About the balancing of Random Encounters...

[Nightscourge]

Are the devs ever gonna fix this one? I've very little patience for a game that does not ever signpost encounters that
A) Murder me unless I have the exact right build/much higher level than where I'm currently at
B) Cannot ever flee from because my position on the encounter map is Exit>Party>Monster with no distance between those
And
C) I really don't wanna get d***ed in the bum by Manticores with a party of LV 4s While I have appearantly no way to hurt the tosser except on crits. ( YES I did all the buffing, tried to optimize the positioning, everything, did not help one lick)

Like... I am on normal difficulty. I shouldn't have to fight Ironman Mode/ Unfair Difficulty boss encounters that I cannot avoid ever unless I win a cointoss on evading. What point is there of the different token looks if evading is some invisible random skillcheck?
I mean, if it was just a "I really just don't want to fight this thing" and the game punished the evade with HP Loss but made it go through no matter what rather than a RandomNumberGod thing I'd be totally fine with this kind of balancing so the insane players can still go through with it the way it is rn.

This is coming from someone who has the OG copies of quite a few CRPGs and played through balance nightmares like PlaneScape: Torment and Neverwinter Nights as a wee lad, btw. Difference between those and this is: You could flee a lot of the time and in the cases you couldn't it is clearly signposted and never a random encounter.

Point is, if this was the TT variant I'd kick the GM's ass for this bs.

[Pink Eye]

Ahaha, it's great. God bless these developers. It's posts like these that make me love the game even after 900 hours :)

The fact that you can encounter random events that can completely wipe your party is quite the adrenaline rush. Even better if you manage to win said random encounter.

[Pink Eye]

Check this out: https://steamcommunity.com/app/640820/discussions/0/1638668751268625176/

I was by myself trying to do a quest, when I got ambushed by Kobolds. Since this was on unfair, the hardest difficulty, such an encounter will result in a game over. However, with some quick thinking and positioning, I managed to defeat the kobolds all by myself, without one reload.

Sadly the loot was crap :(

Anyways its encounters like this that keep the game fresh and fun!

[captain403]

Originally posted by Pink Eye:

Anyways its encounters like this that keep the game fresh and fun!

Not all of us are masochists.

[Pink Eye]

Originally posted by captain403:

Originally posted by Pink Eye:

Anyways its encounters like this that keep the game fresh and fun!

Not all of us are masochists.

Nothing to do with masochism, besides you can always lower the difficulty to where combat won't even be an issue.

[Cutlass Jack]

Originally posted by Pink Eye:

Originally posted by captain403:

Not all of us are masochists.

Nothing to do with masochism, besides you can always lower the difficulty to where combat won't even be an issue.

If you raise the Nature/stealth skills of someone in your party enough you won't even need to do that much. You'll be able to bypass most random encounters entirely.

[Pink Eye]

Originally posted by Cutlass Jack:

Originally posted by Pink Eye:

Nothing to do with masochism, besides you can always lower the difficulty to where combat won't even be an issue.

If you raise the Nature/stealth skills of someone in your party enough you won't even need to do that much. You'll be able to bypass most random encounters entirely.

Aw but where's the fun in that?
See, this is why I'm glad I have a self imposed rule, of where I have to fight every single random encounter. It has made my unfair playthrough so much better!

Anyways, on a serious note, you are correct. If players do not wish to fight these random events they have multiple options at their disposal to avoid them.

Ahaha, this game has everything for everyone!

[=[NK]= Col. Jack O'Neil]

Yo can also use the bag of tricks mod to change the random encounters. Can set it so the Max hard cr is a little less, as well as set the numbers of how likely random encounters are.

The kingdom resolution mod also allows you to see what the encounter is.

[Pink Eye]

Originally posted by =NK= Col. Jack O'Neil:

Yo can also use the bag of tricks mod to change the random encounters. Can set it so the Max hard cr is a little less, as well as set the numbers of how likely random encounters are.

