Thanks again for the advice; what I ended up doing was:
1) Players stayed in initiative, no resting while they explored, but when ever they reached an 'empty' room or a thematic lull in action, they could regroup their figures on the map and choose one thing: spend a surge, regain an encounter power, or use a power (like healing word), but then continue on at the last initiative point
2) Monsters had about half as many hit points, but dealt plenty of damage. My goal was two good hits would kill them. Minions had ways to avoid one hit kills (they were zombies). Since players stayed in initiative, Monsters entered initiative immediately below the person who discovered them (or sometimes I delayed them to below the next player to let the players get into the room so it wasn't a cluster-party at the door. This way the monsters got a turn.
3) For the 6 player party I put about about 2-4 monsters per room (4minions=1 monster), had 4 combat rooms, 2 empty regrouping rooms, 1 big boss battle at the end (without a rest before), they regained an action point (and the use of action points) after 3 fights.
4) if someone dilly-dallied they were accosted by a single scout, not an entire patrol. That way it was only a quick little fight, but made it clear they couldn't waste time or rest.
5) my normal amount of winging it within the normal 4e rules
The fights lasted about 2 rounds per room, kept things moving, and did what I wanted it to. The players seemed to like the results, too (some who had played more 2e compared it favorably to that).
1) Players stayed in initiative, no resting while they explored, but when ever they reached an 'empty' room or a thematic lull in action, they could regroup their figures on the map and choose one thing: spend a surge, regain an encounter power, or use a power (like healing word), but then continue on at the last initiative point
2) Monsters had about half as many hit points, but dealt plenty of damage. My goal was two good hits would kill them. Minions had ways to avoid one hit kills (they were zombies). Since players stayed in initiative, Monsters entered initiative immediately below the person who discovered them (or sometimes I delayed them to below the next player to let the players get into the room so it wasn't a cluster-party at the door. This way the monsters got a turn.
3) For the 6 player party I put about about 2-4 monsters per room (4minions=1 monster), had 4 combat rooms, 2 empty regrouping rooms, 1 big boss battle at the end (without a rest before), they regained an action point (and the use of action points) after 3 fights.
4) if someone dilly-dallied they were accosted by a single scout, not an entire patrol. That way it was only a quick little fight, but made it clear they couldn't waste time or rest.
5) my normal amount of winging it within the normal 4e rules
The fights lasted about 2 rounds per room, kept things moving, and did what I wanted it to. The players seemed to like the results, too (some who had played more 2e compared it favorably to that).
