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Do enemies respawn?

I haven't played the game yet, waiting for my preordered box to arrive (and bugs to get sorted out), but I've been reading some reviews on Steam. I'm not too worried about all the supposed SJW stuff (although I surely hope it's not as bad as it sounds), but there is one thing I read that got me worried;

That monsters respawn.

PLEASE tell me that isn't correct. One thing I loved about the original BG was to clear out an entire map and then having it stay that way. If this IS a thing, can we turn it off?

If it is a thing and we CAN'T turn it off, can someone please explain to me why in the 9 hells someone thought this to be a good idea?

One last bonus question; are there any other silly shit like enemy scaling or something like that? Anything fundamentally changing I should be aware of (such as enemy respawning, enemy level scaling etc.)?

Comments

  • IllydthIllydth Member, Developer Posts: 1,641
    Um, Let me see if I can address this:

    Enemy respawn: I don't believe there is any re-spawning of enemies. There MAY (I do not know to be honest...I can't say as I've ever run across it in my testing, but we tend to test linearly, so I don't know how often I end up re-visiting a zone I've already cleared) be random encounter respawn (like generic wolves respawning after a period of time in a zone) but no, there is no "farmable" content in BG:SoD Just as there is no "farmable" content in the other games. We've not changed anything of that nature so fundamentally.

    Is there something specific that would trigger you to ask that question?

    Enemy Scaling: No, enemies do not scale to your level. Our name is not Bethesda, we do not set up our open game world game to have enemies that auto-repopulate at different levels based upon when you encounter them.

    Any other questions?
  • ajwzajwz Member Posts: 4,122
    It was like that in the original game. Some broups of monsters would respawn, although you may not have noticed.
    In the new SoD content however, I haven't noticed any monster respawning at all, although I may be wrong.

    There is no enemy level scaling. Enemies are of a fixed level, so if you are under/overlevelled then that's on you.
  • ThaudalThaudal Member Posts: 37
    Phew, that's a relief.

    I just read somewhere about someone who kept wasting time by running into the same low-level group of mobs (gibberlings, wolves, kobolds etc.) again and again, even in areas they'd already previously cleared. That scared me quite a bit, because I never ever had any such experiences in the original release.
  • Grond0Grond0 Member Posts: 7,457
    There are two types of encounters in BG on the main maps (there are also potential ambushes between maps).

    Fixed enemies:
    - always appear (though in some cases only after a trigger event, e.g. Nimbul only appears in Nashkel after you've visited the mines)
    - never reappear after being killed (or dismissed through a conversation dialogue).

    Random enemies:
    - may or may not appear on specific encounter spots on the maps
    - the type of enemies spawning may vary
    - never appear other than on those encounter spots
    - the same encounter spot can respawn enemies at a later time after each group is killed. If you want to avoid any chance of respawning from a particular encounter spot you can just leave one of the earlier spawned monsters alive.
  • ThaudalThaudal Member Posts: 37
    So the random low level monsters DO respawn? What the hell? I never experienced that before. Why did they go and do that? More importantly, where can I turn it off?
  • TorinTorin Member Posts: 229
    edited April 2016
    Illydth said:

    Um, Let me see if I can address this:

    Enemy respawn: I don't believe there is any re-spawning of enemies. There MAY (I do not know to be honest...I can't say as I've ever run across it in my testing, but we tend to test linearly, so I don't know how often I end up re-visiting a zone I've already cleared) be random encounter respawn (like generic wolves respawning after a period of time in a zone) but no, there is no "farmable" content in BG:SoD Just as there is no "farmable" content in the other games. We've not changed anything of that nature so fundamentally.

    Is there something specific that would trigger you to ask that question?

    Enemy Scaling: No, enemies do not scale to your level. Our name is not Bethesda, we do not set up our open game world game to have enemies that auto-repopulate at different levels based upon when you encounter them.

    Any other questions?

    Go to first map that you get to once you start travelling with army, kill all spider and wolves on it. Then try to run back through cleared areas and they will respawn constantly. During day I didn't find any wolves, but at night both wolves and spiders respawn while I am running on same map without resting or doing map transitions....... it is super irritating.
  • ThaudalThaudal Member Posts: 37
    Wow... After reading this, and that Kotaku interview with Amber, I am really hoping I can get a refund and cancel my CE. Jesus christ.

    She literally sates that she doesn't care if people don't like her SJW stuff and hopes to go on to do much more of it, and that original IP was considered, but was too much effort. WOW. What. The. Actual. F...

    Is it just support@beamdog.com to cancel my CE or who do I talk to about that?
  • TorinTorin Member Posts: 229
    ??
    Did you mean to post this in another topic? What does Amber Scott have to do with what you talked about earlier?
  • ThaudalThaudal Member Posts: 37
    It doesn't as such, but the initial topic was something that fundamentally changes the game to a degree that makes me wonder if I should have purchased it in the first place - the things I mentioned in my previous post was just even more reason for this, on top of what I've just discovered.

    Fundamental gameplay cahnges such as the one discussed specifically in this topic, though, are so fundamental that they should clearly be stated, being that this is a game with such a rooted and old fanbase. Every other significant change and "modernisation" seems to be something we can toggle, so this is clearly something that matters. Why they have done this, and even not made any mention of it anywhere, is beyond me.

