[Request[ Greater Variety of Random Travel Encounters

HeroicSpur

Hey Everyone,

I don't think this one has already been suggested (if it has I apologise), although I'm aware Bhryaen has mentioned this in passing.

You tend to have quite a lot of random travel encounters in BG, it's just disappointing that there are no real alternatives to be being attacked.

It would be nice if we could have some non-violent encounters, and the odd easter egg encounter.

I still remember some of the Fallout random travel encounters as being superb.

HeroicSpur

It seems that there are a few people with me on this one. Anyone got any suggestions for possible encounters?

Zymran86

Named Creature's with better loot than normal ones, when you encounter groups like this it will make it less appealing to reload and try to travel again without being waylaid or just walk past them without fighting, If its unique loot.

Bhryaen

Right- I've been meaning to add that into the BGEE Forum somewhere... You're right- I did suggest it once- kept forgetting. I mean, we can't just stumble on a funny encounter of a couple fighting or someone hitchhiking travel wagons to get to Calimshan (that's south along the Sword Coast) or band of dead adventurers with a few dead bandit archers around them. Just a little grin-inducer rather than all the "waylaying" by enemies...? Anyway, good thread, HeroicSpur!

HeroicSpur

@Bhryaen: Thanks, but I got the idea from you, lol!

In any event I think encounters are an excellent (and in my ignorant opinion easy) way to add to the quality of the game, as well as its general character. The examples you gave are exactly the sort of thing I was the thinking of.

smeagolheart

It seems that there are a few people with me on this one. Anyone got any suggestions for possible encounters?

Could be used to start an adventure. Wait, that's kind of exactly like the random guy is poisoned quest in BG2 that needed to be fed-exed to the Harper Stronghold @ the Docks.

If used imaginatively could be fun. Like running into a group of paladins hunting a specific murderer and them telling you if ... hey nevermind this type of encounter is exactly already present in the game in the form or the groups you run into on the maps in your travels. I guess I can't think of any good random encounters, though I remember the original fallout games ones fondly (go dogmeat!).

Aliteri

Random encounters are the most seamless method Beamdog currently has to include new content in their games - though I'd rather that mentions to new maps were left for something in Baldur's Gate (or not at all, as the case is with the ToTSC expansion).

HeroicSpur

@PhillipDaigle: It is clear that there is some quite strong support for this idea. Are the devs able to give us any indication as to whether these will be implemented?

Zaccaro

Damn, I LOVE this idea. You could add like a monstrous gibberling encounter too. or Giant space hamster if you do some exact moves on map to get to see that easter-egg. Xvart-invasion, Crazy Ogremage, Edvina, Dri- Well that's already a given.

kamuizin

Damn, I LOVE this idea. You could add like a monstrous gibberling encounter too. or Giant space hamster if you do some exact moves on map to get to see that easter-egg. Xvart-invasion, Crazy Ogremage, Edvina, Dri- Well that's already a given.

Hey those are some crazy ideas ! but i would love a tarrasque encounter In BG2 He should be killable but the encounter shoud be made to the party run, and don't fight it, with some banter's after. In ToB i see no problem with a Tarrasque to pass the time , we already had killed demogorgon, lots of elder dragons and demi-lichs to pass time, no reason to squash a tarrasque too, no?

smeagolheart

Damn, I LOVE this idea. You could add like a monstrous gibberling encounter too. or Giant space hamster if you do some exact moves on map to get to see that easter-egg. Xvart-invasion, Crazy Ogremage, Edvina, Dri- Well that's already a given.

I want to like the idea but I fail to see how they couldn't be added to an existing area with a scripted event or additional encounter like most things in the game.

HeroicSpur

@smeagolheart: I suppose the main advantages are that firstly you can have an encounter in a completely isolated setting without much else in the way of context (for example a wagon train passing through). That essentially gives a blank slate for writing what may come up, and the actual design of the location in which the encounter happens. This is especially the case with extremely rare 'easter egg' encounters, which would be inappropriate if they appeared as a fixed thing in one location (for example in Fallout there is an encounter with a crashed Star Trek style shuttle).

The second advantage is that it allows you to create unique events where they are unexpected, or where you have to deal with them there and then. For example if there's a one-off merchant or a unique battle.

