Originally Posted by
fixitman
The percentages are simply a probability of success for each attempt. It is not for each node, or overall attempts. It is a very basic system, which reduces overhead by NOT looking at overall totals.
Example only: The game generates a number from 1-100 each time you attempt to gather something. It then compares this number to the actual probabilty. The higher number wins.
Probability=higher, you get the item
Probability=lower, you fail
The number is re-generated for each attempt, so there is no point in looking at large pools of data. This is obviously the system in use, just based on the inconsistent long-term results.