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

I never managed to escape being grappled/surrounded, never. Battle against lvl 17 bison heard (lvl 20 lead). On the very next turn I managed to escape they grappled me again. I remember something similiar happening with anaconda and bear. I feel like that option is currently very broken.

Total energy used: 10.

You suffered too many wounds and are forced to retreat.

The Plains Bison Herd forms a tight formation. You cannot fight normally!

You managed to escape the encirclement of the Plains Bison Herd!

The Plains Bison Herd attacks from all sides for 5 damage. You must escape soon!

Failure! You are still surrounded.

The Plains Bison Herd attacks you for 5 damage.

Failure! You are still surrounded.

The Plains Bison Herd attacks you for 5 damage.

You snap at your opponents for 4 damage but you are still surrounded.

The Plains Bison Herd attacks you for 5 damage.

You snap at one Plains Bison Herd for 3 damage but you are unable to escape.

The Plains Bison Herd attacks from all sides for 5 damage. You must escape soon!

You snap at one Plains Bison Herd for 1 damage but you are unable to escape.

The Plains Bison Herd attacks you for 5 damage.

You snap at one Plains Bison Herd for 4 damage but you are unable to escape.

The Plains Bison Herd attacks you for 3 damage.

You snap at your opponents for 3 damage but you are still surrounded.

The Plains Bison Herd forms a tight formation. You cannot fight normally!

You bite one Plains Bison for 5 damage.

The Plains Bison Herd charges at you with its horns. You take 4 damage but you managed to dodge the horn attack.

The groups up and manages to keep you out of reach of its weaker members. They start first.

i'm looking at some of the battle encounters from the page before and one of the biggest mistakes i've seen there is that the users rested immediately after they bled. this may have worked pre-update, but post-update it's much more consistent if you bleed the opponent first then rest, since wounding actually reduces the chance of the opponent rushing you down. 

overall i've found my fights to be more consistently successful than pre-update, though the likelihood of the opponent rushing/bleed first turn has gone up. lowering those would be nice.

Well, you don't have control over making the opponent bleed first though? Personally, I just quit when I bleed first, 'cause there's little chance to turn the battle around. Especially frustrating when it's a first turn bleed, cause you basically enter the battle just to lose immediately.

From what I've seen, people already try to do what you suggest anyway: make the opponent bleed and then rest, but the odds are primarily against us it seems, even with Lucky Feet, which is annoying and why we note it down here.
And that doesn't even mention the stat nonsense, where Level 1 opponents are as strong as a Level 20 one.

The RNG needs adjusting and the opponent strength needs adjusting so it makes any sense at all.

@Vyskar Nope. I had too many enemies bleeding and rushing towards me when I try to wait to claim that strategy as reliable. I rest after I'm wounded to see if I can feel better immediately. If I do, then I still battle. If not, I quit most of the time.There's no point in me bleeding half my HP just so enemy will rush at me even if it's wounded itself :/

i did that as well pre-update, but during my lunar event crusade i simply continued fighting even after bleed and won most of my fights as long as i got the opponent to bleed within 3-4 turns. the chance of healing when you rest has been buffed immensely, and with the decreased chance of the opponent rushing in when they've bled it means that getting bleed turn 1 isn't an immediate loss like it was beforehand.

lucky feet gives +1 boost to rolls which helps a lot with higher level enemies, but i don't use them on anything below 15 and still win even when i'm fighting at 0% energy. stats most likely factor in but aren't gamechanging, my lead is an nbw that's not optimized for anything except that he's lvl19.

does the battling system still need revamping? sure, it's not perfect. but compared to pre-update it's much less rng-reliant and there are ways to reduce rng. i wouldn't say it's worse, and i wouldn't say it's broken. 

Oh my god yes im so tired of dropkicking a level 20 red fox then getting curbstomped by a level 7 gray fox

also, as someone whos starting to dip their toes into coding (i successfully programmed the CSS for my den page, which was my first CSS project like that), is there a few tips i can get from more experienced coders? 

