Introduction

Why so secretive?

Why the change of heart?

How are drop rates determined?

For the entire history of RuneScape, we have been extremely secretive of what the chances are of obtaining rare loot from PvM, be that from Slayer creatures or from the numerous boss monsters that we have since released. From today, we'll no longer hold people in the dark about what the chance to obtain a rare drop from a boss monster is all part of our effort to be more transparent with you guys, the players.With Unfinished Business ongoing, we want to start being more open with you guys and this Dev Blog is going to talk about why we've kept this a secret in the past, how we come to set rare drop rates in the past and current as well as how we'll release drop rates and what we'll do for new content.Traditionally we very rarely used to give out information on how rare items are from drops or other various sources and used to do that for a few good reasons. First of all, one of the reasons that has been given out repeatedly in the past was the feeling of excitement and mystery about when you got a drop - not knowing exactly when you were 'owed' a drop.One of our other reasons was economical, this kinda ties in to our previous point a little too. If there's not certainty on the drop rates of items then there is some ambiguity about the prices of items. There's the other flip side that the price of items simply isn't just a calculation of effort and supplies once you know the missing numbers.The last main reason to talk about is simply reluctance in wanting to release drop rates. There is an unwritten rule in a lot of games who have random loot that the rates aren't revealed so that a piece of the magic isn't lost whilst doing pieces of content.We want to open up much more to you all, we want you to be more involved in our processes and get involved with how content is developed. That is beginning with many more meaningful polls, more development blogs like this where we explain why we're taking certain decisions and finally with revealing such a big secret in drop rates.After much discussion among ourselves and the outpouring of passion from players over the years, we've decided that it's better for the game and for ourselves for you to have as much information as possible at your fingertips regarding putting effort in to obtain the drops. Whether or not you want to keep any sense of mystery is in your own hands now, we won't be withholding that information any longer.Rolling a d6 and then multiplying it by 1,000.We're kidding, promise! Before we talk about how we're going to be revealing drop rates, we should talk about how we come up with them for some context. This is how we determine drop rates, a small process that goes from design through to QA. Here it is in a rough form:• The developer/designer has an initial idea how rare they want the item to be• We match to see if that sort of rarity is appropriate for the item, considering the following:

• What is the average kill time for the monster/boss that drops the item?

• How many of this item do want to enter the game each week?

• Are there any special modifiers that need to be applied?

• Anything else special that might effect drop chances?

Revealing drop rates

That's it!

The first point we consider when it comes to drop rates, is that it all comes down to how rare the developer/designer of the project wants the item to be, in keeping with their vision and design for the content. Whether or not that is as rare as the infamous Hazelmere's Signet Ring or a common drop like Muspah Spines, the vision and intended rarity by the developer is one of the most important parts of the process.Next up is testing and time trials of the (mostly) finished boss or monster. It is here that we get an accurate feel of how likely it is to get an item based on these kill times.We take a look at varying skill levels of players too. How does this drop rate feel for a more casual player? Is it still appropriate even though they will be killing much slower than other players? Once we have this data, we can gauge how many items we want to come in a week based on the number of players who can even access the content and its kill times. This will determine the availability (and, as such, the price) of the items so we need to make sure that we get this right.Once that is all set and done, we're mostly happy with the drop rate. We then make sure there are no extra special circumstances that might change the drop rate or need to be checked. This is, 99% of the time, making sure everything we've done so far is correct and that we haven't missed any edge cases.So how exactly are we going to be revealing drop rates? Over the course of the next couple of weeks, we're going to be revealing a number of drop rates on. Be sure to come back each week and check out this thread and also on our Twitter and Facebook Based on your feedback to the blog will determine which drop rates we release in order so if you have any particular drop, or set of drops, that you've been wanting to know the most - let us know. The first drop rate reveal will beso make sure to check back to social media and the forums to see what we reveal.It is important to note here that while we will be totally open about what the drop rates of items are, we aregoing to be changing the drop rates of any of the older items that we reveal. As talked about previously in the blog, these rates have been through the process and are what they are either for game health reasons.Going forward, for new content there will be a one month gap between the content going live and the drop rates being revealed. The reason for this is that we don't want to reveal them straight away and let the update have a bit of breathing room and get a chance for prices to settle.Thank you for reading the blog. Please let us know your feedback, what you thought about it and what you want the first drop rate reveal to be.