Frayed Knights - Skulking in Real-Time

Jay writes another Frayed Knights update, this time on the addition of wandering patrols in Pokmor Xang:

But there are a couple of things about it that bug me. Frayed Knights is a turn-based game. Quite simply, if the player isn’t actively doing something (like moving), the clock ain’t ticking. If you stand in one place and do nothing, hours of real-world time can pass by without any in-game “turns” passing, spell effects won’t advance their durations, etc. The patrols break this consistency. Patrols are a real-time event. While no new patrols will spawn while you are standing around doing nothing, if you happen to be near the route of an existing patrol, they will encounter you and initiate combat. Which is, naturally, turn-based.

More information.

I like how he added in the real-time patrols. I never cared for encounters that just popped out of nowhere. For triggered events that is ok, but for patrols or wandering enemies I would much rather see them coming like in Wiz 8.

As much as I love the Gold Box games I wish they had a way of implementing something like this. It would have been great to see the encounters coming and maybe try to avoid a few by heading the other direction.

I should probably stress that not all encounters will be able to be seen in advance (or be predicated upon you opening a door). Or be telegraphed in advance by your party detecting (and spoiling) the ambush. But I did want to give players a bit more control over things so they weren't just stumbling around quite so blindly wondering where the next fight was going to come from.

I could've sworn I posted something here this morning, maybe I didn't click 'post' lol. Basically, I don't mind wandering monsters… but what I don't like is constant respawning. I like the feeling of clearing an area. If I leave a room after killing 4 magma bears in there, looting everything and peeing in a corner, when I turn around and go inside again, it better be empty!

Originally Posted by wolfing
…it better be empty!

For a while at least. And not some fixed time like 'exactly 3.76532 days'.

Originally Posted by wolfing
I could've sworn I posted something here this morning, maybe I didn't click 'post' lol. Basically, I don't mind wandering monsters… but what I don't like is constant respawning. I like the feeling of clearing an area. If I leave a room after killing 4 magma bears in there, looting everything and peeing in a corner, when I turn around and go inside again, it better be empty!

So after you have peed in the corner no other wandering patrols are allowed inside this room? Is this some kind of magical forcefield pee?

You are in the lair of some nasty thing. It's their house and yet you would have a problem with spawning enemies inside this lair?

Wiz 8 had all kinds of respawning patrols and it was one of the best party(blob) rpgs I played. Put in respawning. I would prefer if Jay gave us the option to bump up the respawning and make the encounters harder. Doesn't really matter if he did or not, but would prefer it that way.

Fixed encounters do not respawn. The wandering / random encounters respawn - so you'll still get stragglers in cleared-out areas.

So after you have peed in the corner no other wandering patrols are allowed inside this room? Is this some kind of magical forcefield pee?

I think what he meant was it will be strange if they respawn in the room…. if a patrol came by and walked into the room I guess it would be less of a problem?

That does make a little more sense. I didn't care for Dungeon Lords' monsters appearing out of thin air either. At least spawn them behind me so I can't see them just materialize

Originally Posted by GothicGothicness
I think what he meant was it will be strange if they respawn in the room…. if a patrol came by and walked into the room I guess it would be less of a problem?

yes, let them pop from a mob generator somewhere. I would still prefer if there were X mobs in a dungeon, be them fixed, wandering or whatever, but when I kill them all, they're dead. I wouldn't mind if they slowly reappeared, like after days (considering is very unlikely I'll go back to a cleared dungeon), but at some point in a dungeon after I've defeated all opposition, I like to stand in the middle of it and scream "I'm the king of the world!"

Originally Posted by wolfing
yes, let them pop from a mob generator somewhere.

Which can be destroyed ?

Originally Posted by Alrik Fassbauer
Which can be destroyed ?

of course!

Umm… yeah. This isn't that game. This is that other game.