So, I can't help but wonder what happened to random encounters since they don;t appear to be in NV. I hadn't noticed this until a week ago. I had been wondering about something that was in the back of my head but couldn't quite figure out what was missing in NV that had been in FO3. Then when I was playing my fifth charecter I encountered the guy with the bottle cap neckless event for the fifth time in the same place as I had every other time. I don't know whether theres a bug and thats why no encounters are random and happen at the same place, or if obsidian completly ignored a huge factor from FO3. The bottle cap neckless event seems like something that would be a random encounter except it always happens at the same exact place no matter what.

another event that seems like it should be random is where the caravan appears on the bridge (right out of no where I might add) and gets ambushed by legion recruits. So, is it just me, or are there no random encounters in NV.

You need the Wild Wasteland Trait to see the special random encounters.

yeah, i guess now that you mention it there really aren't many. I would be fine with it if Wild Wasteland actually added significant random encounters, but as of now it really doesnt add anything but the Holy Hand Grenades and the Alien Blaster, plus like 4 other things. sigh.

The thing is, they're not random.

True I am just used to calling them that.

Also not too wild by many peoples opinions.

There are a few strange things that crop up randomly without WW.

Head due north of NV and a nightkin may appear by a marked farm asking if you want to buy his wind brahmin.

Gourd is also one, but often gets killed by cazador', and as of yet I have found nothing about who, what or why he's in the game.
Other than he likes Cook cooks camp once it's empty.

Lastly many areas change after you visit then, not random but quite fun especially when they're not linked to any quests.

IdK maybe its because they didn't have time/space to add them in. I remeber seeing some where that an obsidian guy was saying that NV is just as big (memory space) FO3 only it had distributed alot more space with quests. And thats great, but the reason I miss random encounters is that they make each play through unique and as I was encounter the same events for the fifth time I was noticing that I was fairly annoyed to have to go through them again.

They aren't that wild or that many because the Devs got sick of the debate about having pop culture easter eggs (special random encounters) as seen in FO2. Only one dev fought to have wild wasteland. I forget which one.

There were a few pop culture (not moddern, at least not that I noticed,)

however, by random encounters I meant things like people fighting a weakened deathclaw, or a pack of dogs around a corpse carrying a key and a note to a free form quest, or a sick guy asking for water. Just to name a few from FO3. I don't mean that I want those one in NV as well but I was just pointing out the difference between WW events and random encounters.

And there are a few things in NV that would work as a random encounter, like the two I mentioned in my OP, only they would have to happen at a random* location so that they didn't happen at the same place at the same time.

*(For those who don't know, in FO3 the random events happened randomly at predesignated locations.)

True but as it was pointed out the encounters in Fo3 were not random (same with NV) but I do get your point.

New Vegas does have one guy in freeside that asks you to come over and see something. When you do its a body, some dialogue options and then you are attacked by a couple of people.

Shoot that rat those kids are chasing after they thank you. Not sure if that counts.

I'm happy that they are gone, I remember getting the same encounters over and over several times. I had one game where I had 4 keys to that hidden stash in the junk yard....

I greatly miss random encounters FO3 style, even if they weren't truly random.

Even though I knew of pretty much all of them, it was still fun to see when, where and if they occurred. For me, it added a bit of variety and replay value.

In FNV, when I first met the bottle cap guy, and saw the two scavengers killing each other for the star caps I thought "Yea! Random encounters are back!" I was disappointed to learn that it wasn't so.

I do believe FNV system encounters system is logical, you have certain area that are a certain monsters "territory" or you have an area controlled by a faction like the fiends.

I'm assuming it was just a design choice to not include random encounters, but I don't think it would hurt new vegas if they included em.

I like how it is handled in NV, namely: make NPCs/creatures patrol a certain route, sometimes 3 or 4 group would collide.

Best example is along 95, near the Legion camp, which Merchant, Legion, NCR and Nightstalker can engage in a 3-way chaos; or further east where gecko vs legion vs NCR Ghouls.

Abandon Farm house is also handled pretty well imo: Jackles come after you've search the carbine.

Yeah I completely forgot about that. It's just about the only thing I can think of that I miss from FO3, thought there were more random encounters in the originals.

We have lost the thrill of the "Firelance Moment" and that is sad.

-Gunny out.

What the "look around because you heard a near by explosion completely miss the dropping of the firelance and it's ammo so completely miss out" moment?

Oh man, I can't believe I forgot about those. Yeah, those things were the bomb.

Who pointed that out? because its false.
It was pointed out the NV encounters aren't random, which is true.

Fallout 3 had a number of locations where an encounter would be randomly selected. What you got would not be known ahead of time, maybe the wounded deathclaw and the gauntlet schematic, maybe the alienship exploding and dropping the firelance. Or maybe a guy trying to mug you with a broken gun. And some encounters required you do certain quests or commit certain acts before they could appear.

Really I never notice. Still even if there is a change in what you encounter you will still encounter something at that location so its not random. In the originals special encounters depend on your outdoorsman skill, karma/ reputation and your actions and even then you may not encounter them.