Loot Respawn Mechanics

[Reignswolf]

So I just got back into this game.
Is the loot system the same as before?

Example:
Loot Container
(Make sure to empty all items, otherwise it won't respawn new items)
Wait X days for items to respawn.

Having to empty all the items was extremely tedious. Is this still needed?

[JimmyIowa]

Correct, no loot repawn in containers that already have something in them. There's a "take all" button though, so I don't think it should be too tedious. Looting all containers in a typical house should take only a few seconds. Killing the zombies beforehand will take longer.

Loot respawn time is settable in options.

[Reignswolf]

Originally posted by JimmyIowa:

Correct, no loot repawn in containers that already have something in them. There's a "take all" button though, so I don't think it should be too tedious. Looting all containers in a typical house should take only a few seconds. Killing the zombies beforehand will take longer.

Loot respawn time is settable in options.

Ah, lame. It would be nice if D was enabled in the loot containers so you can just wipe through pressing D quickly to drop everything. I just have my inventory typically sorted so I don't like to press R and then cycle through it. I just end up drag and dropping.

[vgifford]

Actually, I have seen people loot a container that they left stuff in on Day 1, then go back on Day 6 (or whenever they respawn) take the old loot out, and new loot respawns in the container when they open it again.

[Shurenai]

Originally posted by vgifford:

Actually, I have seen people loot a container that they left stuff in on Day 1, then go back on Day 6 (or whenever they respawn) take the old loot out, and new loot respawns in the container when they open it again.

Yeah; At some point (not sure which alpha) they changed it; If the loot respawn timer has ended, then when you empty the existing loot, it'll respawn.

However, if you do this and it -hasnt- respawned, then you'll reset the loot respawn timer.

[Reignswolf]

Originally posted by Shurenai:

Originally posted by vgifford:

Actually, I have seen people loot a container that they left stuff in on Day 1, then go back on Day 6 (or whenever they respawn) take the old loot out, and new loot respawns in the container when they open it again.

Yeah; At some point (not sure which alpha) they changed it; If the loot respawn timer has ended, then when you empty the existing loot, it'll respawn.

However, if you do this and it -hasnt- respawned, then you'll reset the loot respawn timer.

They really need to make it so that once the container's been opened it has a 15 minute window for you to either collect, or not collect the loot. After which is gets emptied automatically for the refresh window after x time has passed.

There's probably a better way to do it, but manually dropping the items out of the container is not the most efficient way for sure. Having loot spawn immediately after you empty stuff is silly too. They need to sort that out.

[JimmyIowa]

Originally posted by vgifford:

Actually, I have seen people loot a container that they left stuff in on Day 1, then go back on Day 6 (or whenever they respawn) take the old loot out, and new loot respawns in the container when they open it again.

It respawns instantly as long as the respawn period has passed? Wow, I didn't realize that. When did that change go in? I doesn't sound intended.

[Shurenai]

Originally posted by JimmyIowa:

Originally posted by vgifford:

Actually, I have seen people loot a container that they left stuff in on Day 1, then go back on Day 6 (or whenever they respawn) take the old loot out, and new loot respawns in the container when they open it again.

It respawns instantly as long as the respawn period has passed? Wow, I didn't realize that. When did that change go in? I doesn't sound intended.

Yeah; If a container is flagged for respawn and an item is in it, it purposefully doesnt respawn until its emptied, then immediately respawns. This was likely done on purpose, as otherwise, using existing containers as storage could lead to losing massive quantities of items if you're away from that location for longer than the respawn timer. Which is likely part of why it was changed to how it is now, as it used to just respawn and overwrite whatever items was in it.

[JimmyIowa]

Originally posted by Shurenai:

Which is likely part of why it was changed to how it is now, as it used to just respawn and overwrite whatever items was in it.

Nope, it never worked that way. (or not for many years anyway, although admittedly I wasn't around in the kickstarter days) Containers with anything in them (even random non-player created ones) didn't respawn if anything was in them. Didn't matter if it was something you put in or something that spawned in there and you left in there after looking in it. Nothing got overwritten. The only new part of this mechanic is the ability to effectively queue up an extra respawn, and have two loot spawns available in a container. Which is very new, which is why I was surprised, and why this still doesn't sound intended.

[Shurenai]

Originally posted by JimmyIowa:

Originally posted by Shurenai:

Which is likely part of why it was changed to how it is now, as it used to just respawn and overwrite whatever items was in it.

