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Retry: The Great Loot Search - A Study on Starting House Loot Hauls


ShylokVakarian

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Back to Study Central

 

Hello, ladies and gentlezombies, and welcome to The Great Loot Search!  Again!  I didn't get nearly enough responses last time, and ended up being chased by angry zombies for 7 months, but they have been pacified now (and by pacified, I mean cut up into itty-bitty pieces with a chainsaw).

 

For those of you that didn't see the first attempt, this study focuses around looting the hell out of whatever building you spawn in and counting all the precious loot it contained.  Maybe if I can get this study off the ground this time, I can finally answer that question one user had about the chances of finding "a decent-sized bag" in the starting house.  I've included a list of all the goodies you'll need to account for, and it's even printer-friendly!

 

The study is now completed.

 

Results:

50 Responses (Completed)

Spoiler

Let's start with the question that started it all: What are my chances of getting "a decent-sized bag" in my starting location?

 

Well, to do that, we'll start off with a better question: What are my chances of even finding a bag in my starting location at all?  Well, currently, it's not all that good.  Only 68% of characters found any kind of bag in their starting location.  This is subject to change, but your odds aren't good at the moment.  If you're spawning in a trailer, the odds are even less, at 57%.  Starting in a small house will be about the same as the total, at 66%, and the best odds of finding bags at all is in a large, multi-story house, at about 71%.  Oddly enough, the most bags found at all were found in a small house.

 

So, what about "a decent-sized bag"?  Well, let's first define that as being either a duffel bag, hiking bag, or big hiking bag.  And, hoo boy, is that figure low.  12%, in total.  If we want to break it down by income level, trailers have a big fat zero percent, and houses, both small and large, at about 15% each.

Okay, so what about First Aid Kits?  What are my odds of finding those?

 

...Yeah, not very good...let's skip this one for now, it's bound to change eventually.

 

Okay, so what about weapons?  What weapons am I going to find?  Well, you're almost guaranteed silverware in your house, with only 8% of characters finding none, and no one finding just one.  That's a 92% chance that you'll find at least two untensils to use.  While they're not very good weapons (Unless you use them right), you're very likely to at least walk out the door with some kind of weapon, no matter how brittle and weak.  There's a good 28% chance you'll find the Holy Grail of Letting The Zombie Dangerously Close So You Can Stab Through Their Skull And Kill Them In A Single Hit, the Kitchen Knife.  Frying Pans aren't too rare, either, at 30%, and Rolling Pins are easily findable at 33%.

 

That's all well and good, but these are weaksauce weapons.  What about the heavy melee weapons?  Baseball Bats aren't very common, at 12%, so it's not likely that you're going to find them.  Be thankful this game isn't set in England, you'd never find a Baseball Bat.  Though, to be fair, you'd probably find Cricket Bats instead, and I hear those things are really deadly if you turn it on its side.  Huh.  Maybe it'd be better to be living in England during a zombie apocalypse.  Crowbars were very rare, as only one person found one, making the odds 2%.  Sledgehammers and axes were not found at all, as well scissors, oddly enough.  I'd think scissors would be fairly common in households.

 

Cool, what about guns?  Either Kentucky isn't a very gun-friendly state, or Knox County doesn't have very many people that insist on having a gun in their house.  Only one person found a handgun in their starting location, and no one found a shotgun.  Not that it matters, considering ammo itself is pretty rare, with only one person finding any handgun ammo, and only one person finding any shotgun shells.  The amount of ammo found was low, too, only finding a total of 5 9mm bullets and 6 shotgun shells.  Yikes, Kentucky sounds like a shitty place to be during a zombie apocalypse.  If you do find yourself in Muldraugh during a real zombie apocalypse, head north-by-northeast along 31W until you find yourself in Louisville, then head west on Route 64 until you reach Columbia, Missouri.  There's plenty of guns there, and the best part is you can even find...ME!  Kind of.  I live nearby.  Also, quick little tidbit of knowledge, right in-game is north.  Confusing, huh?

