v1.0 experimental Sewing Kits--frequent enough?

[MagicManICT]

Maybe I'm just not grinding for them hard enough, but have found less than a half dozen up though day 12 or so, and doing tier II quests. I haven't been able to make a complete set of med armor yet with other needed uses of them.

[seven]

Make sure you search all the hanging clothes bags, and the piles of clothes on the floor. Most of the time they are just a couple cloth fragments but they can contain sewing kits and armor parts. I've found more than enough to craft armor.

[delerium76]

I'm on day 14, default loot settings, been doing tier 2 quests as well, made a full set of medium armor, and still have 29 left over. My guess is that you just aren't looting the common places they show up as seven said.

[Githyanki]

On day 64 full set of T6 armor and a set of t5 farming gear + a set of T6 preacher gear - have about 170 need and thread. I find them most common in clothing bags, dressers and the loose clothing laying on the ground.

[Amins]

Sewing kits are absolutely the bottleneck for armor kits. Definitely less common than they used to be. Went through an entire clothing store just to find one. Loot rates really need to be increased, or at least give us a book or perk that increases the rates.

Anecdotally, they seem to get a bit more common later on. But that also might be the Lucky Looter 4 skill with faster looting times talking.

[MagicManICT]

Been looting the clothing bags and all that. Maybe I'm just getting crap RNG rolls. Any skills boost finding them? Trying to look over the official wiki right now, but looks like Lucky Looter and the mags(?) boost chances of finding them.

[Githyanki]

I did find a mod (goes on your hat) on day 1 or 2 that is 10% better loot and -1 radius on buried supply missions. I suspect this helped a ton.
1 point into lucky looter helps alot as well.

[delerium76]

Not sure if this is still the case or not, but it used to be possible to "loot stage" your way into needle and thread scarcity, as in, as you progress in the game, the loot tables get dominated by better stuff, and the needle and thread starts getting pushed out. Again, I'm not sure that applies any more.

I've honestly not had any trouble finding plenty of them. Hell, I even find them while looting cars, suitcases, trash piles, etc. I don't have any points in lucky looter, but I do have that visor headpiece thing that boosts loot.

If you are still having issues, try running around looting trash piles. There's less exceptional stuff in those, so your chances for needle and thread might be higher.

[SiEgE]

Originally posted by MagicManICT:

Been looting the clothing bags and all that. Maybe I'm just getting crap RNG rolls. Any skills boost finding them? Trying to look over the official wiki right now, but looks like Lucky Looter and the mags(?) boost chances of finding them.

From what I know, the loot bonus skill is pointless, since it'll only kick in once you reach a certain number of the loot stage, which would only be viable since.. level 50 I think? I might be wrong there, and the level should be even higher.
Just level your character, and that should boost your loot quantities.

[Raythered]

The bottleneck i have encountered for armour is the armour parts, finding plenty of thread, loot garbage, laundry, washing machines, pretty much everywhere you used to find clothes.

My mates used to ignore those loot piles in previous versions as they mostly contained clothes we were just scrapping into cloth, but in expermental those points are far more important, as not only do you find the sewing kits, but the legendary parts too.

[Pain Weasel]

I think part of the reason that Sewing Kits are more scarce than the Armor Parts is that Heavy Armor skill increase the loot chance for the Armor Parts but not the Sewing Kits. The more points you spend in Heavy Armor the more parts you will find. This may mean you end up finding fewer Sewing Kits overall since the loot tables for things like clothing shelves have both items, and one of them is getting boosted loot prob. You can also get Armor Parts from scrapping any outfits you don't want.

Another decent source for Sewing Kits are medical supplies, but it isn't great and those aren't as common as clothing shelves.

That being said, I supplemented the Sewing Kits from looting by just buying them from the traders every time I passed by and was able to get all I needed.

[Вульф Вульфович]

Once I've upgraded my Medium armor skill - also got it more often. So I guess upgrade Medium and Heavy armor skills for more chance to loot it

[Pain Weasel]

Originally posted by Вульф Вульфович:

Once I've upgraded my Medium armor skill - also got it more often. So I guess upgrade Medium and Heavy armor skills for more chance to loot it

I don't think Medium Armor actually increases the loot chance for sewing kits or armor parts.

Armor Parts are in the XML as "resourceArmorParts" which has the "armorHeavySkill" tag, but it doesn't have the "armorMediumSkill" tag. That means only Heavy Armor increases the loot chance.

Sewing Kit is the the XML as "resourceSewingKit" and the only tag it has it "junk".

The only items that have the "armorMediumSkill" tag are the medium armor outfits.

[seven]

Originally posted by Raythered:

The bottleneck i have encountered for armour is the armour parts, finding plenty of thread, loot garbage, laundry, washing machines, pretty much everywhere you used to find clothes.

