I haven't played since 0.14 but as others have said I do not like the change in how combat encounters function now. I would have much preferred that you kept the old, non randomized outdoor areas as they were but with more depth such as different mobs spawning depending on the time of the day or maybe have the spawns change due to quest progression. Progression felt more consistent with the biggest roadblock being those birds as they are the only enemy that drops the resource required to make ropes.
Now to harvest resources you have to not only buy tools, you have to hope that you get a map with the correct resource nodes and on top of that you have a chance to fail but to make the problem even worse you have a limited amount of tries before you can even get an item due to the "action point" system. Since the merchant sells almost every resource it's easier to just go to the desert and get the last hit on as many enemies as you can in the "skeletons vs scorpions" encounter because bones and carapaces both sell for 3 gold and drop consistently.
I can see where you want to go with the fallout-esque encounters, I'm not entirely against it but the game is in such an awkward position mechanically right now that it probably would have been better to work out the combat kinks first before making the change, I think that would have made it a little less jarring. Things like attacks landing even when you're out of range or the weird bug where when you shoot an enemy with an arrow just before they attack another target in melee but it still hits you at range, and two handed power attacks being a little too punishing. I also believe having the companion system up and running would have went a long way in making those "3 x ambushes" more manageable.
I think the merchant should either stop selling basic resources or up his prices, on to the gathering itself I think the chance of failure is an okay concept but the drain on your action points is a little too harsh, maybe have a limited number of tries per node with no action point loss? Would also be nice if we could duck out of any encounters in which we haven't been spotted yet, that way if we come across a big battle we could sneak around and harvest what we need without fighting anything. Lastly it would also be nice to have more resource nodes available for the more riskier fights (or even treasure chests) so if you come across "3 bandits/animals/whatever" you would have more incentive to not skip the encounter.
How can I enlarge my tent and get more resources? Also how do I use Raid?
There's a table (not the crafting table next to your tent) near your tent that brings up the build menu. To get more resources you have to assign a follower to farmer, woodcutter, or miner, to do so bring your inventory up and click the icon that looks like 3 wood logs, click the portrait of the person you want for the job then select check the box of the job you want them to perform, starting out you only have Rana the orc chick so use her to get you started until you get more prisoners/followers.
To capture people you want to use a blunt weapon and deplete their teal bar, not the red or yellow, once you do that they get down on their knees, you talk to them and select "capture", this consumes a rope so make sure you have one before hand. To convert prisoners you need to make a transformation potion at an alchemy bench which requires 3 weak essence, you gather this by using the sign at your tent entrance and selecting "masturbate". To use the potion bring your inventory up, click the prisoner you want to convert and double click the potion. In your inventory there's a tab that looks like 3 heads, next to the resource assignment button, use it and select "raid" then double click the portraits of all the people you want to go on the raid and select confirm.
With the exception of Rana everyone has a number for a portrait currently.