One thing I don't like about Fallout 3 is how the raiders and slavers don't ever re-spawn... or at least not in my game. I cleared out Paradise Falls and no one has come back, cleared out springsdale school, no one returned... it gets boring after a very short while... don't you guys hate this as well or is it just me?

Springdale? They come back At least the ones outside do. In fact, I think any outdoor enemies will respawn. It's the indoor ones that don't.

But, Fallout 3 has a ton of Random Encounters. Not sure if they are all set to never repeat (some are single instances)

http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Fallout_3_random_encounters#Wrath_of_the_AntAgonizer

Random encounters? I've never run into them, maybe because I fast travel almost everywere because it's borring to walk everywere, nothing to see in the FO games I find...

what kind of random encounters?

All kinds of random encounters, and most outside enemies repsawn, as mentioned. so theres plenty of gun fights out there. How far are you in the main quest? I like to reach the point where the Enclave show up, and then they set up patrols across the wasteland. Adds even more gun fights on top of the random encounters (triggered in specific spots sometimes) and raiders, beasts, etc. Its very rare in this game that you can walk far without running into something. And travel by foot a bit more, it adds to the game experience. You'll encounter more things.

Some NPC's do not respawn and from what I understand if a critical hit is scored with an energy weapon and they disinegrate, the victim will not respawn. There used to be a mod called Dandy's Replayability which did just that removed the disingration of energy weapon hits and also insured most NPC's falg to respawn was checked.

In the GECK for the NPC or Creature, one can select non spawning NPCs to respawn if desired.

Correct, any Raiders outside in the Wasteland will respawn. And there are some interiors that do as well, though I'm not certain if any of them have Raiders in them.


While most are single instance, there are some that do repeat. I can't think of which they are offhand.

You've encountered them, you just didn't realize what they were. Many of the random encounters get triggered before you can reach the map marker you can use in order to fast travel to that location. As for what kinds, there's all sorts of them. Too many to list. Some are harmless but others will get you way over your head early in the game.

You're missing out by not walking. There is so much out there that you will never see by fast travel. I fast travel too a lot but I also walk. There are so many random encounters out there,