Counter-Intuitive Looting

[Zakificus 10]

So, the last week I've been working on my scouting and tracking abilities a little bit. Sticking up north stalking between Stary, NWAF, and Devil's Castle, trying to follow and avoid the grizzled vets of the north haha. During this time, I have noticed a few things that surprised me.

On high population servers ( > 30 players ), I may see one player at any of those given locations over two hours of sneaking around them. On low population servers, it seems like someone is stumbling around those areas every half hour or so.

Just a guess, but I think most people assume these areas are hot spots and that on high pop. servers they are guaranteed death. On low pop. servers people think they can get away with a run and flock to these places much more readily. Either that or I've just had weird luck.

On a related note, does anyone ever go to NEAF? Surprisingly few people in that area. So far only have found one other person in Krasnostav. I suppose they might all tend to hang in Berezino though, it has those tents, the two shops, 6 apartment buildings, the school, the hospital, etc etc. That is surprisingly empty too though, I don't know why everyone stays on the south coast.

Are there any other looting behaviors people have been surprised by?

[Blizzaze 5]

That is because especially players at high risk spots choose low pop servers to safely loot those places. On a high pop server maybe 5% of the people are near those spots and the other 95% near the coast. On low pop with like 10 people 80% might be up there.

And yes, I was at the small NE airfield a few times and never met anyone. Probably because it has even lower military loot spawns than Balota airfield and takes way longer to get to.

The only thing of interest is a chopper which is taken by a clan already 99% of the time.

[ZogVarnoka 26]

When I'm playing solo I tend to watch the NW airfield quite a bit. Just laying low and seeing what people do there to learn player habits. I've observed both day and night, low and high pop servers for around 50 hours total so far.

Night, low pop servers (Is there any other kind now?) have far more single player traffic at the NWA. Vast majority of this is server hoppers who login inside the barracks and only stick around for 1-2 minutes before moving to another server. These make for easy kills while camping the main open doorway from outside and looking down the hallway inside. Screw you server hopping loot goblins. :P

The solo players who come from outside the airfield and move towards the barracks are usually cautious and move with efficiency once looting begins. Surprisingly, the majority of these do not have nvgs as evidenced by the use of chemlights. Throwing bottles and cans near their location can lead to hilarity. These lone wolves do not usually alt-f4 out of combat as opposed to the server hopping loot goblins who usually do.

Daytime, I have found, is a different matter. On low pop servers, the most common visitors to the NW airfield are groups ranging from 2-4. Very few are organized or respond to incoming fire with any type coordination. Solo players I've watched tend to just hit up one of the barracks and then gtfo. There is the occasional solo newbie though who runs right in guns blazing not caring who hears them. These can be funny as hell to watch. XD

High pop daytime servers are mostly ghost towns at the NW airfield. The occasional lone wolf will show up taking their time and being cautious. The only groups I've seen visit NW airfield on high pop servers tend to be well organized and most likely clans. But usually I can sit and watch for 2 or so hours before anyone even comes by similar to the OPs findings.

Edit: Forgot about the NE airfield. Its great for "observing" folks coming there. Usually single or duo teams. Most players have mid to high grade loot on them. (as evidenced from their dead bodies) Probably visiting that airfield to look for ammo or hoping for a quick, uninterrupted smash and grab. Friend and I used to sit and snipe people coming to visit the NE airfield as it is so open. Not a high amount of traffic when compared to NW airfield though.

[Zakificus 10]

Yeah, one thing I noticed about NEAF is that it's a damn snipers dream. Especially if you have a .50 Cal. Hills and trees all over the place with hundreds of clear open meters between you and the targets.

Also, it's a fantastic place to stop for meat. Usually a couple of cows and a goat in the area.