The Loot Conundrum

[crazykiddeath]

Am I the only one that stuggles to find the right balance for loot? I usually play with the drop rate turned up because it doesn’t make sense to me that you can break into a house/shop and find very little in the way of consumables/clothes. You can make the (valid) argument that people are fleeing and taking stuff with them but since the game starts a few days after the ultimate SHTF moment and almost everyone is dead I should be finding where this stuff has been moved to or vehicles crammed full of goodies. Which isn’t the case, so I turn loot up to balance it out. The conundrum comes into play with how this affects rare loot, finding clothes, food and common tools is something I’d expect to find after a sudden mass extinction event but the rare stuff also becomes common too.
So I was wondering how other people handle this?

[Sanehatter]

I agree that food, clothing, electronics and other items are far rarer than they should be, but you need to manually tweak the spawn chances of common items to fix this, instead of just increasing drop rates.
As to how I handle it, I’ve just increased drop rate and zombie spawns a bit.

[crazykiddeath]

Turning zombie spawn rate up might help, making it more dangerous as a trade off. I’ve been playing at 1.50 for drop rate as that gave more of the feel I’d expect from common loot, houses aren’t packed but you’ll usually find some stuff like some shirts and/or some cans of food etc.

[Axema]

If you want a higher chance of rare items to spawn, you could change them at the .json files… Make sure you got a backup of the original file.

The code should look like this:

{
    "type" : "item_group",
    "id" : "kitchen",
    "items":[
      ["aluminum_foil", 25],
      ["chips", 65],
      ["fried_seeds", 15],
      ["cereal", 50],
      ["cereal2", 60],
      ["cereal3", 45],
      ["toaster", 20],
      ["microwave", 20],
      ["multi_cooker", 1],
      ["clock", 10],
      ["hat_chef", 2],
      ["jacket_chef", 2],
      ["kernels", 35],
      ["pot", 25],
      ["pot_copper", 15],
      ["pot_canning", 15],
      ["pressure_cooker", 5],
      ["bowl_pewter", 25],
      ["teapot", 15],
      ["pan", 25],
      ["waffleiron", 25],
      ["pastaextruder", 10],
      ["can_sealer", 5],
      ["knife_butter", 90],
      ["knife_steak", 85],
      ["fork", 90],
      ["spoon", 90],
      ["glass", 20],
      ["glass_plate", 20],
      ["glass_bowl", 20],
      ["ceramic_plate", 10],
      ["ceramic_bowl", 10],
      ["ceramic_cup", 10],
      ["knife_butcher", 10],
      ["cookbook", 35],
      ["rag", 1],
      ["hotplate", 10],
      ["popcan_stove", 5],
      ["flashlight", 40],
      ["extinguisher", 20],
      ["whiskey", 16],
      ["bum_wine", 10],
      ["drink_rumcola", 8],
      ["drink_screwdriver", 8],
      ["drink_wild_apple", 8],
      ["long_island", 2],
      ["wine_riesling", 6],
      ["wine_chardonnay", 10],
      ["wine_cabernet", 10],
      ["wine_noir", 2],
      ["syrup", 20],
      ["sweet_sausage", 2],
      ["coffee_syrup", 10],
      ["roasted_coffee_bean", 10],
      ["bacon", 25],
      ["bleach", 20],
      ["ammonia", 24],
      ["flour", 60],
      ["yeast", 50],
      ["molasses", 15],
      ["milk_powder", 15],
      ["cornmeal", 40],
      ["powder_eggs", 20],
      ["granola", 5],
      ["protein_powder", 15],
      ["dry_meat", 10],
      ["dry_fish", 10],
      ["dry_veggy", 10],
      ["dry_fruit", 10],
      ["fchicken", 25],
      ["lunchmeat", 10],
      ["bologna", 10],
      ["nachos", 50],
      ["nachosc", 10],
      ["nachosm", 10],
      ["nachosmc", 2],
      ["oatmeal", 50],
      ["toastem", 30],
      ["toastem2", 30],
      ["toastem3", 35],
      ["toasterpastryfrozen", 20],
      ["brownie", 30],
      ["cooking_oil", 20],
      ["fruit_leather", 15],
      ["sugar", 40],
      ["lemonade_powder", 15],
      ["salt", 40],
      ["pepper", 30],
      ["cinnamon", 15],
      ["tea_raw", 10],
      ["coffee_raw", 15],
      ["funnel", 50],
      ["vac_sealer", 10],
      ["seasoning_italian", 25],
      ["seasoning_salt", 25],
      ["cookbook_italian", 25],
      ["family_cookbook", 6],
      ["brewing_cookbook", 4],
      ["chips2", 65],
      ["chips3", 65],
      ["pizza_veggy", 8],
      ["pizza_meat", 8],
      ["pizza_cheese", 8],
      ["cheeseburger", 8],
      ["hamburger", 8],
      ["fish_fried", 8],
      ["fish_sandwich", 8],
      ["sloppyjoe", 8],
      ["hotdogs_frozen", 8],
      ["corndogs_frozen", 8],
      ["heatpack", 60],
      ["can_beans", 40],
      ["pork_beans", 40],
      ["can_chicken", 40],
      ["can_tomato", 40],
      ["cooked_pumpkin", 20],
      ["con_milk", 20],
      ["can_corn", 35],
      ["can_spam", 30],
      ["can_pineapple", 30],
      ["can_peach", 30],
      ["can_coconut", 10],
      ["can_sardine", 14],
      ["can_tuna", 35],
      ["can_salmon", 25],
      ["can_chowder", 35],
      ["can_herring", 30],
      ["broth", 15],
      ["soup_veggy", 15],
      ["soup_meat", 15],
      ["soup_chicken", 15],
      ["soup_mushroom", 15],
      ["soup_tomato", 15],
      ["soup_dumplings", 15],
      ["curry_veggy", 15],
      ["curry_meat", 15],
      ["curry_powder", 15],
      ["chilly-p", 10],
      ["spaghetti_raw", 40],
      ["lasagne_raw", 40],
      ["macaroni_raw", 40],
      ["noodles_fast", 30],
      ["ravioli", 25],
      ["sauce_red", 20],
      ["sauce_pesto", 15],
      ["bread", 14],
      ["cornbread", 7],
      ["flatbread", 7],
      ["crackers", 20],
      ["grahmcrackers", 20],
      ["marshmallow", 20],
      ["biscuit", 12],
      ["hardtack", 2],
      ["mayonnaise", 35],
      ["ketchup", 35],
      ["mustard", 35],
      ["soysauce", 25],
      ["horseradish", 15],
      ["honey_bottled", 35],
      ["honey_glassed", 35],
      ["peanutbutter", 35],
      ["jar_glass", 50],
      ["jar_3l_glass", 40],
      ["cheese", 40],
      ["cheese_hard", 5],
      ["can_cheese", 8],
      ["yoghurt", 8],
      ["pudding", 10],
      ["vinegar", 15],
      {"item": "veggy_pickled", "prob":  8, "charges": 2, "container-item": "jar_glass_sealed"},
      ["jar_sauerkraut_pickled", 5],
      {"item": "meat_pickled", "prob":  4, "charges": 2, "container-item": "jar_glass_sealed"},
      {"item": "fish_pickled", "prob":  6, "charges": 2, "container-item": "jar_glass_sealed"},
      ["lutefisk", 1],
      ["tongs", 25],
      ["char_smoker", 25],
      ["lawn_dart", 10],
      ["dehydrator", 15],
      ["flask_hip", 5],
      ["lye_powder", 5],
      ["sm_extinguisher", 10],
      ["atomic_light", 1],
      ["atomic_lamp", 1],
      ["coffeemaker", 10],
      ["atomic_coffeepot", 2],
      ["dog_whistle", 5],
      ["dogfood", 20],
      ["catfood", 20],
      ["salted_fish", 15],
      ["charcoal", 5],
      ["soap", 70],
      ["detergent", 50],
      ["dry_beans", 40],
      ["dry_rice", 40],
      ["survnote", 1],
      ["cookbook_sushi", 5],
      ["scots_cookbook", 6],
      ["food_processor", 30 ],
      ["eclipse_glasses", 1],
      ["thermos", 15],
      {"item": "meat_canned", "prob":  4, "charges": 12, "container-item": "jar_3l_glass_sealed"},
      {"item": "veggy_canned", "prob":  4, "charges": 12, "container-item": "jar_3l_glass_sealed"},
      {"item": "apple_canned", "prob":  4, "charges": 12, "container-item": "jar_3l_glass_sealed"},
      {"item": "can_tomato", "prob":  4, "charges": 12, "container-item": "jar_3l_glass_sealed"},
      {"item": "fish_pickled", "prob":  4, "charges": 12, "container-item": "jar_3l_glass_sealed"},
      {"item": "human_pickled", "prob":  1, "charges": 12, "container-item": "jar_3l_glass_sealed"},
      {"item": "meat_pickled", "prob":  4, "charges": 12, "container-item": "jar_3l_glass_sealed"},
      {"item": "veggy_pickled", "prob":  4, "charges": 12, "container-item": "jar_3l_glass_sealed"},
      {"item": "fish_pickled", "prob":  4, "charges": 12, "container-item": "jar_3l_glass_sealed"},
      {"item": "sauce_red", "prob":  4, "charges": 12, "container-item": "jar_3l_glass_sealed"},
      {"item": "kompot", "prob":  4, "charges": 12, "container-item": "jar_3l_glass_sealed"}
    ]
  }

