Demystification of the DayZ loot spawn system [SPOILER]

[Gavalin 90]

Something of add, or to be looked into. I'm pretty sure "zombies" are a spawn chance on loot tables. I understand they go into buildings chasing players but I've seen zombies in ATC's. High yield things I marked as player chase. However I've seen them swaying inside the single room homes with one door. Now I'd like to find this more often personally, only seen it a handful of times but...signed into a server with a friend near Berenzino or what not. He was in one of the apartment complexes I was outside town with eyes on him (west of the military tents) Well I seen movement in the windows behind him. Now, I know he didn't spawn them but I had been running through the town like ten minutes prior to him logging in but it gave me a heart attack damn near to see movement behind him, a building he'd just exited. All that excitement turned out to be a zombie, it made me break into an all out run toward the complex to get into gun range or at least a better sight on the windows of the complex.

[Thyenemy (DayZ) 0]

Does this same mechanic work with crash helicopters? As the helicopter is the building and so on?

[Tobu 34]

Thats awesome info, but explain the following for me please.

I really slowly crawl to the appartment buildings in cherno, I get in, run up the stairs, see some loot and ... its gone. Just despawned while i was looking at it. I tried to loot the area they were in - nothing. I check the other apartment buildings and find nothing. Hospital still has loot. Why does this happen? It's not the first time either.

[insitv 305]

Any chance you can figure which range Animals will spawn and how it relates to other players?

Animals spawn of on server start. There doesn't need to be a player around, they are wandering the map alone. Don't know how many animals there are or how fast they respawn.

Does this same mechanic work with crash helicopters? As the helicopter is the building and so on?

No, it does not. The only way to get new crashed heli loot is to restart the server. That's why you often see servers with restarts every 2-3 hours.

Thats awesome info, but explain the following for me please.

I really slowly crawl to the appartment buildings in cherno, I get in, run up the stairs, see some loot and ... its gone. Just despawned while i was looking at it. I tried to loot the area they were in - nothing. I check the other apartment buildings and find nothing. Hospital still has loot. Why does this happen? It's not the first time either.

There IS a mechanic to let loot despawn but i haven't figured out yet after how much time. If that happens to you, wait 10 minutes until the new spawn wave.

[Gavalin 90]

On a side not the mechanic for letting zombies spawn does count on heli's they won't spawn crew until you're with in 200 meters of it. You'll see 6 to 12 of them roam out of the crash site once you're close.

[insitv 305]

On a side not the mechanic for letting zombies spawn does count on heli's they won't spawn crew until you're with in 200 meters of it. You'll see 6 to 12 of them roam out of the crash site once you're close.

4 to 8 zombies per player.

[batcaveslimer 12]

It's still cheating. You took apart the game code to look behind the curtain. You cheated. I'm glad that you revealed that others are also cheating, though, so beans for you.

BazBake I don't think you understand. The concept of having a group move into an area, defend it and loot it is a VALID part of the game.

THIS IS NOT CHEATING

[wolfstriked 143]

WTF why are you psoting this!! It breaks the game if we can make spawns speed up.:(

[Keezar 1]

Finally a death blow to all of the "urban legends" dealing with this.

Beans for you, good sir!

[sniperdoc 251]

I take it that the timer runs regardless of how far away you are, i.e. as long as it's >30m.

Let's say I completely looted a building. I then proceed to other places >120m away and take my time doing so. Then whenever I get back, as long as it's been over 10mins, and assuming no one else has been <30 of that same building, then the loot should be there.

[orphanstephen 11]

Animals spawn of on server start. There doesn't need to be a player around, they are wandering the map alone. Don't know how many animals there are or how fast they respawn.

I wish they would add in some wandering zombies with the animals. seeing a zombie from a vehicle should not be a 100% positive there is a player around. I also hope they get a spawn animation, something like crawling up out of the ground, I hate the zombie dump when entering a town, partially because its ugly and partially because it lets me know I'm most likely alone. there should be at lest a couple lurkers in every town

[t-monk 6]

I take it that the timer runs regardless of how far away you are, i.e. as long as it's >30m.

Let's say I completely looted a building. I then proceed to other places >120m away and take my time doing so. Then whenever I get back, as long as it's been over 10mins, and assuming no one else has been <30 of that same building, then the loot should be there.

