Computers have never been any good at random generation. Any gamer knows the wrath of the RNG gods.
Missing a 95% chance 4 times in a row? Highly improbable in real life, but perfectly ordinary for a computer.
Many games are utterly ruined by this.
It is not a strategy game if the only winning strategy involves getting lucky.
And it's so simple to fix. It doesn't need to be random, it just needs to be unpredictable. There are many ways to achieve this. I take random values from diminishing pool. An array that holds all outcomes and removes each as it gets used. This results in a random order, but equal distribution.
A good example of what I mean is the game Warbanners. It has the potential to be a fantastic game, but the rng has the ability to one-shot kill any unit at any time. Nothing you can do to stop it.
You can have a battle where you make all the right moves, but watch your most powerful units get killed by battered weaker units.
WTF?!
If I want to get fucked in ways beyond my control, I'll go outside. I dwell in a basement playing games so that I can have some control.
I don't mind a game that punishes me for making mistakes. I love a challenge. But the 'Surprise, you're dead' game mechanic has always been taught as a design flaw. It's basic game design 101. Yet can be found in many alleged 'strategy' games.
I agree with you whole heartedly. Diablo 2 was one of my favorite games of all time, but I would always skip large parts of Act 3 because of the god damned voodoo doll fuckers. In hell mode, those things have an RNG for critical hits on their "explode-on-death" ability...so combine laggy servers and a chance to get one-shot by fast-moving little fucking exploding voodoo dolls. After losing a lvl 95 hardcore Amazon to one of those fuckers, I would skip the sewers except on the first play through for a character so I could get the waypoint.