Server owner - how to add more loot containers?

[Paige]

Server owner noob here, so please forgive my ignorance and be gentle with me.

 

I put down a buncha bird nests from the dev menus, but they remain sadly empty.

 

How can I make them start filling with eggs and feathers as appropriate?

 

Thanks so much for your help,

 

Paige

[AtomicUs5000]

If the main goal is to try to get more feathers and eggs in the world, you are better off modding those changes in.
If you were to add them in manually, you would also have to fill them manually.
There are already mods made for increasing feathers/eggs. I know there was once one for increasing the number of nests in A18... not sure about A19.

In biomes.xml, you will see this line in many of the codes blocks
<decoration type="block" blockname="cntBirdnest" prob="0.001"/>
I assume increasing this probability will increase the number of nests.
I have a feeling this does not occur on map generation, but when an area is loaded in for the first time. Could be wrong on that. Either way, I'm sure if you try this with an existing map, I don't think you're going to get desired results.

Then in loot.xml, you can adjust the loot numbers for the birds nests:
<lootgroup name="groupBirdNest" count="1,2">
    <item name="foodEgg" prob="0.25"/>
    <item name="resourceFeather" count="1,5" prob="0.75"/>
</lootgroup>

[Boidster]

58 minutes ago, AtomicUs5000 said:

In biomes.xml, you will see this line in many of the codes blocks
<decoration type="block" blockname="cntBirdnest" prob="0.001"/>
I assume increasing this probability will increase the number of nests.
I have a feeling this does not occur on map generation, but when an area is loaded in for the first time. Could be wrong on that.

That was too interesting to pass up, so I tested it in a sandbox. World was already generated, but I hadn't really explored much at all. A couple of teleports to POIs and then quit.

 

Then I set all cntBirdnest probabilities to 0.05. 50x the previous probability. Result:

 

Area I quit from/spawned in at - zero birds nests (probably just normal rarity from the 0.001 setting)

 

A few god-mode jumps away - NEST-A-PALOOZA: (yes they all have loot)

 

 

58 minutes ago, AtomicUs5000 said:

<lootgroup name="groupBirdNest" count="1,2">
    <item name="foodEgg" prob="0.25"/>
    <item name="resourceFeather" count="1,5" prob="0.75"/>
</lootgroup>

 

In my game all we did was change the probabilities here to 0.35 for eggs and 0.65 for feathers and it was enough. There is another lootgroup that contains the one above and it guarantees at least 1 feather (a change they made in 18.3 or so). So reducing the feathers chance down to 0.65 really doesn't hurt. Especially not if you're hunting chickens - feathers won't have a supply problem.

[Paige]

Okay, I hate to be "explain it like I'm 5," but, pretty please, ELI5 me.

This is my file structure on my server. Where might loot.xml be?

 

Once I find it, do you think I can edit on the web UI, or can I download it, edit it in notepad, and then reupload it?

 

[AtomicUs5000]

The .xml files should be in Data -> Config, and can be edited using any text editor. I recommend making a copy of the original first.
I imagine downloading, editing, then uploading should be just fine.
However, I have never modded a server that I don't own locally, so I recommend consulting someone in the modding section of these forums.
Also, maybe someone there will be kind enough to assist you in making this an xpath mod instead of a directly editied xml. Going that way will be easier to maintain and also you could just slip a file into a mods folder instead of dealing with multiple files.

[Boidster]

I dunno man, with the modern world they're growing up in, ELI5 be like: "just use xpath to adjust prob on the relevant nodes".

 

<five-year-old nods knowingly> "I KNOW Dad, DUH!"

[Paige]

Well, okay. I found how to get into the XML files and edit them. I upped nest frequency and egg frequency in loot.xml.

Aaaand then I increased vehicle speeds in another XML.

 

Aaaand then I increased vehicle fuel efficiency in that same XML.

 

Like, look, I'm a 49 year old marine biologist. I do math for a living. But I don't code. I am scaring myself with this kind of power.

 

If I completely $@#!*#! up the XML files... where would I go to re-download the original unmodified files?

 

Paige

[AtomicUs5000]

On 8/26/2020 at 10:00 PM, AtomicUs5000 said:

I recommend making a copy of the original first.

lol.
In that event, save them somewhere if you want a backup of your changes.
Then in steam... Steam Library -> 7 Days to Die -> Properties -> Local Files -> Verify Integrity of Game Files
That should replace them.

[mr.devolver]

3 hours ago, Paige said:

Well, okay. I found how to get into the XML files and edit them. I upped nest frequency and egg frequency in loot.xml.

Aaaand then I increased vehicle speeds in another XML.

 

Aaaand then I increased vehicle fuel efficiency in that same XML.

 

Like, look, I'm a 49 year old marine biologist. I do math for a living. But I don't code. I am scaring myself with this kind of power.

 

If I completely $@#!*#! up the XML files... where would I go to re-download the original unmodified files?

 

Paige

You should probably watch some tutorials on how to mod 7 Days to Die game. Editing the original game files is not necessary, it's much safer to put your own adjustments in form of modlets into the Mods folder in the game's main folder. It may sound more complex than it really is, so it'd be best if you went through couple of tutorials that would explain this better, possibly with visual examples to make it easier for you to understand what you're working with.

 

This would be a decent start (if you're a visual learner):

 

It's for Alpha 17, but the procedures haven't changed that much since then.

[Gamida]

5 hours ago, Paige said:

Well, okay. I found how to get into the XML files and edit them. I upped nest frequency and egg frequency in loot.xml.

Aaaand then I increased vehicle speeds in another XML.

 

Aaaand then I increased vehicle fuel efficiency in that same XML.

 

Like, look, I'm a 49 year old marine biologist. I do math for a living. But I don't code. I am scaring myself with this kind of power.

 

If I completely $@#!*#! up the XML files... where would I go to re-download the original unmodified files?

 

Paige

I was like you when I first started. I wanted to do some tweaking but was afraid of screwing up my game. Now I regularly add mods (at one time up in the 70's ). I have even did a little modding my self even though I don't consider myself even close to being a modder. They were more for personal use than distribution. Most times I will add mods I like from others and I can make changes in those to suit myself.

One bit of advice I did get was to make a copy of my 7 Days to Die game folder and use that to play around with the game to my hearts content without touching my vanilla game. I may have 2 or 3 copies added so I can try different things.

One thing though, it gets addicting. I have often been constantly changing things and restarting the game. I know there are modders who probably don't even play anymore but just create and test their mods and just keep improving on them.

The thing is have fun. The files can always be overwritten with original (if you made a folder copy) or as mentioned just do a verify.

Enjoy.

 

 

Now, back to my own tinkering...