Thats the doubt I still have too. Let´s suppose this: I enter the yellow area (120m) and the timer starts. ok. Then I go inside, get the loot and the time expires while I am there. No respawn ok. Then I go out. I suppose the timer then restarts when I hit the yellow again from inside out, right (plz confirm just to dispel any uncertainties). So if I stay in yellow and wait a full 10 min there will be new loot. Thats ok If I am correct. But If I just move away and leave yellow, what happens? What happens If for example I leave yellow with 9:00 min on the timer, go to 130m, then turn around and hit the yellow (120) again? New loot instantly respawns and the timer starts again? I ask that because the outside yellow line is the trigger to "spawn loot", as I understand it. And, like sniperdoc above asked, what happens when you leave yellow and go away? The timer just stops and nothing respawns? Maybe in that case If I went far away and then back, I would have to stay for 10 mins waiting in yellow area before entering a building for the second time? This would make it important that you never leave the 120m radius while doing this process of sequencial looting, or that you sit for 10 mins before entering a building again if you went too far. What I suspect happens, though, and is more logical, is that the clock doesnt stop if you move far, so you could go ou visit your antie, or take sun at the cherno beach then go back to the market (non-stop) and there will be new stuff there. insitv plz clarify, thanks.

[CF Donuts 25]

This is a fantastic post and I thank you good sir! Will be talking about this on the next podcast.

[vukster@gmail.com 75]

So what happens over time as more and more loot is generated but not consumed?

Is there a threshold? Do items disappear or are they eventually replaced?

I know sometimes if I loot a store, with no other players around, and I move to another building, then come back to the store, some of the items have changed. It's possible that another player was nearby but this behavior happens even when I'm the only person on a server.

This is usually how I find maps when there are no maps in the store by default. If I come back after 10 minutes, the map usually spawns. So while I wait for this cycle I run and loot other buildings.

[van Grunz 0]

Thats the doubt I still have too. Let´s suppose this: I enter the yellow area (120m) and the timer starts. ok. Then I go inside, get the loot and the time expires while I am there. No respawn ok. Then I go out. I suppose the timer then restarts when I hit the yellow again from inside out, right (plz confirm just to dispel any uncertainties).

The timer should start if you're outside the red and inside the yellow area.

So if I stay in yellow and wait a full 10 min there will be new loot. Thats ok If I am correct. But If I just move away and leave yellow, what happens? What happens If for example I leave yellow with 9:00 min on the timer, go to 130m, then turn around and hit the yellow (120) again? New loot instantly respawns and the timer starts again?

I don't think so. The timer just stops and continues by re-entering yellow area again. Anyway, the timer is up to 10 minutes. It could happen that new loot is already spawned after, let's say, 3 minutes.

I ask that because the outside yellow line is the trigger to "spawn loot", as I understand it. And, like sniperdoc above asked, what happens when you leave yellow and go away? The timer just stops and nothing respawns?

Spawn does only happen within the yellow area. As long as there is noone in, a given timer stops. If never anyone had been in, a new timer would be generated, dito if a previous timer has ran up.

So what happens over time as more and more loot is generated but not consumed?

Is there a threshold? Do items disappear or are they eventually replaced?

My experience:

Loot does de- and respawn, but not entirely, and I don't know when this happens. I think it has to do with the timer. Once I was with a friend of mine at the barracks at the airfield, I waited beneath a loot pile with a precious gun so it does not despawn (our backpacks have been way to full :P ). The friend searched for our vehicle so we could store it there, but he need to go rather far away for that. Even while I was sitting all the time next to that gun, it disappeared, and partially new loot piles were given. Due to the time he need for the search and driving, he must re-enter the yellow area, and it took more than ten minutes, so the precious loot pile was gone while other crap still remains. :( So if there's something you urgently want to have, hurry up and waste less valuable things so you can pick them up!

I know sometimes if I loot a store, with no other players around, and I move to another building, then come back to the store, some of the items have changed. It's possible that another player was nearby but this behavior happens even when I'm the only person on a server.

This is usually how I find maps when there are no maps in the store by default. If I come back after 10 minutes, the map usually spawns. So while I wait for this cycle I run and loot other buildings.

I can also confirm the existance of alternating loot piles. Now that I know that ammo and backpacks are not counted as loot for regenerating, more things become much clearer. :D Thanks a lot for this technical look!

Anyway, I don't count such information as cheating, because it's a technical background. For comparisation, Minecraft has a big Wiki and for that a lot of information, too, one can use for own (and others!) purpose. What I'm missing is exactly such information in a powerful wiki. Information about @DayZ are on the one hand very common but on the other hand rarely deep-going. I'm highly technically interested, and it's making fun having success with altering well-known triggers. B)

At last, it's horrible to see detailed cheating instructions with no cruel while I was searching for respawn mechanisms.

