It would be really cool if we had a map to show where all the random encounters are! Does someone know how to do that?Tehuberleetmaster 01:41, 13 June 2009 (UTC)
I have access to the Prima guide of Fallout 3 and it has the map divided into certain sections and they have little stars on them that donate areas where random encounters can occur. If I had the big map to look at, I could pinpoint them for everyone.KnightNapier 15:23, September 2, 2009 (UTC)
Random Encounters vs. Scripted Encounters[]
Upon reading some of the items on this list, it appears someone is adding things like the Grayditch/Fire Ants encounter, which is scripted, and will happen each time you are anywhere near Grayditch, though sometimes it will take time for the person to reach you, such as the Super Duper Mart, for the first time. This isn't random and should probably be removed, along with others like it. Jwguy 12:04, 18 November 2008 (UTC)
Script For Random Encounters[]
These are the scripted random events in the game script; I doubt anything else is a random event (please disprove). Number and naming is directly from script comments (sic):
1 ; man dying of thirst
2 ; settlers versus deathclaw
3 (no comment)
4 ; move marker
5 ; settlers want to get to hydrant
6 ; move marker
7 ; Chinese soldier with radio beacon
8 ; falling exploding UFO?
9 ; raider trying to mug player
10 ; robots that talk to each other
11 ; Scavenger on his way to loot Bigtown
12 ; Scavenger on his way to sell guns and ammo to Bigtown
13 ; MS02 Post Quest: child asks player for signature
14 ; MS11 Post Quest: Burke's hitman attack the player
15 ; MS11 Post Quest: Megaton Settlers attack the player
16 ; Dead guy with treasure note
17 ; MS15 Post Quest: Sydney attacks the player
18 ; Raider initiation rite
19 ; people trying to disarm mine
20 ; MS10 Quest Encounter: Oasis Merchant
21 ; MS16 Quest Encounter: Amata and Enclave
51 ; cannibals selling meat
52 ; cannibals part 2
53 ; sniper
54 ; human bomb and raider ambush
55 ; guy fleeing from Grayditch
56 ; MS18 post quest: Donovan fleeing from super mutants
57 ; MS16 post quest: Susie Mack
58 ; mad brahmin herd
51 ; Unique Outcast patrol
52 ; Raiders vs. Outcast patrol
53 ; reset variables
54 ; Tinker Joe -- unique NPC
55 ; Slavers
56 ; Slaves fleeing from slavers
57 ; Slaves escaped from slavers
58 ; Technology scavenger looking for a car
59 ; Raiders attacking a scavenger, with a robot buddy
60 ; Raiders attacking some wasteland settlers who are fleeing
61 ; patrolling pack of dogs
62 ; patrolling enclave eyebot
63 ; hunters looking for prey
64 ; Talon Company patrol
65 ; Enclave patrol
66 ; Uncle Leo
67 ; Enclave patrol vs. Outcast patrol
68 ; Super Mutant attacks Wastelanders
69 ; MS06 Post Quest: Escaped Slave Looking for Temple of the Union
70 ; MS02 Post Quest - AntAgonizer attacking wastelanders
71 ; Enclave patrol dropped off by vertibird
72 ; Enclave patrol vs. Talon Company
73 ; scavenger on patrol, with Brahmin
74 ; fire ants
75 ; cannibals -- repeat
76 ; Talon Company patrol
78 ; brahmin herd
79 ; hit squad
80 ; Outcast patrol
1 ; ants versus radScorpion
2 ; ants gather around toxic waste barrel
3 ; radscorpions kill traveller
4 (radroaches and body? no comment)
5 ; scavenger in his camp
6 ; wasteland doctor
7 ; pack of dogs guarding a body
8,9 ; hunters
10 ; Enclave eyebot being salvaged by scavenger
11 ; people listening to eyebot
12 ; dead guy
13 ; minefield
14 ; MS12 Post Quest: Angry Ghouls
15
16 ; MS10 Quest Encounter: Oasis Pilgrims
17 ; MS13 Post Quest: Hitmen attack player for being a Slaver
18 ; MS13 Post Quest: Slavers attack the player for being better than them
19 ; supermutants with captives
20 ; camped ghouls
21 ; chem vendor in his camp
22 ; molerats attack wastelander
23 ; MS03 -- bad survival guide
24 ; MS03 -- medium survival guide
25 ; MS03 -- good survival guide
26 ; MS16 -- dead vault 101 residents
27 ; hit squad
I made statistics a separate heading because I have found random encounter sites are randomized differently. In addition to specific quest triggers, there seems to be other factors, possibly just designer whim regarding the range of encounters they want you to have at any given "geographic" location. Each site seems to have a high probability for one or two specific types of encounters, but they are not necessarily the same kind of encounters. Some have a more limited range of possible encounters than others.
Although karma and quest status will determine the presence of some of these spawn types, most encounters will probably be common to everyone's experience when they trigger it. I listed the full range of possibilities of a couple sites, (maybe more to come later). If anyone out there happens to go to these specific sites and encounters something not listed, please note it somewhere. Also mention your karma and quest status in case the spawn is biased by those triggers. --Ari Solis 19:18, 8 January 2009 (UTC)
Random Encounter Stats: VAPL-84[]
VAPL-84 Random Encounter Site ... a yellow arrow points to the spot
I ran 235 spawning runs at one "random encounter" site just NW of VAPL-84 power station (next to the overturned barrel). What that means is I quicksaved the game just before crossing the trigger zone for the spawn. I then quickload the game after triggering and making note of the random encounter. Each time the game is quickloaded, I can retrigger the spawn site for a new (but occasionally the same) spawn. I then simply record each type of spawn as it occurs and note how many of each type of spawn occurs. Repeatedly.
The trigger zone radius for this site is just beyond the power line support pylon going in the direction toward Tennpenny Tower in the screenshot. About 25-30 running paces. My Character is level 20 and has finished the Wasteland Survival Guide, the Big Town Quest, and many of the weapon quests (custom or otherwise), but very little of the main quest line (still on Scientific Pursuits). I have good karma for these runs. Here is the probability of the events I encountered there:
Vendors:
17.0% Scavenger in Camp (near a burning oil barrel)
Appearence, sex, race, inventory are completely randomized each time, and the companion besides the Brahmin is either a dog or Yao Guai, but they are always huddled around a burning oil drum.
1-3 Hunters can spawn and various prey types, from vicious dogs, mole rats, or giant ants. Other locations may have a wider range of prey, such as Yao Guai.
01.3% Scavenger Scavenging a Robot
Turns hostile if you loot anything near him, including any wild Yao Guai you may have just shot. Or his dog killed by local wildlife. Also, if your cursor sight lingers to long over something he claims, he will become hostile, (even if you loot nothing). He is very touchy.
If you add up the percentage of times scavengers appear to buy or sell things, when you approach a random encounter spawn site, you get about a 30% chance of being able to unload some junk you have been carrying around and stocking up on ammo. Hunters actually are not great for this purpose because they neither sell ammo nor do they have a decent amount of cash, usually only carrying about 25-50 caps on them...hardly enough to lighten your load much.
Other types of Random Encounters:
20.9% Wastelander Rescue vs. 2-5 Mole Rats (possible reward)
The Wastelander who spawns almost never survives and usually is dead at the spawning spot, although if resurrected via the console will still give you a reward. The only time the Wastelander will survive is if only 2 Mole Rats spawn with him and the Wastelander can enter a fleeing mode before getting any critical hits. That happens about half of the time when it spawns with 2 Mole Rats and never when more than 2 Mole Rats spawn. That means for all types of spawns from 2-5 Mole rats, you will overall never see better than a 20% chance to save the Wastelander, and your quickness strongly determines the extent of success after that. The rescued Wastelander rarely gives more than 4-16 caps, - I think I have seen it go above that only once or twice, so it may be for the best they usually die. They are pretty weak.
WSG (Mole rat, Subdued Fan, no reward): When you see a fan by a mole rat, they will not be as overwhelmed by your presence as the other type of fan, simply thanking you with no tangible reward besides the contentment from being appreciated. There are two versions of this spawn, so I listed the probability separately since the rewards are different. How your character resolved the WSG quest may influence the probability for the different kinds of encounters here. This appears to be the "MS03 -- medium survival guide" internal quest mentioned in the script list above.
The probability for this encounter alone for my character was: 5.1%
WSG (Mirelurk, Excited Fan, reward possible): The fan killing a weakened Mirelurk, although occasionally dying from the final skirmish, when humbly approached will only reward you around 10-15 caps, but if you act like a god and suggest a tithe, will gladly fork over 25 caps. This appears to be the "MS03 -- good survival guide" internal quest listed above in the script list.
The probability for this encounter alone for my character was: 4.3%
05.5% Wastelander or Raider & 2-5 Vicious Dogs (no reward)
This spawn superficially resembles the Wastelander Rescue spawn except they always spawn destined to die, and even if resurrected will never offer a reward. In fact, about a third of the time the spawn is not a Wastelander, but a Raider who would be hostile to you if you resurrected him. The spawn can be easily distinguished from the Wastelander Rescue type because the attacking creatures are vicious dogs rather than mole rats. At other locations, such as the Ft. Independence site listed below, a wider range of Wasteland creatures may spawn for this type of encounter, including Giant Radscorpions and Giant Ants.
Dead Scavenger with misc. loot: this spawn is randomized between misc. loot types with one type being the Fat Man. I separated the odds here because most people will probably want to know their odds of getting the Fat Man, not a chinese pistol. The misc. loot spawn however is still good, as he always has massive amounts of loot on him if he doesn't have the Fat Man. For some reason the dead body will sometimes bounce away from the spawn drop, so you may have to do a perimeter sweep. Chance of getting only misc. loot: 1.7%
Dead scavenger with theFat Man: Other encounter sites may have better odds. Chance at getting the Fat Man: 1.7%
The NPCs here have unique ref ids: 32110 and 32111 for the ghoul settlers, and 32113 and 32112 for the escaped slaves. Settlers and Slaves have similar dialogue toward you and it doesn't matter which side prevails. No bad karma either way.
...a unique NPC (ref id:a0a4d) that has the unique "Chinese Jumpsuit" with +5% small guns skill. Possibly useful early on, but only a rag after a few levels.
As my character moves further into the storyline I may trigger additional random encounter types which I have not yet run into, but for those near the start of the quest, this is the existing spawn type from one spawn site. Next one I find with something different I will list it. --Ari Solis 01:51, 31 December 2008 (UTC)
Random Encounter Stats: Fort Independence North[]
This is a remote random encounter site that is not near any map marker, but can be found more or less in-between the map markers for Vault 101, Fort Independence, and Jury Street Metro Station. The easiest way to find it would be to follow the main road due north out of Ft. Independence until you reach the "Captain Cosmos" billboard. It is just beyond the billboard in a gully with a wrecked trailer, near a pile of tires (see screenshot). I did not see it listed on the GECK dump in the main article. This spawn site was interesting because it spawned a wider variety of random encounters than the one at VAPL-84 power station.
I have not advanced much in the game since the last "statistics" post. At level 20, the only advance of the main quest line has been to escape the Jefferson Memorial and escort Dr. Li's group to the Citadel. Nevertheless, that step did cause a number of other random events to begin to occur in the game such as Enclave roadblocks all over the place, and the presence of drop ships flying overhead to deposit roadblocks and other Enclave sentry spawns. It isn't clear if making it into the Citadel has triggered any changes in the standard random encounter sites, however. I still have good karma.
Approach to a wilderness encounter site
At this site, 6 new types of spawns occurred compared to the VAPL-84 site: Wasteland junkie, Talon Company mercs, Radioactive Barrel with 2-4 giant ants, Scavenger heading to Girdershade (Nuka-Cola Quantum vendor), Friendly Giant radscorpion vs. 1-3 Giant Ants, and Wasteland doctor. Also, the "Wastelander vs. viscious dogs" type of spawn appears to have an expanded predator list now, including radroaches and radscorpions. --Ari Solis 02:59, 8 January 2009 (UTC)
I ran 243 spawning runs. I separated vendor types of spawns from the others since they are pretty useful in the wilderness. The final spawn that became part of my actual game forward was the Quantum scavenger. I mention this because I want to see if taking a spawn in one encounter site will affect the availability of it later in another site. Here is the percentage breakdown of the results in order of probability:
01.2% Refrigerator, 2 Wastelanders vs. 1 Giant Radscorpion (8 purified water given)
00.8% Refrigerator, 2 Wasteland Ghoul Settlers vs. 2 Escaped Slaves (10 purified water given)
Contributed by WilliamthePitt: I just ran 30 reloads of this encounter and on the last re load I finally got the exploding UFO. However most of the time, I had met the wastelanders who are on their way to Oasis, with Talon Co. being the second most popular. I got one instance of the Chinese Commando and 1 instance of the refrigerator with water.
Random Encounter Stats: Greyditch West[]
This remote site is W of Greyditch, approx. (11.2, 14.1) using the Fallout 3 map coords. There has been no advance of any quest since the last statistics entry, just random exploring and hunting, and there has been no change in karma, - it's still good. This site is unusual because it occurs on the 2nd floor of a bombed-out buildng, and you have to climb stairs to reach it.
Since I took the Nuka-Cola Quantum vendor spawn as my final choice in the last encounter site, I thought it interesting that the Quantum scavenger did not appear at all in this one. All other previous types were represented however, minus the Quantum scavenger. There were no new types of spawn. It's possible some sites are scripted to limit the types of spawns, but I am wondering now if there is also a respawn timer that also prevents the taking too many of one type of spawn. I will test this idea by taking another common spawn at the end of this statistics run, but a spawn which gives a fairly specific and unique quest, such as the Deathclaw vs. Wastelanders (rescue). I will see in a later statistics run if the Deathclaw spawn will not occur, or not occur as frequently.
I also still have not resolved how long it takes the random encounter site to reset so it can be retriggered for a new encounter. I believe it does reset after awhile since I remember passing this site at the very beginning of the game, finding a scavenger in camp. When I approached it today many game-days later, it had reset so I could get a new random encounter. However another site which I had triggered within the last 24 game-hours had not yet reset.
Found in a gully due south of Vault 108, with the Robot Repair Center also seen to the north. From the location you can also see the Yankee Bravo Radio Tower and Corvega Factory in westerly directions. Since I posted the last random encounter stats, I have stumbled on a couple more random encounter sites, but unfortunately had not saved the game recently prior to triggering their spawns. As a result, I could not get statistics for them, but one triggered spawn was the "radioactive barrel and giant ants", the other was the "wasteland junkie". I mention those spawns because they seem to provide a clue to the frequency of the types of spawns in this new random encounter site.
As mentioned before, I had noticed that once a spawn was encountered, it tended to fall off in it's probability of reappearing in a subsequent random encounter. For example, both the Girdershade Quantum scavenger and Deathclaw encounter no longer appear in new spawns after encountering them in a prior random spawn. I also noted two random sites above which I blew through by accident, and did not collect stats on. Consistent with my prior observation, those particular spawns also do not appear in this new encounter site, (which I provide stats on below).
Continuing my test of this observation, I took the most common spawn from this site as my final run, the Wastelander who rewards you for saving him/her. My current theory is that some encounters that have useful repeat value, such as vendors, will eventually respawn, but then may again go into statistical "hiding" for a period. Other encounters which have no particular repeat value, such as the Rock Creek map (weakened Deathclaw) spawn, may simply become increasingly frequent until the player actually receives the map, then it will disappear more or less forever. The Wastelander-Reward spawn I suspect will not be as common for awhile, but since it has continuing usefulness, it will eventually begin to respawn after some period of game time.
As mentioned before, the reset timer for some of these appears to be over 24 game hours. Moreover, the encounter site itself also resets in some lengthy (over 24 game hours) period. There have been mentions of other types of scripted encounters recurring in 72 game-hour cycles, so maybe that's also the threshold for random encounters. Another possibility is that the reset trigger is some combo of both time and distance, in other words you have to leave some defined map area plus let elapse some amount of game time. As it is, I also have noticed the spawns can be triggered very close to the spawn site, as long as your character has no sight line to the spawn site, (it must be behind a clipped area). So perhaps map distance and ray tracing are also involved, in addition to game time.
Note: My karma has slipped to "Neutral" since the last stats report, and presumably that is why no Talon Mercs were experienced at this site. Also, no advance of the main plotline has occurred since the last stats report, as I have only been looking for random encounter sites.
This site is easy to find, it is on the front sidewalk of the Robot Repair Center. A ring of six grocery carts surrounds the spot, below a number of window banners that say, "Everything must GO". Almost no game time has elapsed since finishing the last encounter site (vault 108), and karma is still neutral (no Talon Mercs).
Consistent with my prior theory, the last encounter taken (Wastlander in need, offering a reward) did not appear statistically in this new encounter. Therefore I am more confident to say that taking an encounter makes it unavailable in the future for a period of time, causing other types of encounters to become more common.
