Hey guys,

I Noticed something tonight while using my level 30 warrior.
Leveling up doesn't take a long time due to the skill progression, it takes a long time due to the fact that I'm still fighting Wolves and Bandits. Whom I can one hit pimp slap.

That in its self is not a problem.

Its the frequency at which I encounter them. I seem to be able to run for days and fight maybe a half dozen enemies.
Upping the difficulty is a non event as spending an hour hacking away at a Bandit isn't my idea of fun.

Has anyone else noticed that the tundra is just about devoid of life?
And most caves/ruins for that matter.

Cheers, Soop.

they put in a lot of random encounters because when oblivion came out people were complaining that there were too few...

in my opinion it makes exploring a little less boring than it was in older TES games.

The old orc was meaningful even though it was a short encounter
As for random baddies, progress further in the MQ and you'll bump into random dragons more...wander the cold north and you'll encounter the stronger ice/frost version of things.

If you're not encountering many wild things then you're wandering the wrong area

If you Fast Travel, you miss most of the Random Encounters.

However, even then, if you want to swing your weapon at things, you have to go into caves and dungeons.
Remember, this is not a First Person Shooter or a Zombie game, there are not waves of enemies to take on. This game is not about the battles, the battles are part of the game. If you explore the world, you will find plenty of things to play with.

Also... consider those caves/forts/ruins you stumble upon while wandering "random" encounters. I can't tell you how many times I meant to just poke my head into a "random" dungeon (i.e., one whose only motivation to enter is my own curiosity) but ended up emerging an hour later having gone up a level or two.

... Am I the only one who finds SabreTooth cars insanely Annoying?

I don't have a level 30 warrior mind you, but every time I have to deal with these things, I groan in disgust.

I seem to be the only one who really takes note of them.


As to meaningful encounters:
-Thalmor caravan
-Old orc
-Legion caravans
-Stormcloak caravans
-Random nobles
-Random walkers
-Dragons
-Bandits
-Assasins
-Guys who give you loot
-Khajit caravans


It's more than just wolves, spiders, and 1 misguided bandit.

Would be nice if we had more opportunities to do something OTHER than just kill people when we encounter them... but, as has been my point in the last 15 posts I've made: Thats what the creation kit is for

well, I encountered these too:
-people who asked me for health potions or cure disease potions
-an old woman who wanted me to use wabbajack on her
-a guy who looked hurt on the side of the road, I offered him my help and he led me to an ambush in a bandit camp, he was one of them
-cicero with a broken cart wheel looking for help
-a ghost at night, by following him I found his body and some loot near an altar
-a dead necromancer killed by his own skeletons
-fame bandits dressed as imperials asking for money (complete with dead naked imperials nearby)

maybe there's more, I just can't remember all the stuff going on in this game

fo3's random encounters were a lot better if you ask me

nope, if you ask me...

I forgot about this one. That was a good one.

Similarly, I found one like that, with nearby there being a small cemetery that had been dug up.

I hadn't seen a couple of those though.

Another random encounter I have come across is the dead guy they summoned a fire Atronach and it lilled him and burns his house down.

I enjoyed that one as I didn't see the dead imperials until after I dealt with the "bandits", great fun.

Sabe cats aren't annoying but boy do they add spice to the early game when you have to try and tippy toe around them, at night during a storm even more bowel loosening.

I too find the sabrecats and the bears to be very troublesome. Whenever I meet one with a lower level character I usually end up getting killed, reloading a prior save and going the other way to avoid them. Higher level characters just kick the snot out of them.

I wander everywhere and meet a lot of randomn encounters. My favorite is when two or three randomn encounters spawn close enough to interact with each other. Like when a dragon landed on a giant, and I rushed in to help and after killing the dragon the dumb giant turned on me. Well, I was not going to take that lying down, so I ran to some high rocks and started shooting arrows at the giant. Poor farmer wandered by and the marauding giant took him out with one swing. Then a Khajiit caravan wandered by and luckily, I killed the giant before he could kill all the poor defensless little kitties. But it was a close one. Then I traded my dragon bones with the Khajiit for speech training. Lots of interesting stuff can happen while you are wandering about.

There is also the Mercenary that wants to pawn his work off on you. If you tell him that you will help, he marks your map. Although finding that marker is next to impossible if you have explored any. I followed one once (without getting the marker) and he never seemed to get to where the trouble was

Head on up to the North coast and fight frost trolls, snow bears, and ice wraiths, if you're bored with bandits.

I can't agree that encounters are too rare. You can't take two steps near Riften without getting jumped by wolves.

If you want someone to level up on that you can't one hit kill, join the Stormcloaks or Legion and go take on one of the enemy encampments. The commanders are immortal and you can bash them until your arm gets tired.

Dose random encounters includes this alive or dead.

I have encounter something like http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r11/Gerza71/TESV2012-02-1412-53-27-86.jpg. I don't know that is included.

Wander around the Reach

I've been just about everywhere on the map several times. I don't usually fast travel either.

The Briar-heart are a good point - They do put up a good fight.

With this character I think I've seen the Thalmor about twice. They were more frequent in other games but not so much now.
I don't know whats going on with that, I've deliberately avoided the MQ until now. So unless it triggers more Thalmor encounters which would make sense.

I guess my main point is, regardless of location I only ever seem to encounter one or two enemies at once. Which is fine at low levels but It would be good if the spawn rates could increase in certain locations to make it feel a bit more... dangerous. Even if its not all that much more dangerous.

I ran into a legion war camp randomly while walking cross country. It was huge amounts of fun until I couldn't get away from the commander who JUST WOULDNT DIE. I fast travelled out of their finally leaving him and lydia next to each other taking turns "taking the knee" to one another.