As someone who finished BG2 and DOS2 multiple times, I think we should add random encounters to BG3, mostly to enhance the feeling of an unsafe world. Considering how characters behave Larian is clearly trying to achieve it. And they managed to do it when it comes to dialogues, I just don't trust anyone by now. BUT. I feel way too safe once I've finished a quest in one of their zones.

Why I think we need this?
In DOS2 and the current version of BG3 there's this thing that really bothers me where you discovered most of the map. It adds this feeling of " cleaning up the map". It just breaks the immersion especially once you've been in an area you know it's safe. There's nothing to worry about.

We could have random encounters :

1) When trying to set up your camp -> An ambush when you're out of spells and HP would just become a quick-load fiesta but if you're allowed to regain your hp and part of your spells then why not just add this much danger to the story.

2) When traveling from one map to another. -> Based on the world map I've seen, Larian was thinking about dividing the druid circle, the hag swamp, the cathedral, the blighted village, and goblin camp into different, not connected together areas. Why not add this feeling of the unknown when traveling from one place to another? It's not like you're backtracking constantly. I cleared the cathedral I'm not coming back. Same for the hag.

Pros:
-> More challenges when planning your movement.
-> Enhanced replayability.
-> More combat overall.
-> If they become too easy for higher-level characters at least it becomes some kind of reward. " Hey, you've planned your party well. GJ!"

Cons:
-> Potential balance issues that need to be cleared out(those encounters can be too difficult at first and become too easy over time).
-> Encounters during travel are hard to implement without dividing the map into several smaller areas divided by loading screens(like in BG2) which is clearly something you're trying to avoid. It could be done with those encounters popping in in pre-defined areas maybe but that would become more annoying than anything else. They are supposed to be unpredictable.


It's a system from BG2 , I know, but I think not having it is harming the game more than having one big playable area. If more people like the idea then maybe Larian will reconsider it . If not then I hope at least we will get some kind of random encounters when setting up the camp. Voila voila.

Also see this thread:

https://forums.larian.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=706358&gonew=1#UNREAD

I got jumped while traveling at my camp. That seemed random.

There should be mobs in this game that Path around the world to make things fresh having everything stagnate kills the replay value.

Thx for the link, mb I didn't find it first. Most of the people agree they should be added thought based on the thread @Sadurian sent so I think this wraps up the subject. Would love to see Larian comment out on this subject. There are several way to implement it in the end, it doesn't necessarily go against their idea of BG3.

Not a problem. New threads appear here so fast that a topic will disappear onto pages 3 or 4 within a few hours. Not noticing that a subject has already been tackled is hardly surprising.

It depends on how it's handled. I'm not sure how this engine would handle it, but in NWN, using triggers to spawn encounters could bog the game to a crawl. The same for heartbeat scripts, which do a check periodically to spawn encounters, or something else entirely. As someone else that finished BG 2 multiple times, the majority of the random encounters happened as you moved from one map to another. The rest of them were scripted events. I know, since they happened every time I played the game. We're not doing any real map zoning right now, instead doing from inside to outside, or outside to inside, and "You have been waylaid by enemies, and must defend yourself." doesn't make a lot of sense just going through a door.

One way to combat a cleared map, however, is to use an on enter script for the area that can trigger while you're on the loading screen. I used this method for NWN, using a script I got from a friend that used it in his module. It was a really clean system, that could even get the player's level, and spawn mobs accordingly. For MP purposes, it didn't fire if someone else was on the map already.

Setpiece fights are fine, let them balance the loot tables of every area and enemy properly first before throwing me into cheese fests I have no control over.