Which only brings us back to the original thought that "save-scumming" is therefore not an applicable argument against RNG mechanics.
Hell, and the seed mechanics just discourage, they wouldn't even stop it.
I offered one viable solution and immediately dropped it in favor of seed saving. Why have people felt the need to focus on the forum?
As for RNG not being random....well, yeah. But the RNG in D:OS felt plenty healthy enough to me so I really don't see why someone's ranting about it or what it is in programming (as a prgrommer, I appreciate the trouble of explaining it for others)
Now then, no one has offered a viable reason why the RNG systems of D:OS would be bad, per se.
As it is, I think the randomness in D:OS2 is overall balanced, but that's because it is usually restricted to attacks, chances to dodge/parry and criticals and most importantly, they don't rely on seed saving (which, as said, can be circumvented). Making initiative based on randomness?
Character 1: Initiative 9, roll d20, result: 2. Total: 11.
Character 2: Initiative 2, roll d20, result: 14. Total: 16.
Character 2 acts first without having ever bothered with spending points in initiative, while character 1 is headbutting the computer screen for having spent points in initiative. I'm using "character" in a very loose sense of the word here. During fights, the player's party is usually at a numeric disadvantage, which means that enemies have more chances to score higher initiative rolls, thus acting first, despite the player having bothered with spending points in initiative. Doesn't seem 100% fair to me, as much as having skeletons and zombies with 14 initiative does.
Seems fair to me.
Laws of mathematics dictate that as long as the character with 9 initiative is getting a much better "average" over time than he's being rewarded for his input.
Highs and lows are expected in such a system. Even an almighty God Dragon can roll a 1 in D&D and fall on its face for "reasons" And that's part of the appeal
Averages rewarding player stat choice are what counts here overall. The mathematical averages should be what's argued, not outliers. And that just comes down to which algorithm is used.
You said yourself that the RNG works very well for some things. We don't have to make it the standard for everything but I vote that most of all D:OS EE was healthy for the most part and beneficial to the experience
Hell, if you want to be more forgiving as a dev? Alter the weights on rolls for a character with higher initiative such that his minimum rolls feel significantly better than his counter part. It's smoke and mirrors to give the illusion that someone's initiative of 2 simply has a very very very low chance of ever beating 9 cause we make it so, but that all comes down to how you decide implement things
I can see such an implementation making examples like the one you have extreme outliers and thus naturally moot. Hell, if there's a one percent chance of that happening relatively and it does, that's a unique and fun experience in its own way
Edit:
I too miss the old mechanics. Which is where I'm coming at this from.
As for seed saving....well, I'm not particularly a fan of it, but if people feel the need to absolutely discourage breaking RNG mechanics somehow and maintain save scumming, the seed saving mechanics are the only viable middle ground I can think of
