I've been trying to make random monster encounters like in Tales of Symphonia where the monsters walk around freely on the map until u get close to them and then they would speed up and chase you for a certain distance. if you leave the map and return the monsters are back. what i've done so far is put events on the maps with "follow hero" and when they collide with the hero a battle starts. I use switches so that once the battle is over the monster disappears, but of course this means when you return to the map the monsters are still gone. Also, the "follow hero" command can become quite annoying for the player because the monster never leaves you alone, no way to lose it. So, I was wondering if there was a better way to do this?
Hm, I just answered part of your question with the using switch and having everything disappearing forever part here:
http://rmrk.net/index.php/topic,10500.0.html
As for the speed up to hero when close thing, it can be done with variables but is extremely inefficient I believe; so you should probably look around or request a script for it from the pros.
well at least i got half of it answered, thanks. I think I'll hold off on requesting a script, at least for the time being.