Why does loot spawn in waves?

[e3e4e5]

When i loot military camps i notice that by the time i finish looting, the first loot spawn points would already respawn loot (it seems to me that shipping containers and railroad carts respawn loot the fastest), so its possible to circle the military locations (even relatively small ones) and constantly get loot (ofcourse you have to pick up all the spawning loot and throw it somewhere else to clear the spawn point for new loot), and when i do those loot circles i've noticed that there are spawn waves of certain items, for example some handguard or buttstocks. If its a not so rare item that has a high spawn cap, like ammo and magazines, it will spawn a lot, but if its a rare item with low spawn cap like night vision goggles it will just spawn a couple of them, but you can always see that they come in waves, even if its the most rare item and you found one, you know that in the next loot spots you will find another one of them.

Why is it so? Its kind of dumb, couldnt they randomize the spawn? Seems like a relatively easy thing to do, i mean other games that spawn loot dont have much trouble having loot spawn randomly and not go through 5 or 6 SKS's in various states. This is also bad not only because you get useless loot as you dont really need more than 1 or 2 or maybe 3 SKS's but that also means that since there can only exist a limited number of SKS's on the server, if most of them spawn at a single location in a loot wave that means that nobody or almost nobody would be able to get an SKS in other places on the map. Its not a big problem when its SKS's since not a lot of people even want them, but i've seen loot waves of Vaigas, AKM's and even M4's. I think this is a serious problem.

Also why the hell would a location that spawn AKM's never spawn a single AKM magazine, i mean i know why it happens - because AKM magazines have a higher tier spawn than AKM itself, but thats ridiculous and doesnt make any sence.

[Longhaul]

Your talking about Loot Cycling.... a bannable offence on most servers.

[ast]

I also noticed that it's mostly one and the same item that's spawning all over the place while there is a lack of diversity of other items.

this is since they changed how the CLE works with 1.09 or so.
it feels like it's related to how the game checks which item is 'needed most' on the server and then 'overreacts'...dunno.

but they are aware of this and the global wipe this month serves amongst others to address this issue (I hope )

[us271934-Слава Україн]

Originally posted by Daynox:

Your talking about Loot Cycling.... a bannable offence on most servers.

That may be how you look at it but I'd say e3e4e5 is commenting about an economy mechanic that has several downsides for players all over a server. Who hasn't made a loot run in a place like NWAF and rechecked places they've already looted on the way out because they are right there in your path? That's when you realize how there's little randomness, too much predictability and the potential for exploit via hoarding. On the other hand a perfectly random respawn would incentivize people to just keep circling around and farming a bunch of different loot. Which is worse/better? I don't know........or maybe neither way is 'good'.

The recent changes to the lifespans of items would seem to be the devs trying to address this very issue. To me the CLE hasn't been able to adjust adequately to varying player populations and their locations on the map. I know from professional experience that dynamic optimization processes are some of the hardest and most resource intensive for software designers. The devs have my sympathy for that challenge.

I'm playing on a low pop private server. BuildAnywhere_V3 is our only mod. No other changes from vanilla. The other day as I was looting for base materials I picked up 15 machete's in Gliniska inside just about every type shed I looted - which was 100% of them. If I recall correctly there are nominally 40 machetes on the entire map.
I was actually looking for nails of which I found ZERO in many hours of gameplay - then 4-5 boxes popped up in 30 minutes.

After my coffee induced wall of text I'm still in agreement with the question asked in e3e4e5's topic. ☕☕☕ and counting.....

[e3e4e5]

Originally posted by Daynox:

Your talking about Loot Cycling.... a bannable offence on most servers.

Why would it be bannable? If the game mechanic allows it. Why not just change game mechanics

[e3e4e5]

Originally posted by us271934:

Originally posted by Daynox:

Your talking about Loot Cycling.... a bannable offence on most servers.

That may be how you look at it but I'd say e3e4e5 is commenting about an economy mechanic that has several downsides for players all over a server. Who hasn't made a loot run in a place like NWAF and rechecked places they've already looted on the way out because they are right there in your path? That's when you realize how there's little randomness, too much predictability and the potential for exploit via hoarding. On the other hand a perfectly random respawn would incentivize people to just keep circling around and farming a bunch of different loot. Which is worse/better? I don't know........or maybe neither way is 'good'.

The recent changes to the lifespans of items would seem to be the devs trying to address this very issue. To me the CLE hasn't been able to adjust adequately to varying player populations and their locations on the map. I know from professional experience that dynamic optimization processes are some of the hardest and most resource intensive for software designers. The devs have my sympathy for that challenge.

I'm playing on a low pop private server. BuildAnywhere_V3 is our only mod. No other changes from vanilla. The other day as I was looting for base materials I picked up 15 machete's in Gliniska inside just about every type shed I looted - which was 100% of them. If I recall correctly there are nominally 40 machetes on the entire map.
I was actually looking for nails of which I found ZERO in many hours of gameplay - then 4-5 boxes popped up in 30 minutes.

After my coffee induced wall of text I'm still in agreement with the question asked in e3e4e5's topic. ☕☕☕ and counting.....

I think that loot shouldnt respawn if the same player is in vicinity. For example if you are in the area and picked up all loot, the loot doesnt respawn in 500 meter radius around you, and even if you go 500 meters away and come back the loot still doesnt respawn if its the same character who just looted those loot slots. Only if a different character comes within range then the loot should respawn. For the same character the timeout has to be high, at least an hour, maybe 2.

I think loot doesnt exist when there's nobody in close vicinity as i have seen doors open or close when i come into vicinity and heard spawning barrels make the sound like when you put them on the ground. I think it stays there if someone triggered its spawn, stays there untill its lifetime is expired, but initially, when the loot spot is empty i think it only spawns loot when a player gets in the vicinity. So it seems like it would be just a simple change of configuration to stop loot from spawning when the same player is in the vicinity.

[Kurdain]

TL:DR: Simple solution is to leave the area and not loot cycle. Enjoy the sights, enjoy the hiking trails...

Wordy:

The loot economy of the game takes into account a lot of variables to replenish loot but it cannot account for everything that up to 100 other players are doing on server.

Loot cycling areas makes this effects worse, especially if you are looting the same items in the same area and you drop the replenishment threshold below the limit the game then attempts to replenish the server with that same item.

As mentioned this is why many servers frown and sometimes ban for loot cycling areas.
Done badly enough on high loot servers people loot cycling an area will start it looking like a scene from Wall-E.

If you did as you mentioned then you'd have vast swaths of areas not spawning loot at all, which would be worse. On a 100 player server that could potentially be more than 300 km/sq of no loot spawning for up to 2 hours at a time or piles of ghost items some players can see but others cannot.

As far as if the game allows it then why would it be bannable...well you can stack barrels and bugger your way into some bases. This is usually not allowed on just about all servers for obvious reasons.
Until recently you could build bridges and ramps into bases with garden plots but for obvious reasons this wasn't allowed.
There are other 'mechanics' that technically work in game but are obviously not intended.

I think you'll get far more out the game if you don't loot cycle and move around more.

As far as how loot spawns in and the sounds the place holder for the loot is determined server wide, as I understand it. But the models for the loot doesn't render until someone is nearby, then the condition of the item, and then the status.

This is why on high latency connections and/or when it takes a moment for models to draw, most notably when logging in near a base you'll see a tent appear, then the camonet and condition of the tent updates, and then you hear the flap of the tent cycle.
Same with barrels, cars, etc. The server knows where and what condition the items are...just no point in rendering them unless someone is nearby.

You can easily see this effect with admin tools as well.