Because I have spent little game time running from one random encounter site to another, as you can see, more and more encounter types have completely disappeared statistically. However, based on what I remember from the start of the game, some of those encountered do return again at some point. So I suspect there is some timer for the recycling of encounter types, but I don't know what it is, yet.
The final encounter taken to continue the game was the most common statistically: "Wasteland Survival Guide: subdued fan, no reward". So presumably, in the next random encounter site, this last encounter should not appear at all, if a new site is triggered within a brief amount of game time.
Random Encounter Stats: Canterbury Commons North[]
This site is deep in a gorge positioned just north of Canterbury Commons. Again, almost no game time has elapsed since finishing the last encounter site (vault 108), and karma is still neutral (no Talon Mercs). Probably less than a game hour has elapsed since the last statistics site run at the Robot Repair Center nearby.
Consistent with my running theory, the last encounter taken (Wasteland Survival Guide: Subdued fan vs. Mole Rat, no reward) did not appear statistically in this new encounter. Therefore I am even more confident to say that taking an encounter makes it unavailable in the future for a period of time, causing other types of encounters to become more common.
Moreover, it looks like as soon as an encounter is experienced and subsequently removed from the list of possible encounters, the remaining encounters are randomly given weighted values for their probability to occur in the next random encounter. The steps in probability an encounter occurs at any given site suggests a stepped weighting system, like 0 to 5, so anything with a zero will not occur at all, 1 will occur rarely, up to 5 which will may occur up to a third or more of the time. As far as I can tell, the weights are randomly assigned, with no guiding priciple since a site may suddenly emphasize one encounter even if it was rare in the last one, and one that was fairly common may drop down to being rare, (but not non-existent).
As mentioned before, I also suspect there is some timer for the recycling of encounter types after they have been taken, but I don't know what it is, yet. Many that had been taken at some early point in the game are reappearing now in the encounters I've run into.
The final encounter taken at this was the most common statistically: "Wasteland Survival Guide: Excited fan vs Mirelurk, reward". So presumably in the next random encounter site, this last encounter should not appear at all, if a new site is again triggered within a brief amount of game time.
Do some random encounters only happen at specific locations? At the Anchorage War Memorial, I kept reloading my saves after each encounter and I only got a select few (most of the time it was the ants around a toxic barrel). Then I went to the location south of Megaton and got a different set. I'm wondering if some random events are only triggered at certain random event locations. P.S. Most of the time I only get the ants around the barrel event and it's really annoying. 68.112.143.25 03:51, 15 December 2008 (UTC)
It seems to have "trigger fields" in G.E.C.K. (editor) for when they appear. But once they've appeared, they seem to be registered to the game (even if you weren't close enough to activate them). Mirar (Talk) 15:17, 19 December 2008 (UTC)
Sorry, but I'm not sure I get it. 68.112.143.25 01:50, 22 December 2008 (UTC)
The main article discusses this. There are fixed locations where random encounters may occur. When you approach one of these locations you will step into a trigger field, upon which the game chooses which encounter you're going to find there. Think of the trigger field as the area in front of an automatic door at a supermarket; when you step into this area, the door opens. If you have saved near one of these locations but have not stepped into the trigger field, you can save/reload the game to re-roll for a different encounter. --Banz 02:03, 22 December 2008 (UTC)
I get that part, what I don't get is why for instance, at the Anchorage War Memorial, I might get the raider initiation or ants only, and at the Megaton location I might get Sam Warrick or the hunters selling Strange Meat only. 68.112.143.25 04:20, 22 December 2008 (UTC)
My guess is that certain locations only accommodate certain events, combined with certain events having a significantly higher probability than others. If you have a low luck score, you don't stand much chance of getting the more "flavorful" encounters. Alternatively, you've already locked in a certain encounter, and those particular locations aren't going to change in that game. --Banz 05:07, 22 December 2008 (UTC)
O.K. thanks for the help. I never thought that luck would have figured into your random encounters. I thought it was just random, because they are random encounters after all. 68.112.143.25 22:05, 22 December 2008 (UTC)
I am not sure luck plays much of part in it. I experimented with one random encounter zone, and it always spawned a random encounter, in the exact same spot, producing various NPC encounters as well as item spawns, such as the 4 frag grenades. BTW, if you do see a dead wastelander surrounded by a number of critters like mole rats or vicious dogs, the dead wastelander probably marks the spot of one of those random spawn zones, the "ground zero" as it were. Likewise the 4 frag grenades, the stationary scavenger next to a burning barrel, or Dead Chinese Commando, will spawn over the exact center of the zone as well. Knowing this will help you mark the spot, and help improve the accuracy of the location list for these encounters. The Dead Chinese Commando spawn is particularly useful because the sudden appearence of the radio beacon helps mark the boundaries of the zone so you can tell how far away you can be from the zone center before it spawns a random encounter. Interestingly, I found the diameter of these zones to be smaller than I expected, appoximately 25 running paces. Less than the visual fade distance for other NPCs and critters. If you are in a good spot with clear sight lines to the center point of the zone you can actually watch the spawn occur. --Ari Solis 01:48, 30 December 2008 (UTC)
All right, I have some new information. I stumbled upon the random event between Clifftop Shacks and Oasis. While there, I encountered Slavers escorting Slaves and Sam Warrick. Both of them I've never found before. So that settles it. It's the location that counts and not your luck. I believe this should be added to the article. 68.112.143.25 23:49, 6 January 2009 (UTC)
Hello, anybody there? 68.112.143.25 03:30, 12 January 2009 (UTC)
Other Encounter Experiences[]
Exploding Deathclaw ?[]
Usually i try to capture my random encounter trials on film, but i wasn't filming when i got this one. I think i was walking south of the Yao guai tunnels, when i saw a Deathclaw and 2 or 3 Yao guai fighting. I watched in the distance for a little, and after the Deathclaw finished off the Yao guai, he started running to me. I pulled out my gun, but when i did he stopped running in front of me and just sat there. His name was still red though, like he was an enemy. Suddenly, he just explodes. Now, i've had the random encounter where some guy comes up to you and asks you to help him, and then he explodes, and this was very similar to that, but with a Deathclaw. I tried to reload my last save which was miles away, but i got lost and couldn't find the exact spot. Has anyone else experienced this, or am i the only one ? Oh, and the strange thing was i had both Jericho and Charon, but neither of them shot the Deathclaw. Nevertheless, this is probably the strangest encounter i've had so far.
7/3/09
-banananutmuffen (Xbox 360)
do you have broken steel cuz its a thing you get during the mission progress Totemtrouser 03:25, 26 August 2009 (UTC)totemtrouserTotemtrouser 03:25, 26 August 2009 (UTC)
Strange Encounter[]
One time I was Looking at the crash site Of the Ailen and Some how and how god knows the Ailen rose up and Begin to beat the hell out of me for taking the ailen blaster and then A Death claw came and Kills the ailen and Runs away And i chase it and it dissappers and then Later on it comes back ans walks up to me and i run and it chases after me Like its Playing Hide and seek I think thats one nice Death claw. Bar27262 17:38, 18, April, 2009 (UTC)
Even Stranger Encounter[]
I was on my way to Fort Banniaster, after just killing the Super Mutant behemoth at the wrecked Train cars, and I saw a red line indicating there was some sort of Hostile in fornt of me, from the distance I could see it was a Super mutant, but it was either attack something, in a conversation with it, or something. I couldn't get a clear look at what the thing was the super mutant was with, but when I got close and Charon yelled "Shoot it!", this thing the super mutant was involved with Shot straight up into the air and disappeared. As if it had clipping turned off and just removed itself form the map. I don't know why, I don't know if it was a glitch in my PS3, I don't even know what it was (it looked like a Deathclaw from a distance, kinda...), but I'm just pissed that I didn't use a sniper rifle to get a closer look, VATS, or Shoot the thing to loot it's corpse. Does any one know what it might be? I checked the list of random encounters/Unique Encounters and couldn't find anything. Has anyone else enountered this thing before? It's all happened southeast of Fort Bannister, about dusk. Really. Weird. JYHASH
This is a glitch; it was just a common enemy. This has happened to me twice:
• In Georgetown, when I sniped the Super mutant master that was on the balcony near the car lot, he flew up into the air and disappeared. I watched it through the scope, and saw him very unrealistically fly upwards. I heard a sound behind me as I neared the area, to find that he had dropped / appeared on the ground again.
• Near Anchorage War Memorial I sniped two Centaurs; one fell dead and the other flew into the sky (I never found the corpse).
I think this is a rather common glitch, like the twitching inanimate objects / corpses that seem to be everywhere. - Fembot G.g3 06:09, 27 February 2009 (UTC)
As above. Not encounters, but glitches. So far I have only seen it with Deathclaws. One funny one was where an NPC decided to attack a Deathclaw with his fists, me thinking he is dead, but first punch and the deathclaw rockets skywards. I have seen this happen at a distance with no apparent interaction at all. I have a screenshot of Charon and Sticky leaning back targeting an ascending Deathclaw.
Firelance Conditions?[]
Are there any conditions that the player has to meet, such as having a particular quest (or quests) completed, before this random encounter will occur? I've clocked in over 200 hours of play-time in Fallout 3 and I have yet to obtain Firelance, or even witness the UFO exploding. BrenMan 94 19:53, 18 May 2009 (UTC)
It can be obtained very easily in under 10 minutes...
1-Go very close to a place you have not yet discovered, make sure you don't go too close or you'll discover it.
2-Save the game just outside the discovery zone.
3-Go and discover the hidden place and see if you encounter the firelance event.
4-If you don't, load up the game you saved in step 2
5-Repeat step 3 and 4 until you get lucky...
6-Now you have the Firelance!
It took me 6 tries to get it, but don't be surprised if it takes you longer. People have said they went for up to 15 re-loads of the game before being lucky enough to get the encounter...
At the Super Duper Mart 100 seconds after leaving vault 101 level 2 it took me 104 attempts before I got the Firelance. Yet at WKML Broadcast Station level 2 I got it first time twice.--ThousandHoursFalloutThreeUK 20:15, 30 June 2009 (UTC)
Set to Blow[]
Outside the scrapyard, a Wastelander ran up to me and said raiders attached a bomb to his chest. I tried to disarm the bomb but I couldn't, and the man ran a short distance away before exploding. Is this scripted or random? I want to know because if it's random then it should be added to the list. It's a random encounter it can happen anywhere.-Dragineyz
Out of curiosity, what does it take to successfully disarm the bomb? I've had this same encounter appear a few times, and I have NEVER been able to save the poor schlep. (Don't have my stats loaded up, but I'm usually packing 10 Luck with explosives somewhere in the 70's.)--VwllssWndr 03:56, 13 March 2009 (UTC)
According to the Wastelander page, the skill required is 75, which seems to be true in my experience. But due to a bug, you can't ever disarm it on your first attempt. Instead, you have to talk to the wastelander a second time after you fail to disarm the bomb, which allows you to successfully disarm it if you have sufficient skill. It can be very hard to talk to the wastelander before he or she explodes, though, since they annoyingly run at full speed in a direction that almost always is away from you.--Mehbah 08:12, 13 March 2009 (UTC)
Also, what about the Alien ships that explode? Releasing Fire Lance and several rounds of alien ammunition? There is a random glitch in some areas where all the stuff falls under the game, it seems to only happen when you are near the north of the map by Oasis-Dragineyz --Clean Up 01:02, 29 December 2008 (UTC)
I was entering Scrapyard and a wastelander was running, I reached him and engaged conversation but he had no dialogue, I could only attempt to disarm or leave alone. I have 100 in explosives, science and repair. I sucessfully disarmed the bomb, killed the 3 raiders that were after the bombed-wastelander. Than, the wastelander became hostile. i killed him and when I trid to loot his body, there was a pop-up message saying i could rearm the bomb with a 10 seconds timer, leave it alone, rearm as a proximity mine or loot the body. Someone else experienced taht? x360
Brotherhood of Steel Outcast encounter[]
I was walking along the road that is just below you when you first exit the Vault (Vault 101), and I saw a BoS outcast, alone. I didn't see this mentioned anywhere and I would like someone to confirm it.
I had that encounter by the chapel between Big Town and Germantown, (usually there is a supermutant and a centaur patrolling this area, (approaching from Meresti train yard). I was preparing to approach the chapel, fiddled with my inventory, and begun to sneak over and kill off the supermutant and centaur, but couldn't see them. As I got closer I discovered them dead, and a very nearby, a single Outcast soldier who just said, "I wouldn't do that...", then ran off. In retrospect he might have thought I was going to pick-pocket him. It was the first time I had seen an Outcast soldier, and I wasn't even able to speak to his as he ran off so quick. A real WTF moment. ;)
Ive seen this in the same location too, look around and you'll find a corpse of another BoS Outcast and a bot corpose.
Codyz 08:30, 30 November 2008 (UTC)
At the Scrapyard?[]
I ran all around the Scrapyard five times and did not see any random encounters. I do see Dogmeat each time though in his usual spot, but he is scripted to show up there regardless. Perhaps it would become a random encounter if you have found Dogmeat by other means, but I have never encountered Dogmeat in random encounters. Can anyone confirm the location if there is one in the Scrapyard --Lord0din69 20:29, 30 November 2008 (UTC)
I found dogmeat just outside the Citadel when i was escorting dr li and the other back from project purity.
Has to be a glitch. There are no random encounters just outside of the citidel. --Rylasasin 19:59, 5 August 2009 (UTC)
Nevermind, I've found it. Or maybe this is a different one, but it wasn't IN the Scrapyard at all. It was outside the Scrapyard, more precisely its west of the main fenced gate entrance. Its near the rocks, if you keep walking west past the broken fence part of the front entrance. --Lord0din69 20:42, 30 November 2008 (UTC)
After doing a bit of GECK diving I have come to the conclusion that dogmeat is NOT a random encounter. Perhaps it was meant to be so at one time or was in earlier versions but was cut out. the supposed "Dogmeat encounter" does not appear on Unique Random Encounter lists A or B. Nor does it appear on Repeatable random encounter lists A or B. THere is no condition for making dogmeat appear. Dogmeat does not appear in any scripts related to random ecounters.
Its official: DOGMEAT IS NOT A RANDOM ENCOUNTER, AND CAN ONLY BE FOUND IN THE SCRAPYARD. If dogmeat appears in other places it has to be a glitch, as it's certainly not part of a random encounter. Tested with PC version 1.7 --Rylasasin 19:59, 5 August 2009 (UTC)
Wastelander of Death[]
I was doing the encounter where a wastelander had explosives on him and i had to disarm the. So of course i fail and he runs off so it wont explode in my face and then at that moment an outcast patrol happened to walk by. The wastelander ran into the patrol and BOOM!!! all of them killed and i was like lol WTF evil wastelander.
Freddie Gomez[]
I notice in the article, it says you may find Freddie Gomez dead near a Radscorpion. However, on his page, it says you may find him wandering in the wastes. Could it be possible that the person who added that only happened to find Freddie after wandering and being killed by the radscorpion? Can anyone confirm this to be repeating?
Seems likely, since it only takes a few hits from a radscorpian to kill a wastelander. I doubt Vault residents are much tougher.
Oddity regarding triggered event[]
Regarding the encounter behind the ruined house on the road to Germantown, near Paradise Falls. Coordinates (9.2,7.1) using the Fallout 3 map.
Is anyone else having troubles triggering this one when you run directly to the back of the house coming from Paradise Falls. I was pretty much walking in a south/southeast direction to the house, but it doesn't trigger the event. However, if I follow the road walking east, run into the broken down cars and an Enclave eyebot, then it triggers fine.
It seems like you need to find the Enclave Eyebot first, or run into those pile of broken cars before you can trigger the event. The pile of broken cars is west of the ruin house on the road. When you approach it seems to drop to the floor making a loud banging noise. Can anyone else confirm this, I'm playing on PC. --Lord0din69 01:59, 1 December 2008 (UTC)
Shrapnel?[]
I'm relatively new here but has anyone else encountered this? After having collared Flak for Strictly Business, I was traveling in the vicinity of the Washington Memorial (not the Mall, I was near the area with the crosswalk between the two office buildings) and got into a fight with some Super Mutants, (I had either Clover or Charon with me, though I'm fairly sure it was Charon) and suddenly Shrapnel ran up with a missile launcher and attacked the mutants. He was still essential astus and could not be killed, and was counted as an ally and/or neutral with green name, health and icon. Like NPCs in Oblivion, some may be knocked off their course and travel around the map. this may be what you experienced. (Not a random encounter, it is a glitch which can happen to all NPCs)
See article Shrapnel for more information about him becoming unmoored. This would not be considered a random encounter. Shadowlordkt 17:33, 9 December 2008 (UTC)
Shrapnel will go back to Rivet City and sell stuff to you when you free Flak. Flak won't talk to you though after you free him.
