Gear loss while swimming mechanic

[PanzerSoldat 1]

Went to refill a bottle in a pond, got to that swimming depth, realised I didn't have the bottle on me, turned around and swam out.

I wasn't in the water any more than 5 seconds but I lost all my gear except for a pistol and a few clips. Doesn't really make sense considering a pack is strapped to you in at least 1 place, sometimes 2.

An alternative might be a fatigue system, where a swimmer becomes tired and prone to drowning the longer they're in the water. Maybe the rate this fatigue sets-in can be proportional to the weight the player is carrying. This way, players have to decide whether to continue swimming and risk drowning or sacrifice some gear to slow the fatigue rate down.

Most other things in the game have the players striking balances with the gear they choose to have (ammo versus medical supplies and food, etc). I just thought this would gel nicely with that model.

[Jipper 5]

You didn't really lose your gear. Your character dropped them to the bottom of the pond. It's fairly easy to retrieve them by crouching so that your head goes under the water and you'll see your gear. Then you just pick them up.

Annoying bug, true, but most people really just assume straight that they just lost their gear. When it first happened to me, I got scared too but I checked the bottom of that pond and realized that my gear was still there in one big pile.

[dallas 5195]

It's a bug. If working correctly you'd lose your gear after 10-20 seconds of swimming. However sometimes you lose your gear as soon as your player model switches to the swimming animation.

As soon as you switch to the swimming animation, you should fill your bottles and hurry back to shore. If your gear bugs out, you should be able to retrieve it right before the spot there the water is deep enough for swimming. Just move carefilly towards the spot, kneel under water(there's no drowning mechanics) and then carefully collect all your gear.

Some player swear by dropping their gear bakcpacks before swimming, but personally I prefere to pick it up, if I bug out in the lake. Dropping your gear on the ground, there's also a risk of it disappearing or getting lost in the grass.

I consider it a confidence test everytime I swim in a lake and a risk worthy of taking. I'd rather have to pick up my gear from the bottom of the lake, that die of thirst or go into a busy town of dangerous strangers.