 

Alright, cool, that sounds alright, I think I can survive long enough to get to another house.  But how's the food haul?  Well, dog food's pretty rare, at 14%, so there's not going to be a lot of emergency food you can scarf down.  Yeah, yeah, it's nasty, I know, but hey: This is the apocalypse. Take what you can get.  I'm not saying you should eat the dog food first, but there'll come a time where you have nothing else to eat.  Flour's even more rare, at 8%.  Sugar and Yeast are at around 12% each, Salt's at 10%, and Pepper is at a measly 6%.  But what's the best part of waking up?  That's right, Folger's in your cup while the zombies bang at your walls, at 16%.  Other hot beverages are available, such as Tea at 12%.  Bread is pretty rare, at 2%, which is odd, considering how useful bread is.  I would not consider a house to be complete without some bread.  Fruit and veggies are pretty easy to come by, at 26% each.  Meat is plentiful, at 34%.  Knox County must have a bit of an egg shortage, as only 2% of houses contained any.  Dairy's alright, at 14%, and non-perishables of any kind are always available, at at least 96%, so you won't leave empty-handed in that department.

 

Medical supplies are very tricky to find in your starting house, with Cotton Balls and Disinfectant at 10% each, Band-Aids at 6%, Thread at 2%, and Alcohol Wipes, Bandages, Needles, and Suture Needles at 0% each.  Thankfully, Tweezers and Suture Needle Holders are more plentiful, at 18%, and Tissues can be found 10% of the time.  Drugs are mostly a wash, as no drug was found more than 8% of the time, and Anti-Biotics and Vitamins weren't found at all.  Cigarettes were also completely absent, so bad news for smokers.

 

Okay, so we're not going to find much in the way of medical supplies.  What about our alternative bandages, sheets?  Well, you're in luck, because 62% of characters found at least one sheet in their starting location, and one even found a whopping 21 sheets!  That's a lot of sheets!

 

Okay, but what about the most important item to have during a zombie apocalypse?  Well, you're not finding it where you spawn.  No one found a Spiffo doll in their starting location.

 

So what did we learn today?  Nothing much, as this study is not nearly complete enough to get accurate data.  But now we know that your spawn location probably sucks.

100 Responses (Skipped, because reasons)

250 Responses (Skipped in favor of Coronation Special)

Queen of Loot Coronation Special (282 Responses)(Completed)

Spoiler

Let's start this one off with the Bag Question: What are my chances of finding a bag in my starting location?

 

To answer this, we'll break it down into five parts: Trailers, Small Houses, Big Houses, Hotels and Motels, Bars.  In trailers, your odds aren't great, finding a bag about 58.33% of the time.  In small houses, this is about 58.62%, though a certain glitch may have screwed with the data some.  Adjusting for oddly low loot numbers, the odds are about 67.82%, which makes more sense, given our previous data.  In big houses, the odds of finding a bag is about 77.55%, making it the biggest chance of finding bags in a house.  The following are based on very few responses, and thus should not be taken as exact.  In hotels and motels, it seems there's always a bag to be found, and in bars, the only kind of bag you'll find is a garbage bag, about 44.44% of the time.

 

Alright, but about a "decent-sized bag"?  That is, a duffel bag or either of the two hiking bags?  Well, if your survivor is living in a trailer, don't get your hopes up.  Big bags were only found in trailers 2.78% of the time.  The odds in a small house are better, at 15.52%.  Since big bags don't appear in counters, we don't need to adjust for the glitch in question.  Big houses have big bags at 20.41%, and hotels and motels were oddly well stocked in terms of big bags, at 28.57%.  Due to the low number of hotel responses, that number is probably not accurate, and certainly isn't very precise.

What about first aid kits?  Well, trailer-dwellers can give up on that front, too, as it appears in trailers 0% of the time.  Small houses aren't much better, at 1.15%, and big houses aren't much better than that, at 4.08%.  Hotels and motels are apparently loaded in that regard, at 57.14%, but again, we only have data for 7 of these, so it's probably not accurate.

A fairly interesting point is that Doctors have a chance of spawning in hospitals, clinics, and pharmacies, which likely always contain at least one first aid kit.

 

Alright, let's talk weapons.  Eating utensils are fairly common, at 79.79%.  Remember how, in the first set of results, no one found just one utensil?  Well it appears there's still some truth to that.  Take a look at this chart:


91-850we8RL._SL1500_.jpg

See, this is what you get for hiring zombies to help you with your research: Incompetence. *Gunshot and pained zombie moan*

 

Chart

 

As you can see by this chart, it's actually quite difficult to find exactly 1 utensil, compared to finding 2 or 0 utensils, so if you find a utensil, chances are you'll find more.

