Only on Casinomeister, lol.
I've watched the thread KK, but (for once) I don't really have much to say. The gist of it is that they've changed the reel strip layout, which alters the RTP? But didn't we always know that RTG had the three different RTP settings? I'm guessing the pear is the lowest paying symbol, which would mean they've adjusted the RTP to a lower percentage? Is there another way they could switch the RTP between 93, 95 and 97%, without altering the reel strip layout? I know I'm missing something here...which is why I need Rusty to explain it to me like I'm five.
Actually the Pear isn't the lowest paying symbol - it's one of the highest! But adding it to the reels will still lower the RTP.
I actually think they add more than one symbol, and possibly more than one reel is effected too - we would not really notice. The only reason this one was spotted is because the 2 Pears are together.
OK, I'll try to explain it simply!
Say Reel 2 has just 1 wild symbol on it.
Obviously if this appears in the "window" you have a better chance of getting a win.
Suppose for the highest return variation that Reel 2 has 30 symbols;
Chance of getting the Wild in view = 1 in 10 (3 positions in 30).
If they added 3 lesser symbols, the chance of getting a Wild would be 1 in 11.
If they added 6 lesser symbols, the chance of getting a Wild would be 1 in 12.
So I hope you can see how this effects your expected return?
Another example:
Suppose you need 3 scatters on reels 1, 2 & 3 for a feature, and there's only 1 scatter per reel.
If there were 30 symbols per reel, the chance of hitting 3 scatters is 1/10 x 1/10 x 1/10 = 1 in 1000
At 33 symbols per reel it would be 11 x 11 x 11 = 1 in 1,331
At 36 symbols per reel it would be 12 x 12 x 12 = 1 in 1,728
That's a HUGE reduction in your chance of getting the feature just by adding a few symbols to the reels - and something most of us would never notice in normal play.
That's why I think this thread is so significant - if we could "crack" the reels we could tell which variation of slot we were playing, and then be able to choose which casino we wanted to play at; the one with 97% return, or the one with 92%...
KK