Nope, it never worked that way. (or not for many years anyway, although admittedly I wasn't around in the kickstarter days) Containers with anything in them (even random non-player created ones) didn't respawn if anything was in them. Didn't matter if it was something you put in or something that spawned in there and you left in there after looking in it. Nothing got overwritten. The only new part of this mechanic is the ability to effectively queue up an extra respawn, and have two loot spawns available in a container. Which is very new, which is why I was surprised, and why this still doesn't sound intended.

You're not queueing up an extra respawn, though... You still had to be there on day 1 to loot it the first time, and then day 7 to loot it again; the loot from day 1 is still in it, and then you take it, and get day 7's loot. Theres no extra loot here, nor even any advantage to doing it. In fact, there's the pointed disadvantage of having left your loot in it to begin with, so you didn't have it for the days that passed between.

And I remember a time when whatever was in the container was lost, or at least that there was a/several bugs related to losing items to pre-existing containers that triggered their respawn. I've been playing since Alpha 1..mightve been 2. Long, long time. :D

[JimmyIowa]

Originally posted by Shurenai:

And I remember a time when whatever was in the container was lost, or at least that there was a/several bugs related to losing items to pre-existing containers that triggered their respawn. I've been playing since Alpha 1..mightve been 2. Long, long time. :D

I've been around for years myself. Not doubting your word at all, but I can say that being quite active on these forums and having an excellent memory, I do not remember seeing you here past couple of months ago, though perhaps you changed steam user names.

In any case, I can confidently say the loot respawn mechanic has been as I described, and not what you thought. And even if it was what you described back 6 years ago, you probably should not state it as if it is how the game works now or any time recently. Just sayin. ;)

[JimmyIowa]

Originally posted by Shurenai:

You're not queueing up an extra respawn, though..

You open a container, loot it. Open it again loot the new loot. That's queuing up a respawn. Even though yes, you had to look in the container previously. Which I, and apparently OP, do sometimes when I don't have enough room in inventory, btw. Which I think may have been OP's point too. Maybe you don't do that (check a container but not take everything). But you probably shouldn't assume other people don't. :)

And it still doesn't sound intended.

[✵Pietia_Stalovy✵]

Originally posted by JimmyIowa:

Correct, no loot repawn in containers that already have something in them. There's a "take all" button though, so I don't think it should be too tedious. Looting all containers in a typical house should take only a few seconds. Killing the zombies beforehand will take longer.

Loot respawn time is settable in options.

Thats good if some player want to put items in safe in out house or somethink

[vgifford]

@JimmyIowa I agree, I doubt it is working as intended.

[Reignswolf]

Originally posted by ϟ HuczuГ nop0yeB RP ϟ:

Originally posted by JimmyIowa:

Correct, no loot repawn in containers that already have something in them. There's a "take all" button though, so I don't think it should be too tedious. Looting all containers in a typical house should take only a few seconds. Killing the zombies beforehand will take longer.

Loot respawn time is settable in options.

Thats good if some player want to put items in safe in out house or somethink

Originally posted by vgifford:

@JimmyIowa I agree, I doubt it is working as intended.

If it's working as intended, they really need to explain explicitly how the system works so the players can understand it. You shouldn't really be left wondering. The safest way I've found is simply by emptying out everything, but that's lame.

If people want to use containers as storage bins, that's okay... in theory. But a secure storage box is cheap, easy to make, and lockable. There shouldn't be any reason for anyone to store items in a house unless for immersion/aesthetic purposes.

IMO, they should have a system where after something is looted the items left inside are either despawn after X amount of time, or stacked with the other items that respawn after the timer is done. Containers should also have something to symbolise that they're on that timer. Perhaps and actual timer? That would be nice....

As a side note, they need to make it so you can edit your storage container description so you can label your boxes for different materials - other than the paints they have available. :P

[JimmyIowa]

Originally posted by Reignswolf:

If it's working as intended, they really need to explain explicitly how the system works so the players can understand it. You shouldn't really be left wondering. The safest way I've found is simply by emptying out everything, but that's lame.

I would tend to agree that manually emptying containers is something of a annoyance, even if a minor one. The main offender for me is always bird nests. Because I like checking all nests I pass for eggs. I like bacon and eggs for food. But then my inventory fills up with more stacks of feathers than I will ever use 10 playthru's. But feathers are far more common than eggs. So mainly I and up having to manually take out the feathers and drop them on the ground.

Loot filters would be also be nice. Like being able to define a filters for things to drop/move to storage with one key press.