Slavers[]
Could somebody clarify how many people you need to enslave to get the random slaver encounters? The game has a tendency of saying large when really they mean an average amount. Either way, I've never had a slaver encounter, not sure how many you need to get to have one, and I've already a few past the original 4 for Strictly Business.cheap357@hotmail.com 22:14, 10 December 2008 (UTC)
Maybe it is time based. I enslaved Susan Lancaster only, just to get into Paradise Falls and lower my karma a bit, as I wanted to have neutral karma without resorting to mass murder, (petty theft gets tedious). I did the Big Town main quest and ended up with about 300 karma point more than I wanted. I went to a few raider haunts and enslaved at least 3, maybe 4 raiders. Grouse commented on how good I was at being a slaver when I returned for another collar. I suppose game time that might be 24 - 36 hour period. Several days later I get attacked by "Hitmen", (who just looked like wastelanders), carrying a contract reading "Kill that slaver! No one takes our friends and family without getting some Wasteland justice in return!". About 12 hours after that, I came across a group who were friendly on the HUD, but turned out to be upset slavers, who attacked me. I didn't find out if there was a karmic bonus or not for killing them, as Charon landed the final shot on all of them, (not that I wanted that bonus). FYI my karma was 25. It seems likely that the 4 targets in Strictly Business don't count toward triggering these events.
Do you mean the slavers escorting slaves? Because I've had an account where I didn't enslave anyone, and hadn't even been to Paradise Falls when I found a bunch of slavers escorting slaves, and I killed all the slavers and freed the slaves.CAW4 17:47, 2 May 2009 (UTC)CAW4
AntAgonizer[]
I ran into the AntAgonizer attacking some wastelanders just west of Grayditch, long after I had completed the quest by convincing the Mechanizer to step down. Has anybody else encountered this, or did the AntAgonizer actually chase some Wastelanders all the way to Grayditch? 68.73.83.135 00:28, 30 December 2008 (UTC)
I think the AntAgonizer appears randomly when she leaves Cantebury Commons
I've encountered her twice, near the car factory, (can't recall name), and somewhere closer to the city. She is neutral, but will turn hostile if you attack her ants.
It's a random encounter which can only happen if you complete The Superhuman Gambit with the AntAgonizer surviving and the Mechanist retiring/dieing. // Porter21U | T | C 13:57, 31 December 2008 (UTC)
Super Mutant Behemoth spawns[]
Although not repeatable as far as I know, nor random, they nevertheless are triggerable. The more interesting one I found was at the pile of box cars at end of the rails which emerge from Evergreen Mills. At the eastern end of the rails is a lone bit of loot in one of the overturned cars: a teddy bear in a caged shopping cart. Take it and the Behemoth spawns on the ridge to the east and runs down angrily to beat you over the head for taking it. LoL. A Giant Radscorpion usually also is running around chasing you as well.
It is not random at all. There are five super mutant behemoths in the game, and this is the fifth and last one. The only way to trigger him is to take that teddy bear. Unless you already knew, take great pride in knowing that you found the hardest behemoth yourself.--Timetogo 21:30, 3 January 2009 (UTC)
How do you mean, "fifth and last one."? I encountered this second, after the GNR one. You do not need to take the teddy bear to trigger its appearance. First time around I just opened the cage, and second time around I didn't open the cage. I think you just need to pass in front of the overturned bin where the skeletons are. If you happen to do the Searching for Cheryl unmarked quest you are given a clue as to why it appears. Having said that, no, it's not a random encounter, so this whole thread is redundant...
Human hunters[]
I assume this has happened to others.
I encountered 3 leather clad hunters hunting down a wastelander.
On speaking to them I was offered the strange meat, but already knew what that was about. I hung around for a bit and watched them as they lined up and began going through their drinking animations. It was amusing to watch them because they had basically lined up like a chorus line and I was hoping their drinking would sync so I could get a screenshot of them all tossing one back at the same time.
When the drinking routine had finished, one of them shouted, (to the other hunters), "Hey! Over here", then they all turned hostile and began hunting me down! ROFL!
Yes, I encountered these human hunters on my way to Arefu from Megton once. The strange thing is, I've only ever seen them attack beasts and not humans. I was also suprised to find out they don't reside near Andale. Anyone know anymore about these yanks?
Deathclaw family[]
This is a rare one this,during your travells in the waste land,you might find 5 death claws,which consist of 2 big ones and 3 small ones,sometimes theyre friendly,sometimes theyre hostile,alos,sometiimes they spawn inside a settlement ive witnessed them destroy
I don't believe this is a true random encounter. Once you reach a high enough level, Deathclaws become quite common throughout the Capital Wasteland, even in places where you wouldn't expect them. BrenMan 94 20:01, 18 May 2009 (UTC)
Yet, unlike Oblivion, the creatures in Fallout 3 are not leveled. So, Deathclaws would still be there even if you are a level 2. And yes, the Deathclaw Family, IMO, is a random encounter.
Stoned, dying wastelander[]
Only seen this once, and unfortunately near the beginning of my first play of the game, so I don't know the exact dialog. A wastelander random encounter at Meresti trainyard where he stood, swooning (as if mesmerized). Conversation included "the green" and "blackness coming" and other crazy comments. Mid-conversation after only one or two questions, he dropped dead, causing the conversation window to close. He didn't have anything particularly interesting, some wastelander trader gear. Perhaps somehow tied to Oasis?
The same thing happened to me. Some random "Wasteland Merchant" ran up to me near the Broadcast Tower KB5 and mentioned something about treeminders. After a small dialogue deal, he just sort of keeled over, and a Wasteland merchant note was on his persons. I already had a map marker to Oasis, so I don't know if that put Oasis on your Pip-Boy. Music Is Life. Live It Fun. Listen To Ska! 22:47, 21 February 2009 (UTC)
Escaped Slaves seeking Temple of the Union[]
I had the encounter with 3 slaves seeking out Hannibal Hamlin. After I gave them directions to the Lincoln Memorial, 2 kept walking while the one I'd spoken to - turned around and headed back. The encounter was at the Silver Lining Drive-In, and I decided to follow the one I talked with. He went south until he joined the caravan route near the MDPL Mass Relay Station...and walked all the way into D.C. only disappearing upon exiting Museum station and entering the Mall. I was expecting him to enter the Refugee's Tent at the Lincoln Memorial and vanish, but not quite. 220.245.186.240 05:41, 23 July 2009 (UTC)
Very Odd Enclave Encounter[]
Twice in my various character's adventures in the Capitol Wasteland, I have come across a solitary Enclave Soldier with standard Enclave Power Armor and Helmet along with a Laser Rifle and once with a Plasma Grenade. This would be fine and dandy but the only two times I have ever encountered this was before I had even began the main questline. As far as I know, the Enclave does not "invade" the Capitol Wasteland until after the Waters of Life quest. Could this some kind of disillusioned ex-Enclave soldier just trying to survive? Or is it something more sinister; an Enclave scout getting the lay of the land before the main attack? Your guess is as good as mine. I've only seen this in two places; the first was south of Megaton in front of a ruined house and a car driven off road, and just outside the Car Dealership behind the Water Tower. Also, the Soldier(at least in my experience) has always been hostile towards me. I wanted to know if anyone else has encountered this and, if so, are there any parameters that must trigger for this to occur.
It's a spawning bug, Enclave troops aren't scripted to show up until after the Waters of Life. Although, the scouting thing is a nice cover-up. Nitty 04:47, 19 August 2009 (UTC)
I see. I did think it was a random encounter because there is a random encounter zone near the car dealership. Thanks for clearing that up!
It was cooler for me. It was at night, and the fucker was up in a small hill. He fired a couple of shots and then disappeared. I like to think of that as the Enclave taking notice of my actions and sending a sniper to get me.190.17.41.208 22:22, 21 August 2009 (UTC)
I really got dealt the short end off the stick on this one. One of my characters had twelve encounters with the Enclave before I even reached level 8. It was nice to have 12 sets of Enclave power armor but being constantly harried by guys who could kill me in 7-8 shots is a tad annoying.--Mandalore IV 02:57, 30 August 2009 (UTC)
Broadcast Tower KT8: Easier way to Random Encounter site?[]
The direction given by the page is good, except one thing: Enemies.
First, The Broadcast Tower KT8 is home to numerous super mutants.
Second, I am not sure if Talon Company mercs are known to loiter on forked roads.
Sometimes I see three of them; sometimes I see five of them.
To complicate the matter, a secubot and an enclave soldier patrols the area.
Since the discussion page was getting so large, I added some organization to it, putting what appears to be more objective information toward the top under descriptive headers. I also separated editing suggestions from commentary about misc. encounters which may or may not be random. The "script" list at the top seems to a good guide to the random encounter types as it corresponds to the encounters I mapped statistically for two sites. I put the editing notes below which should hopefully catch all the questions and suggestions for editing changes. Remember that if you use double equal signs around your heading, ex, "==" <your heading> "==", then you will be putting your comment under whatever group heading is above it (which uses single equal signs) . --Ari Solis 19:02, 8 January 2009 (UTC)
Why were headers removed?[]
Why were the section headers that I had added in removed? The page now is a unorganized and difficult-to-read list as it was before; and people who don't read the whole list will start putting in duplicate entries again. Shadowlordkt 17:38, 28 November 2008 (UTC)
perhaps a distinction should be made between stationary random encounters like the wastelanders/slaves arguing over the fridge of water, and patrolling encounters like the slavers escorting slaves? Thousandfracture 23:08, 17 November 2008 (UTC)
I think thats a good idea. We should also discern between the encounters a little more, like maybe violent vs non violent encounters vs special encounters like Uncle Leo or the Firelance. Schizmoooo 23:31, 17 November 2008 (UTC)
Sounds like a good idea. Think I'll have a go at making it into more of a readable format and such 'later on' if someone doesn't take initiative. What I am thinking right now is dividing it into two major categorized for the stationary ones; hostile and non for starters. Seems like we have a few 'double' entry types too. Steelgaze 02:27, 18 November 2008 (UTC)
I wouldn't call the mad brahmin non-violent; it showed up red on the radar and chased me all the way to super-duper mart. I only encountered it with a low level character, so perhaps it's non-violent after a certain level? At the least you could call it 'potentially' violent. --97.81.77.13 02:25, 27 November 2008 (UTC)
Sorry about that, I've never encountered a mad brahmin before, so when I was categorizing the events, I guessed incorrectly that it would ignore you if you left it alone. I'll correct it. Shadowlordkt 20:40, 27 November 2008 (UTC)
the two unmarked power station kind of things (i have no idea what they're called so i haven't put it in) outside of minefield are locations for moving encounters. One of these also has a skeleton of a guy who was doing some target practice with a bbgun which i somehow managed to miss with my other character. Thousandfracture 04:43, 18 November 2008 (UTC)
Thanks, this article is a great help! The Mel glitch is one I'm currently investigating myelf. Keep up the great work!TunnelSnake 23:09, 26 November 2008 (UTC)
Updated Page[]
I have edited the types of random encounters so their easier to see, please feel free to fix it up cause I know I may have misplaced some.
Codyz 04:36, 30 November 2008 (UTC)
Noting ref ids[]
To keep the number of redundant encounter mentions down, it might be a good idea for people to use the console to check the ref id's and list them to see if the encounter has been listed already. Many of the listed encounters I think are listed more than once, simply because someone did not happen to see a dead NPC and listed the encounter as two vs three, or something like that, or perhaps no NPC. Many of the single dead wastelander encounters in fact are the wastelander-you-could-have-saved encounter which would pay a few caps reward. Ususally they spawn long before you could possibly save them. Also, I suspect some of the monster encounters without NPCs listed are the usual random interactions among ordinary monster spawns. --Ari Solis 01:50, 30 December 2008 (UTC)
PS. I moved the Dead Chinese commando listing to the unusual npc heading rather than "monster" heading since it is definitely a spawned random NPC encounter, interchangable with the many other NPC random encounters.
After experimenting with one spawn site repeatedly and looking at ref ids for the various spawns, there apparently are only fixed ref ids for a limited number of the more unique (read: more scripted) encounters, such as the Deathclaw vs. wastelanders or the Dead Chinese Commando. Possibly to make each trivial random encounter more unique, it seems they randomize various aspects of most of these encounters, such as dress or companion types, so the various NPCs end up with a general prefix of ff0010xx where xx is possibly some temporary randomized id number. That way when you encounter a random scavenger, for example, he may have a randomized pet, and randomized appearance. ...sometimes with a Yao Guai and Brahmin, sometimes a dog and Brahmin, sometimes wearing a helmet or goggles, sometimes white, sometimes black, and so on. That way you never really exactly see the same thing. Generally in a stationary scavenger spawn, for example, you will see a scavenger, a pet, and a pack Brahmin and a burning barrel. Beyond that, the details of the individuals are randomized, except perhaps for the Brahmin which usually looks the same to me.
The only exception I found to this were the 2 wastelanders and the eyebot which had a slightly different prefix of ff000fxx. The randomized numbers "xx" are reused in other encounters so the NPCs from these encounters are probably scripted on the fly according to general rules, I would guess, and temporarily given an identity. So therefore you can't use the ref ids to accurately identify all but a handful of these random encounters. That is too bad since, as pointed out in other comments here, there are a lot of redundancies or misguided identifications of encounters. --Ari Solis 02:27, 30 December 2008 (UTC)
After a number of more respawn trials, I am seeing ff000fxx on NPCs previously using ff0010xx also, so it seems the temporary ref id prefix must be ff00xxxx. I suspect that they needed to do a more generalized randomized NPC spawn so it would seem different and not get as boring as if they had specifically scripted each encounter with NPCs or groups thereof with dead-same characteristics. --Ari Solis 03:17, 30 December 2008 (UTC)
Wording[]
I added a random encounter with a slaver escorting three slaves to Paradise Falls. It was near Jury Street Metro Station as I was trying the find the super human behemoth. I just think my wording is strange, so anyone can fix it.
Wording[]
I added a random encounter with a slaver escorting three slaves to Paradise Falls. It was near Jury Street Metro Station as I was trying the find the super human behemoth. I just think my wording is strange, so anyone can fix it.--Timetogo 18:15, 3 January 2009 (UTC)
One off random events.[]
Do you think there should be a differentiation between the multiple events and the single ones where you are given something unique.
For example, where you are given/find a location or schematic, how often, if ever, do those events happen again? While these events might be placed randomly, do they repeat, like meeting a slaver with slaves, or meeting a hunter? I'm fairly certain it hasn't happened to me. Maybe there should be a differentiation between post quest encounters also, or can the same scene with Amata and the Enclave troops happen over and over? - Just a thought.
Cleaning up the Scavenger encounter list[]
Besides eliminating the obvious redundancies in some listings, I expanded the Girdershade scavenger listing with more detail. I also added an obvious omission: the "scavenger in camp", which is one of the more common random scavenger encounters. Another consideration for a future change: do you think it might be a good idea to list all merchant types together in one section rather than just scavengers? Also, should the "Dead Scavenger" even be in there? There is no interaction, it can't reapair items since it is dead. I would change the scavenger section to merchant encounters, and move the dead scavenger to some other section, favoring a section organized by a useful game activity (buying and selling), or merchants. --Ari Solis 22:13, 10 January 2009 (UTC)
Ben Canning[]
A note regarding Ben Canning - when my character gave him the Purified Water he requested, he joined the trading caravan. I believe he's inserted right before Lucky in the order (at least, every time I wait while he's in the caravan spot for 2-3 hours, Lucky is always the next one to appear). --24.163.113.239 04:53, 13 January 2009 (UTC)
Firelance[]
one time(i think it was my second playthrough)i got sent to the minefield pretty early in the game,i walked up the hill and to my surprise an explosion happened, bunch of shinny things, waited till day, found a gun, found out latter it was the firelance i must have had 5 to 6 luck, just shows you how random random is.--King of the wastes 23:14, 13 January 2009 (UTC)
missles and emclave holicopter[]
i was at broadcast tower kt8, in the draing champer. after couple minutes after exting, i saw a enclave helicopter with smoke on the wings and two missiles, that seemed to launch form the ground, launched up in the air almost exploded the copter, but the copter survived. currently im trying to go to the loaction of the landing of the copter. did this ever happen to u guys
Enclave before "Waters of Life"[]
Wandering around Fort Constantine I noticed a red dot in the radar. I enter VATS to find the enemy. It was an Enclave Soldier in Tesla Armor, way before The Waters of Life! Has this happened to anyone else?BSMaker 16:39, 26 January 2009 (UTC)
it's a misplacement done by the game(aka glitch). since the game engine does random spwan time and places, (with a lot of exceptions: like in deathclaw sanctuary, only death claws spwan their. or triggered events) its possible for it to spawn a enclave solider. if you had character before this one that beat the game, its possible for the game to confuse the your current character with previous one.--That70sdude 00:16, 28 January 2009 (UTC)
Vertibird Carpet Bomber[]
Okay early in the game I came across a Talon camp across the river from the Jefferson Memorial and Rivet City. Later I came across this camp again and it was filled with Enclave soldiers. I killed all of them, looted the place this time around and started to leave when I heard a Vertibird come. I hid but instead of landing the Bird just started circling the camp and dropping what seem to be Mini Nukes. Has this happened to anyone else?
yep ive had this before in takoma park and it wiped out a laod of super mutants for me!
