RM2K3: THE RANDOM ENCOUNTER SYSTEM IS FICKLE..

Hi, I'm a newbie to this site (first post)! I've noticed on every project I've tried to make on rpg maker 2003, the random encounter setting for map properties doesnt seem to want to work right. When the rate is at the default 25 max. steps, I can walk well over hundereds of steps on terrain that equals 100% of its maps encounter rate and not get an encounter, so I'm guessing that something is stopping them altogether. However, just to see what would happen, I set the plains terrain to equal 500% of maps encounter rate (with the rate still at 25), and it would give me encounters on plains terrain, but sometimes took more than 25 steps, which is weird because I both tweaked up the encounter rate of plains, and encounter rate 25 is supposed to mean max 25 steps before a battle begins. Also, I got the SAME results when i set the encounter rate to 1 (which should mean new battle every single step) with plains at 500%. I'm starting to pull my hair out! Anybody have a few helpful words about this? (I did not use a special encounter "area" during this)