Hello WCC! Mosspelt here with some breaking news regarding battles. We have seen the feedback from the most recent large battle, and had some thoughts of our own in revising some of the battle moves and rules. Below is a list of the changes made, that you can find explained in depth here! 

1. Due to the new dodge move, if you KO your opponent you have to wait for them to post their KO post, either retreating from battle or collapsing. The 24 hour limit does still apply to this post.

2. Clarification regarding medicine cats in battle were made. Medicine cats and their apprentices do not count towards total battle numbers.

3. Special moves have been colored in the move tables for easy identification!

4. The rule regarding no switching opponents has been removed, in light of a new move we have added, which will be described below!

5. We have added two new moves, specifically for use in double-teaming situations. 
     -Dodging Leap: Offers the cat being double-teamed on a chance to dodge one or both attacks from their opponents at the cost of losing a potential counter attack.
     -Switching Focus: Allows a cat who is being double-teamed to swipe at their current opponent and change their focus one of the other cats attacking them.

6. An Application field in the battle move chart has been added to give better visibility for when moves can be used.

7. The order of some of the moves have changed, but most of them are the same moves. They are now listed by rank usable first, then by whether it is a normal or special move, then alphabetically. The moves that have seen changes are listed below. 
     -Front Paw Strike: damage has been slightly reduced
     - Upright Front Paws: damage has seen some minor changes, slightly higher and lower in places
     -Front Paws Strike: damage has been increased, and the name has been changed to Rending Front Paws to try to prevent confusion.

8. The moves considered Front Paw moves have been indicated in their descriptions.

I believe that this covers the changes that have been made. Please do not hesitate to reach out with any questions or concerns you may have, staff is happy to assist!

A note for other concerns that were voiced: We are still looking into a couple of other things, and working on them. This was one of our main focuses, however, so hopefully we will have an update on the following soon!
     -Potential tweaks to clan moves
     -Further in-depth explanation of Leap-and-Hold in the Battle System Tutorial
    -Adding the new predator move sets to the Non-Cat Battle Moves chart

As a final note while we are on the topic of battles - the 24 hour limit to post in the battle is the max allowed. We want to keep battle going smoothly and quickly, while providing time for members to be able to post without terribly crunching times - after all there are many of us not available at all points of the day. However, it has been noted and recognized by  staff that sometimes members are not posting until the last minute in a deliberate attempt to give themselves and/or their clan an advantage over the other, the delay being used as a tactic to stall or lock an opponent in a fight far longer than normal.  This is thoroughly disappointing, and we would like to not see that strategy being used going forward. We discussed potential consequences for this, but the simple truth of the matter is there isn't a way for us to truly know who is doing it on purpose and who just gets stuck in the waves of life. We do not condone this, as attempting to manipulate the system in that way only leads to harm for the thread (taking far longer than it normally would), the battle (taking far longer and leading to double-teaming) and the people who make the effort to ensure swift and effective posts. It is not fair to the plots, or the people involved. The temporary "gain" in the battle is not worth the cost. If we notice a repeated and continued issue, we will address it further with the parties involved. The battle system is constantly being reviewed and reworked to try to keep it fair, something that is made increasingly more difficult by this exploit. So please, do not consider this strategy appropriate or available for use.

Thank you, and have fun!