Drop Table Authenticity and Appropriate Sources for Exact Weights

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Von Hresvelg
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Drop Table Authenticity and Appropriate Sources for Exact Weights

Post by Von Hresvelg »

UNDER CONSTRUCTION

This forum is posted to address 2 questions:
- WHEN is Old School Runescape (OSRS) a reliable source?
- Did specialized drop tables exist in 2009?

OSRS is generally used as a "Last Resort," and even when data is too thin in the 2009 era, we STILL avoid using it. It's apparent that OSRS is unreliable at best; That said, it is still used for a plethora of things that most likely NOT changed. A solid example would be an examine. A common source that HAS changed include slayer monster drop tables. In order to understand what HAS and has NOT been changed, we need to place ourselves in the minds of Jagex and ask one simple question: Is it worth our time?

Let's start out with a concept that most people know about, but not technically: The Rare Drop Table (RDT). Everyone remembers killing hill giants and hobgoblins for hours, grinding away at our combat stats, when suddenly, one drops a gem! After several kills, you thought for sure you've seen it all, and out of nowhere, this "rare" drop surfaces. Regardless of what you did with the gem, the thought always dwelled in the back of your mind that a "random" monster dropped a rather uncommon find. Eventually it happens again, but this time with a different NPC. After several months of play, you begin to see a pattern, and subconsciously deduce this: "Most monsters rarely drop gems." This is one of the few things of the RDT.

The RDT was the first (and maybe not the last) of the fixed tables that Jagex and the Gowers fit together to easily attach unique drops to "most" NPCs. The evidence of this is still found in large-scale looting records from 2009 and 2011.
Here are 2 sources from February 2010 and December 2011 that show the first documented existence of the RDT and all the monsters affected by the RDT:
- https://runescape.wiki/w/Rare_drop_table?oldid=2234337
- https://runescape.wiki/w/Rare_drop_table?oldid=5099130

This is all to say that the RDT was not the only table pulled from a template. I suspect there were different types of herb and seed drop tables. Even recently, these tables were confirmed to exist in RS3 and earlier by an individual(s) anonymously named "Cook" shown in these sources who confirms that specialized OSRS DT data is the same as SOME specialized RS3 DT data.
- https://runescape.wiki/w/Herb_drop_table?oldid=35828103
- https://runescape.wiki/w/Seed_drop_table?oldid=35829177

I was approached by an anonymous individual with a concern, and simply put, the concern was as followed: "If low-level mobs dropped high-level herbs and seeds, the economy would be in-trouble." This is a genuine concern, but this is exactly what Jagex and the Gowers wanted. As you know, herbloring is a Members Only skill. Being able to defeat a level 2 Man or Woman for a high-level herb sounds like a horrendous idea, unless of course, you are paying for such an advantage and there are OTHER ways to make money and experience faster. Listed in both sources, one from the 2009 wiki revision, and one from OSRS, are the same NPCs.
- https://runescape.wiki/w/Man?oldid=2091396
- https://oldschool.runescape.wiki/w/Man

They both clearly conclude that a level 2 Man / Woman is, "A good source of herbs for low level players," and, "often drop them when defeated on member-only servers." There's even a comment listed in a 2011 revision that, "A player can make up to 200k / hour farming level 2 Man / Woman."
- https://runescape.wiki/w/Man?oldid=5093418
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Re: Drop Table Authenticity and Appropriate Sources for Exact Weights

Post by Ceikry »

A singular example doesn't even come close to significant proof.
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