What is "ConstructionPreventsLootRespawn", specifically?

[split]

I understand that it prevents loot respawn if there is construction, but what I cannot find any information on is how it works.

 

I cannot find any information about what, specifically, counts as construction, and I cannot find any information about the radius of this effect, how it's supposed to work, if deconstruction counts as construction... there is no information that I can find other than "Construction prevents loot respawn!"

The INI file helpfully says:

 

# Items will not respawn in buildings that players have barricaded or built in

 

I have built items outside buildings and that appears to permanently block it, which contradicts the above - and that is the entirety of the documentation I can find on it. So what, specifically, does ConstructionPreventsLootRespawn do?

[Beard]

This is from experience, there is no specific documentation on it as far as I am aware.

Deconstruction counts as construction
Radius would be the whole building where the construction happened at and the chunk that affects it. A chunk is a 10x10 area, if you build in it and a house is in that area, then it would likely be affected
From your description, you built inside of the chunk that contains the building.

[split]

So "# Items will not respawn in buildings that players have barricaded or built in" is literally the only actual documentation on what this feature does, and it's wrong (or at least not entirely right)?

This suggests that in order to find out what it does, specifically, I have to test it for myself.

 

It does appear that once something is built in a building, it permanently blocks loot respawning, which seems to be silly. Where would this construction information be stored on a server, if somebody wanted to revert it? Presumably it's held somewhere.

 

[Beard]

It would likely be held in the zoning file, map_zone.bin in the save folder.

[split]

It's frustrating that there is nothing concrete about this. I'm going to assume that that isn't editable (at least not by a normal user), so if that is the problem, what effect does deleting map_zone.bin have?

 

[Beard]

It is not editable, deleting the zone file would likely cause the zones to reset, so for example if you built a house, then the room "inside" would be reset, and you would have to rebuild a single wall that encompasses the room to recreate it again. Otherwise it is possible that the construction information is saved in other files, as I have not personally tried fixing the specific issue that you are having, as most people keep the construction prevents loot respawn setting off.

[split]

I don't know what the consequences of "the zones resetting" means, and I'm not sure I understand that explanation of what it does. I genuinely do not follow what you mean by "the room 'inside' would be reset, and you would have to rebuild a single wall that encompasses the room to recreate it again". What room 'inside'?

The more I dig into this, the more it's frustrating. Is there anyone who can say, definitively, how this works? Or should I just be testing it to see if I can confirm how it works?

I might end up doing that and reporting here.

[split]

Since I'm doing the research, I guess:

 

• Disassembling things does not prevent loot from respawning. You're welcome to disassemble beds, chairs, and anything else.
• Even if you disassemble a container, it will not prevent loot from respawning. For obvious reasons, it will not respawn in the disassembled container, but other containers will still work as expected.
• Picking up furniture seems inconsistent. Sometimes it breaks spawns and sometimes it doesn't? I think? I'm not 100% sure on this yet, but I am leaning towards "it doesn't".
• Putting down any furniture breaks it, consistently, and it's not "in the room", it is "in the zone that that room is in". You can see this by putting down furniture in a trailer park; I put down a shelf in the middle of the trailer park and it disabled respawning for the entire trailer park.
• Renaming map_zone.bin resets everything to spawn like default again, even though objects will stay. I have no idea what map_zone.bin does otherwise, so I have no idea what consequences this could have.