ENCOUNTERS & DUNGEON DESIGN

Funny I did the same thing. People complain when they have to fight. So that's why I opened up spaces to run around. Think of how Zelda 1 was so open.

1. No enemies with puzzles.
2. Give players a break from enemies.

Wow that avatar is really questionable.

I just want to say that I like the idea of dungeons with less encounters but more difficult ones. Like a bunch of small bosses?

Differing how encounters work even slightly can help provide different sensations. It's all part of creatively tweaking gameplay to better serve the setting and/or story.

Let's say you're using a random encounter system in general.

First Cave: You want to introduce the player to the game, so you have a few scripted "random" encounters that trigger in the first area with a basic tutorial. You present the player with the same enemies and maybe a single tougher one mixed in when they arrive at the second half of the dungeon, with real random encounters at a normal rate.
Murky Grotto: In this dungeon, the player has to rescue somebody from a sahagin prince. They tend to appear in packs and are known to be quick, so you bump up the random encounter rate but make the enemies fairly easy and simple, utilizing obvious archetypes. The player fights lots of weaker enemies - they're getting overwhelmed by the prince's abundant minions.
Catacomb of Empires: Here, the player has to defeat ancient guardians protecting an ancient weapon. You decide to make the random encounter rate very low with fairly weak enemies. There are a number of on-touch guardian minibosses scattered about, blocking your passage.
Travel Tunnel: You must get to the next town, but somebody let monsters into the underground highway! There are three segments of the tunnel, each with a spawning crystal. Defeating the crystals is like fighting minibosses, but with an added bonus of lowering the encounter rate - it goes from high to normal to low to non-existent as you clear out the crystals.
Isolated Ruin: Some monsters have crept into this decaying edifice, yet the knowledge inside is yearning to escape by your hands. However, there isn't really an ecosystem in place as monsters have just been waltzing in and not really settling down. After ten, twenty and thirty random battles, the encounter rate goes down a little bit, though not to the point of disappearing. You've simply cleared out most of the monsters that have nested there.
Labyrinth of Aznashi: Aznashi was a famous thief queen, recently deceased at the hand of the villain for harboring the heroes. You've fled into the labyrinth, a dungeon that has no random encounters whatsoever; you must be alert in order to dodge the traps that fill the queen's tricky maze and escape without running into the villain. Backtracking too much can lead you into a normal fight (not a miniboss) against some of the villain's goons.

post=calunio
I just want to say that I like the idea of dungeons with less encounters but more difficult ones. Like a bunch of small bosses?

I agree, I prefer engaging fewer battles, but having to struggle a little to win.

I have touch-based encounters in most my games. I make it so escaping a battle isn't very difficult at all, and after escaping a battle, the monster sprite is transparent for a few seconds, allowing you to sneak past with little effort.

Yeah, its not too hard to just find ways of varying encounter rates and difficulty.

And definitely no encounters during most puzzles, or at least make them easily avoided.

You should always be willing to adjust encounters based on other factors. Think about a game where the encounters are just way too frequent. You probably remember that as a major part of the game. Now think of games you really like. You probably haven't even thought about how many random encounters there are.

I also use items in my current project for statuses like invisibility.

-CM

Also should note that some of those event ideas doesn´t just serve to avoid battles but to give you an advantage on them. If you get a way to damage the enemies on map (like blasting some fuel barrels near soldiers) and you still engage them, they will start already damaged or even sufering from burning status.

Another cool thing I like is what Chrono Trigger does with funny encounters, like guys throwing stones at you, or those traps in the sewers where you even get a fake save point triggering a battle.

I like Craze's post just because it reminds me of my own game. For the first several hours of the game, each dungeon does random battles differently.

Opening Credits Forest
Yes, that's the actual dungeon name. Pure random battles. Very short tutorial dungeon.
Adamant Prison
You're travelling up a prison tower incognito. There are blocking battles in set locations. On the fourth floor (of seven total), you're discovered, at which point random battles appear on all seven floors. This means that it's now dangerous to backtrack. There are still also several more visible blocking enemies after this. This dungeon is also full of puzzles.
Pialid Castle - Outside
In a gauntlet-type event, you must fight a string of 12 successive battles with no chance to heal in between. The last one is a boss. However, all of these fights are optional. You can run away at any time and the gauntlet ends. The longer you last, the more time you have to complete the next dungeon. Originally this was endless until you ran away, but I added limit of 12 battles and a boss to make it feel like you achieved a goal (and to keep you from fighting 500 battles since you didn't know how much time you were going to need).
Pialid Castle - Basement
This dungeon has no random battles and is full of puzzles. You control two teams and can freely switch between them. All enemies are visible. Some enemies block the path forward but others merely block treasure chests. Getting to the end of this dungeon is unnecessary - you get a lot of sweet loot along the way but the entire thing is technically optional, and if you didn't spend enough time in the gauntlet outside, you won't get very far.
Rebel Camp Raid
Remember the moogle battle in FF6, and the battle to protect the esper later? This works like that. Touch encounter enemies walking across the screen, and you have to battle them all before any of them reach the end of the map.
Demonshade Island
Plain old random battles in this dungeon. Also in most of the other dungeons from here to the end of the game, because I started getting lazy at this point. Oh well. There's a nice war event later though, which is basically a series of about a dozen battles where you have a different team in each battle.

Go ahead.