Outcast Protectron Corpse[]
I was walking back from Rockopolis to Smith Casey's Garage and theres a slope with a massive rock on the top.
I walked near it and an Outcast Protectron corpse seemed to just bounce off the rock and roll down the hill.
I'm not sure if it was a random spawn, but... it seemed to just appear, then bounce off the rock and hit the ground.
And yes, I can confirm it was an "Outcast Protectron". It was black with red symbols and clearly said Outcast Protectron.
Theres no record of an Outcast Protectron on this wiki. And no ones even mentioned one.
123.211.101.161 13:56, 12 February 2009 (UTC)
I encounterd a deathclaw with full health NE of areufu (I think i spelt that wrong).I was walking aroun atknight killing mirelurks hunters and Mirelurk kings then I wast hit and i turned around and there was a deathclaw and i scared the #$*@ out of me. i was levle 18 on the 360
Robots are one of the possible types of Outcast spawns that wander around on patrol with other Outcast members. Robobrains also spawn with Outcast patrols. The fact it was a corpse only means it was killed in the environment prior to you seeing it. Protectrons are pretty weak, so it's not surprising it was a corpse when you found it. BTW, getting Outcasts killed by luring them into fights with the local wildlife are a great way of getting buff tech early in the game. I snagged a gatling laser near the start of my current game by doing that. You could also just kill them yourself, but I think that changes their attitude on a whole toward you, and you don't want them hating you if you want to eventually do some of their quests.--Ari Solis 22:22, 11 March 2009 (UTC)
Raider Initiation[]
I managed to sneak up on them before they saw me, and wrote down what they were saying to the guy getting jumped in. I added it to the main article so if someone is attempting to get this encounter, they know to stop and listen for a moment to the humorous dialogue first (I'd never bothered to wait to attack, and discovered this completely by accident this time, and it had me ROFL: "Pain... Pain is your only friend..." LOL). - Fembot G.g3 22:13, 27 February 2009 (UTC)
Sniper Cabin?[]
What's the Sniper Cabin mentioned under locations?
It's the Sniper shack. Updated main page to link it. -Drag0rn 13:38, 4 February 2009 (UTC)
"cleanup" tag?[]
There doesn't seem to be much fat in this article, just a lot of useful information. Perhaps organizing it into tables would be better? Techercizer(say hi)(pwnage) 22:23, 19 March 2009 (UTC)
I agree that this page needs some tidying up (as do most pages on the wiki). I'll check Wikipedia to look for some sort of guidline for formatting this type of information. --PwnzerfaustMonk(talk) 23:55, 19 March 2009 (UTC)
There are many duplicate entries and ones that are the same encounter, only with slightly different enemies as the equipment and numbers are randomized. Also, there is a decent amount of unnecessary fluff, like people talking about their personal experiences. The sections could probably stand being cleaned, too. Some are also filled with slight misinformation; The recently added one with a wastelander talking about some "green hill", for example, sounds very much like some user's experience with the merchant that carries a map to Oasis. The thing is that it will be hard to know what's a variation of the same encounter, what's simply wrong, and what should be sorted where. I don't supposed the GECK has any handy lists of random encounters that no one made use of for no reason?--Mehbah 00:48, 20 March 2009 (UTC)
There are basically two things which would improve the article tremendously:
Put all locations in a table (this means both those listed at the beginning and the ones listed under "unique encounter locations"). Then simply add two columns for "Unique encounter A" (with yes/no for each location) and "Unique encounter B" (with yes/no). Cuts out a lot of repetition and makes the information easier to digest.
Restructuring. First level: "Types" and "Locations". Under "Locations" there should be the table mentioned above, under "Types" you can make subheaders for "repeatable", "unique type A" and "unique type B". If you want, you can even further break down the repeatable encounter section with the categories which are already in the article (like "raider" etc).
As it is, the article is a big convoluted wall of text. And to answer Mehbah's question, don't think there's an easily obtainable list for all encounters. However, the current listing of the two unique encounter types (at the very bottom of the article) is apparently taken straight from the GECK as far as I can see and should be complete. I.e. you can at least determine that any encounter not listed there is a repeatable one. -- Porter21(talk) 14:55, 23 May 2009 (UTC)
Redundant info?[]
What does FFETrigger mean, and why does it list the encounters/locations a second time? PositronicSpleen 03:47, 9 April 2009 (UTC)
Steel Encounters?[]
Didn't the guys over at Bethesda say that Broken Steel would add new encounters? I haven't seen any, has anyone? Nitpicker of the Wastes 14:42, 8 May 2009 (UTC)
I think there are a few listed on the BS page, I hope there's more, though. TunnelSnake 13:53, 9 May 2009 (UTC)
The encounters added by Broken Steel are static (i.e. you can reliably find them in one and the same location if you fulfil the conditions) and not random, which means they shouldn't be listed here anyway. -- Porter21(talk) 14:57, 23 May 2009 (UTC)
This a random event?[]
I forget where I was headed, but I came across a fenced in hydro pole, and had to fight 4 Supermutant Brutes or Masters, forget which. Killed em all, found 3 Slaves. I untied them all and they all went running. Is this a scripted thing, or is it a random event? All 3 offered to give me things they hid/found, and I told them all to keep what they had, and got good karma.
were you close to a land marker, if you was, it is probaly close to (or it was) a super mutant camp that you didn't find yet.Maybe mason dixon savage or something? then, it should be kinda scripted. if not, you'd have a new random encounter I think. wtih your description of the spot where you wer I think you were somewhere behind minefield which is a random encounter spot62.163.88.139 08:43, 10 May 2009 (UTC)
I was headed to a place I've never visited before. I think it was the MDPL-13 Power Station, and I happened to run up a hill to be met by 4 Supermutant Brutes with the 3 slaves.
I often hear explosions that come from nowhere or are nowhere to be seen. I doupt that it is a UFO because then, the game would have given me 8 chances to get an Alien Blaster. Please explain. Learner4 19:05, 13 May 2009 (UTC)
That would be Wasteland creatures destroying Enclave Eyebots.
-Once or twice you may come acros an Enclave camp but all the soldiers will be dead.About ten or fifteen seconds later a large group of raiders will attack armed with Enclave Power Armor and Laser Rifles/Plasma rifles This shows that raiders use power armor and even have training with it.
This event is likely due to a random raider patrol managing to kill the inhabitants of an Enclave camp (or possibly happening upon it after they were killed by some other foe), and then the raiders simply stole the equipment off the Enclave soldiers. This would not be surprising seeing as how the Enclave loadouts are far superior in DR and bonuses than standard Raider kit. The AI in Fallout 3 is well-known for it's resourcefulness in finding and using better equipment than their own. And besides, any character besides the player can use power armor and apparently without formal training. --24.19.108.184 05:47, 20 May 2009 (UTC)
WRONGO. Explain how some of those raiders with .32 rifles managed to bring down an Enclave camp. Not likely. Some of them also had eyebot helmets. Those are unique, so this WAS an encounter. Also, Enclave and raiders are technically part of the same faction (according to the GECK) so there's no way this was just some NPCs killing each other off. It was scripted this way. TunnelSnake 13:10, 23 May 2009 (UTC)
True,heck at that outpost where the enclave should be dead and the raider salive,it ws messed up,everyone was alive and just chillin' with each other but in truth,every NPC has power armor training,even kids have training,heck even the citizens of vault 101 can wear it and they dont know jackshit about power armor Werewolfhell 13:15, 23 May 2009 (UTC)
Ghoul Wastelanders[]
"Ghoul Wastelanders around a burning barrel, telling you they were headed for Underworld but couldn't make it because of Super Mutants. They will tell you how to get to Underworld and mark it on your map. This may be a continuity problem, because Willow, outside Underworld, tells the PC that the Super Mutants don't attack ghouls."
The ghouls in question may not know this. I'd be scared of something that looked like a Super Mutant if I didn't know it wasn't hostile; scared enough to give up my current journey, even.
Of course, this makes me wonder why there isn't a, "You know Super Mutants won't attack you, right?" conversation option, which in turn brings me back to the idea that, say, the ghouls were implemented first, and never changed back, or something similar.
87.80.39.37 22:51, 24 May 2009 (UTC)
Would this by any chance be the same group of ghouls that appear for a couple of seconds in the first half of the Broken Steel trailer? One has a pre war suit.
New random encounter?[]
I was out in the Wasteland, not exactly sure where, but I ran across a bridge, and seen a Scavenger, with 2 Rivet City Security's and a Brahmin, running at a normal pace. So I stopped the Scavenger, bought some stuff off of him and kept on moving over the bridge. Shortly behind him, were 4-5 Slavers, who, oddly, were not hostile towards me, seemingly chasing after the Scavenger.
So I VATS'd them all with my Lincoln's Repeater, and headshotted each one in succession.
No notable loot, but I found it weird that the Slavers were friendly to me, despite the fact I wiped out Paradise Falls. Anyone else experience this?
Maybe that's why the cleanup tag is here. From looking at other articles on the wiki (guess that was my first problem), I'm still not quite sure the exact definition of random encounters, vs scripted encounters. The article could go further to make this clear. Thought I knew what they were, until I started reading comments where people say "this random encounter only happens at this and that location" and "you will always have this random encounter here". And why does it say once an encounter is "activated" that's the only encounter you'll get? That's not random, and I know you can see for ex. a squad of BoS somewhere, and a few days later come upon Mel mugging you at the same spot. Finally, what is this "FFETriggerA", "FFETriggerB"? That's not explained at all. Thanks. --70.142.41.253 23:19, 13 June 2009 (UTC)
I think that scripted encounters are always the same at the same place, but random encounters are encounters from a list, one of which is chosen randomly. Hope I'm right and it helps --Pratstercs 17:56, 18 August 2009 (UTC)
Scripted Encounter (I think): Enclave deserters vs Outcast water caravan[]
This happened post-Broken Steel: Upon entering Andale, I've encountered a standard Outcast patrol, but followed by brahmin with water barrels. I left them behind and started moving east along the road. After reaching the vicinity of Nuka-Cola Plant, I've spotted Enclave outpost. Inside was a dead Enclave officer, and three Enclave soldiers, unarmed and without helmets. After a while, they've started running towards the Outcast patrol, stating that they have killed their lieutenant and they just want some water; the Outcasts however, killed them all, after mocking them for confusing Outcasts with BoS (I couldn't make out exactly what they said). After that, the Outcasts have turned back, abandoning their brahmin, and went back to Fort Independence and then restarted their patrol. The brahmin itself went towards Nuka-Cola plant. I assume it was thirsty :D
Cleaning up[]
Have started cleaning this up, it has had the tag for ages.
Done:
Converted unique encounter locations to sortable table
Rearranged article
To be done:
Remove duplicate info.
The list of locations which is not in the table needs to be compared with the table to see whether the locations are already mentioned there. If yes, the location should be deleted (from the non-table list).
Once done, the remaining locations should be integrated into the table.
The random encounters need to be checked against the unique ones. Duplicate info should be deleted from the random encounter section or moved/merged with the corresponding entry in the unique encounters section.
The underlying principle is simple: The list of unique encounters and their locations are accurate. Random encounters can happen at any encounter location, so the list of their locations will overlap with the ones of the uniques. Any location which does not have the possibility of a unique encounter is therefore random-encounter-only, and random encounter locations do not need to be marked specifically in the table.
This is quite an undertaking, help is appreciated. Once we've cleaned up we'll have to see about potentially splitting the page as well. -- Porter21(talk) 21:42, 30 June 2009 (UTC)
Crazy encounter[]
At the red rocket near the Car Dealership east of Fairfax ruins I found a Outcast soldier standing over a dead Outcast. Then a Wastelander runs over and takes a minigun from the corpse and runs away, but is suddenely killed by an Enclave Deathclaw so the Outcast kills it. Then suddenely the dead Outcast explodes and kills the Outcast soldier completely random. Has anyone else encountered an exploding Outcast corpse? --Megaton bomber 23:44, 24 July 2009 (UTC) Megaton bomber
Trivia[]
I had removed the bit of trivia about Mel on this page, as it should stay on his page. If anyone feels offended or angered by this action, please add a Trivia section to the page. Also, if the section is added, please make sure to add any other trivia of random encounters. Thank you.--Master of cheeZ 16:47, 7 August 2009 (UTC)
Question: Random Encounter and Usual Enemy Spawn/Respawn[]
Is it possible that random encounter conflicts with usual enemy spawn/respawn so that I did not see the whole picture of random encounter? (For example, the spawned/respawned enemy combat NPCs in random encounter)
Yup. Brotherhood Outcast teams killed off the mutants for Donovan near Smith Casey's Garage. And a Giant RadScorpion killed Laszlo Radford for me near the MDPL-13 Power Station. Nitty 03:09, 28 August 2009 (UTC)
Which places do Sam Warrick and Laszlo Radford spawn?[]
I remember coming across their locations before, but people just love butchering my random encounters page and now that info has been lost!
Previously I've found Warrick in three places:
-Up the street from the Super-Duper Mart towards Megaton ( where the Enclave checkpoint spawns later ).
-A little South of Bethesda Ruins
-South of the Corvega Factory under the collapsed highway
I think the info for Laszlo might still be there, but I'm not sure.
I just want to know where the areas these two spawn.
List complete[]
The list of special encounters is complete. In other words, there are no encounters which could still be added to this page. Any addition of new special encounters should be reverted. -- Porter21(talk) 18:26, November 18, 2009 (UTC)
We need a MAP that shows encounter locations, patrol routes, and trigger points. Preferably with or consisting of, local map zooms. Screen shots tend to be subjective and ambiguous. I'm sure the GECK must show the actual coordinates somewhere. Just Sayin'74.77.132.100 19:58, March 26, 2011 (UTC)
Encounter Location Map[]
The mapping has concluded.
Yellow dots are 'Type A'. Red dots are 'Type B'(The red lines are way-point connections). Green dots are Outcast spawn points(They generate one to three Outcasts). All encounters confirmed. Xclockwatcher 07:18, January 9, 2012 (UTC)
Article discussion[]
Cleanup[]
Finally got round to cleaning this article up. I'm not sure whether the list is 100% complete, but all the repetitions should be gone now. It still needs some fancier formatting though I guess. -- Porter21(talk) 17:25, September 16, 2009 (UTC)
Table layout[]
What are people's opinion on converting the article into a tabular layout? Columns would be something like "encounter name" (can be retrieved from Fallout 3 Official Game Guide), "description", "type" (repeatable, unique A, unique B). I think it'd help avoid the article getting cluttered with repetitions again. -- Porter21(talk) 10:27, September 17, 2009 (UTC)
I've revamped the article using a table layout. In the last step, I think we should re-do the whole article structure. The current structure doesn't work out; people keep adding unique encounters to the repeatable encounter sections (despite these unique encounters already being listed further down the page) and adding the same encounter to multiple sections. This tendency already caused a major cleanup to be necessary, and I'm not looking forward to doing another one.
The table layout should help with restructuring. Instead of having to divide unique and repeatable encounters, we can now simply order the encounters by type and people can see whether a given encounters is unique or repeatable from the respective field in the tables. I think we should come up with a different grouping scheme though, the current one causes too much potential overlap. For example, an encounter which consists of Enclave fighting Talon Company could logically be in both the "Enclave" and "Talon Company" sections - and there are tons of encounters which could be in two or more sections, which aggrevates aforementioned duplication problem.
Any suggestions welcome. -- Porter21(talk) 18:23, November 18, 2009 (UTC)
Difficult to locate page[]
Im not sure if i can correctly alter the main page, so i posted here so someone else could. There is no easy way to find the random encounters page. I had to google it to finally find it. Perhaps someone can put in a link on the main fallout 3 page?Timetogo 16:45, September 21, 2009 (UTC)
Found probably a new one - three mines in a strip which CAN be disarmed. Unfortunatley... No proof since I didn't know that it is nott here :/ 79.163.56.70 17:22, October 20, 2009 (UTC)
New one?[]
Found probably a new one - three mines in a strip which CAN be disarmed. Unfortunatley... No proof since I didn't know that it is nott here :/ 79.163.56.70 17:22, October 20, 2009 (UTC)
I got this one I not seen before or since, two wastelanders talking something about pulling out a massive hunk of metal from the ground but the idiots ran off to try and kill some giant radscorpions before i could find out what they were on about. Anyone else had this one? --82.38.212.27 12:05, November 1, 2009 (UTC)
Yes, they were talking about disarming and looting mines, however when left to do so, they both explode on a mine, or one explodes and the other runs away. This is an official random encounter.
