Reduced Reliance on RNG (from the perspective of a game maker)

100% Agree! It's very much frustrating when although double the levels of an enemy I go up against I still lose over half my HP which really doesn't add up.

I only just reached level 14 and it's because battling is just extremely difficult due to rng. It's frustrating! The levels for enemies are practically arbitrary for their stats cuz the rng kicks your ass regardless

Just to illustrate why the RNG needs to be overhauled:

That's a level 3 Red Fox, an enemy specifically described as "easy" in the news update. I started that fight with more than half my hit points. That shouldn't even have been a contest, let alone got to the point where the enemy at a fifteen level disadvantage did well enough to pull off a win with a last minute bleed. This just shows how useless stats are when the RNG is so random. 

Reiterating my support. The RNG has been very out of whack since day one and as more features roll out it's just becoming noticeably worse. It definatwly needs worked on.

Sorry but what?

If you can get your ass handed to you by a measly roughly 20hp enemy who is way below your stats level and you have more than half of your hp,then that is not “challenging” but simply very fucking unfair.

 It is even more infuriating than when my 10 level lead got defeated with almost full health from a bird half her level-

The hunting confuses me too. I completly sucked in the Sumemr but I am suddenly on a murder spree in Autumn? What the hell did my hunting party consume?

I'm so sorry heartsib, I've had similar things happen to me before and it's not even close to ok. (That said, are you aware a lv 3 can't give you trophies? It caps out at 5 below your level, so you should save your energy for 13+ foxes)

But seriously, neither stats nor levels seem to do ANYTHING. It's incredibly frustrating to get no sense of progress at all.

I honestly came back to this thread to post something similar to Heartsib and sretan - enemy levels are utterly meaningless due to both the absurd RNG within the battle and their stats rolled when it starts. I've been exclusively targeting canines level 11-20 since the update and it's a complete coin flip whether they hit harder and faster than my level 16/17 lead or not. I've dominated level 19 wolf packs and been destroyed by level 11 foxes with a lucky foot. There is no consistency.
I just got maimed by a level 11 fox that hit for 5 points a turn (while my level 17 lead hit it for 3 when they weren't missing outright.)

It's just frustrating and very poorly done. It isn't engaging and there is no sense of progression.

I've also noticed, for an ""easy"" opponent, foxes sure seem to have a very high speed/agility which translates into them getting a lot of first strikes and being very hard to hit. They are very frequently worse to fight than wolves and coyotes (since my lead keeps missing even a weak fox can chip away his health while he does no damage, let alone my above example) which makes me feel like the admins don't even bother to test their own battle system.

Just an update that I am exceedingly ticked off by this crappy RNG. I need to find 3 mustelids for a quest, a) suddenly can't find them anywhere, b) I finally find one (level 8) and get my ass handed to me as a level 19 because the RNG in this game is so screwy. What the hell? Someone said to use a lucky foot but I should not be needing to use lucky feet on things that are 10 LEVELS BELOW ME!

Yes to all these suggestions!