[2021] Alpha 20 Hidden Loot

I think people are missing the point. The OP’s beef (at least in the top post) isn’t with what’s in the containers so much as what kinds of containers are in those hidden spots in POIs in the first place: the little secret nooks and behind paintings as mentioned.

I do think a lot of it works, if you consider this is the post-apocalypse, after society shut down. Imagine that people went months without government services: specifically, no trash pickup. A lot of people would be trying to live in their homes, accumulating trash like they normally do, and not having anywhere to put it. So they stash it in some out-of-the-way spot, because even hardcore hoarders leave themselves paths to get around.

Now, the trash behind a false wall or painting is more of a slap in the face. But luck is a factor here. To make it more of a surprise, the world builder puts a loot placeholder behind the fake painting, and then it’s randomly turned into a pile of something, a backpack/purse/bag/etc., or garbage. It’s possible that you’ve just been unlucky.

Originally posted by RasaNova: …But then there was that gun safe I finally went back to on day 12 after I got the lockpick candy, that had a Q3 bone knife and a Q4 stone spear...

A thought occurs…

Some people are going to hate leveled loot in any form. But for others, a key complaint is that finding poor quality loot in the same loot container where a high-level character would find better loot breaks immersion. There have been many arguments over how plausible that is, and why it would or wouldn’t happen.

But now we have gamestage modifiers based on on location, instead of only on player stats. And we already have these placeholders that are turned into individual loot containers at generation time. So what if the loot container chosen was weighted by gamestage instead of being totally random? Then, when you’re in a Tier 5 factory in the wasteland, a lot more of those hidden locations are medical piles or safes instead of trash, because it’s a scary place and fewer people have survived or even been willing to try picking over what’s in there. The gameplay balance of leveled loot is maintained, without the disappointment/weirdness of finding trashy loot in good places or good loot in trashy places.