New one (2)?[]
I saw something freaky today, didn't find it on the random encounters page (i saw talk about a fixed encounter page, but could not find that page):(this is before waters of life.) (No DLC's installed, Between Greener Pastures Disposal and Vault 92.): Enclave officer, 3 enclave soldiers, 1 dead enclave soldiers with giant radscorpion, enclave spybot nearby. a transporting vehicle, with inside 1 dead (non-feral)feral ghoul, 2 wastelanders. Upon visiting, 1 enclave soldier is flaming the wastelanders/ghoul. there are several crates, one antenna thingie, and after the vehicle is a sort of table with a finger (i did not have the contract perk (i'm lvl 19)) and a working terminal. Terminal has 2 entries: 1 report of enclave soldier encountering a non-feral feral ghoul, who has led it into the truck, and second entry relating to the distribution of purified water, if citizens do a testing, and also saying that they need to be flamed if the situation is a problem. 217.112.186.105 00:26, March 1, 2010 (UTC)
I saw the exact same thing in the same spot, just with one burned wastelander instead of 2, and all 4 Enclave soldiers were still alive. It seems like a genetic purity checkpoint, and any ghoul/wastelander who happens across it and is affected by the radiation is executed in a pretty horrible way. Fits with the ideology of the Enclave. I just got to level 30 and am only now encountering it.
I saw something similar to this yesterday around halfway in between Agatha's House and Scrapyard, except there were two enclave soldiers and a Tesla Armor soldier with an Enclave-controlled Deathclaw. A regular Enclave soldier was burning three feral ghoul corpses inside the ruins of a trailer while the others were standing watch. I snuck up on them using Chinese Stealth Armor and took them out with Jingwei's Shocksword. The Deathclaw was a bitch to kill though. I was playing at level 20. MacJase 04:32, March 19, 2010 (UTC)
Enclave Soldier at level 4[]
Yesterday I encountered a lone enclave soldier fighting giant ants. He was armed with a lazer rifle and Outfitted with Encalve Power Armor. He was hostile, and a bitch to kill. I was playing with all of the DLC, on a fairly fresh install, and no mods. I had not completed "Following in his Footsteps", let alone "The Waters of Life". He was near a destroyed house Northeast of Megaton, the same that contains the Chinese Army Manual.--Hollow Points 13:42, October 30, 2009 (UTC)Hollow Points
Just had a similar experience on my fresh install (just upgraded to Win 7). I Re-downloaded all my add-ons and started a new game. On my way to the Super-Duper Mart for the first time, I went to the house remains on the hill to see what my first special encounter would be. To my amazment I saw an Enclave Soldier with a laser rifle having a shoot-out with a slaver. I wonder if this is a glitch from having Broken Steel installed, as that same add-on at one point caused Galaxy News Radio to play the post-ending news reports on fresh games. The14th 09:26, November 15, 2009 (UTC)
Happened to me near the Super-Duper Mart. He was a bitch to kill at Level 2. I also had Broken Steel downloaded.
User:Grayjack72
I have had this happen too, after installing Broken Steel. The Enclave Trooper will be at the house by the Super Duper Mart, sometimes fighting raiders, sometimes alone (but have found dead Raiders nearby). But without Broken Steel installed, its just Raiders that are present. My guess would be that there are Raiders here before Broken Steel is installed, and after the same place spawns an Enclave Trooper as well.--Smurf41 22:26, December 23, 2009 (UTC)
Confirmed for XBOX360 with Broken Steel installed. Literally just encountered him. The guard for the caravan outside Megaton started shooting at something close to the road that leads to Springvale in one direction and Super Duper Mart in the other. When things had calmed down I went to investigate and found the Enclave soldier walking along the road by the bombed out house. He was tough, but luckily the cannibal hunters I had met there previously came along and engaged him long enough for me to regroup. He killed them all, but I was able to take him out with a single sniper shot. Grenade works just as well, I leave mines for him as he respawns every 48hrs or so.ShadowSentinel 13:59, January 30, 2010 (UTC)
I confirm the existance of the Enclave Soldier near the destroyed house between Megaton and Super Duper Market and also I confirm that he appeared there after installing the DLC Broken Steel. But he is not fighting always raiders, slaves or giant ants. There is a group B random encounter there which is triggered only if you approach the location from the side of Megaton and following the destroyed road. Any other approach even through the house didn't trigger the encounter.Samufly 16:01, August 15, 2010 (UTC)
Theres also one outside dukov's place where the enclave chopper span usally is, but there is just one and he is fighting radroaches. He respawns too.
I'm level 5 and i've not completed waters of of life yet, and when i spawned to Dukov's place there was an enclave officer fighting a massive deathclaw that had just got out some cage! i let the officer kill the deathclaw, then killed him. I was looting the body and having a look at the cage thing (and repeatedly closing the door so i was inside the cage, and jericho, my companion, was outside----this amused me alot because he was shouting at me through the doors :D ) when one of the big helicopters came and 3 enclave power armour wearer people hopped out and started attacking us!! so i locked myself in the cage and let jericho kill them :) Didn't have broken steel installed
Yes, it's a minor bug. With Broken steel some enclave soldiers spawn too soon in the game where there is an enclave checkpoint enabled only later in the game. Here are some places where you can encounter them : Near Super Duper Mart, behind Dukov, In front of Arlington Library,Rockbreaker station, south of Union temple, near Jury Street...and others I don't remember just now. They are levelled to appear even when the player is level 1. Without Broken steel installed, it is a different bug, Behind Dukov's it should be an enclave soldier, not an officer and he should fight radroaches, not a deathclaw.Croquignol 16:48, September 16, 2010 (UTC)
Level 4, GOTY edition with all DLC installed on Xbox 360. Came across the Enclave Soldier on two different playthroughs at level 4 in the blown out house with the Special Ops manual. But, it got weird(er?). Came back later after sleeping for him and a raider to respawn - they did, but BoSO's also spawned with a Deathclaw. This time the Enclave Soldier was labeled American Grease Monkey and was carrying inventory for both. One more sleep put 3 Deathclaws up there. Worst time at Level 4 ever. Phatskat (talk) 19:09, December 3, 2013 (UTC)
Broken Steel DLC random encounter[]
Just had a new one that would be part of Broken Steel. 5 - 6 Mole Rats protecting the corpse of a wastelander from an Albino Scorpion. The corpse only had basic equipment/weapons on it, nothing special, but it was interesting seeing a crapload of molerats attacking an albino.
Type A, Type B?[]
The article divided unique encounters into Type A and Type B, but it doesn't seem to explain a difference between the types. Am I missing something? What's the difference?--Gothemasticator 19:14, November 16, 2009 (UTC)
"There are 2 sets of unique events, each of which occurs only in a certain set of locations" (under "Types", it's also repeated at the top of "Unique encounters")
Basically type A unique encounters can happen in one set of locations, and type B unique encounters in a different set of locations. Each location under "Locations" has a or in the respective columns to show which type of unique encounter can happen there.
Feel free to clarify the explanation, you're not the first one this week who apparently finds the classification unclear :) -- Porter21(talk) 19:22, November 16, 2009 (UTC)
Thanks. I made some changes. Hopefully it's clearer now.--Gothemasticator 19:42, November 16, 2009 (UTC)
Seems the repeatable encounters are similarly divided into two groups. I've updated the article. -- Porter21(talk) 18:23, November 18, 2009 (UTC)
The whole thing is much clearer now. Thanks.--Gothemasticator 19:35, November 18, 2009 (UTC)
during the the random Event A Broken Robot you can kill the robot and the scavenger doesn't become hostile and you can still get your reward. tried only once on PS3. Can Someone Confirm? please
Death Claw Gauntlet Schematics[]
The Death Claw Gauntlet Schematics page says that for locations of the random encounter to get the schematics, check this page under the heading "corpse encounters" but no such category exists. There are no entries on the table for the Death Claw Gauntlet Schematics encounter either.
I assume it is list A, by the way.{{subst:74.215.108.31}}
The name of the Deathclaw Gauntlet encounter is "Wounded Deathclaw", and it's listed under "Lone creatures" (since the wastelander is dead and all you'll encounter is the wounded Deathclaw). This page was recently reorganized and probably nobody noticed the inaccuracy on the Schematics - deathclaw gauntlet article yet. I've corrected it. -- Porter21(talk) 22:03, November 22, 2009 (UTC)
Deathclaw Schematic Encounter[]
The Wastelander that has the schematic on him doesn't spawn dead. In my game he's alive.-Jet-
If the survivor say something along the lines of "Thanks for saving us, that thing would've killed us all!" it's a different event ntirely Pog 16:30, July 11, 2010 (UTC)
I believe Jet is correct. I encountered a single Wastelander followed by a lame Deathclaw. They were underneath the elevated highway, following it east, north of the VAPL-84 Power Station. And as for the Wastelander's dialogue, she said something much more along the lines of "F*** off and leave me alone", in fact.
I also note that there is a normal listing for VAPL-84 Power Station under group A, and an extremely complex and arcane description for it under group B that involves so much travelling, the player could well end up at Jocko's Pop & Gas Stop or any of the other surrounding locations instead. Surely whirlwinds are random FX? <may or may not be true, which would detract from my main argument, which still stands>VvAnarchangelvV 08:17, June 23, 2011 (UTC)
I can confirm on xbox, at level 8, between the tunnel entrances at meresti station, I found a severely wounded deathclaw and a dead wastelander holding guantlet schematics and a hunting rifle. 130.184.198.43 18:39, November 7, 2012 (UTC)
Special encounters?[]
Also, who's bright-ass idea was it to change the name of my page from "random encounter" to "special encounter"? It sounds retarded and I wish you guys would leave shit alone...—Preceding unsigned comment added by -Jet- (talk • contribs). Please sign your posts with ~~~~!
Insulting other editors is a no-go, so I'd suggest you learn some manners. Primarily refering to your user page. I'd also suggest you read up on page ownership at wikis; there is no such thing. -- Porter21(talk) 11:15, November 30, 2009 (UTC)
How is it random though, it happans in a specific place and is be a pre-detemined event, it's not like your going though the wasteland and a piano will fall from the sky. - RASICTalk 21:37, November 29, 2009 (UTC)
Well, they are quite different from Fallout 1 and 2 special encounters, which were mostly non-canon pop-cultural easter eggs and could happen anywhere in the desert. These are more like regular random encounters in FO1 and 2. Ausir(talk) 21:46, November 29, 2009 (UTC)
It's random in the fact that yes, they happen in specific places, but they're randomized. If it was a special encounter, it would be something like a pop-culture reference. - -Jet-
Maybe something like "scripted random encounters" would be better, to distinguish them from random enemy encounters in the wasteland, but also from easter egg special encounters from FO1, 2 and Tactics? There's really nothing special about encounters like "Ants vs Radscorpion". Ausir(talk) 21:53, November 29, 2009 (UTC)
I just did a quick search on the GOTY strategy guide and the author labels the "random encounters" that I've listed under "unique" and "repeating" categories. Here's the page:
Yeah, I'll move them back to "random encounters". Calling these "special" can only lead to confusion, since especially the repeatable ones are just like random, non-special encounters in previous games. Ausir(talk) 00:01, November 30, 2009 (UTC)
"Random encounters" is just as ambiguous. The previous name (and the current again) led to various people adding stuff like the randomly spawned creatures you can encounter everywhere. The guide does not call them random encounters either by the way, it labels them "mini-encounters". -- Porter21(talk) 01:00, November 30, 2009 (UTC)
We can always semi-protect it. And rename the "List of encounters" header to "List of scripted encounters" or something like that, and add a section about randomly spawned creatures etc. Ausir(talk) 01:24, November 30, 2009 (UTC)
I don't think making the page yet more complicated is a good idea. Oh well, I'm not going to be the one who does the next massive cleanup for this page. -- Porter21(talk) 11:15, November 30, 2009 (UTC)
As I said, the title was pretty confusing to people like me, who played FO1, 2 and Tactics, since most of these encounters are in no way similar to what has already been established as "special encounters" in these games, while they are what is simply known as "random encounters" there (e.g. a bunch or raiders fighting radscorpions etc.). And even if you ignore previous games, repeatable encounters with fighting enemies are in no way special. Ausir(talk) 12:23, November 30, 2009 (UTC)
Well, the argument about not calling them "special" to prevent confusion with FO1/FO2-type encounters goes both ways; the FO3 encounters are not like FO1/FO2 random encounters either, especially the unique ones. -- Porter21(talk) 12:29, November 30, 2009 (UTC)
How so, given that special encounters are a subset of random encounters and that, regardless of the specifics, they are all random? Sure, at least some of the unique ones could be considered special, but certainly not any of the repeatable ones, which are just like regular FO1/2/T random encounters. Anyway, as for cleaning it up, I just semi-protected it. Ausir(talk) 12:33, November 30, 2009 (UTC)
Sorry, was a little cranky this morning because I had to fix almost 100 double redirects which were caused by moving the page. The underlying issue is that FO3's "mini-encounters" encompass both "simple" and "special" random encounters if you go by the standards of the previous games and it makes little sense to separate them (since it'd just lead to people adding the repeatable ones to the unique encounters page and vice versa). Which is why I would've preferred an entirely different name which makes clear that the encounters on this page are a bit of both. That said, since I can't come up with a name suggestion which does not cause potential overlap with static encounters I guess we can just keep it at this name. -- Porter21(talk) 00:48, December 1, 2009 (UTC)
Random encounters is good, as it is very easy to find any with the search box (typing human bomb leads to this page). But it would have been possible to name them just like in the GECK : Freeform encounters Unique/repeatables/condition, because among about 100 possible encounters some are not random at all, only conditioned. Some are triggered only under certain circumstances and some only after certain quests. Uncle Leo is random but Amata and the enclave or Dogmeat are not at all random. In Suzie mack or the survival only the location is random The encounter is triggered by conditions. In fact they are freeform quests. Not that it is important...Croquignol 15:18, January 8, 2010 (UTC)
All of them are random, even those with additional conditions, in that it is not predetermined when and at which spot which encounter happens. The condition "quest" is just an additional stage in the triggering process; it does not contain any encounters itself. All it does is requiring certain conditions to be met for a couple unique and repeatable encounters to happen. They are still selected randomly though.
I'd also not call them "quests" since only very few of them actually have a quest-like structure (i.e. an actual objective or player interaction other than just killing/observing the spawned entities). -- Porter21(talk) 18:17, January 8, 2010 (UTC)
Deathclaw Schematic encounter in A AND B?!?[]
I got this encounter to happen in front of the Super-Duper Mart and in front of Vault 108; the former is in group A and the latter in group B. Could the encounter location at Vault 108 be group A instead of B? —Preceding unsigned comment added by -Jet- (talk • contribs). Please sign your posts with ~~~~!
The Vault 108 location belongs to group A. -- Porter21(talk) 09:23, December 3, 2009 (UTC)
Quests/Levels interfering with encounters?[]
I discovered something weird and I've come to a conclusion that the main storyline and your level affects the triggering of encounters.
I'm remaking my master character and I've been going to places early on that I usually go to when I'm at least level 20. The Yao Guai Tunnels is an example. I made the trip there and the random encounter outside didn't trigger. I even followed the directions on how to trigger it there and it still wouldn't work.
Another example is right now after completing Tranquility Lane. I fast-travel to Megaton and went down the road towards the Super-Duper Mart. The random encounter along the way by the destroyed house was permanently set to a lone Enclave Soldier. This has nothing to do with the Broken Steel bug because I had previously gone down there before that and had the usual random encounters, then reloaded to a previous save.
So after I killed the Soldier, I head on down towards the Super-Duper Mart. To my surprise, the random encounter didn't trigger! There's no way I could've triggered the encounter, at least not to my knowledge. I was in the area previously, but not that close. I traveled from Megaton to the Sewer Waystation, but I was too far away.
The other time I was in the area was going from Springvale, across the river, and around to Farragut West Metro Station. I was too far away to trigger the encounter at the Super-Duper Mart.
One more encounter spawn I remember is in that corner by the building by the wharf. The triggers are approaching from the wharf and the Super-Duper Mart. The triggers fail, but it seems it changed. I trigger the spawn by going to the building across from the Super-Duper Mart and then going towards the building.
