the default way of "fixing" random encounters is to put encounters on the field and have them spot you and chase you. this is mostly just worse than random encounters
Preach!!! It feels like so many developers are scared of including them now. Random encounters with a decent growth and exp scale make progression feel natural compared to trying to sneak past guys then worrying if I'm under or over levelled.
so many games make it possible to outrun encounters, this is the crucial mistake. now the player has to take a wild guess at how many of these entirely optional fights they should be having to level up at a reasonable pace
like unless it's an NES JRPG, the random encounters are almost always paced in a such a way that you will be ready for the next major enemy so long as you aren't running from everything.
and if you DO build the game with the assumption that players will run past some encounters, you better not make a GOOD battle system, because then i will fight every enemy that comes up anyway because i like to have fun, and consequently i will become functionally immortal halfway through the game
I feel like in most of the games that have enemy encounters on the field have had a decent job of having challenges that were just about at my level. Earthbound's encounter system comes to mind. When you're overleveled you simply just skip the entire fight and get the xp.
that's just not the same thing. if these two things were genuinely equivalent then games with encounters on the field would remove the 'run' option from their battle systems
this isn't my experience at all, and is also kind of only adjacent to the actual subject I'm talking about. in, say, dragon quest 11, I will never get caught by accident. so the game outsources all sense of pacing re: leveling up to me. I just have to kind of guess how many fights i should be having
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I'd even argue random fights are no less likely to be skipped. There are enough zubats that can attest.