Scrap all the level 1 armor junk you find. They give you armor parts.

[delerium76]

Originally posted by Pain Weasel:

Originally posted by Вульф Вульфович:

Once I've upgraded my Medium armor skill - also got it more often. So I guess upgrade Medium and Heavy armor skills for more chance to loot it

I don't think Medium Armor actually increases the loot chance for sewing kits or armor parts.

Armor Parts are in the XML as "resourceArmorParts" which has the "armorHeavySkill" tag, but it doesn't have the "armorMediumSkill" tag. That means only Heavy Armor increases the loot chance.

Sewing Kit is the the XML as "resourceSewingKit" and the only tag it has it "junk".

The only items that have the "armorMediumSkill" tag are the medium armor outfits.

You are correct that none of the armor skills will boost the rate sewing kits drop, and the fact that it has a "junk" tag makes me feel like my previous statement of searching trash piles might be the best way of getting them, as they aren't competing with higher value items.

Also, they are an extension of the bandage, and are considered a medical item and appear in places you would find bandages.

So from the loot tables, I'm assuming this is how it works. Each group contains a certain amount of items per container. There is a list of possible items that can be chosen from, and each item can be more or less common. So from that, here's the chances of sewing kits from the loot tables.

groupCraftingUncommon - contains 1 item from:

• Sewing Kit, 1 to 2 units, normal probability
  
• Gunpowder, 1 to 10 units, normal probability
  
• Duct Tape, 1 to 2 units, normal probability
  
• Oil, 1 to 5 units, normal probability
  
• Spring, 1 to 2 units, normal probability
  
• Headlight, 1 to 2 units, normal probability
  
• Electric Parts, 1 to 2 units, normal probability
  
• Mechanical Parts, 1 to 2 units, normal probability
  
• Acid, 1 unit, low probability

groupArmorParts - contains 1 item from:

• cloth, 1 to 3 units, normal probability
  
• leather, 1 unit, low probability
  
• sewing kit, 1 unit, low probability
  
• armor parts, 1 unit, low probability
  
• legendary parts, 1 unit, very low delayed probability

groupArmorPartsChests - contains 1 item from:

• sewing kit 1 to 3 units, low probability
  
• armor parts, 1 to 3 units, low probability
  
• armor crafting kits, 1 to 2 units, very low delayed probability
  
• legendary parts, 1 to 2 units, very low delayed probability

groupMedicalCommon - contains 1 item from:

• Cloth, 1 to 3 units, normal probability
  
• Polymers, 1 to 3 units, normal probability
  
• Paper , 1 to 3 units, normal probability
  
• Bandage, 1 unit, medium/high probability
  
• Sewing Kit, 1 unit, medium/high probability
  
• Aloe Cream, 1 unit, medium probability
  
• Splint, 1 unit, low probability
  
• Honey, 1 unit, low probability

laundry loot will always contain 1 item from group 1, and from group 2 at a very low (5% chance) probability. For group 2, it seems like it will have a 5 percent chance to have an item from that group, and then a 20 percent chance that item will be a sewing kit, so if my napkin math is correct, that's a 1% chance for each laundry loot to contain a sewing kit, making it the worst method for obtaining these. I could be wrong though.

group 1:

• armor parts, 1 unit, high probability
  
• cloth, 1 to 5 units, medium probability

group 2:

• cloth, 1 to 5 units, high probability
  
• sewing kit, 1 to 2 units, low probability
  
• old cash, 1 to 10 units, very low probability
  
• casino coin, 1 to 10 units, very low probability

Probability numbers (when an item is being chosen from a list, these are weighted against each other. They don't indicate the literal rate of getting that item from the list):

• very low delayed = 5% as long as the POI loot level is above 15.
  
• very low = 5%
  
• low = 20%
  
• medium low = 35%
  
• medium (normal) = 50%
  
• medium high = 63%
  
• high = 75%
  
• guaranteed = 100%

Past that, sewing kits also appear in rarer containers such as air drops and the POI end room loot chests, but those aren't common enough to farm for sewing kits. Overall I think medical containers could be the best source of sewing kits from the loot table data.

[leonneddr]

Originally posted by MagicManICT:

Maybe I'm just not grinding for them hard enough, but have found less than a half dozen up though day 12 or so, and doing tier II quests. I haven't been able to make a complete set of med armor yet with other needed uses of them.

There is logic to looting. You want sewing kits, check wardrobes you'll get them there more frequently than just end loot.

Second thing that everyone should do ASAP is put a point into Looting under Perception tree. That visibly increases the amount of loot you get including skill books. I dont have issues finding anything I need early game once I put a point into that right out of the gate.