Also, I can never get Laszlo Radford to spawn there anymore. I'm starting to think Luck has something to do with it because this is the first time I've ever encountered these problems when starting the game with 6 Luck. I started my previous profiles with one luck and increased it with the Intense Training perk. - -Jet-
Well, the Enclave encounters only trigger after Waters of Life and the quest-related encounters only trigger before starting/after finishing the respective quests. Other than that, neither position in the main questline, level nor luck influence the triggering of encounters (luck does influence how certain encounters play out but it doesn't affect the triggering) as far as I can see in the script, so it seems there's a bug going on in your current game. -- Porter21(talk) 09:28, December 4, 2009 (UTC)
That's the thing. I made two new characters and went out and the same things happened with the encounter trigger by the wharf and Laszlo not spawning ( after 3 hours of farming ). I think it's the DLC's that screwing the triggers up. I'm gonna delete them and see what happens. - -Jet-
New Enclave Encounter?[]
While I was exploring northeast of the Springvale School, I saw an Enclave Officer pull out his Plasma Pistol and shoot the two soldiers I saw with him. Has anyone else seen this? Oh, and I saw this after completing Who Dares Wins in Broken Steel. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Grayjack72 (talk • contribs). Please sign your posts with ~~~~!
It's most likely a bug. There are mirelurks in the area and one of them might've shot the other on accident, making them hostile to each other. - -Jet-
Sorry to interject, but can I just say many time (Including today) members of a faction will accidentally shoot each other, this act does not turn them hostile to one another. Pog 16:33, July 11, 2010 (UTC)
I'm not sure about that. I checked the area around there, and there were no enemies. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Grayjack72 (talk • contribs). Please sign your posts with ~~~~!
Broken Steel does not add any random encounters. It does add a few fixed location encounters, but these have a seperate article (Broken Steel encounters). -- Porter21(talk) 00:40, December 8, 2009 (UTC)
Another thing to note is there's a small Enclave research station in that area, but there's no actual random encounter zone there. -- User:-Jet-t-|-Jet-]]
I found that spot. The soldiers were already dead when I saw the area, but like the mutiny encounter, the soldiers did not have helmets. Probably not a bug(I havnt checked the page for fixed encounters, heading there now) JerichoRCDF 22:46, December 21, 2009 (UTC)
The two Enclave soldiers are friendly to the player, so are hostile to the officer? Seen them do push ups too. Also an Enclave soldier running through springdale armed with a missle launcher and full tesla armour following an eyebot.
This is sort of a continuation. I started another new character a while ago and I farmed 3 hours at the encounter spot near Wilhelm's Wharf and of those 3 hours I spent, I only got a set amount of encounters that can possibly spawn from that group. In fact, I can list off the top of my head the encounters, but I doubt that'll do any good.
I remember on one of my other Level 30 profiles that I encountered Albino Radscorpions fighting with a merchant. Now, it's impossible to fight Albino's at level 2 or 6 or any low level.
I have a few ideas on why Laszlo hasn't been able to spawn yet:
1. I'm not at a high enough level.
2. I haven't progressed in the game far enough.
3. My Karma might have something to do with it. -- -Jet-
Most of the creatures in random encounters are leveled, i.e. where you find an Albino Radscorpion at level 30 you will find a normal Radscorpion at level 2. The Radford encounter requires the player to have at least one Schematics - railway rifle before it can happen. As I said previously, other than a small number of exceptions neither level nor progress influence which random encounters are triggered. -- Porter21(talk) 01:29, December 8, 2009 (UTC)
I never knew I had to have a Railway Rifle schematic to get him to spawn. It would be helpful to list these exceptions.
Also, I don't have the pc version but I thought it would be a good idea to take pics of the trigger zones in the GECK and put them with the corresponding encounter on the main article. Here's an example. That random encounter is between Wilhelm's Wharf and the Super-Duper Mart. -- -Jet-
Jet, perhaps you could help me support my 'Prerequisites' column? (See top of page) Pog 16:35, July 11, 2010 (UTC)
Adding Trigger Zone Pics[]
I don't have the pc version, so I'm trying to get some people over at the official forums to help get pics of the trigger zones. So far I have two; the one by Wilhelm's Wharf and the one in front of the Super-Duper Mart. I encourage you to add more pics as it will solve a lot of hassle in trying to trigger these events. Just take a simple pic of the trigger zone in the two examples I added and upload them to photobucket or wherever. -- -Jet-
I have the PC version and will get some pics and upload to the wiki, don't bother putting links to other sites. - RASICTalk 10:39, December 9, 2009 (UTC)
Human Bomb bugs[]
There are two problems with the Human Bomb special encounter (3 raiders trap a wastelander with explosives, player is supposed to disarm the human bomb):
- If you try to disarm the explosives, the game may incorrectly report that you fail to do so, even if your explosives skill is at 100. The problem lies with the TrapCorpseSCRIPT - the player's explosive skill is assigned to a variable in the OnActivate block, however, the first time the wastelander approaches the player, you do not actually activate him/her, rather the wastelander enters conversation automatically and then the disarm menu is automatically displayed, so the OnActivate block isn't even triggered, and because no value is assigned to the variable, the game actually checks the required explosives skill (75) against a 0. And since 75 >0, you fail. In order to succeed, you need to quickly click on the wastelander, this activates her and displays the disarm menu. Now you can successfully disarm her, provided your skill is at 75.
If you are on the PC, you can fix this error by fixing the TrapCorpseSCRIPT - assign the player's explosives skill to the PCExplosivesSkill variable as soon as the player clicks the disarm button, like this:
if (interactAttempt == 1) ;attempts to disarm
set button to getButtonPressed
if (button > -1)
set interactAttempt to 0
if (button == 0)
set PCExplosivesSkill to player.getAV explosives ;<--ADD THIS LINE TO THE SCRIPT CODE
if (PCExplosivesSkill >= neededExplosivesSkill)
Even if you manage to save the wastelander, if you kill any of the 3 raiders that attached the explosives to her, she will become hostile and attack you as well! How stupid is that? The problem is that both the raiders and their victim are technically speaking actually members of the same faction, so performing an assault against a member of that faction will make all other members hostile towards the player.
To fix, remove the wastelander from the faction she shares with the raiders and put her in some other faction, that is also friendly with raiders, for example the Brahmin faction (which is btw kind of ironic, not to say cynical, thinking of slaves in terms of brahmin, lol). WRFan 17:03, December 11, 2009 (UTC)
BoS Outcasts not repeatable?[]
I had this idea that I could go to every b-type location and force-spawn the Outcasts at those locations. I have spawned them in a few places, but I think I can't get them to spawn anymore.
I've farmed in a spot for a couple hours and I've seen every other encounter besides the Outcasts. I can say that the Outcast spawns aren't in the repeatable category. —Preceding unsigned comment added by -Jet- (talk • contribs). Please sign your posts with ~~~~!
I double-checked unique and repeatable encounters for the last major cleanup of this page, I'm 99% sure all unique/repeatable labels are correct. What you're trying to do won't work; as far as I recall the script first goes through all encounters in the respective set (A/B) which are currently possible (according to additional conditions) before all encounters are reset and become available again. The number of times you managed to spawn an Outcast patrol was 2, wasn't it? -- Porter21(talk) 00:50, December 15, 2009 (UTC)
I spawned them more than two times. Here are the places and spawn variants I did so far:
1. SE of Megaton: 3 Outcasts vs. group of Raiders
2. Road NE of Megaton: 3 Outcasts vs. group of Raiders
3. Farragut West Metro Station: Deathclaw chasing an Outcast with another 3 Outcasts coming to help.
4. Under the Scavenger's bridge: 2 Outcasts and a Protectron
5. Up the road from Smith Casey's Garage: An Outcast and a Protectron
6. Down the road West of the Chryslus Building: 3 Outcasts
I haven't been able to get any more Outcasts to spawn. -- -Jet-
Well, the fact you did manage to spawn them more than once already confirms these are repeatable encounters; unique encounters can only happen exactly once. I'll look into the script a bit more when I get the time. -- Porter21(talk) 11:54, December 15, 2009 (UTC)
I don't think you can spawn the same patrol more than once. The first two I'm willing to bet that one of them is the unique NPC variant and the other is the default NPC variant. There might be other "requirements" to get more to spawn such as being at a higher level, waiting 76 hours, being far into the main quest, etc... -- -Jet-
All Outcast encounters are part of the "FFERepeatB" quest, which is the quest which stores repeatable encounters for trigger zone B. Which encounters are unique and which are repeatable is quite easy to see in the GECK, and the Outcast encounters are all repeatable. None of the Outcast encounters (except for the "vs Enclave" one obviously) have additional requirements.
I know you like your theory that somehow main quest position, level or time influence influence the encounters but except for the Enclave encounters (which only happen after The Waters of Life) and the Uncle Leo one (only before Finding the Garden of Eden) none of these factors influence the triggering of encounters.
In addition, there are only 4 Outcast encounters (not counting the Enclave one) and you managed to trigger 6 instances. -- Porter21(talk) 00:13, December 16, 2009 (UTC)
Then how come I didn't get an Outcast spawn after two hours at the Red Rocket across from the Enclave checkpoint East of Fairfax? I even went to the location NW of Arefu to try and get more Outcasts, but no luck. I keep seeing Brahmin, Sam Warrick, Hunters, Uncle Leo, Slavers with slaves, Raiders vs. Wastelanders, Mad Brahmin, Scavengers, a Wastelander with a bomb and Raiders, and Talon Company mercs.
I don't know what's going on here. It seems to me that you can't get multiple encounters of the same Outcast patrol at every B-type location, despite what the GECK says. I've spent hours and hours farming at locations and haven't seen a single Outcast patrol since my last. -- -Jet-
After looking into it some more, I'm confident that what I said initially is correct. The script first goes through all encounters in the respective set (A/B) which are currently possible (according to additional conditions) before all encounters in the set are reset and become available again. I don't know how the excess encounters were triggered, but your experience otherwise confirms what I said. See the repeatable encounter part of the trigger script:
else
if ( encounterSet == 0 && getStageDone FFERepeatA encounterRoll == 0 ) || ( encounterSet == 1 && getStageDone FFERepeatB encounterRoll == 0 )
; yes
if FFETrigger.debug == 1
ShowMessage FFEDebugMsgRepeatEncounterRoll encounterRoll
endif
setstage FFERepeatCond encounterRoll
; if the encounter didn't actually happen (due to conditions), keep rolling
if ( encounterSet == 0 && getStageDone FFERepeatA encounterRoll == 0 ) || ( encounterSet == 1 && getStageDone FFERepeatB encounterRoll == 0 )
if FFETrigger.debug == 1
ShowMessage FFEDebugMsgInvalid
endif
; increment encounter count -- we do this here for repeatable quests because we don't care if we miss a few on each pass through
; (and we want to make sure we don't wait to restart the cycle for encounters which don't pass the conditions)
if encounterSet == 0
set FFERepeatACount to FFERepeatACount + 1
elseif encounterSet == 1
set FFERepeatBCount to FFERepeatBCount + 1
endif
; keep rolling, unless...
; if we've already been once through the whole list, we'd better stop (no valid encounters available)
if ( encounterSet == 0 && startRolling > FFERepeatAMax ) || ( encounterSet == 1 && startRolling > FFERepeatBMax )
set startRolling to 0
; reset trigger so encounter location can be used again
set triggered to 0
if FFETrigger.debug == 1
ShowMessage FFEDebugMsgNoEncounters
endif
endif
else
; encounter happened -- done!
set startRolling to 0
endif
else
; if we've already done ALL the repeatable encounters in this set, reset the quest and repeat
if ( encounterSet == 0 && FFERepeatACount >= FFERepeatAMax )
if FFETrigger.debug == 1
ShowMessage FFEDebugMsgRepeatFinishA encounterRoll
endif
set FFERepeatACount to 0
ResetQuest FFERepeatA
setstage FFERepeatCond encounterRoll
set startRolling to 0
elseif ( encounterSet == 1 && FFERepeatBCount >= FFERepeatBMax )
if FFETrigger.debug == 1
ShowMessage FFEDebugMsgRepeatFinishB encounterRoll
endif
set FFERepeatBCount to 0
ResetQuest FFERepeatB
setstage FFERepeatCond encounterRoll
set startRolling to 0
else
; no -- keep rolling
endif
endif
if startRolling == 0
; we found an encounter
; increment encounter count -- we do this here for repeatable quests because we don't care if we miss a few on each pass through
; (and we want to make sure we don't wait to restart the cycle for encounters which don't pass the conditions)
if encounterSet == 0
set FFERepeatACount to FFERepeatACount + 1
elseif encounterSet == 1
set FFERepeatBCount to FFERepeatBCount + 1
endif
endif
endif
So when do encounter location respawn? Is it every 76 hours? That's the time it takes for NPC's to respawn so that's what I'm thinking.
Also, I think I found a faulty spawn location. It's the one SW of the Sewer Waystation right next to the Talon Company Camp. I've uploaded pics that show the trigger zones, but when I pass them the random encounter doesn't spawn. Any idea? -- -Jet-
I'll be damned! I went to the location North of Canterbury Commons and I got another patrol! Also, I force-spawned the other encounters like Leo, Warrick, and some of the others and went back to the location East of Fairfax by the Red Rocket. It took me a few tries, but I finally got another Outcast patrol to spawn there.
I'm guessing some encounters on the list have a higher chance or have a higher priority than the others. One more possibility that hasn't been eliminated from my mind was between the time I went out to spawn the other encounters and the time I got that patrol to spawn at the Red Rocket, I gained a couple levels and I think that might've influenced something. -- -Jet-
See Talk:Fallout 3 random encounters/Trigger script, it's the complete script which controls the triggering of random encounters. If you can find anything about levels in there, be my guest; I don't see anything. I also don't see anything which would support the "higher priority" theory. The Vertibird encounter has a slightly higher chance to be triggered than others since there are two identical copies of it in the repeatable encounters quest (probably to offset the fact it cannot occur in all trigger B locations), all others have an equal chance to occur (unless FO3's random number generator is broken). -- Porter21(talk) 12:57, December 16, 2009 (UTC)
Yeah, the encounter system is probably broken. After eliminating all the unique encounters in that experiment, I got the Oucast patrol in no time. During that experiment, I got those Hunters 4 times in a row. How's that not broken?
I've spent hours and hours farming and when I see everything but the Outcast patrol and then having to eliminate the unique encounters to finally get one, there's something not right there. -- -Jet-
New Enclave Eyebot B-type encounter[]
I found an encounter not listed. It's just a lone Enclave Eyebot. This happened before I even started the main quest and destroying it has no consequences ( i.e. a Vertibird coming ). -- -Jet-
I'll have to test that out when I get that far in the main quest. -- -Jet-
The anon is right, there's only one Eyebot encounter. After Waters of Life, there's a chance it'll call in a Vertibird if attacked. In general, there are no encounters missing from this page. I went over the whole list in the GECK 3-4 times when I cleaned up the page and verified every single encounter. -- Porter21(talk) 08:11, December 28, 2009 (UTC)
Can anyone give me some help trying to force a Vertibird? I'm blowing up every Eyebot I see but to no avail. I love fighting the Enclave they're my joint first favourite opponent! (The other being Deathclaws!) ThePog 15:35, January 11, 2010 (UTC)
Resetting the list: by time or amount of encounters?[]
I'm currently trying to force-spawn an Outcast patrol at the area by the Jury Street Metro Station and while doing this I noticed something interesting. I kept getting the Slaver encounters repeatedly and literally nothing else.
So I set off to different b-type spots and went through three or four Slaver encounters. When I got back to the Jury Street Metro location, the list seemingly reset itself. I started seeing Talon Mercs, the merchant guarding the car, Raider fights, and everything else. I finally got an Outcast patrol to spawn, but the weird thing is only one Outcast spawned. I looked around and there were no other Outcasts.
Does the encounter list reset when you've gone through a certain amount of encounters or does it reset after a certain amount of time. That encounter script doesn't really make sense. -- -Jet-
Well, the script makes as much sense as all scripts do. Amount of encounters is the determining factor, not time.
; if we've already done ALL the repeatable encounters in this set, reset the quest and repeat
if ( encounterSet == 0 && FFERepeatACount >= FFERepeatAMax )
if FFETrigger.debug == 1
ShowMessage FFEDebugMsgRepeatFinishA encounterRoll
endif
set FFERepeatACount to 0
ResetQuest FFERepeatA
setstage FFERepeatCond encounterRoll
set startRolling to 0
elseif ( encounterSet == 1 && FFERepeatBCount >= FFERepeatBMax )
if FFETrigger.debug == 1
ShowMessage FFEDebugMsgRepeatFinishB encounterRoll
endif
set FFERepeatBCount to 0
ResetQuest FFERepeatB
setstage FFERepeatCond encounterRoll
set startRolling to 0
"FFERepeatACount" and "FFERepeatBCount" are variables which keep track of the number of type A/B repeatable encounters which have already happened. Once one of them reaches the respective max (the total number of repeatable encounters of that type), it is reset to 0 along with all encounters in that set. -- Porter21(talk) 08:09, December 28, 2009 (UTC)
That makes sense. I guess I can cheat it by force-spawning four or five Talon Merc encounters every time I wanna spawn more Outcast patrols. -- -Jet-
Random encounter zone not spawning[]
The encounter spot beside the Talon Company camp won't spawn anything. I've tried every direction. I remember the place spawning encounters before. I've gone there fresh outta Vault 101 and on other save files I have, but nothing spawns. I think this might be a 360 issue. -- -Jet-
Two of the same location?[]
I was going through the list of locations and saw that two of them had the same spot. I need someone else to confirm this:
Go SW and pass under the highway where the truck is. Then go S by the highway, until the gap with the half pillar. The event is at the east of that pillar.
