Additional Loot Respawn Options

[Deuce]

Ok so first off I'm not sure if anyone has suggested this idea or a similar idea before.  If any such posts exist please point me in that direction so that I may link them here.  I kind of find it hard to believe that no one else has thought of this idea in the past but I could not find anything on the subject.

 

So we all know how loot respawn works in sandbox games, you set the loot respawn interval and the loot rarity of specific types of loot.  Here is a refresher image if anyone has forgotten what all of the default options are.

 

We also are all probably familiar with the way utility shutoff works in sandbox games, you set the option to adjust the amount of time the utilities stay active.  Here is another refresher image if anyone needs to familiarize themselves again.

 

Now for the suggestion, what if we mixed those two mechanics?  You would set your 'Starting Loot Rarity' as normal and you would set your 'Loot Respawn' interval as you currently do, except there would be a couple of new options.  I propose that we add a 'Loot Rarity Interval' option to change the loot rarity of the world after a certain amount of time has passed (similar to how the utility shutoff works).  For example, you would set it to '0-30 Days' and after that amount of time has passed the loot would tick from 'Normal' down to 'Rare'.  Obviously you would need to have loot respawn enabled to refresh the world and make this work (so you would have the new rarity interval options greyed-out if loot respawn was disabled).  I would also suggest that a checkbox option be added to allow loot respawn drop to 'None' as a final tick after the 'Extremely Rare' loot tick.  Here is a picture of what something like this would look like in the sandbox options (mini-suggestion, stick all of these options on a separate tab labelled 'Loot').

 

Basically options like these would allow you to simulate active looting over time.  What do you guys think?

Edited September 20, 2016 by Deuce

[MyTJ]

I like the general idea, but I think there may be a problem implementing it.  At the moment, loot respawn work on unseen chunk.  Using this system and moving around extensively could prevent areas to ever see any loot respawn (if the checkbox is active) or see very minor loot respawn (no checkbox).

 

Trying to circumvent this issue would be worse as is, because then if loot respawn on seen chunk, your own containers would to (unless I'm mistaken).  Fixing this would require some player tagged containers (like renaming?)

 

Maybe an alternative would be an alternate respawn system?  Let me explain briefly my counter-offer :

 

Dead survivor based loot respawn

This could be handled like a meta event (chopper, gunshots) where seen or unseen dead survivors would spawn on the map.  Doing so would do a few simultaneous things :

• Reset the loot of nearby containers at a lower rarity (like OP idea, ticking down one event after the other until it's down to 0).
• Alternate possibility 1 : Make a nearby building semi barricaded. The containers in that home would respawn with higher loot rarity then original settings (allowing to even get higher then normally possible).  It would not have the usual qualities of barricaded homes except for the zombies part.  At least one window or door should be broken. There would be a dead survivor in there with at least a school bag or higher bag in inventory.
• Alternate possibility 2 : Same as alternate 1, but no broken window and original loot rarity.  Survivor is found dead outside with some loot corresponding to 1 or 2 bags (schoolbag or higher) worth of loot and a few extra items.
• Spoiler

  Alternate possibility 3 : Assuming the devs never get rid of the OLT exploit... there is no building as alternate 1 or 2.  Instead you find an OLT using dead survivor carrying 1-5 garbage bag full of loot per loot rarity level and 0-2 BHB full of loot per rarity level as well as the following items in inventory : food, weapons, first aid stuff and a few empty garbage bags.

   

 

This would make a good dynamic system where loot never respawn for no reason.  It may make some people (and I know a few) that don't like loot respawn because it's too unrealistic consider trying it.

Edited September 25, 2016 by MyTJ
Forgot why this would be a good dynamic system + Underline a few differences with barricaded homes

[TheWraithPlayer]

On 9/22/2016 at 9:15 PM, MyTJ said:

I like the general idea, but I think there may be a problem implementing it.  At the moment, loot respawn work on unseen chunk.  Using this system and moving around extensively could prevent areas to ever see any loot respawn (if the checkbox is active) or see very minor loot respawn (no checkbox).

 

Trying to circumvent this issue would be worse as is, because then if loot respawn on seen chunk, your own containers would to (unless I'm mistaken).  Fixing this would require some player tagged containers (like renaming?)

 

Maybe an alternative would be an alternate respawn system?  Let me explain briefly my counter-offer :

 

Dead survivor based loot respawn

This could be handled like a meta event (chopper, gunshots) where seen or unseen dead survivors would spawn on the map.  Doing so would do a few simultaneous things :

• Reset the loot of nearby containers at a lower rarity (like OP idea, ticking down one event after the other until it's down to 0).
• Alternate possibility 1 : Make a nearby building semi barricaded. The containers in that home would respawn with higher loot rarity then original settings (allowing to even get higher then normally possible).  It would not have the usual qualities of barricaded homes except for the zombies part.  At least one window or door should be broken. There would be a dead survivor in there with at least a school bag or higher bag in inventory.
• Alternate possibility 2 : Same as alternate 1, but no broken window and original loot rarity.  Survivor is found dead outside with some loot corresponding to 1 or 2 bags (schoolbag or higher) worth of loot and a few extra items.
•   Reveal hidden contents

  Alternate possibility 3 : Assuming the devs never get rid of the OLT exploit... there is no building as alternate 1 or 2.  Instead you find an OLT using dead survivor carrying 1-5 garbage bag full of loot per loot rarity level and 0-2 BHB full of loot per rarity level as well as the following items in inventory : food, weapons, first aid stuff and a few empty garbage bags.

   

 

This would make a good dynamic system where loot never respawn for no reason.  It may make some people (and I know a few) that don't like loot respawn because it's too unrealistic consider trying it.

Possibility one I've already seen. I went into a barricaded house and found two pistols, about 50 bullets, more canned goods than I could count, and a lot of other good stuff.

[MyTJ]

23 hours ago, TheWraithPlayer said:

Possibility one I've already seen. I went into a barricaded house and found two pistols, about 50 bullets, more canned goods than I could count, and a lot of other good stuff.

 

Although it shares similarities with barricaded homes, it also differ. I've underlined two part of my post to make it more clear.  Let me know if the difference is not clear enough, as that would mean I need to rewrite part of it.

[TheWraithPlayer]

1 hour ago, MyTJ said:

 

Although it shares similarities with barricaded homes, it also differ. I've underlined two part of my post to make it more clear.  Let me know if the difference is not clear enough, as that would mean I need to rewrite part of it.

Sorry, missed that. Thanks!

[Deuce]

On 9/22/2016 at 9:15 PM, MyTJ said:

Trying to circumvent this issue would be worse as is, because then if loot respawn on seen chunk, your own containers would to (unless I'm mistaken).  Fixing this would require some player tagged containers (like renaming?)

 

The way I understand the loot respawn system, it does not replace or remove items the player has interacted with.  I'm not sure on the specifics, but I did test this by looting a bookcase fully and placing a vest in the now empty container and leaving.  The loot respawned and the vest remained in the container.

 

I am unsure if normal items that the player hasn't interacted with will remain in a loot container during a respawn cycle or not.  If normal items remain during a respawn cycle then the respawn mechanics work to just 'fill up' containers to a threshold and wouldn't actually replace anything on a respawn cycle which might be a difficult problem to deal with.

 

Player-created and player-moved containers do not spawn loot currently (as far as I know).  I am unsure if there are any mods or server options that can change this.