    Anyway, this is getting besides the point. I'm just getting to a point where, the more I read about it, the more I want to know who I contact in order to cancel my preorder for a refund. If someone knows, please let me know.
  • TorinTorin Member Posts: 229
    Maybe the respawns are not that bad everywhere in the game and on every difficulty. I play on Insane, maybe these creatures respawn more often on Insane.
  • ThaudalThaudal Member Posts: 37
    It should not have been tampered with in the first place - or at the very least, like all other fundamental changes they have made, it should be optional. Simple as that.
  • ArdanisArdanis Member Posts: 1,736
    The enemy respawns existed in Baldur's Gate since the first release in 1998, it's not a new feature. E.g. Firewine Bridge dungeon and gnoll stronghold were particularly known for frequent respawns as soon as player characters were out of sight.

    Compared to BG1, in SoD enemies only start to re-appear after you've completely cleared the location, and only in large wilderness areas that don't have much of interest to begin with.
  • TorinTorin Member Posts: 229
    Ardanis said:

    The enemy respawns existed in Baldur's Gate since the first release in 1998, it's not a new feature. E.g. Firewine Bridge dungeon and gnoll stronghold were particularly known for frequent respawns as soon as player characters were out of sight.

    Compared to BG1, in SoD enemies only start to re-appear after you've completely cleared the location, and only in large wilderness areas that don't have much of interest to begin with.

    And both those areas are super irritating because of that. Also both are logical as both are strongholds for those races.

    Wilderness maps with your army camp should not have that. Creatures will run away from such big groups of people making so much noise and lighting fires.
  • WanderonWanderon Member Posts: 1,418
    Yes for heavens sake why would anyone make a game where the occasional SURPRISE creature showed up and needed to be killed just when you thought a WILDERNESS area would be 100% safe....smfh
  • ThaudalThaudal Member Posts: 37
    It's always easy to make someone look like an idiot by simply completely ignoring the point.

    When a game is as old and rooted as Baldur's Gate, there's a certain expectation that no fundamental gameplay changes will be made (unless they are optional) - why do you think they have all around taken fairly good care to do this? All the new "modernisations" are optional, because this isn't just a new release, this is a pretty unique situation where care must be taken when messsing around with something that's been around for nearly two decades.

    If we were discussing this gameplay behaviour in a new title, then that would be fine. This is about a fairly fundamental gameplay change in something that isn't really as such a new release anymore, and about why it was made, wasn't announced anywhere, and wasn't made optional.

    But by all means, feel free to completely disregard my point if you will, I have explained as best as I can.
  • TorinTorin Member Posts: 229
    Well DAI was bashed a lot for its respawning, especially bears.
  • lunarlunar Member Posts: 3,460
    I got some heavy respawning enemy soldiers in some later areas of the game. But it is a SIEGE, after all, reinforcements always come.
  • NomphosumusNomphosumus Member Posts: 14
    Thaudal said:

    I haven't played the game yet, waiting for my preordered box to arrive (and bugs to get sorted out), but I've been reading some reviews on Steam. I'm not too worried about all the supposed SJW stuff (although I surely hope it's not as bad as it sounds), but there is one thing I read that got me worried;

    That monsters respawn.

    PLEASE tell me that isn't correct. One thing I loved about the original BG was to clear out an entire map and then having it stay that way. If this IS a thing, can we turn it off?

    If it is a thing and we CAN'T turn it off, can someone please explain to me why in the 9 hells someone thought this to be a good idea?

    One last bonus question; are there any other silly shit like enemy scaling or something like that? Anything fundamentally changing I should be aware of (such as enemy respawning, enemy level scaling etc.)?

    ????¿??¿¿??¿¿ I played BG since the original version and years and years after that BG1-EE. I can tell you that in BOTH games the random creatures can respawn no matter how many times you clear a map. (for example pack of kobolds, wolves.. depends of the map) So this is NOT something new. Thats why I usually study the pattern of map clearing (before exploring the map) so I visit every corner of every map just once to avoid extra encounters. (And even so sometimes I find extra encounters when I walk already visited parts of maps.
    I know even of people that they just dont care because they use the system of summon monsters or squeletons and send them in random directions of the map in a tiny version of "von Neumann's probes".


    In any case believe me.. it is NOT a new thing and if it bothers you a lot.. you can do like me.. do a pattern of map exploration to avoid many extra encounters.
  • Grond0Grond0 Member Posts: 7,457
    edited April 2016
    Thaudal said:

    When a game is as old and rooted as Baldur's Gate, there's a certain expectation that no fundamental gameplay changes will be made (unless they are optional) - why do you think they have all around taken fairly good care to do this? All the new "modernisations" are optional, because this isn't just a new release, this is a pretty unique situation where care must be taken when messsing around with something that's been around for nearly two decades.

    I think others have made the point as well, but just to be clear respawning is not a gameplay change - this occurred both in the original BG1 engine and the revised BG2 Infinity Engine that the Enhanced Edition is based on.

    Personally I would not want the game to be changed to exclude respawning, although I would welcome a required time elapsed factor to be introduced (particularly with SCS installed the amount of respawning that occurs within seconds of you having gone over a random encounter trigger point is too much for my taste).
  • DesretDesret Member Posts: 4
    It'd be nice to have a mod that removes respawning.
  • ThaudalThaudal Member Posts: 37
    edited April 2016
    (posted in the wrong thread, sorry - can I delete this?)
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