Two of the listed "Clifftop Shacks" encounter locations are identical as well. ComaDivine 04:44, January 31, 2010 (UTC)
New encounter location question[]
I spawned an Outcast patrol up on the cliff North of the Nation Depot. When I came back later, a group of Raiders spawned in the house where the Enclave checkpoint spawns later. I remember on another save file that a group of Talon mercs spawned in that same place. I assume this is another encounter zone so where is the trigger? -- -Jet-
LOL. It was the Outcasts vs. Raiders and I didn't know where the other half of the encounter spawned. There are certain encounters like the food hunters, merchant guarding the car, and these "versus" encounters where one part will spawn on one side of the zone, and the other half will spawn on the other side. -Jet-
This might be a new encounter[]
I was walking toward the bethesda ruins and when i got there i found some raiders i killed them all and when i looked on one of there bodies i found a firelance pistol i don't know if that is listed or not so if someone could tell me that would be great. PS i have all the DLC downloaded and i was level 20.
It's not a new encounter.
This happens when the Crashing UFO encounters and drops a firelance. If a raider finds it first they will pick it up and arm themselves. Dang raiders lol. CrazySuni 01:02, January 28, 2010 (UTC)
Slaves dislike their freedom![]
A while ago I encountered the 'Escaping Slaves' outside Super-Duper mart. I killed all the slavers (and a few Raiders) and am 100% sure I didn't hit a slave during combat, yet after the battle they turned hostile to me and assaulted me! I can't remember if I lost Karma for killing them or not but it was very wierd!ThePog 15:24, January 4, 2010 (UTC)
Outcasts vs. Enclave?[]
I got another Outcast patrol to spawn in the canyon West of Clifftop Shacks, so I followed them. I got a few red marks on my compass and I look over the cliff to see a patrol of Enclave soldiers on a collision course to the Outcasts. Is this just a coincidence? -Jet-
Most likely, in a truck north of Grisly diner I saw Outcasts and Enclave, Outcasts were on the road behind the truck, Enclave on the crest of the hill in front of it, just as they're about to open fire a Deathclaw comes along too! What a great battle! I saved in the truck before the Enclave or Deathclaw spawned so when my companion died in battle I loaded it back up but only the Outcasts were still there. ThePog 15:24, January 11, 2010 (UTC)
Got something like that too. Its just random luck. Met Donovan running away from Super mutants and an Overlord who were in a filed of Brahmin near Canterbury Commons. Enclave Outpost was right there so they joined in with a heavy incinerator, along with a Deathclaw and Albino Radscorpion nearby. I was escorting Lucky Harith too so they took potshots at the Enclave too 0_o 96.246.249.15 01:49, January 17, 2010 (UTC)
Is it possible to run out of encounter zones[]
I Have been looking for uncle Leo now and have started to wonder if it is possible that there are not enough random encounter spots for all the random encounters (taking into account that for quest related random encounters there are more then one as the encounter's scenario has to be relevant to your course of action that you took in your quest).
The counter is reset after some time and the markers used in the encounter are generic. The same are used by all encounters, so there should be no problem with locations except for the restriction of list A or B,but as they are random you are probably just out of luck. Also, it is very possible to "miss" an encounter,if you are facing the wrong direction when you enter the trigger zone. The character is often disabled when the player leaves the cell and the marker can be used again for another encounter ( not always, though). If you want to reset manually the encounter you have to reload a saved game just before an encounter and you'll end with the one you desire. Croquignol 17:39, September 16, 2010 (UTC)
Slaver outside Megaton?[]
Today I found a slaver standing outside Megaton, coming out of the gate he was to the left standing next to the rocks. He was easily visible by the Caravan Merchants, Deputy Weld and Stockholm but wasn't attacked and he didn't appear hostile either. I killed him for no Karma loss with no risk of hostility from the aforementioned characters. ThePog 14:34, January 16, 2010 (UTC)
How can you identify the Flying Debris event?[]
Is there like a dramatic exploding UFO flying overhead that's impossible to miss or is it just a few random pieces of metal falling obscurely from the sky?
When the event happens, it looks like a mortar/missile ( that looks the same as the missiles which are being shot in Operation Anchorage when you're going to the pulse field ) flying then exploding. The explosion is kinda large and you can hear it too. The firelance is right under the explosion if it hasn't bounced anywhere. The ammunation is scattered all around it. - Saku
If the encounter is over the water tower at Minefield a lot of the ammo can fall over the cliff into Minefield and be almost impossible to find.
VAPL-84 Station[]
It may be and A location. I Encountered the Deathclaw Schematic Event right there. Or the Event might be a B event.96.246.249.15 02:01, January 17, 2010 (UTC)
Bomb[]
I met 3 raiders with a slave bomb. After killing them, and during, the slave walked around smoking its cigarette. And the slavers werent lying in wait. They charged me randomly...0_o 96.246.249.15 02:01, January 17, 2010 (UTC)
Friendly enclave soldiers[]
There is a small enclave camp down by the river near Springdale school. Whilst out wandering I came across an Enclave officer, killed him, but there where also two Enclave soldier, minus helmets, doing push ups! When I tried to talk to them they said they did not have time to talk to my types or something similar. I'd completed the waters of life and the broken steel. Just wandered back from Adams airforce base. Also after visiting that area again to check on them during a later session, the officer had respawned, but no sign of the soldiers. However on my way back to Megaton I encountered an enclave soldier wearing Tesla armour following or chasing an eyebot. He was friendly (green) and I could talk with him, only to say i'd better go.
77.97.87.93 01:11, January 23, 2010 (UTC) Akula971
I met a friendly enclave soldier clad in Enclave Hellfire armor and equipped with a Plasma Rifle at the top of stairs of the Capitol Building. I talked to him: He would say,"Yeah?" To which my only option of response would be,"I have to go." To which he would respond,"Bye."-James Andrew Walker
This is most likely what you saw. Go down to the Nuka-Cola plant section. As for the friendly tesla soldier, I can't explain that. Tzaro the Outcast 01:16, January 23, 2010 (UTC)
Another encounter[]
Just outside of Fairfax, on the road, way past the car dealership saw the Tesla Enclave guy following the eyebot. He came up as "Green" ran right past me, until he encountered another "Red" Enclave soldier, both then tried to attack me, but raiders from Fairfax killed them both. The raiders had killed Donovan (From Rielly's) and one was using his minigun!. Both enclave got stuck by the two dumpster near the radioactive barrels, and where killed.
Is there a particular reason the locations is a jumbled mess? The encounters are all listed alphabetically, why aren't the locations? If someone were to edit it, I'd suggest alphabetical order (obviously) but I'd also split it into two tables -- A locations and B locations (and drop the extra column). Arisian 22:23, January 28, 2010 (UTC)
You can sort the table alphabetically by clicking on the grey icon in the header of the respective column. The reason why it's one table instead of two is simply that you can use the table both to see all encounter zones near a certain location (no matter what type) and to sort them by type.
Regarding why the locations are not sorted alphabetically by default, the last rework (changing the encounter lists to tables, cleaning up, merging various location sections) already took me days and I simply couldn't be bothered to sort the table as well considering it's possible with the click of a button. Feel free to do it if you want. -- Porter21(talk) 22:39, January 28, 2010 (UTC)
Raiders Near Megaton With Extremely Heavy Weapons[]
My friend rented Fallout 3: Game of the Year Edition for PS3 this evening. After leaving Megaton, we encountered some Raiders. One of them had a Flamer as it's wielded weapon. Being level 3 at the time, I killed it before it could get close. The other Raider had a 10mm Pistol as it's in-use weapon. Upon looting, I collected the Flamer and ammo from the first Raider, and from the second, the 10mm Pistol, some ammo, a Gatling Laser, and some Electron Charge Packs for it as well. Looking around, I also found a slaughtered Protectron and, I think, a Wasteland Trader, along with some other dead raiders. The merchant, in addition to a Chinese Assault Rifle, had more Electron Charge Packs. I'm wondering if this might be an encounter, or just a random quirk, since I maxed out our characters luck stat at the start, because it seems, and definitely feels, odd, to be level 3 now and running around with a Gatling Laser as my weapon O_o Anybody have any ideas?
Well, it's not an encounter. The article lists all encounters which exist (it's easily verifiable through the G.E.C.K.). -- Porter21(talk) 08:30, January 31, 2010 (UTC)
Lol, then it must just be pure luck to find such easy enemies carrying such powerful weapons so early in the game. Pity that they don't work too well against Arkansas -.- Timmage 18:54, January 31, 2010 (UTC)
I had a similar encounter outside of the Super Duper Mart. But the Raider had an Alien Blaster. somehow I was able kill him even though I was only level 2. Upon lotting I found 500 Alien Power Cells in his inventory. I found this to be odd because later on when I visited the Alien Crash site the Alien Blaster was still there,I didn't have Mother Ship Zeta installed,and there is no way he could have recovered it from Adams Air Force base because that means I would have to had completed the main storyline (Which I hadn't) --Gwuag 21:55, March 24, 2011 (UTC)
Two encounters[]
One is on my way to the super duper mart I encountered two 'Talon company mercs'.
Another was at the flooded metro station near arlington library encountered three not hostile waste land wanders arguing about finding Oasis. I did not hear them talking but when I talked to them, you have three options of asking what they were arguing about, help them out, and leave. I picked the first one, and then they told me they were looking for Oasis (but under some other name), and said now thye have to kill me. SO in turn they turn hostile. (two are wearing merc charmer outfits, the other is wearing a another type of merc outfit, not sure which one, possible verteran.)
I also encounter a lone enclave soilder going to super duper mart aswell. I have all add-on content installed. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 64.6.52.82 (talk • contribs). Please sign your posts with ~~~~!
The Talon Company and Enclave ones are left-overs from any of the patrol encounters, the other one is Oasis Raiders. They are already listed; as I already said above, the article lists all encounters which exist (it's easily verifiable through the G.E.C.K.). -- Porter21(talk) 19:27, February 16, 2010 (UTC)
Thanks, I did not see the Raider part, as they were not raiders, because raiders attack on site. It was my first time seeing them, aswell as the Talon Mercs. I only seen Talon comapny, Hitman, never the Merc variation. —Preceding unsigned comment added by GodsHand (talk • contribs). Please sign your posts with ~~~~!
"Oasis Raiders" is just the name of the encounter as used in the Fallout 3 Official Game Guide - the description states they're wastelanders ;) -- Porter21(talk) 17:30, February 17, 2010 (UTC)
human bomb[]
The human bomb is incorrect, it is not unique as I have encountered it many times when i go outside megaton and walk the perimeter. A person with clothes of a wastelander, probably the face of a raider, with a bomb attached to them, run to u saying there is a bomb attached to them for you to then try to disarm, but run away as soon as they say they have a bomb attached to them making you close to the raiders they are possibly luring you to. Sometimes the bomb doesn't go off if you don't follow them and they just run away and dont stop for a while, but once u get near to where they ran if the bomb doesn't automaticly go off, goes off and hurts you, once it crashed my game when it did this. The person luring could be a man or a woman as I have gotten both male and female atliest once. If you think this is false, just go outside of megaton and walk around the city perimeter. It is not the only random event around megaton so reload a save if you somehow get a different one, long story short, it should be changed to repeatable.Gary 23 04:52, February 25, 2010 (UTC)
It's a bug with your game then, it's definitely unique (just double-checked). -- Porter21(talk) 17:30, February 17, 2010 (UTC)
this encounter always re-spawns after three days when i go back to the spot, happened on every character i made. if the geck says it's unique could it be repeatable due to an over sight? 360 fully patched--Silverfox6000 07:57, October 6, 2010 (UTC)
New one (3)[]
After entering the empty town near Tenpennys tower, there were 3 BoS walking towards a raider who was sitting by a car (think he was pretending to be a water begger). When the BoS guys got near him he stood up and 3 other raiders ambushed them. Don't know if anyone else is seen this but i couldn't find it on the list 193.195.74.126 12:23, March 2, 2010 (UTC)
I am curious, i encountered firelance event and i got the weapon, but is it possible that after an event that is unique could another take its place?
--N'thro Notadee 17:36, March 3, 2010 (UTC)
Supermutant Patrol[]
I am aware that all of the encounters are listed but I keep on running into a patrol of three supermutants complaining about how "there's no green stuff here" and other negative comments to suggest they've been searching for some time. They are usually being led by an overlord (BS), and the dialogue was heard by using CSA.
This is happening at the Jury Street Metro Station and I have reloaded the save multiple times to confirm it. Is this an existing encounter and I'm just arriving too late (possibly the Donovan one) or am I missing something here? --Cartman! 18:44, March 12, 2010 (UTC)
Raider Initiation[]
That is incorrect. The "Raider Initiation" is repeatable. It happened twice for me at Northwest Seneca Station, north of Arefu. In between the two gates that lead underground, I find that a single grenade thrown among them from above tends to take care of them quite nicely if they don't see you. MacJase 07:41, March 18, 2010 (UTC)
Porter's remark isn't incorrect at all: He said all encounters are listed and "Raider Initiation" is listed. It's also a unique encounter according to the G.E.C.K. editor. Going by the comments on this page, it's apparently possible for some unique encounters to occur more than once. No idea whether that's a bug or a part of the encounter mechanics nobody has deciphered yet. 91.32.177.26 09:22, March 18, 2010 (UTC)
Well,as the topic is open...I saw a raider beating the other with a Nail Board.Not that it matters,but it could,maybe help. 201.82.16.62 20:58, April 12, 2010 (UTC)
Just posting to say that I've come across this encounter 3 times over the span of only a few hours. HBS75.69.104.65 09:44, July 23, 2010 (UTC)
Encounter in GECK
It's still classed as a unique encounter in the GECK. See image on the right. -- Porter21(talk) 10:02, July 23, 2010 (UTC)
Yeah, I know and I wasn't arguing that fact, just saying that I keep running into this 'unique' encounter. This game has more bugs than a housing project. :/ HBS75.69.104.65 10:58, July 23, 2010 (UTC)
The encounter on the east side of Relay Tower KX-B8-11 seems to be "locked" on the Raider Initiation encounter on my game. I got it one time (raiders weren't actually beating the guy without gear by the time I got there) then did some other stuff. I went to Megaton, slept 3 days, eventually went back to Relay Tower KX-B8-11 (starting from Regulator HQ, trying to do one of it's encounters) and got the same encounter. Again the guys weren't actively beating the initiate guy. So decided to try an experiment. I went west past the highway, waited 3 more days, came back to the tower, and it's the same encounter all over again. (This is the unpatched regular PS3 version with no DLC.)
That's normal. You didn't do anything to reset the encounter. Leaving the area for any amount of time won't do that, you have to reload a save from before the random encounter was spawned. --Kris 01:38, September 8, 2010 (UTC)
So once a specific encounter happens at a specific place, that place will never do any different encounters? That's rather annoying. The Raider Initiation encounter happened the first time I went to that relay tower, back when I was just exploring and was a very long time ago. 65.185.130.174 08:23, September 9, 2010 (UTC)
Yep, at least on any given playthrough. Start a new character and go there, and you'll likely find a different encounter. --Kris 12:45, September 9, 2010 (UTC)
I done this encounter 2 times on one playthrough. For me it happens a little north north-west of the Temple of the Union.
Enclave vs super mutants[]
If this list is complete why can't I find enclave vs super mutants ? I've even seen seen a super mutant shoot down a Vertibird once. (Near the highly radioactive vault) It looks like this has happened before see 'heard an explosion' on this page here
Most likely what you saw is one of the Enclave encounters occurring in a spot where there were some super mutants. The two groups fought.--Gothemasticator 22:14, March 24, 2010 (UTC)
Megaton encounter[]
After fixing the bomb for free, fixing the pipes, giving Scrap Metal for free, reporting Burke and shooting Burke while saving Simms and giving water to Mickey (the homeless guy) I had a random encounter with one of the Megaton residents giving me a present and thanking me for everything I have done. I do not find this anywhere in the list. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 95.115.94.225 (talk • contribs). Please sign your posts with ~~~~!
This happens regularly and always in Megaton if you have very good karma. It's not a random encounter; those happen in various places around the wasteland. -- Porter21(talk) 19:28, April 10, 2010 (UTC)
I also had this, I heard a vertibird, a loud explosion, big trail of smoke across the sky then eventually enclave fighting supermutants off in the distance, near vault 87 too. I thought this may have been the firelance encounter but I definitely heard a vertibird before the explosion. 86.7.159.215 22:19, April 25, 2010 (UTC)
Type A Enclave Encounter?[]
I found a landed Vertibird and two Enclave Soldiers with an Enclave Officer just west of Vault 101, the type A spawn. They also had a strange satellite-type antenna, and two Enclave Crates. I have completed all of the DLC. Any guesses?