Finally I think it allows you to liven up travel. If there are exciting and unexpected things that might happen, rather than just getting ambushed by bandits or wild dogs all the time, it improves that aspect of the game.

I do take your point that there are some encounters which could equally be inserted into existing locations, but that wouldn't apply to all of them.

Razor

Any new, tasteful random encounter is very cool. But especially meeting drizzt was really epic.

HeroicSpur

@Razor: you would think any new encounter added to the game would be up to the quality that professional developers should be expected to deliver at. I don't think we need to worry too much about ridiculous encounters making their way in (not to be confused with clever/imaginative).

Razor

@HeroicSpur: Of course! I expect no less from this team. Overhaul and Trent.
I just said tasteful to avoid confusions with more mindless mobs Those are ok too but not as epic.

smeagolheart

@smeagolheart: I suppose the main advantages are that firstly you can have an encounter in a completely isolated setting without much else in the way of context (for example a wagon train passing through). That essentially gives a blank slate for writing what may come up, and the actual design of the location in which the encounter happens. This is especially the case with extremely rare 'easter egg' encounters, which would be inappropriate if they appeared as a fixed thing in one location (for example in Fallout there is an encounter with a crashed Star Trek style shuttle).

The second advantage is that it allows you to create unique events where they are unexpected, or where you have to deal with them there and then. For example if there's a one-off merchant or a unique battle.

Finally I think it allows you to liven up travel. If there are exciting and unexpected things that might happen, rather than just getting ambushed by bandits or wild dogs all the time, it improves that aspect of the game.

I do take your point that there are some encounters which could equally be inserted into existing locations, but that wouldn't apply to all of them.

@HeroicSpur - I see very good description and good justification there and I agree now. Those examples: easter eggs so that not every random encounter is a battle and things you have to deal with then and there or they go away. I think I remember the Star Trek fallout encounter after all these years, red shirt guy lying dead right and a spaceship if I'm not mistaken.

Bhryaen

Other ideas- traveling merchant with good stuff on him, guy saying he's doing a promotional walk for Bru Delupida's Disease, guy saying he just walked all the way from Harrowdale to see his cousin in Baldur's Gate but the bridge is closed, bratty kid wandering saying she's lost (who insta-casts a cloudkill if attacked), sirine asking if you know the way to the Sword Coast, guy who was a lifelong metalsmithy but was forced by the iron shortage to take up road mileage counting (and that you made him lose count), an unlikely circus act headed for the Nashkell Carnival...

AndreaColombo

... a fluffly pink cloud who can cast Meteor Swarm at wll...

CHARNAME: kick the Fluffy Pink Cloud
FLUFFY PINK CLOUD: Meteor Swarm: CHARNAME
CHARNAME: 90 damage taken
- death -
Narrator: This is what you get for making a Fluffly Pink Cloud angry.

smeagolheart

Other ideas- traveling merchant with good stuff on him, guy saying he's doing a promotional walk for Bru Delupida's Disease, guy saying he just walked all the way from Harrowdale to see his cousin in Baldur's Gate but the bridge is closed, bratty kid wandering saying she's lost (who insta-casts a cloudkill if attacked), sirine asking if you know the way to the Sword Coast, guy who was a lifelong metalsmithy but was forced by the iron shortage to take up road mileage counting (and that you made him lose count), an unlikely circus act headed for the Nashkell Carnival...

Some of those are annoying and there is a fine line between interrupting your travels for something annoying and something cool. I'm the child of bhaal with my own destiny what do I care if some bratty kid there to tell me she is lost.

HeroicSpur

@Smeagolheart: I think it was a joke.

smeagolheart

@HeroicSpur I understand just trying to make a point that if done right it's good, like the one's you described but it's also very easy to mess them up and end up more like @Bhryaen's list

Bhryaen

@smeagolheart
Actually @HeroicSpur is mistaken. We get interrupted in precisely that way by annoying folks all through vanilla BG... and that's part of what comprises BG! Thus, though I intended such encounters as humorous, there is indeed humor in BG, and thus I tried to think of some encounter ideas that might have to fun to them- i.e., rather than just "here comes the next set of monsters... kill or be- *yawn* killed..." Not that I'm the best judge of what's humorous, but the many "messengers" in the wilds of the Sword Coast are also potentially just annoying.

smeagolheart

@smeagolheart
Actually @HeroicSpur is mistaken. We get interrupted in precisely that way by annoying folks all through vanilla BG... and that's part of what comprises BG! Thus, though I intended such encounters as humorous, there is indeed humor in BG, and thus I tried to think of some encounter ideas that might have to fun to them- i.e., rather than just "here comes the next set of monsters... kill or be- *yawn* killed..." Not that I'm the best judge of what's humorous, but the many "messengers" in the wilds of the Sword Coast are also potentially just annoying.

