Here is the thing, I didn’t. The min num_rolls was 1, and so was the max num_rolls. I understood everything you said the first time. I didn’t know for sure the first time that it would be consistent, but I assumed it was, when you had num_roll min and max at the same number. But when I tested it in game, I only got 12 pelts, and not 18, so maybe the system was not so consistent after all, and there is a chance that it sometimes doesn’t spawn things altogether. So I asked the question, but apparently it should actually have been 18 pelts. But the game does not agree with you, so it is just weird.
I guess I will do some experimenting…
So, after an experiment that didn’t work out, I tried how the old system behaved if I harvested more piles. The first one gave 12 pelts, again (this is the same in-game pile,
already in the save file when I loaded it to test), but all others (piles I spawned in after loading the game) consistently spat out 18 pelts.
So I guess the theory that explains all of this is that the changed loot_table only affect newly placed items, and not older ones. This still doesn’t explain why the 12 pelts came out of the first one, (I have no clue where that came from, the last time 12 was in that item was for how many pelts you needed for crafting and got when harvesting, before I changed it from 12 to 18, but that was already removed way before I started messing, or even introducing the new loot table) but it works now, so I won’t be complaining.
Thanks for the support @BrunoSupremo and @Hamnisu.