That's one of the scripted Enclave spawn points. NittyTok. 21:21, April 20, 2010 (UTC)
wasteland merchant +note[]
there is another wasteland merchant encounter were he is looking up very strangely and then has some dialog and then dies and leaves the trading caravan log/ or as the pipboy calls it the wasteland merchant note the other lol thing that happened is a robot cam rocketing in. it happend to me wile i was on my way from the power plaint to minefield. -Zesbeer
Is he talking about a place called Oasis? If he is then we already have that listed on here.Tezzla Cannon 09:09, April 22, 2010 (UTC)
i got the two slaves and two wastland settlers fighting over water event today between the temple of the union and daves republic,i put away my weapon,convinced them to share it,and then took it from the frigde,and they didnt turn hostle
I saw this at lvl 2 in the barn just west of 101 (with the hunting rifle and a ham radio). Trader standing in the barn, says something, I forget, but whatever it was, I wasn't surprised when after he said it he just collapsed dead right there. Notable loot here is wasteland trader hat and outfit for +10 barter, which served me well so early.
130.184.198.43 19:15, November 7, 2012 (UTC)
Wasteland survival guide : Unique or repeatable ?[]
I noticed the 3 wasteland survival guide encounters are among the repeatable encounters ( FFERepeatA23,24 and 25, so the article is correct) but the NPCs have a disable script on load after the first encounter. As there is only one possible version of the guide, if the NPC is disabled on load, when the encounter occurs for a second time it should just do nothing ? Does anyone had this encounter trigger more than once or is it a "false" repeatable ?Croquignol 17:05, September 16, 2010 (UTC)
--Rengetsu08 06:49, September 20, 2010 (UTC)
well there is a video in youtube about random encounter especially with wasteland survival guide... in there u can see he has 6 book from those 6 encounters.. so it is a repeatable quest... however mine is kinda bug right now coz ive finished wasteland survival guide with being a snide and survival guru perk but everytime ive got random encounter about the survival it only have the survival perk encounter with one wastelander attacking a mole rat and just thanking you.. it should be a well equipped wastelander attakcing a mireluk or radscorpion and thanking you with some caps base on ur barter skill... anyone else encounter this problem??
--Rengetsu08 06:49, September 20, 2010 (UTC)
There are two different versions to this encounter that i have seen, if your the guru version then the mole rat is normal he just doesn't pay you only thanked me, the other one is a some what crazy like optimistic person who fights a mirelurk and wins normally the first time they will pay you. i only got 25 caps, after that though when you return 3 days later the mirelurk spawns with full health for some reason and normally kills him. if you save him he or she won't engage in dialogue with you. thats what happens to me every-time GOTY 360 --Silverfox6000 08:04, October 6, 2010 (UTC)
Other encounter[]
Im not sure if this has been listed, but the other day I was playing on Level 3 and I encountered a friendly Giant Radscorpion which seemed to be guarding the body of a dead Fire Ant Warrior. It was pacing back and forth and attacked a few bloatflies that got close. Then I snuck over and as soon as I got too close it pwned the crap out of me.
Random Scavenger Encounter[]
While walking out of Rockopolis, (i'm not sure if this is where it always happens, or if it could happen anywhere) i ran into a scavenger who was staring at nothing and rolling his head alot, like he was on some serious chems. I walked up to talk to him and he said something about how "He" will save us all and something like that. (i think it refers to the Oasis). just a few seconds after talking to him, he spasmed and died. I haven't found any wiki on here about this random encounter and was wondering if anyone else has had this happen to them? Fallout trekker 03:46, December 24, 2010 (UTC)fallout_trekker 20:46 pm 12/23/10
It's listed as Fordham Flash Memorial Field entry for some reason, even though Kaelyn's Bed & Breakfast is the actual nearest location. There are actually two spawn points on the road. One on either side of the collapsed bridge. The Fordham Flash Memorial Field Trigger listed is for the one on the east side of the bridge occurring on the north side of the road. Just Sayin'74.77.132.100 21:06, March 24, 2011 (UTC)
Outcast Patrol Clarification[]
It should probably be noted that one of the Outcast patrols is a very long-range patrol that encompasses a far wider patrol area than normally seen in a random encounter. It circles a very broad area similar to how Ben Canning follows the caravan routes, but with more variations. The pathing followed is heavily dependent on where in the Capitol Wasteland they spawn.
This may account for Outcasts seemingly not re-spawning if they are killed. They probably are re-spawning, just somewhere else along the scripted patrol route. Since creatures and NPCs re-spawn where they are killed, they may be spawning, moving along the scripted route and dying again when they are nearby but unseen by the player. So, unless the player knows the route and finds the Outcast or his/her corpse before it disappears they may simply be missing their occurrence. It may also be that they just permanently disappear from the game when leaving the player's current game cell. Just sayin' 74.77.132.100 17:44, February 27, 2011 (UTC)
I've come across some spawn points and patrols that don't correspond to the random encounter table. The trigger mechanic doesn't match either. They also seem to be Outcast specific. No mention of it elsewhere. I think people are assuming that they tripped an random encounter, not something else. Can anyone verify this through the GECK?, I'm console impaired(ie. I play on a console system). The first one I could pin down to a location is on the road south of Arfu, at the intersection leading to Kaelyn's Bed & Breakfast. It's most noticeable when using the wait command at the intersection for 1 to 3 hours(game time not real time). Just sayin'74.77.132.100 23:25, March 26, 2011 (UTC)
Intelligent Super Mutant[]
I found an Intelligent Super Mutant at Smith Casey's Garage he was fighting two other super mutants after killing both of them (This intelligent super mutant appears to be much stronger them other mutants) I talked to him and he says how after being exposed to the FEV he retained his intelligence and was exiled by the other mutants(suspiciously similar to Fawkes story). However after completing this dialog it disappeared and all i could say to him was good bye. Has any one an encounter similar to this? --Gwuag 22:10, March 24, 2011 (UTC)
Uncle Leo. Normally he'll just stand around the area he appears it (it varies) though. Great Mara 22:16, March 24, 2011 (UTC)
I didn't see any follow up. Which isn't to say that it hasn't been reviewed, but I seem to recall coming across "two robots talking" and behaving oddly, which is listed in the script as an encounter but isn't listed on the main page. Just Sayin'74.77.132.100 23:12, March 26, 2011 (UTC)
Not that it matters after a year, but I think the citation is related to hacking the mainframe at the RobCo Facility during the Wasteland Survival Guide quest. It set how robots spawn in the capitol wasteland. It may simply be script setting, or an actual encounter with a complex activation prerequisite. --Xclockwatcher 02:33, April 7, 2012 (UTC)
When is the Encounter selected?[]
At what point does the game choose/roll for/whatever what encounter there will be? The PB3k Map is divided by large squares with 9 smaller squares inside. So, is it when I enter one of the squares or is it when I reach the location of the RE itself? I'm trying to determine where to plant my save file for the least amount of walking with the reload.
--*Insert Brassy Detective Music* Kowalski; Options! 17:33, May 25, 2011 (UTC)
I've heard it's determined as soon as you enter the cell, so I'm assuming one of the smaller squares. Great Mara 17:39, May 25, 2011 (UTC)
New one (4)?[]
I've been traveling from Andale to the Nuka-Cola Plant a couple times trying for a good random to come along. However I come across one of the most worthless of randoms, which I also didn't see up. All it was, was an invisible pool/area of radiation. Only 1 rad/sec but irritating. However worthless I felt it be known.(71.195.114.10 06:03, June 26, 2011 (UTC))
Repeating encounter[]
Yesterday I spawned the random encounter area beside the Nuka-Cola truck headed for Old Olney. It waas the 'friendly radscorpion' RE, with just one ant. The scorp made quick work of it, and after accidentally making it hostile, I killed it and left. Now today, I went to the same location to trigger another random encounter, and it was the same one. I mean, exactly the same, just one ant. Now, I wasn't quite sure if I had saved my game last night, so perhaps I just caused the random encounter due to it being next in line, technically. But today, after I was certain I saved my game, I went to the same spot and got the friendly radscorp AGAIN. With one ant, too! Should this be happening, or am I missing something, or what? I think I should note that I went to another Re spawn (can't remember where) way earlier today, and it was a different random encounter. This was after the second friendly radscorpion encounter.
Automatic Grand Theft 14:13, June 29, 2011 (UTC)
Random encounters Lock when activated and are permanent. Most random encounters respawn, and can also repeat in different locations. However once one happens at a location it will always be the same one, even if it re-spawns. --Xclockwatcher 22:49, July 9, 2011 (UTC)
Raiders vs Enclave[]
I believe this used to be on the list, an encounter where a bunch of raiders somehow overpowered an Enclave camp, and took their power armor. Happened to me today.
It was here, but I believe it is scripted. Where did it happen?--Xclockwatcher 13:56, November 14, 2011 (UTC)
Reset an encounter?[]
Is there any possible way to reset an encounter that has already happened to get a new one? I got the one with the radiation barrel and the ants, and the barrel is in a really obnoxious spot.--75.73.88.93 07:45, January 28, 2012 (UTC)
Res-usable Encounters?[]
I'v gotten mixed answers here, if I go to, let's say, "x" location, and it triggers a generic random event. After said event is completed, could I go back to X location at a later time and encounter a different event there again? If so, approximately how long? Lastly, if I were to, hypothetically, enslave the members of said random event, would that mess the entire thing up? Thanks, Troy242621 18:29, February 11, 2012 (UTC)
First off, the 'random' encounters listed here function differently from generic 'random' creature spawns. Encounters lock when first spawned and never change to anything else when returning to that spot for the entirety of that game play through. The encounters will level up with the player, but it will always be the same encounter. Most encounters will respawn every 72 hours like generic creature spawns, with the exception of certain unique encounters and a few noted characters. Creature spawns are also random, but are governed by such conditions as character level and map region, and can change drastically with each occurrence. Nearly all are truly random, and though some of their spawn points are somewhat infamous due to inconvenient placement, most are too generic and numerous to be of note. Though a few creature types exclusively spawn in certain spots, most are drawn from a leveled list that seems weighted to produce more of certain creatures in specific map regions.
Secondly, enslaving random encounter characters carries with it a serious glitch where the game may freeze when attempting to use dialogue to either add or remove a slave collar given to you in Paradise Falls. More times than not, the game will lock up when trying to collar or free a character with special conditions tied to their appearance in the game world. This is not to say it cant be done, just that you should always save beforehand and expect to restart your system in most cases. In my experience the game wouldn't accept the status change for most random encounter characters. If the enslavement is successful the character is removed from the game world if sent to Paradise Falls or becomes friendly if successfully freed after enslavement.
I hope this has cleared things up. Xclockwatcher 23:17, February 19, 2012 (UTC)
Map of Encounters Colour's[]
I am legitimately colourblind and my main colours are red and green, so, our very amazing map, has no chance to help me because I see no green, just the red. So if the colours were chanced this would do much in the way of helping myself and I'm sure many other colourblind people. --The Old World Relics 16:51, March 8, 2012 (UTC)
I'm sorry to hear that my map was not as useful as it could have and should have been, unfortunately I'm not familiar with what colors provide appropriate contrast for colorblind viewing, and trying to add icons proved too time consuming with the tools available to me during the mapping process. The Green marker locations, however, are described in text on the Brotherhood outcast page under the subsection on Outcast patrols, if that helps in anyway. --Xclockwatcher 12:14, March 14, 2012 (UTC)
Can't found encounter locations[]
In the list of type B encounter locations, it listed that "Yao guai tunnels Go N, the event is not far from there."
But I can't find this trigger point in the map,I just found this one only - "Yao guai tunnels Go S to the large lonely tree. There turn back and head to north by northeast, the event is about halfway between the tree and yao guai tunnels."
Also I have a question about two locations -
"Fairfax ruins East of the fast travel arrival point. Head east up the road to the south edge of the fence around the water tower. The encounter will spawn on the east side of the car dealership and proceed east toward the scavenger's bridge."
And this one - "Grayditch Proceed south out of Grayditch to the scavenger's bridge. Head west across the bridge toward the car dealership. The encounter will spawn between the dealership and the Red Rocket station(nearer to the Red Rocket). It will advance north to the ruined house."
These two locations can trigger two encounter? Or trigger either one of them only?
--124.244.185.164 06:46, March 30, 2012 (UTC)
First off, the descriptions were added a long while back, before people were clear on what was what. Some may still be mistakenly referencing things such as enclave appearances, outcast patrols, or Talon/Regulator hit squads ambushes that are not in fact random encounters.
Secondly, triggers can be missed. It seems, the edges of some trigger planes appear to be low to the ground (akin to a tripwire), where if you are moving toward the encounter by jumping as you go, the trigger does not activate the encounter. Stay on the ground.
Thirdly, trigger windows are invisible and of limited size, leaving a lot of room for error when following the descriptions. Vary your approach around obstacles when moving toward an encounter.
Fourthly, the game will limit how many creatures will spawn in a local game cell. If there is too much local clutter, new creature instances will not spawn. This sometimes prevents some, or all of, an encounter from spawning immediately when triggered. Fifteen creatures(corpses) in a cell area, seems to be the golden(max) number. At least on the Xbox anyway.
Check the listings against the map, each separate encounter is marked on it. A few are quite close together. Specific to your inquiry, the map shows the exact spots where all the encounters you were wondering about are spawned except the first one. I believe the one that supposedly spawns just north of the Yao guai tunnels erroneously references an enclave camp that appears after the Waters of Life quest. I couldn't discount it outright, so I left it in the listing just in case. --Xclockwatcher 00:16, April 7, 2012 (UTC)
Albino radscorpian attacks[]
I don't know if this is a random encounter but Crazy Wolfgang keeps get killed by a albino radscorpion by the temple of union. This seems to have happened to Lucky Harith as well. I found Harith on his way to Canterberry commons but the caravan guard was alive so i took the key and stole what was valuable. P.S my level is 29 and i have broken steel so is that affecting anything? Thisguythe3rd (talk) 19:34, September 6, 2013 (UTC)
Quest-related - more info requested[]
I updated some descriptions to consistently include info about when the encounters are available, but I couldn't update all of them due to lack of info:
Escape from Grayditch - missing indication when (before, during or after)
Quantum Sales Pitch - missing indication when (before, during or after)
Attack of the Fire Ants - missing description of the event
Someone can also make sure that encounters that only say "after completion" does not require doing a specific task during the quest. —Faalagorn☎/✓ 21:53, December 2, 2013 (UTC)
Is This New?[]
I was travelling south from Kaelyn's Bed & Breakfast towards Vault 106, when I came across 4non-hostile "Wastelanders". They were all human & male. Three of them were wearing Merc Adventurer Outfits and carrying a small melee weapon (combat knives & lead pipe); the fourth was wearing a Merc Charmer Outfit and had a Saw-off Shotgun.
They were arguing amongst themselves, repeatedly saying something close to, "Where did Frank say it was?" followed by "Damn it! We shouldn't have killed him.". When I spoke to the one in the Charmer Outfit, a few dialogue options were available. I chose "I heard arguing. What's going on?", and he replied that they were looking for some place called "Oasis" and that they had heard there's plenty of loot there. Then he said something about not sharing that loot with me, and ordered the others to kill me. Then all four went hostile. Besides their outfits and weapons, each only had some food items and alcohol on them.
No it's not new. It comes on after the main story. It's a way of foreshadowing Oasis. It's just a random encounter. It's repeatable too if you come back every few days. "Some say this user is a Patroller..." 06:33, January 31, 2014 (UTC)
Trouble triggering a specific Random Event...[]
I want to trigger a specific Random Encounter in Fallout 3 behind Megaton, the one with 2 Brotherhood Outcasts and 1 Sentrybot patrolling. Ive tried many times and I only get either 3 Outcasts or 2 Outcasts and a Protrectron, besides all the other Random Encounters that can happen there. Is this specific Sentrybot one linked to certain locations or player level? Or does the Sentrybot one requires more memory and isnt triggering because there might be too many NPCs/enemies in the same cell? Thanks.
cripled Deathclawin front of the Sever Waystation[]
I was aproaching the Sewer Waystation and a Deathclaw spawned with a crippled leg. I searched around, but there was nothing else. 83.21.85.186 12:37, August 11, 2014 (UTC)
Mirar (Talk) 15:17, 19 December 2008 (UTC)
or 
in the respective columns to show which type of unique encounter can happen there.
01:38, September 8, 2010 (UTC)
12:45, September 9, 2010 (UTC)
"Some say this user is a Patroller..." 
06:33, January 31, 2014 (UTC)