 

Kitchen knives are fairly easy to find, at 19.15%, as are frying pans, at 25.53%, and rolling pins, at 22.34%.  Baseball bats aren't too rare at 11.35%, and hammers are the same, at 13.48%, but don't get your hopes up for a crowbar, at 2.13%, or a pair of scissors, at 1.06%.  Again, what house DOESN'T have a pair of scissors?  Do people in Kentucky not keep scissors in their houses?  Are there regulations on scissors in Kentucky that prevent people from having scissors in their houses?  Are they afraid people will run with them and kill themselves or other people?

Enough of this melee weapon crap, what about the guns?  Chances are, you aren't finding them.  6.4% of houses contained a handgun, and none of them contained a shotgun or any other gun.  Not that there's much ammo to go around, considering only 12% of houses had any handgun rounds, and the amount found was almost always 5, with a couple 10's in there.  You at least have a chance to find some shotgun shells, at 6 shells about 2.1% of the time.  Oddly enough, it's possible to find some .223 ammo, but it's very rare and was found only once.

 

Food's mostly the same as last time, count on finding non-perishables and probably some sort of bottle to hold water in, and fridges are fairly commonplace.  Whiskey isn't very common, at 8.51%, and we all know how useful whiskey is for disinfecting bandages and making molotovs, so that's not great.

 

Medical supplies are pretty rare, ranging from 16.31% for tweezers and/or suture needle holders to 1.42% for needles and spools of thread.  Drugs are fairly uncommon, ranging from 7.45% for sleeping tablets to 0% for antibiotics (as it should be, considering we are running out of strains of antibiotics that are still effective faster than we can find new ones), and cigarettes are pretty rare, at 3.55%, so it's probably not a good idea to take the Smoker trait.

Bath Towels and Dish Towels are fairly common, at 42.20% and 15.96% respectively, so rain shouldn't be a huge deal, and sheets are plentiful at 45.74%, so at least you have that going for you.

 

But what about the almighty Spiffo Doll?  The answer is still "You're not going to find one in your starting location".  It might be possible, but I have yet to see any responses that have found one.

 

I still have more questions to answer, and probably the biggest one is "How do I maximize my loot haul?".  I feel like I have an answer to that question, but I'm not very confident about it.  I'll post another report once I've gotten a chance to look at the data a bit more closely.  For now, though, you can take a look at the data yourself through this here link:

 

Data

 

Maybe you'll find something interesting.

Queen of Loot Coronation Special Part 2

Spoiler

Okay, ladies and gentlezombies, the moment you've all been waiting for: What's the best starting area?

 

Rosewood.  Rosewood by far.  Let's take a look at the data.

 

I split up spawn locations into 6 groups, in this particular order: Trailers, small houses, large houses, hotels and motels, bars, and hospitals and restaurants.  Remember this order, because I give weights in that order, too.  For the first table, I set the weights to 1/2/3/1/0.5/1.  In this table, Rosewood scored an amazing average weight of 2.29, far above the next two highest, West Point at 1.97 and Muldraugh at 1.93.  Riverside scored an abysmal 1.61, and due to the way I'm weighting currently, the empty counters bug doesn't even apply.

 

But I wasn't satisfied with that table.  It didn't take into account the ridiculous amount of loot one can find in a hotel or motel.  So I adjusted the weights to 1/2/3/3/0.5/1, and this bumped up West Point's score to 2.16.  Riverside got a minor bump to 1.64 as well, and the others were untouched.  So it seems like Rosewood is the best, and West Point is a good second choice.  But I still wasn't satisfied.  It doesn't seem like the trailers and the small houses are really any different in terms of loot haul, so why am I weighing small houses at 2 and not 1?  Adjusting to 1/1/3/3/0.5/1 gives an interesting counterpoint to West Point being second best, as Muldraugh pulls ahead of it, sitting at a pretty 1.46 compared to West Point's 1.35.  Rosewood reigns supreme at 1.57, and Riverside remains terrible at 1.12.

 

So what's the best profession for maximizing my loot haul from my starting location?  Well, it turns out that going to college for 8 years really does pay off, as Doctors were, across all areas, very well-equipped.  Other great professions for getting lots of loot without even having to leave your house are Fire Officers, Park Rangers (Gotta love that sweet, sweet hotel loot), and Nurses.  Farmers also fared particularly well in Muldraugh, and Police Officers fared well in West Point.  Chefs also seem to do well in Rosewood.

 

So what did we learn?  Rosewood is the best place to live in Knox County, a college education really does pay off, and if you live in Riverside, you're probably screwed.

