happen.
My advice is to just keep playing; I found that the ambushes are fairly frequent still, especially on long trips. I miss not being ambushed 2-3 times during a single travel, though! ^^
Though I used to use it to hunt winter wolves back in the day, when I first played BG and had finished the entire map except Durlag's Tower in Chapter 2 because I somehow missed the entrance to where Mulahey was in the mines... I had many a fine pelt back then.
hmmm anyway I shouldn't nag about it or else they introduce the horrors of true pnp random encounter (like dragons or something worse)..
If the ambushes would scale a bit to the party's level, they might be interesting, i.e. a higher chance to get wyverns or spiders instead of kobolds and gibberlings around the non-Cloakwood maps, but with puny monsters like that, it's just annoying.
Especially when you get wild dogs or kobolds or something; I'll often reload because its easier than a fight for no return.
Now if the fight is a a Wyvern or Ogre Mage I still may get excited and do it, that's definitely worth the trouble. But those silly blow off fights are so tedious. (I am NOT advocating removing them! Only stating that they are often skipped).