[crazykiddeath]

I actually want the opposite I want more common stuff and less rare stuff, a loot rebalance mod might be the way to go.

[Axema]

Oh… Then adjust the item spawn rate
I set mine to 3.00, for an easier start.

[mlangsdorf]

There’s an effort going way to increase the amount of early game loot spawns, but then also increase the number of thieving NPCs that steal everything in the first couple of months.

[crazykiddeath]

That sounds great and makes a lot of sense.

[TheKobold]

I always thought it was weird myself. During a catastrophic event people leave a lot behind. People will take food but they won’t take all the food they have people take some clothes but not all the clothes they have not many people take tools and all the stuff lying around their house. It’s just the necessities and things that not so smart people think are necessities.

I usually set the loot to about 2.5 or 2 and then increase monster spawns to like three or four it makes the world seem less empty and like a lot of stuff was left behind by people in a rush to get away from the catastrophe. I would like to see cars out of gas with a lot of loot and maybe a horde of zombies surrounding it sitting on the side of the road as a more common site

[Tazeell]

I do agree common loot should be more common, or for example you should find out of gas cars with peoples belongings stored in their trunk as they tried to flee the cataclysm. All peoples usual stuff should be around somewhere and if they took it with them they probably died with it somewhere. Could use loot spawns to tell the story of the world a bit more as well. There’s a lot that could be done with the loot system, and tieing it into peoples rush at the start of the cataclysm would be cool.

Glad to hear some of the early game loot spawns are being raised, and everything going missing due to other survivors taking it makes a whole lot of sense as well. looking forward to it, it’s a similar reason I play with 2.0 npc spawns.

[Sanehatter]

A high number of starting NPCs that decreases rapidly during early game sounds really cool.