Ok well I've been messing around with drop rates trying to get them as good as possible. What I am doing currently to test them is I added a new drop rule (cq_dropitemrule) and changed it so 3 different monsters all used that monster class.
Currently for these tests I will be using cg_dropitemrule chance of 100,000,000. All statistics are drop_item_chance in cq_monstertype
I am not sure if it makes much of a difference but I have explode_item_chance1 10 explode_item_chance2 30 explode_item_chance 3 60 for all 3 monsters, I believe that has something to do with how many items it drops but I am not sure yet, if anyone knows or I find out I will update this posts.
The tests
The tests I did so far are very basic, change the drop_item_chance field to something, change next monster to a product of that and same for 3rd monster, then load the server and check the drop rates. NOTE YOU NEED TO RESTART SERVER FOR DROPRATES TO UPDATE (if there is a gm command to reload droprate/monstertype table please let me know, it would help)
First round of tests
drop_item_chance 10,000 - 100 monsters dropped 8-12 items over 300-400 monsters
drop_item_chance 20,000 - 100 monsters dropped 18-24 items over ~200 monsters
drop_item_chance 30,000 - 100 monsters dropped ~ 30 items over ~100-200 monsters
So, in this case a drop item chance of 10,000 meant aprox 1 in 10 monsters dropped something. Idealy it should be somewhat lower in my oppinion so I moved on to a second set of tests.
Second Round Of Tests
drop_item_chance 5,000 - 100 monsters dropped 5 items almost exactly over 300 monsters killed, next 100 dropped around 10-12 though... one of the monsters appears to have droped about 4 items though...
drop_item_chance 10,000 - 100 monsters dropped ~ 10 items again over 200 kills, confirmed first test
drop_item_chance 15,000 - 100 monsters droped ~ 16-19 items over 400 kills
I used 10,000 in the first test but I just wanted to confirm to myself that it was accurate in this one as well (to confirm the original results)
Conclusion
This is simply a guide for people who are trying to configure their drop rate settings to understand somewhat how they work and what is a good setting. I still havnt found the "perfect" drop rate but, using a dropitemrule chance of 100,000,000 somewhere in the low thousands sounds about right
review
all rates @ 100,000,000 chance in dropitemrule
10,000 ~ 1 item per 10 mobs
20,000 ~ 1 item per 4-5 mobs
30,000 ~ 1 item per 2-3 mobs
5,000 ~ 1 item per 15-20 mobs
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If anyone wants to come test out some things with me on my server send me a pm, server is up most of the time currently being used for exp/droprates and some translation work.