To be blunt, it's a poor mechanic that's likely going to frustrate a lot of users into quitting the game. I really think it should be reworked according to suggestions here (make it a rarer encounter but guaranteed or, in lieu of being guaranteed, not random but something that can be prepared for).

I think it's worth looking at Flight Rising (the best pet site out there imo) and the way they avoid these kinds of punishing, frustrating mechanics. You want to make users feel that their time is valuable, so rarity should be accompanied by a sense of accomplishment rather than frustration. A bunch of “near-misses” just create frustration/annoyance and don't encourage the player to keep investing their time.

I agree with everything being said here. At the rate this has been going, I think a lot of people will quit because they had to deal with so many failed encounters that it will completely put them off of wanting to come back. Especially if you have been grinding for hours and you have nothing to show for how many WW encounters you had if all of them have failed. That's the case for me because I've had over 70 WW encounters in my long grind today and NONE of them have been successful. Which to me, is highly disappointing and frustrating as I should have at least gotten a few successes from as many as I have had. It feels as though I had wasted so much time for nothing.

The token system or something similar needs to be implemented to prevent a mass of people from leaving the site when it just opened. The biggest draw for this site is to bring more wolves into your pack, yes? Making it too tedious and frustrating is one way to deter people from wanting to stay. Yes, some people are lucky with their encounters and are able to bring home a good amount of WWs no problem. But a majority of people here are having a lot of difficulty and bad luck and it needs to change. Imo, keep the encounters as they are or make them a little bit rare, but not impossible to find, and either use the token system or do a 50/50 chance of being able to befriend the wolf - not the 1/10 chance like I've seen people calculate before. We all would like a fair chance of being able to expand our packs and not be punished with all those failed attempts.

It could just be me, but pity tokens feel like it’ll still take a long while to accumulate! Maybe that’s not a bad thing necessarily, but as others have said, I think I would prefer a rare encounter that is guaranteed rather than mind numbingly grind for a random success.

alternatively, maybe it could be lowered to something like five failures for a token.

not looking to debate anyone! these are casual remarks and I’m all in favor for differenf suggestions to change this arbitrary and frustrating mechanic.

I also imagine that the pity token might take a while to accumulate, though I'm hoping it's not a super high number--five would be nice with how rare the encounters are as they are. I still prefer the rare but guaranteed mechanic, but since the pity token has been in development for some time now, perhaps this can be a band aid solution for more updates later.

Absolutely agreed, like others have said the only thing the system currently does is make me feel discouraged and resentful of it. :'] I've gotten 1 wild wolf so far in I believe 7 encounters which is still far better odds than many people, but even so it's definitely very offputting. Full support for a ‘rare but guaranteed’ system, or at the very least a way to tell which of the two greeting options would have a higher/guaranteed chance to work on that specific wolf, like different flavour text for which the wolf would prefer!

EDIT: After reading through I do think the pity tokens would actually solve this problem, or mostly anyway, and will probably actually feel more rewarding than the lower-odds system in the long run, for me at least! I do think the ‘bark or wag’ choice should be removed though, it definitely has the problem of feeling like “should I have chosen the other?” especially as there's absolutely no way to tell which is right. So, I do still support either removing that option, or having some sort of flavour text indicator for which has a higher chance of working! But I think the actual odds of finding/getting wolves won't feel so bad when pity tokens are implemented and I just hope they're actually added soon. c':

I just want to comment again as I see this thread is still quite active, and perhaps the most active suggestions thread at the moment, and say... I would still prefer to see the token system in action.
I still believe it is the best solution to the issue, and I think significantly lowering encounter rates for a guaranteed WW would likely make the issue dramatically worse (not better)

