Track this topic | Email this topic | Print this topic

In the final fantasy games, do you generally encounter more enemies when you are walking or running. Or does it depend on alot more then speed/ not have any effect at all.
I suspect this is a harder question to answer then ask.

--------------------

A guy goes into a bar and gets into an argument about whether or not he should show his I.d. He leaves saying:

Quote

Real Life The Webcomic:
Right, fine. Cause in three months when I turn 21, I'll be mature enough to drink a SODA in here

Acorrding to the comic, this actually happened.

I think it's more on mind over matter.
People might say you encounter more enemies if you walk as opposed to running, but that might be becuase walking takes so much longer than running and thus, you find yourself in that many more battles, but statistically, I think it's the same amount both ways.

--------------------

"Thought I was dead, eh? Not until I fulfill my dream!"
Seifer Almasy


"The most important part of the story is the ending."
Secret Window


"Peace is but a shadow of death."
Kuja

I always assumed that it depends on the steps you take, so it wouldn't matter either way (i.e, when you take a step there's a ten percent chance of an encounter.) That probably applies more to the oldschool games, like IV and VI.

--------------------

Status:
FF6 -- Finished! Yeah!
FF7 -- Finished (easily, and without KOtR)
FF8 -- End of Disc 3
Secret of Evermore--Leveling up for Salabog

"Go sit over there. Put your seatbelt on."--Squall

I remember trying to run to a save point in FFVII with little HP and no healing magic/items (it was at the beginning of the game). I had to use tactical menus when I thought there was going to be a battle and ran the whole time. Made it in one piece

Based on my experience, I think running has less battles per screen, as I believe it refreshes at a change. Also I found that opening the menu helps as I recall from those grim days in sector 8...

--------------------

Scepticism, that dry rot of the intellect, had not left one entire idea in his mind.

Me on the Starcraft.

Well, they're random. In some FFs I've gone through a whole area without an encounter, then gone back through it and been attacked 4 times. It's prolly on some crazy random chance generator. =P

If that is the case you'd encounter less while running.

This post has been edited by Mu the Squirrel on 23rd December 2006 13:52

--------------------

The Arcana are the means by which ALL is revealed.

Thank you.
Though, they say that cmputer programs can never be completly random.

--------------------

A guy goes into a bar and gets into an argument about whether or not he should show his I.d. He leaves saying:

Quote

Real Life The Webcomic:
Right, fine. Cause in three months when I turn 21, I'll be mature enough to drink a SODA in here

Acorrding to the comic, this actually happened.

Well, the RNG can sometimes be my friend, but I always encounter enemies while running...mostly because I can't stand walking on the field, ever.

--------------------

It's gonna be a glorious day
I feel my luck can change

Well, aren't the random encounters given to you by a predetermined amount of steps you have to take or something? So then, it wouldn't really matter if you walked or ran, you'd still run into the monsters after a certain number of steps. Though, I guess if you were running, you would technically be encountering monsters faster, but...

--------------------

OSonic Rave
/ \Last Arcanum
[ ]Strike Raid
XRagnarok

I always feel like I hit more encounters while running, but I imagine the game designers didn't take that into account in setting up the random encounters and I probably fight the same amount of battles regardless of whether I'm running or walking

If you use a ROM, use the quicksave feature, take 5 steps and face an enemy, then reload, you can take 5 steps WITHOUT facing an enemy. The ROM's quicksave feature isn't like the game's save feature, it doesn't reset anything when reloaded. Although, interestingly enough, you will face the same enemy(s) if you stay in the same area, no matter how many steps you take... as long as you stay in that general area.

It's safe to say that how many steps you take isn't always calculable, however what enemy(s) you'll face next in that area is decided after the end of your last battle.

This post has been edited by Mu the Squirrel on 25th December 2006 00:20

--------------------

The Arcana are the means by which ALL is revealed.

Quote (Mu the Squirrel @ 24th December 2006 19:19)

If you use a ROM, use the quicksave feature, take 5 steps and face an enemy, then reload, you can take 5 steps WITHOUT facing an enemy. The ROM's quicksave feature isn't like the game's save feature, it doesn't reset anything when reloaded.

That's not always true for all RPGs. If you ever try Earthbound 0 for the NES which has random encounters (Unlike Earthbound and Mother 3, which let you see the monsters on the field) you'll enter a fight every time even if you savestate (Although if you go to the game's menu, and exit, the number of steps needed to fight resets)

--------------------

Dead Winter. A nice comic.

SNES games usually set up a table with 256 pseudo-random entries and maintain an index or two into the table. Whenever a random number is called for, the index increases by one (wrapping around back to 0 if it hits 256) and the number at that location is read. Some games sometimes also maintain another number which is incremented over time and added to the result, giving an even more random number based on time as well. This is why some saved states reload with a battle 3 steps away every time, and others don't.

More modern ways of generating a random number involve certain algorithms, like the marsenne twister, or simply perform operations on dizzyingly large numbers and keep the 32 or 16 bit remainder - these need to be "seeded" with an initial value first.

As for steps, I've seen plenty of games doubling the encounter rate while running in order to make up for moving twice as fast. Others don't. The question cannot be answered without a specific game being mentionned because no two game is guaranteed to use the same algorithm for even trivial things like random number generators.

--------------------

"Judge not a man by his thoughts and words, but by
the quality and quantity of liquor in his possession
and the likelyhood of him sharing."