 

Edited by ShylokVakarian
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Sounds interesting. I will give it a shot since I just did the IWBUMS megatest, need to revert to main. You will get super-fresh brand-new-install data in about 30 mins.

 

Does your quiz take into account professions? I do believe those impact where you spawn, though I am not positive.

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1 minute ago, sadpickle said:

Sounds interesting. I will give it a shot since I just did the IWBUMS megatest, need to revert to main. You will get super-fresh brand-new-install data in about 30 mins.

 

Does your quiz take into account professions? I do believe those impact where you spawn, though I am not positive.

It does, via the "What kind of house did you spawn in?" question.

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1 minute ago, sadpickle said:

So should I be mentioning my profession when I am presented this question? I would have just noted the quality/income level of the house tbh.

I would think you should. It could be chance but at least for me the times I've selected doctor I've started in nicer houses than most of the other professions I usually use.

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1 minute ago, BoogieMan said:

I would think you should. It could be chance but at least for me the times I've selected doctor I've started in nicer houses than most of the other professions I usually use.

It's not chance, you definitely start out in a High Income house.  Same with Veteran, oddly enough, considering how poorly we treat our veterans.

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Some other things I found with no options as far as I can see on the list: Cooking Pot, Bowl, Empty Mug, Saucepan, Poolcue, Lightbulbs, Cleaning Liquid, Soap, assorted Clothing (Vests, Skirt, Underwear, Belt and Sock), Pillow, Salt, Cold Pack, Wire.

 

Also, having rolled a Fire Officer and then a Doctor, I think the Doctor's house is kind of shitty. On par or worse than the Fire Officer's to be perfectly honest.

Edited by sadpickle
listed empty mug twice :)
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1 minute ago, sadpickle said:

Some other things I found with no options as far as I can see on the list: Cooking Pot, Bowl, Empty Mug, Saucepan, Poolcue, Empty Mug, Lightbulbs, Cleaning Liquid, Soap, assorted Clothing (Vests, Skirt, Underwear, Belt and Sock), Pillow, Salt, Cold Pack, Wire.

 

Also, having rolled a Fire Officer and then a Doctor, I think the Doctor's house is kind of shitty. On par or worse than the Fire Officer's to be perfectly honest.

I've updated the printable list with salt and pepper.  The rest is mostly useless, save for wire, but I honestly don't care anymore.

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Just now, sadpickle said:

Do not despair; science is hard. I will submit at least one full survey.

I'm not despairing, I'm just done updating the form and invalidating Leon's submission.  That's not fair to him, especially after I've invalidated both of his original submissions in the first version of this study.

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Understood. I have submitted the Fire Officer loot report.

 

As a bonus I have attached a screenshot of the house my Doctor started in and the entire loot in inventory. For science. I hope this data will advance our collective knowledge of starting rolls.

doctor roll.jpg

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  • 2 weeks later...

We're currently at 12 responses right now, thanks to our six contributors.  Our most valued contributor at this point in time is DedpaUrvor, with a total of 5 submissions, making up nearly half of all submissions.  In second, we have dio, with 3 submissions, and we have a four-way tie for third consisting of Darthmoca1, TheLeonBM, amarxnthine, and sadpickle.  Thank you, all six of you.

 

I have added a new question to the survey: What profession is your character?  This will allow me to determine what professions give your character what kinds of starting houses.  It's unorthodox, but I will be leaving the current submissions as-is, rather than scrapping them or asking for professions to update them with.  I feel that if this study takes off like the OG Causes of Death study did, I'll have more than enough data to sift through to make my conclusions.  Plus, some of you have attached screenshots and have reported your professions anyways, so I can add those in after I export to spreadsheet.

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We're having a few problems getting seen, and although I've managed to secure a mention in tomorrow's Thursdoid newsletter, I still highly recommend that anyone reading this spread this study to other fellow survivors.  Remember, knowledge is a better thing to be infected with than zombiism.

 

I also highly recommend that our current contributors continue to test and submit new data, as not all survivors are keen to sit down and run through the grocery list of items for SCIENCE!  A few tests a day keep the zombies at bay...lying in a pool of zombie blood.  (Real talk, though, don't feel coerced to submit at least one new test every day, that's an absurd request.  Do feel coerced to submit at least one new test a week, though.  Maybe a few while you're at it.  I've got freshly-baked cookies for those that do continue to submit new data.  It's amazing how you can still find common baking ingredients lying around in a zombie apocalypse.)

Edited by ShylokVakarian
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