Then you're a lot more lucky than the rest of us it seems.

I left every single battle needing 2-3 Healing salves (updated Healing Salves) WITH Lucky Feet usage, even when the opponent was 15 levels below me. The addition of first turn bleed, as well as the opponent literally making it impossible for you to move... Yeah, I stopped battling altogether during the event and do not plan to start fighting again any time soon. My time here has been a lot more enjoyable since I stopped battling, which says a lot.

Are battles impossible? No, of course not. Are they frustrating, very RNG reliant, resource draining, and make no sense opponent-level/stat-wise? Yes. And that needs changing.

Here's me trying to rest AFTER making my enemy bleed (aka bleed and wait strategy). It was lvl 18 fox, and I know they tend to be hard to battle (or maybe we hear complaining about foxes more because people battle them more often because of trophies, and so the bad RNG is seen as "foxes are hard"?).

As you can see, the enemy still rished at me. Four times.

Total energy used: 7.

The Arctic Fox has lost a lot of blood and can no longer fight. You win.

You got +652 EXP for winning!

The Arctic Fox is wounded and has lost 2 HP.

The Arctic Fox bites you for 2 damage.

You wait but the Arctic Fox rushes at you and attacks for 2 damage!

You are on your last ounce of energy! Your attacks are weaker!

The Arctic Fox is wounded and has lost 3 HP.

You rest a bit and recover 2 HP. You are no longer tired!

The Arctic Fox is bleeding and has lost 2 HP.

The Arctic Fox bites you for 3 damage.

You bite the Arctic Fox for 1 damage. It writhes in pain.

The Arctic Fox is wounded and has lost 3 HP.

The Arctic Fox bites you for 3 damage.

You try to rest but the Arctic Fox rushes at you and attacks for 3 damage!

The Arctic Fox is bleeding and has lost 2 HP.

The Arctic Fox bites you for 2 damage.

You bite the Arctic Fox for 3 damage.

The Arctic Fox is wounded and has lost 3 HP.

The Arctic Fox bites you for 4 damage.

You try to rest but the Arctic Fox rushes at you and attacks for 1 damage!

The Arctic Fox is wounded and has lost 3 HP.

The Arctic Fox bites you for 4 damage.

You try to rest but the Arctic Fox rushes at you and attacks for 2 damage!

The Arctic Fox is bleeding and has lost 3 HP.

The Arctic Fox bites you for 4 damage.

You bite the Arctic Fox for 4 damage.

You are on your last ounce of energy! Your attacks are weaker!

The Arctic Fox is wounded and has lost 2 HP.

The Arctic Fox bites you for 3 damage.

You bite the Arctic Fox for 5 damage. It writhes in pain.

The Arctic Fox is bleeding and has lost 3 HP.

The Arctic Fox has broken free from your grasp!

You shear the Arctic Fox with your teeth for 3 damage. It squeaks in pain.

You bite the Arctic Fox for 3 damage and lock your jaw on it.

The Arctic Fox bites you for 3 damage.

You try to bite the Arctic Fox but miss.

The Arctic Fox lunges at you, but you dodge and take only 2 damage.

The Arctic Fox makes a swift dash before you can react. Your opponent has the first move.

You were at 0 energy, so your rolls were nerfed.

I really love the periodic pauses in this thread where someone breezes in to say 'well actually you're all wrong I know because (x)'

RNG is like that. Some people get good results based on sheer luck. That's why it's RNG!

EDIT: @finnfinite Pretty sure they know that, but see above re: RNG. I've had vs. 18 fights go fine even after going over my energy maximum, I've seen them be middling, I've seen them flame out spectacularly. A good system allows you to take strategic risks-- this one just says 'sure, try, why not, you might win based on completely arbitrary number crunching,' so IDK how helpful it is to point out 'well you were nerfed.' The system itself barely seems to recognize what 'nerfed' means in the first place except that it might be slightly more annoying than usual.