A question I have to add:

How and when spawn vehicles?

I'm not very lucky with my server database. Very few usable vehicles are spawned, and those spawned are mostly totally damaged. Arr. As long as there is no legal way to get rid of pesky vehicles, I need to dump the db part for the them. :(

[insitv 305]

...

A question I have to add:

How and when spawn vehicles?

I'm not very lucky with my server database. Very few usable vehicles are spawned, and those spawned are mostly totally damaged. Arr. As long as there is no legal way to get rid of pesky vehicles, I need to dump the db part for the them. :(

Vehicles spawn when the server is started. How many vehicles or in which condition they spawn is kinda random as far as i know. If the server is connected to the main hive you don't have any control over that. Private hives have unique spawn mechanics for vehicles and often have 50+ vehicles spawned.

It's been a long time since i have answered here. I was kinda inactive for a few months because hackers ruined my fun :(

As i've seen there are community updates now and they are working on changing the zed and loot spawn system. As soon as these community builds go live i will analyse them as best as i can and update this thread here :)

//edit

Roughly 18k views on this thread, wow! Didn't expect that so many people will read it, hope it helped you guys ;)

Edited January 3, 2013 by insitv

[sk- 25]

Nice post, thanks for providing the source code proof as well.

[Doctor D 0]

Info on De-Spawning: any loot not on a spawn point(or player has picked it up and put it back down?) will despawn after the player leaves. Not sure of the radius, but leaving the server causes it to despawn.

[gangrenetvp 74]

Any updates with the newer versions?

[rn_max 202]

Well done for collating the loot spawn system info.  There are a few more relevant points, but they can wait for a coincidental mention by someone else.

 

Perhaps keeping the info not quite complete is suitable penance for spilling the beans to everyone.  Not for revealing it, but for spoon feeding everyone, which I don't agree with.

 

I'm a great believer in effort being its own reward and none of this was ever kept secret from anyone ... or difficult to find out ... and it has been published ad infinitum.

 

 

The loot spawn cycle was announced as fixed at 15 minutes in the 1.7.7 changelog.  So either there is more to the cycle than just the player trigger itself, or the timer was reduced in 1.7.7.1 ... or the 1.7.7 changelog was incorrect.

 

Given no further 1.7.7.1 changelog item, either 1.7.7 entry was wrong at 15 minutes, or another look  and/or field testing with a watch is required.

 

From the 1.7.7 Changelog:

 

 

* [FIXED] - Loot Spawns have now been fully resolved. Buildings are now tagged and will not spawn any new loot for 15 minutes.

 

 

 

For those who have wondered and asked about despawn or cleanup time for loot, this entry was in the 1.7.7 changelog:

 

* [FIXED] - Loot Cleanup has now been fully resolved. Old loot piles will now be cleaned every 60 minutes and no players within 250 meters(WIP). (Server performance boost)

 

[insitv 305]

Just saw the reddit thread referencing my thread here. Remember guys, i wrote the guide last september so it's out of date. Maybe i will find some time to do some digging on different mods and how they handle the loot spawning.

Do you guys have any specific mod in mind?

[kamikan 0]

dayzero :o

[kamikan 0]

also i think is quite different the lootspawn right now, like on a fresh restart the loot spawn in the first secs you run near buildings, and like i was prone on 100m of the buildings of NE airfield while reading this thread and when i went chek in the loot where 1/2 or 1/3 empty cants

[oman 0]

Hi Insitv,

 

Thanks a lot for this really good/helpfull topics, and please excuse my bad english, i'm french (Don't shoot ! son't shoot !) and had not good student. my bad...

 

So, I think that I all understand on your topic, but one point is alway dark for me. The FIRST loot spawn.

 

 

if "getPosATL player" send you are into 120 to 30 meter, bulding loot. and after, all ten minutes if player stay on 120 to 30 meter bulding loot again on free loot spawn.

 

But, if a player run on bulding for the first time, the bulding is empty. so i had think that getpostalt player was return with a delay. In fact i have already test under 10 minutes on first loot timer, and loot spwan was good.

 

So, my question, do you already know what time we need to stay on 120 to 30 meter to have a loot spawn for the first visit

 

 

ps : all tests are doing on a private serv with nobody, so it cannot be the fault of a player was here or not. I had used tag meter, to be sure of my results, on the corner of bulding (corner was most closer than me)

 

have a nice day and thanks for your time.

[Jex 1104]

 

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