Random encounters galore!
I was exploring the wastelands with Jules, and by "exploring" I mean following the dunderhead as he traipsed obliviously through one ambush after another, and noticed that the random encounters were significantly more numerous on Survival than on Very Easy. This video demonstrates one area that seemed to never disappoint when passing through it with Mr. Magoo leading the way.
I suppose a quick explanation on how I came to this conclusion is in order since it isn't verified by Bethesda and could just be a matter of extreme coincidence, so here goes.
I ran through the same region 12 times while escorting Jules to Bunker Hill and noticed that there were random encounters 100% of the time along certain routes when playing on Survival mode whereas there were random encounters 0% of the time while playing on Very Easy mode. I also received 50% more caps for persuading Fred to let Jules live on each Survival mode run than I did on each Very Easy mode run, another noteworthy observation.
I ran through the same region 12 times while escorting Jules to Bunker Hill and noticed that there were random encounters 100% of the time along certain routes when playing on Survival mode whereas there were random encounters 0% of the time while playing on Very Easy mode. I also received 50% more caps for persuading Fred to let Jules live on each Survival mode run than I did on each Very Easy mode run, another noteworthy observation.
Test
- I created a new save in the concord just before I initiated the encounter with Jules, Fred, and Angie (check out my other video on that subject if you haven't already).
- On Survival difficulty I followed him NE until we came upon the railroad tracks featured in the video. I encountered heavy resistance through the choke point (various enemy and NPC groups, see "Results").
- I loaded the recently created save file and repeated the process 3 more times changing the time of day every other time by 6 and then 12 hours to see if different encounters would trigger.
- I reloaded the save file, switched the difficulty mode to Very Easy, saved the change, and rebooted the PS4.
- Loading the save file I repeated the process above 6 times.
- I repeated step 4 and changed the difficulty back to Survival.
- I repeated the process 2 more times to see if anything had changed now that the system had been rebooted again and the difficulty mode changed back.
Results
- Excluding the mole rat that was present at this location during all 12 runs, Very Easy had 0 random encounters whereas Survival had 11 different randomly spawned groups of NPCs/enemies. These encounters consisted of
- 1 group of raiders escorting a vault survivor;
- 1 group of raiders escorting a vault survivor + 1 group of super mutants;
- 1 group of ghouls with a glowing one + 1 group of super mutants; and
- 1 group of ghouls with a glowing one + 1 group of super mutants + 1 group of neutral NPCs wearing power armor (what a cluster that turned out to be);
- On Very Easy mode I encountered a Legendary Black Bloatfly in the woods along the way to the railroad tracks, conversely on Survival mode I didn't encounter any Legendary creatures in this region.
As I said perhaps this is just a big, big coincidence but I suspect that in addition to Legendary encounters, random encounter rates also scale with difficulty level. I also encountered far more groups of raiders, ghouls, and stingwings on my way to Bunker Hill (escorting Jules, read my previous blog about it here) on Survival than I did on Very Easy (same route).
Experiment on your own and leave a comment on your discoveries!
Experiment on your own and leave a comment on your discoveries!
"Jay has been a freelance IT specialist for 20 years with a focus on user support and troubleshooting for PCs, laptops, and mobile devices running Windows and Android operating systems. I also- uh, Jay also has a BS in-" crap, I broke third person narrative. Screw it. I graduated with my BS in Software Engineering in 2011 and have been gaming since I was 4. I'm also handsome and awesome.