The kingdom resolution mod also allows you to see what the encounter is.

In other words you can just cheat :)

[Cutlass Jack]

Originally posted by Pink Eye:

See, this is why I'm glad I have a self imposed rule, of where I have to fight every single random encounter. It has made my unfair playthrough so much better!

My rule is that if its in my lands I deal with it. If its outside my current lands its not my problem and I have more important things to do. :P

[Nightscourge]

Originally posted by Pink Eye:

Ahaha, it's great. God bless these developers. It's posts like these that make me love the game even after 900 hours :)

The fact that you can encounter random events that can completely wipe your party is quite the adrenaline rush. Even better if you manage to win said random encounter.

I wholeheartedly disagree. As an avid player and passionate gamemaster of the TT variant I hate everything about Rocks Fall Everybody Dies. Without signposting that is. Do note how the encounter itself is not the problem, the unavoidability and unpredictability of a party wipe encounter is.

[Pink Eye]

Originally posted by Nachtkriecher:

Originally posted by Pink Eye:

Ahaha, it's great. God bless these developers. It's posts like these that make me love the game even after 900 hours :)

The fact that you can encounter random events that can completely wipe your party is quite the adrenaline rush. Even better if you manage to win said random encounter.

I wholeheartedly disagree. As an avid player and passionate gamemaster of the TT variant I hate everything about Rocks Fall Everybody Dies.

Holy molly, that's a blast from the past. Need to replay NWN 2 again some day.

[Pink Eye]

Originally posted by Nachtkriecher:

Originally posted by Pink Eye:

Ahaha, it's great. God bless these developers. It's posts like these that make me love the game even after 900 hours :)

The fact that you can encounter random events that can completely wipe your party is quite the adrenaline rush. Even better if you manage to win said random encounter.

I wholeheartedly disagree. As an avid player and passionate gamemaster of the TT variant I hate everything about Rocks Fall Everybody Dies. Without signposting that is. Do note how the encounter itself is not the problem, the unavoidability and unpredictability of a party wipe encounter is.

Augh, this is going to be another one of those tired arguments, which I have no interest in participating in.
In short, you've already been given multiple reasonable alternatives to dealing with random encounters.

[Cutlass Jack]

Originally posted by Pink Eye:

Originally posted by Nachtkriecher:

I wholeheartedly disagree. As an avid player and passionate gamemaster of the TT variant I hate everything about Rocks Fall Everybody Dies.

Holy molly, that's a blast from the past. Need to replay NWN 2 again some day.

I was replaying it just last week. As usual, I enjoy it greatly right up until they fridge Shandra for no reason and force me to take her murderer into my party and not behead him. (Which honestly would have annoyed me far less if I didn't have a cleric who could raise dead literally standing right next to her.)

The rocks falling was just icing for me. :P

[Pink Eye]

Originally posted by Cutlass Jack:

Originally posted by Pink Eye:

Holy molly, that's a blast from the past. Need to replay NWN 2 again some day.

I was replaying it just last week. As usual, I enjoy it greatly right up until they fridge Shandra for no reason and force me to take her murderer into my party and not behead him. (Which honestly would have annoyed me far less if I didn't have a cleric who could raise dead literally standing right next to her.)

The rocks falling was just icing for me. :P

Hehe, aw man, I really really loved the Mask of the betrayer expansion. Eating people's souls and being a monster was awesome.

[Nightscourge]

Originally posted by Pink Eye:

Originally posted by Nachtkriecher:

I wholeheartedly disagree. As an avid player and passionate gamemaster of the TT variant I hate everything about Rocks Fall Everybody Dies. Without signposting that is. Do note how the encounter itself is not the problem, the unavoidability and unpredictability of a party wipe encounter is.

Augh, this is going to be another one of those tired arguments, which I have no interest in participating in.
In short, you've already been given multiple reasonable alternatives to dealing with random encounters.

And I do appreciate the help I got from this thread. Still not gonna agree with the design decisions there.