So my level 4 party arrives in Arnika. Picks up Miles at the gates, saunters past the HLL hq, makes a right at the bank, and runs smack into a pair of level 22 Savant Minions and a squad of level 10 Savant Gunners.

Errr...time to reload, me thinks.

Actually, I tried to fight but there wasn't much point. :(

I've been in Arnika several times previously, but not for very long before restarting with a new party. Never before have I encountered such high level opposition. Did I do something to activate this particular encounter? Or was it merely a hiccup of the random encounter generator?

I have a save from right before I entered Arnika, but if I've done something unintentional that has caused these level 22 androids to appear regardless, there's not much point in going back to it.

Has anyone encountered this before?

Thanks in advance.

<=ST

yes. extreme encounters do happen occassionally. i'm sure someone who knows programming could tell you exactly why that is, but i'm not that someone.

it's rare, in my game. but really freaky when it DOES happen :D

if you wanted to reload and get any benefit from the reload, you have to leave the current map first and reload outside the area, and re-enter. that means going out past the phoonzang statue to where you get the "ok to proceed to arnika road?" sign. say yes and go out. reload out there and re-enter.

should be okay then. umm. i hope! [img]tongue.gif[/img]

V***V

Shouldn't your mini-map show you the presence of enemies in the vicinity as red dots? If you choose to round the corner and march right into their presence, you can hardly blame them, under the circumstances. The best way to deal with red dotted enemies in cities is to hover near the local guards. ;)

Trying to avoid them does not make them go away but leaving the map for a "day" and then going back worked for my party on Arnika-Trynton Road when faced with 2 Cultists and 6 Higardi Highwaymen that severely out-powered my party at level 7.

Just yesterday, my level 8 characters were surrounded by 9 Higardi Brigand, 2 Higardi Roustabouts and 2 Higardi Cutpurses in Arnika.

With the Brigands, I managed to outmaneuver them so that I only had to fight 5 here and 4 there (with the Roustabouts and Cutpurses as added fodder for my fireballs in one fight and the Higardi Patrol cleaning up what was left of them)...we would have never survived the two groups had we taken them all on at once, and, yes, having the patrols nearby does help, but not so much when you are out of offensive and healing spells! We snuck off to rest and when we exited the Inn, the other group of Brigands was still in the same spot waiting for us...the previously injured Patrols were still not completely healed! What was waiting for us before we could get back into the Inn to rest again? 4 Savant Henchmen!

~~fable~~

true.
however, the minimap doesn't show you how many (esp if its a big group, in which case its a red blob) NOR does it show you their level.

that's slowtrain's problem.

until it happens to you, you can't imagine how dreadful it is, esp when you assume that you're in an area that's relatively safe. as it was his first visit to arnika, how would he know?

i know when i arrived in arnika after that horrific trip down the arnika-trynton road, i was kissing the ground, jumping for joy and just completely relieved. until i ran into a group of savant guys, mixed in with a troop of HLL who were patrolling. i thought my heart was breaking.

i realized at that point, that there was NO safe haven in the world of dominus, until i made it so. i think this is the first game that has ever happened to me. in every other rpg i have played, there was always a safe place. inns didn't have baddies trying to kill you. nor did the city streets. maybe an odd encounter once in a great while, but not like dominus. ::sigh:: life on dominus is very hard and demanding.

V***V

I suppose the inverse is just as true, as I remember once my level 30 party was making a quick jog from the teleporter house to Arnika to sell Antone a bundle of equipment he couldn't dream of aquiring otherwise, and sure enough, lo and behold, I found a group of four bloodvines. For those who dont know, they are level 4.

Thanks for the responses one and all. [img]smile.gif[/img]

Turns out the encounter was completely random. I went back to my pre-Arnika save and next time there was no sign of level 22 enemies anywhere in the city.

I'm happy because after several weeks of building parties, I finally have one developed that is up to snuff. I would hate to have had to restart because I did something dumb that triggered and unfightable random encounter.

Thanks again.

<blockquote>quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by slowtrain:
I'm happy because after several weeks of building parties, I finally have one developed that is up to snuff.<hr></blockquote>

Can we quote you on that next time you re-start? [img]graemlins/showoff.gif[/img]

Actually the opposite happens to me often: I encounter 4 Cutpurses and a Sige more and more often with my level 25 party (In and around Arnika).

It nets 1200XP when my party members lacks 4.000.000 XP in average to reach next level. Geez!

Of course they are dispatched in one round, but half of the Arnikan population has to goof around in that bloody turn

This is one of the things about this game i like, in most other games the cities are a safe haven, but in arnika you really have to be careful. i have found that with a little thought strolling around arnika can be no problem. [img]redface.gif[/img] )