So as most people have probably figured out - you can go from one end of the map to the other and never have to fight anything. Every animal and NPC in the game is slower than you. Once you sprint just a little bit they will never catch up even if you are moving at just normal speed. This makes sense for things like crocodiles and elephants, but should not be the case with things like hyenas, spiders and big cats. Cats are fast they also pounce very far. Have you ever seen a spider run? They are fast AF.
Once you learn this the world seems much smaller - you can just jog everywhere on autorun and never have to stop and fight. It also makes leveling much easier. I would say too easy.
There are variables to increase NPC damage or to decrease player sprint, but I don’t see that as the problem - you don’t actually have to sprint more than a few seconds to stay ahead of NPC’s then you can just remain at normal speed and pull that NPC halfway across the region.
What we really need is a variable to increase animal and NPC speed so people have to actually be afraid of the environment and if they run across a big savannah with three big cats on their heels they should not make it.