One game that I was playing, I saved, took a certain amount of steps, got into a fight, and died. I reset and the same exact thing happened whether I walked or ran. It might be just the certain game or the certain console because I've been playing Final Fantasy Va lately and it seems totally random. Personally, I would think you'd get into less battles while running.

--------------------

Why, hello guys! Haven't been around here in a loooong time!
http://dragcave.net/user/LadyTwi
http://www.backloggery.com/ladytwi

While playing FFIV on the PS1 walking or running didn't make any difference, i was constantly bombarded by enemies either way.

FFV, running seems to encounter less than walking, but next to no difference

FFVI, I can't recall FFVI that much

CT
Didn't matter

FFVII running or walking didn't seem to make any difference in encounters

FFVIII
It doesn't matter

FFIX
Walking seems to have more encounters for me

FFX
Who walks?

all in all it doesn't make a difference

--------------------

"Have you ever seen a baby do that before?"

Quote (Barrylocke @ 27th December 2006 09:24)

That's not always true for all RPGs. If you ever try Earthbound 0 for the NES which has random encounters (Unlike Earthbound and Mother 3, which let you see the monsters on the field) you'll enter a fight every time even if you savestate (Although if you go to the game's menu, and exit, the number of steps needed to fight resets)

True, but I wasn't talking about other RPGs, I was talking about Final Fantasy... cos that's what this thread is about.

--------------------

The Arcana are the means by which ALL is revealed.

it all depends on the FF game. I was playing an old rom (i think it was FF IV marked as FF II), and the battles were step based, as I discovered with the save state. It didn't matter which direction I went, but after X steps, I would always encounter a battle. I had very low life left, and no way to get out of that area, so I think I ended up just moving onto another FF. The point being that some FF games are set to encounters based off a predetermined number of steps (perhaps determined after the last battle you were in), and after you walk that far, you fight.
Then some of the later games are based off the just random.

Getting back to the topic, in the random ones, i usually preset to always run, because I'm impatient, so I've never checked for a difference between battle occurances, you would think that someone hauling around in a sprint would kick up a few more baddies tho.

--------------------

If internal struggles were as enjoyable and glamorous as the self conflicted wars within video game characters, we would all be statues, reveling in perpetual self war. -Me

Play me on Rock Band 2, GH-WT, or any other Xbox GH!
Xbox Gamertag-MeanJerry

Sometimes when I'm wandering through a dungeon, I always have that thought, "Something's going to attack me, something's going to attack me," and nothing happens, until I get all relaxed.

But, that's perception for you.

I think the number of battles I fight goes up when I have the Sprint Shoes equipped for example because I mis-step alot more often.

--------------------

"That Light has bestowed upon me the greatest black magic!"

Running is always better than walking.. Sometimes walking is better when you are trying to avoid traps/pitfalls;you want to try to avoid falling into those things.

I really didn't like walking in FF1-4. Good thing FF5 finally gave players the opportunity thanks to the Thief job and it makes sense for them to run more than Ninjas. In FF6 it kinda sucked because you'd have to sacrifice one Relic slot for Sprint Shoes.. From then on in future FFs they made running more common..

In my FFVA ROM the battles are preset both fortunetely and unfortunetely. Found this out through save states after getting a nasty Back-Attack. After X amount of steps a battle commences and the enemy is always the same (tested this in Exdeath's Castle a few times). So I'm not happy. Not happy at all. Although if you played it without a ROM you'd never notice unless it was after a save point and you died. But it's very sus.

I say that from VII that would've stopped though, as it's 3D and it'd probably have some other system.

I don't think it makes a difference whether you walk or run. Walking may seem like you run into more battles just because your moving slower and the battles seem more frequent. But overall I have not noticed a difference between walking, running, and the amount of battles i encounter.

--------------------

Whoever appeals to the law against his fellow man is either a fool or a coward. Whoever cannot take care of himself without that law is both. For a wounded man shall say to his assailant. If I live I will kill you, if I die you are forgiven. Such is the rule of honor.

I can shed some light on how FFV does its random encounters. Dunno if it's the same for FFVa but it shouldn't be very different.

1- Start the encounter counter at 0.
2- [After a step] Increment the counter by 1.
3- Let A = a random number between 0 and 255.
4- If A is greater than the encounter counter, go back to 2.
5- Enter a battle and go back to 1.

Given that ROMs use a pseudo-RNG that's usually a table of semi-random values with a counter indicating which entry to read next time a random number is called for, saved states wouldn't change the amount of steps or the enemy group generated unless you do something else to move the index into the random number table. And last I checked, there are at least 3 indexes. I think using a recovery item or spell should do it, but I haven't tested it.

As for walking, whenever you take a step the game goes through a little loop that moves the sprite 'x' pixels while cycling through animation frames. The amount by which the loop increases is based on wether you're running (or an event has called the "set walk speed -> fast" command), walking, or moving slowly (because an event has called the "set walk speed -> slow" command.) Slow is half as fast as normal, and running twice as fast (ie, you move forward by half or twice as many pixels as if you were walking per frame of animation.)

This has zero effect on how many tiles you cross as hitting a direction will move you by 1 tile each time no matter how fast you move. Encounters are calculated by tiles, not by how long your character is in movement. Therefore running has no impact on the encounter rate.

--------------------

"Judge not a man by his thoughts and words, but by
the quality and quantity of liquor in his possession
and the likelyhood of him sharing."