Just recently the question of loot has been top of the list for the DayZ Standalone developers and the in game discussion for players and the like. This is because the devs have been working on persistent loot and for about a week we had servers with tons of items gathering and plenty of options for picking up some handy loot.



But having just been on update 0.48 I have found servers on the experimental branch virtually void of loot. Having spent an hour searching towns and bases I have only turned up bits of rotten fruit, Chem lights and hats and shoes of varying degrees. That was three different servers and I was beginning to wonder whether this was going to be the future of DayZ Standalone. It made me ask the question what would the game be like with very little loot.

Lovely Loot! The Smersh Backpack! Find out more about it here



My fourth experimental server led me to find more loot and an immense sense of relief. But it still was not the normal level of loot and in fact guns seemed to be hard to come by even in the normal locations. I think the saddest thing about this situation, and I personally do not believe this is where the developers are taking this amazing zombie game, but it was incredibly boring not being able to find much. There was plenty of running, as people are well aware of, and to have no reward at the end of all that legwork was quite demoralizing.



There is one thing that makes a lootless server even more hard to take, no matter how wonderful the gameplay or awesome it looks. This is the fact that currently you cannot make improvised weapons. You cannot chop down a branch, thrust it with shards of glass or nails and then use it as a vicious club come Mace. You cannot go to the docks and pull down a length of chain whereupon you can attach a gruesome looking Fisherman’s hook, or simply use the heavy rusty chain as a smashing weapon. You cannot break up a chair, from one of the houses, and use the leg as a battering weapon. You cannot tear strips of bark and improvise some makeshift armour.



Generally, aside from hunting and cooking, you are in the hands of the developers. Whatever loot is spawned is your main option and it is this we are at the mercy of. So finding servers with no loot was a shock to the system, especially on a Saturday morning!



Of course there is the argument that a apocalyptic world would be devoid of loot. That handy can of baked beans would not be left sitting on that smart looking breakfast table or a huge juicy zucchini would not be left on the kitchen counter or be found in the school storage area where ordinarily stacks of reading books would be left. This glimpse at a potential reality is a scary one and I personally hope that the developers of this amazing Zombie Game do not decide to go minimal. Until we have a raft of improvised weapons to craft we need the loot, we need all those lovely weapons they are developing.