Tokens actually provide players with three valuable things that are all fundamental parts of structuring a game to be rewarding and enjoyable for players:
1) The sense of control. Encounters remaining frequent (or even increased in number) make the player feel like they can roughly expect a certain amount of encounters within a time frame. We can work towards getting a confirmed WW even if we fail every single attempt prior to obtaining the token. Frustration from RNG primarily comes from a lack of control. You wish you could have done something to get a better chance, but you were not given the option to.
2) A reward to soften the blow. Players are rewarded with a token. Watching a number tick up on screen is one of the most fundamental facets of game design. Games are literally designed to make your brain feel rewarded. A token that is 1/5th or 1/10th of the way to a WW feels upbuilding and gives you drive to continue. An hour or two without seeing a single WW encounter makes you feel tired after being unrewarded for your hard work even after a while. Lowering the rates for a confirmed WW will mean players are not getting the chance to see that token number tick up, and instead will feel drained. With the current system, we all feel our heart racing a little faster when we see ‘Encounter: Wild Wolf’ and that motivates us. If we didn't see this at all for several hours or a day we would lose our motivation. Giving us a reward when we fail the encounter allows us to feel excitement when we see it, even if it only means we have obtained a token.
3) A failsafe. Misclicks, accidental refreshes. These all hurt. But they hurt twice as much if these encounters are incredible rare. At the same rate they are now, or increased all a misclick means is you failed to claim a wolf this time or obtain a token this time, but you at least should be able to encounter another one soon.

These things are all fairly well known facets of game design and preventing players from frustration. Keep players feeling rewarded. Deliver small bursts of happy feelings though frequent little rewards. Let those little rewards accumulate into a bigger one. The token system (also known as pity) is a tried and true method for resolving RNG frustration built upon those previously mentioned foundations of creating rewarding gameplay loops.

Additionally, the token system leaves for more room for additional updates in the future:
1) What about the possibility of being able to save tokens and chose when to spend them?
2) You might decide to spend all day grinding for wolves and tokens, but not use any of your tokens that day. You could save those tokens for a special day and use them then instead, meaning you can allocate an entire day where you are frequently seeing WWs and you have the ability to claim every single one
3) Tokens could possibly be sold to other players, similar to eggs on Flight Rising

We should also consider that all sorts of people play these games. Some of them have enough time to grind until they get a rare, but guaranteed, encounter. Others may only be able to play for 15 or 30 minutes at a time. Tokens with the same rates allow a player to play for short while, grab a token, and then go on with the rest of their day. They have the knowledge that the next time they return, they're already 1 step closer to a WW, rather than dreading the fact they may never obtain one due to lack of time to grind. Token systems are beneficial to both types of people here. Whilst lowered rates at guaranteed favours those with more time to devote in one sitting.

Attempting to solve Layered RNG by unlayering it and putting it back together as just lower odds RNG doesn't resolve the frustration players feel.

(No hard feelings, I know this comment is quite blunt. I'm sorry about that. We all just want what's best for Lorwolf, so I understand why many people do feel they prefer the lowered rates guaranteed system.)

Even just outside of wild wolves, layered rng during the quests just feels like annoying padding to make the otherwise short chapters available to us last longer, to make up for how short they actually are. Layered rng during general exploration is extra clicks that could easily be done away with.

It'd save people time and sanity if the campaign system relied less on layered rng ultimately

Honestly, the RNG is beyond disheartening. I've come across at least 30 wild wolves and none of them has ever come home with me. About half were tried with Tail Wag and the other half with Bark (because I saw people saying they'd had more luck with that.

I'd love to revisit everyone's thoughts on this whole system now that the tokens have been released (and “adjusted" once);

For the pro-token players, was this a satisfactory solution for you?

Maybe it's unfair to keep piling on since i was never very pro token in the first place, but I would still really prefer the encounter itself have become significantly rarer but always succeed. Rewarding failure with loyalty points isn't really very rewarding at all, and some commentary has implied that the token system was meant to in some way curb or limit the power of grinding. I don't see how, given that the token system literally relies upon grinding by directly rewarding you for doing it.

Largely, nobody complains about egg drop rates on FlightRising because it's a LOT easier to dismiss your disappointment at not getting the roll because you at least always get something; trinkets, swappable treasures, familiars if you're still a little lucky. Most of the “spare/junk” items on FR have a direct use now and many obtain them once a fitting accessory is made, and at no point do you see an egg presented to you only for it to be taken away because you didn't actually get it.

It is a lot harder to dismiss the disappointment of finally encountering a WW only to get rejected time and time again, especially if you can go hours or days of casual play without seeing more than a handful. It's like seeing a lucrative carnival prize and walking away with a sticky hand, but they tell you if you gather 50 sticky hands you can go for the prize you actually wanted.