I don't like random battles.
I don't think anyone is asking for "random" battles (certainly no more "random" than the completely not-random encounters outside the city gates. We're only asking for a battle or two to take place within the city, during the course of the investigation - to both improve pacing and amp up the difficulty of said investigation.
Let's be honest, the heroes manage to make some pretty significant headway on the murder mystery with zero effort beyond repeatedly walking between locations. Adding a little challenge (e.g. a cultist ambush) in there wouldn't hurt.
We've had a few updates so far which have required us to restart our campaigns. I have to honestly wonder how many of the longer-term players are still reading the investigation dialogue (which, don't get me wrong, is a wonderful read), or are they just clicking through it as quickly as possible to get to the adventuring part outside the city walls. I suspect most are doing the latter, particularly if this is your third or so trip through the game. A "stop and smell the roses" point placed about halfway through the in-city investigation can help with that.
