RNG? I think not

"Nikoms565;950325" wrote:
Hundreds or even thousands of recorded data points is not "some small sample". Several posters/guilds have tracked drop rates for virtually every aspect of the game. Some examples are:

https://forums.galaxy-of-heroes.starwars.ea.com/discussion/91405/so-i-tracked-2-000-drops/p1

(which has several others posting large sample sizes as well).

As an example an entire guild ran drop rates on one character, specifically. Almost a year ago:

https://forums.galaxy-of-heroes.starwars.ea.com/discussion/21257/rey-drop-rate-32-72/p1

The findings there were virtually identical to character shard drop rates by various posters and guilds since then. The point? That drop rates are not only consistent - but have been virtually since launch. In other words, the drop rates are not only static, but haven't been changed since the beginning of the game.

And anyone who would call thousands of data points done by several different individuals (and entire guilds of 50 people) at different points in time - none of whom have any reason to bias their findings - a "small sample size" or write it off as statistically insignificant, simply does not understand statistics and probability. In fact, many of the people and groups who originally set out to record the data were hoping to find anomalies - but virtually all found the same thing. Drop rates that were random, consistent and predictable given a large enough sample size.

Sorry if actual facts are getting in the way of a handful of conspiracy theorists who "feel" it is subjective - when actual data has shown, time and time again, that it is not.

These datas (while greatly appreciated) have nothing to do with what we are discussing now. You are not even talking about the same test, you are trying to push another Test's results into an entirely different theory and than call it "facts".

To have a controlled test about this subject one (or more people) should take a gear piece at hand, let's say Stun Cuffs for example's sake.
I got 0 to 10 Stun Cuff pieces out of 50 needed, when the gear pieces are between this interval I must spend tens of thousands of energy and take note of the drops.
Than Stun Cuffs are 48+ out of 50 pieces (at that interval only), I must spend tens of thousands of energy and take note of the drops.
And compare the drop chances of each.

The datas you provide take the average chance of drop rates in general. While the theory is that: "when a piece of gear, or shards of a character, get close to finishing, there is a break point and the drop chances lower".

Again it's hard to say how right the theory is since this is on the "Selective Perception" territory of human psychology.
On the other hand it is certainly not harder than to code different Gear drop chances (White/Gold/Purple), and indeed a genius marketing strategy, since people are much more inclined to refreshing their energy to get a Gear piece finished / Star level gained when they are closer to finishing it.
(By that I mean, you are much more likely to refresh your energy with Crystals if you have 49 out of 50 Stun cuffs and your character needs that gear, than if you only had 5-10 pieces out of 50)