At least you can avoid most of them by not talking to them and going to another part of the map (although some of them seek you out and stop you whether you want them to or not).

If you select that you want to go to Nashkel and you get popped onto a random screen to have to see a messenger that wants to tell you about his second date with a kobold before you can go on to the destination you picked, that is an annoyance.

If there is a crashed space ship and a red shirt guy laying there, that would be the pinnacle of awesome.

eh, it's a fine line.

Bhryaen

@smeagolheart
Oh, and, at least in my own conception of what @HeroicSpur is getting at with this feature request, it would be nice to have in the realm of possibilities for travel some fun encounters with some nutty or interesting characters. I mean, what good is the Hermit? What good is the Town Crier? What does Bub Snikt do for anyone? What does Lord Foreshadow really fulfill? Does Oogie Wisham tell you anything of import or give you special items or gold? Nope. At least Noober gives you 400XP, right? But such characters- with no reward to glean from them whatsoever- still add memorable experiences to your BG gameplay- and they're scattered throughout the lands and towns. Maybe you ignore them, but I don't. And thus for me, well, above all they add character and humor to the game...

HeroicSpur

@Bhryaen: You are correct. No-one is saying new encounters should provide stat based benefit or experience or items exclusively, nor are they saying that special encounters can't be humorous or there for the sake of being memorable. I don't think @Smeagolheart was suggesting otherwise. What I believe he was saying is that the particular examples of those things that you gave were not funny. Incidentally on that point I have no comment, it's difficult to measure the emotional reaction of an encounter without seeing it, unless it is described/explained in some length.

I think we can all agree on the principle that there is a danger encounters can be annoying, there is a fine line to be drawn there. However on that I would again say that it's up to the developers to ensure they deliver encounters of a high quality (whatever the purpose of the encounter is).

Bhryaen

@HeroicSpur
Well, fortunately I'm not on the BGEE writing staff. lol

HeroicSpur

@Bhryaen: I'm sure you could write an excellent encounter, the Ballad of Nexlit (despite being wholly defamatory and false) was a masterful composition.

James_M

Small changes like the one suggested by HeroicSpur's original post will definitely enhance the game because the new "features", no matter how small, will delight us committed players!

AzL0n

@HeroicSpur

Nice idea. It gets tiresome to travel long distances and always know that you're going to get attacked. A few of these friendly encounters would be awesome surprises.

@Bhryaen

''Other ideas- traveling merchant with good stuff on him, guy saying he's doing a promotional walk for Bru Delupida's Disease, guy saying he just walked all the way from Harrowdale to see his cousin in Baldur's Gate but the bridge is closed, bratty kid wandering saying she's lost (who insta-casts a cloudkill if attacked), sirine asking if you know the way to the Sword Coast, guy who was a lifelong metalsmithy but was forced by the iron shortage to take up road mileage counting (and that you made him lose count), an unlikely circus act headed for the Nashkell Carnival... ''

I like all of those. I actually think they could use you on the writing team buddy.

Communard

@Bhryaen Seconding the approval, I loved those little touches in the first BG and you can't go wrong with more of them. I'd go so far as to say I'd like as many specific random encounters as possible, after a couple of times two wyverns and an ettercap just gets old. I often reload even if I could beat them easily, just because it's dull and repetitive. I don't know anyone who plays BG to grind

Zaccaro

@bhryaen yeah, those ideas seem much better than me gushing out ideas that pop in my head randomly. It really would improve the experience to have random encounters. Again as seems to be the case all the time. I feel too that there should be a fine line between how many to allow happening when moving between maps. Also, a button to enable or disable random encounters would be a very good addon too.