Quote Originally Posted by Psychotic View Post
A note on random encounters - Honestly, I loathe the things. I get what Shads is saying about the need for danger, but having the screen swoosh and you being dumped into battle through no fault of your own, with no rhyme or reason, is annoying. So I'm thinking each dungeon can have 1-4 "events" (depending on how big it is) before a boss. Fights that are more challenging than your random encounter, but not boss-level. Let me give some examples:

- You see some enemies waiting up ahead, and you have the choice of attacking it head-on, or sneaking around to the side for an ambush. If you sneak around to the side, you can silently kill two of the enemies, leaving less for you to fight. However, it could (for whatever reason) fail and your mage ends up slipping down a small cliff face and can't take part in that fight.
- On a similar note, you can either fight an enemy, or you can try to stealth around it. The stealth route is extremely long (and your movement speed will be slowed because you can't just go sprinting around a cave and not expect to be heard).
- You are surrounded by a group of enemies. You can either fight your way out, or you can try to run (actually run rather than select the "Flee" command) but if they catch you, the battle will be harder because you weren't prepared for it. (reflected in the enemies' stats)

Stuff like that would be infinitely more enjoyable - and strategic - than "take two steps, SWOOOOSH, kill enemy in three hits, take two steps, SWOOOOOSH" etc.
Actually, that was exactly what I was thinking as well. Less battles, but longer lasting and more strategic battles. That's how it should be.