Random Enemy Encounters?

[relm]

Guys ever notice how the enemies you encounter while walking are a programmed number, and not really pure random?

If you save the game and walk somewhere (and encounter enemies) and turn off the game - If you walk the same way, you will encounter the same enemies in the same order.

I accidentally used this method to find the flan princesses (pink puffs) regularly. Forntunately, drops are still random! <3
You will be mine pink tail!

[Dawezy]

Aye, its odd like that - but this little pre-designated enemy-encounter thing was made first apparent in FFIIIj where like, regardless of which way you walked you would still encounter (insert enemy here) after say.. 10 steps? turn it off, back on, walk the same distance in the opposite direction and boom.

But I have to say that I havent really noticed the trend in FFIVA ... or atleast not yet, its still as random as it was IMO.

[relm]

I noticed a small trend like this in FFIV.
Aye it's amazing! Ok, so # of steps don't count as much.
But enemy order is the same.
This even applies when you switch rooms

[Omega]

Interesting.

I think they are predetermined groups of monsters, and randomized enemy parties. Meaning you could run into 5 imps, or 8 imps, or a Worm & Centipede in the Desert around the 2nd town in the game. However there is a 33% chance of getting any of the 3 battles.

I dunno, but that is my theory, I bet if you kept turning the game on and off it will eventually give you a different enemy party to fight off. If there is one available for that area of course.

[Angantyr]

Well on VII I sub consiously counted when there was going to be a fight, everytime I seemed to know exactly when there was a fight without counting. I think from IV onwards they change it a bit (perhaps IIIj but I haven't played it yet) cause on I and II they allmost seem pre determined, as in on II everytime you walk in a room with nothing in it, it brings you to the centre of the room and a battles starts, its the same I when you get to a treasure chest. I think this feature annoyed too many people so they removed it. I think the big differance why they are pre-determined is because there was no true reason to put that monster there so they made it look random. After countless times putting up with that they probably decided to make it more detailed or remove it completely. Thats just my opinion

[awall]

Well, FF1 had certain preset battles in addition to the game's random battles. Most really spiffy chests were "guarded" by a pretty nasty monster; you step into the square adjacent to the chest and have to fight the guardian. In later games, this was replaced with "monster-in-a-box."

In FF4, I definitely noticed the game's tendency to predetermine how many steps you could take before having to fight. Every time you enter a room or finish a battle, the game chooses a random value (within a certain range) and a certain monster formation. As soon as you've taken that many steps, you have to fight that monster. FFIV was notable for having the minimum value be 1 in certain places, so you could finish a battle, take one step, and have to fight again. I never noticed the "stays the same even if you change rooms" bit... wouldn't this be a bit hard to negotiate with the fact that different rooms often have different monsters in them? However, I've never tested this, so I can't speak for sure.

If you want a good way to test this out easily, try using the SNES rom with save states.

[relm]

I've had plenty of chance to test this. From the save spot inside the Lunar Subterrain to the Pink puff room I know I am going to encounter

1x Lil' Murderer
1x Ahriman
and
3x Dinozombie
(in that order)

before I fight the 5 Pink puffs.
I repeat this cycle every time i turn it off.

The location of the encounter isn't always consistent, but the monsters are always the same no matter how i walk there.

[The Cerebral Assassin]

that's actually a very ingenious technique....

i also noticed something of the sort in FFIV. When running away from enemies, it is most likely to re enter combat with the same bunch.

Why?
In my opinion the monsters are pre set on the floor tiles and if the move under your character, the fight engages.
Just a thought....

interesting thought, i noticed that too while i was playing

[Angantyr]

Another thing I must point out is on FFIIj you can go to certain area's where monster's a way more powerful, but due to the system of the game I found it pointless to try level up there but anyway... 1 time I was mucking around after I had just done a bit of the game near the begining and I memosaved it a few steps away from where I was supose to go, as I walked back I got caught in a battle which was pretty much impossible but because I decided to memosave it I thought I would reset it, and then the exact same thing happened, after 3 or four attempts to get back I decided to give up and go back to my main save.