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[Aquillion]

After my post in another thread, I realized that the way the game currently handles random encounters needs to be re-examined.

Basically:  Encounters should happen, yes, but they should involve actual existing groups that are tracked by the game.  Ideally, just like the game no longer pulls the items in shops out of thin air, it should never pull enemies for the player out of thin air.  If the player encounters bandits, it should be because there were bandits hiding in that road all along (even if in an abstracted sense, rather than in careful detail) -- not because the player rolled a 5 on the "random bandit encounter" table.

This is important because it would allow players to influence these things by changing the larger world, and would allow the player to intelligently plan about possible risks in various areas.  (And rumors and such could reveal areas that are particularly dangerous.)  If a war ends and many soldiers are left to their own devices, or if famine leaves people desperate, they could take up banditry and make the area more dangerous.  Conversely, if the player kills large numbers of bandits and the like, their numbers should decrease.

Likewise, dangers like bandits and kobolds and such should have logical places where they go.  They shouldn't randomly appear wherever the PC is for no reason -- they should have to patrol, and shouldn't patrol everywhere.

[EmperorJon]

They already do have things which make them appear in certain areas; the camp that you're told to kill them at isn't invented on the spot. It's always there, and that's where they're based, and they'll attack people around that area. I've killed the leader of a bandit group once as a quest only to have the remainder attack me in the same area much later, with a new leader.

[Megaman_zx]

i completely agree, bandit groups should have a set number of memebers so that even if you have 20 companions with you, they will still only attack you with the 7 guys they have. This way, you aren't ambushed by 50 bandits, 6 of whom are masters of their respective weapons. (this actually happened to me)

[Aquillion]

They already do have things which make them appear in certain areas; the camp that you're told to kill them at isn't invented on the spot. It's always there, and that's where they're based, and they'll attack people around that area. I've killed the leader of a bandit group once as a quest only to have the remainder attack me in the same area much later, with a new leader.

They sort-of do, but right now they seem to magically teleport to you wherever you are -- it just grabs the nearest group of bandits and has them attack, rather than having them waiting to ambush travelers in a specific spot.  This leads to weird things like twenty bandits suddenly lunging out of nowhere to ambush you in the middle of the wilderness, when they'd have no particular reason to be there beyond a viciously inexplicable urge to murder player characters.

[Loud Whispers]

They already do have things which make them appear in certain areas; the camp that you're told to kill them at isn't invented on the spot. It's always there, and that's where they're based, and they'll attack people around that area. I've killed the leader of a bandit group once as a quest only to have the remainder attack me in the same area much later, with a new leader.

They sort-of do, but right now they seem to magically teleport to you wherever you are -- it just grabs the nearest group of bandits and has them attack, rather than having them waiting to ambush travelers in a specific spot.  This leads to weird things like twenty bandits suddenly lunging out of nowhere to ambush you in the middle of the wilderness, when they'd have no particular reason to be there beyond a viciously inexplicable urge to murder player characters.

[/getting hired to kill a pesky hero]