Plundering it all

doright

I'm curious about looting containers in the environment. Are the container contents (except level) the same for everyone? Or does my looting the lockpick from a urn prevent the possibility, however tiny, of someone else getting a Imperial motif from that same urn.
Another question, if a delve is thoroughly looted by previous player does exiting and re-entering reset the containers?

GenjiraX

I think the RNG is done when you initially interact with the object so I would guess, yes - you prevented someone else getting the Imperial motif, and all for the sake of a lock pick. It’s unconscionable.

GuildedLilly

I believe contents of containers in the open world (with the exception of heavy sacks, heavy crates, safe boxes, and treasure chests, which disappear once looted, and re-spawn later) are individually instanced. You thoroughly looting Old Orsinium with a speed blitz Bosmer sprinting ahead to grab every urn, and a lumbering Nord stomping behind you checking every crate will have no effect on their drops, and they won't have an effect on yours.

Treasure chests in undaunted dungeons and trials can be looted by everyone--and just like all other loot, pray the gods of RNG hold you in their favor. Treasure chests in delves and group delves can only be loot by one person.

AlnilamE

Containers are individually instanced. I remember following someone around early in the game and I looked at a dresser they had just looted and found a motif book. I was very confused because I thought they had left it behind.

Fennwitty

Everyone is free to loot everything from the exact same barrel or crate or urn. Some players may see 'empty' containers where others see 'full' containers.

It's unique to the character at that moment.

deyjasagus

doright wrote: »

Another question, if a delve is thoroughly looted by previous player does exiting and re-entering reset the containers?

Yes, exiting and then re-entering an instanced area such as a delve will reset the containers. You can also reset containers in an area like the Daggerfall Castle in Glenumbra by doing the same thing or just logging out to character select and then logging back in.

SeaGtGruff

deyjasagus wrote: »

doright wrote: »

Another question, if a delve is thoroughly looted by previous player does exiting and re-entering reset the containers?

Yes, exiting and then re-entering an instanced area such as a delve will reset the containers. You can also reset containers in an area like the Daggerfall Castle in Glenumbra by doing the same thing or just logging out to character select and then logging back in.

However, from what I've read and experienced, I think there might be some sort of cooldown to prevent you from being able to overfarm that way, because it seems like eventually you just start seeing empty containers no matter how much you look.

Fikkan

AlnilamE wrote: »

Containers are individually instanced. I remember following someone around early in the game and I looked at a dresser they had just looted and found a motif book. I was very confused because I thought they had left it behind.

It may have been that they already had that one so left it from someone else. I do that.

But, then again, I'm not in a guild and not into haggling sales on zone chat either.

vsrs_au

Chests in overland are shared by all, correct? I recall reading in an old thread that we should take care to remove all items from a chest, even if we end up destroying the items we don't want, because if we only loot some items, the next player to open the chest only sees what you left behind, so you're doing them a disservice.

kargen27

SeaGtGruff wrote: »

deyjasagus wrote: »

doright wrote: »

Another question, if a delve is thoroughly looted by previous player does exiting and re-entering reset the containers?

Yes, exiting and then re-entering an instanced area such as a delve will reset the containers. You can also reset containers in an area like the Daggerfall Castle in Glenumbra by doing the same thing or just logging out to character select and then logging back in.

However, from what I've read and experienced, I think there might be some sort of cooldown to prevent you from being able to overfarm that way, because it seems like eventually you just start seeing empty containers no matter how much you look.

I know when players were farming furniture motifs in Clockwork City a lot of them thought there was a timer even if you logged out and back in. I don't think there was ever any solid proof of that happening but most people would leave two characters sitting in the area where the containers are and would go back and forth logging in on those two characters and looting.

Fennwitty

vsrs_au wrote: »

Chests in overland are shared by all, correct? I recall reading in an old thread that we should take care to remove all items from a chest, even if we end up destroying the items we don't want, because if we only loot some items, the next player to open the chest only sees what you left behind, so you're doing them a disservice.

That is true overland. In group dungeons chests are instanced, but only have to be unlocked by one person.

ghost_bg_ESO

so about loot in containers, sacks, urns and all similar seems to be separate loot for everyone - played through direfrost (pressure plates) with my main account + my other account through stadia - loot was different for both toons.

locked treasure chests and thieves troves stay for some time with what is left inside, and some people will complain that this chests will "never reset" if left half empty especially people in search of some drop from the zone or farmers for sale, my opinion is - better loot all open or locked - it is either decon mats on crafting station or sale at npc merchant.

Magdalina

deyjasagus wrote: »

doright wrote: »

Another question, if a delve is thoroughly looted by previous player does exiting and re-entering reset the containers?

Yes, exiting and then re-entering an instanced area such as a delve will reset the containers. You can also reset containers in an area like the Daggerfall Castle in Glenumbra by doing the same thing or just logging out to character select and then logging back in.

Not entirely true. If I remember it right, refreshing the instance (be it by leaving and re-entering or simply relogging) will trigger a refresh on containers such as urns, wardrobes, etc, BUT each container has its own timer for when it can refill, and if you rush through then relog, ~95% of freshly reloaded containers will be empty. I imagine it's to discourage container farming in certain container-rich areas not that it helps, the container timers are per character, not account.

That's, of course, only true for actual containers, chests and stuff work differently.

Varana

- General containers (backpacks, dressers, provisioning containers, urns, etc.) are individually instanced, so you can loot them without any effects on other players. That applies to both random people in overland or dungeon groups. A certain number of containers will also be set to Empty when the area is initialised. Again, that is only for you personally. So it happens regularly that some members of a dungeon group can loot a container while it appears as Empty for others - regardless of whether others loot it or not.
- There is the generally accepted wisdom of a furniture plan cooldown. It has so far never been officially acknowledged by ZOS, but that doesn't mean much. If you loot a plan of a certain quality (purple, blue), you won't get a plan of that quality for another 15/20 minutes on that character. Motifs (esp. the old purple ones like Dwemer or Barbarian, or basic racial motifs) don't count. Some motif rewards from daily quests have a 20-hour cooldown of their own, but that's different.
- Crafting nodes (including Psijic portals) and treasure chests in overland (that includes delves and public dungeons) are not instanced. If you loot them, no one else can. Content gets rolled when you open them, so if you leave something behind, that will be there for others.
- Commonly accepted wisdom is that chests (and nodes, probably) respawn faster if they have been emptied out, although even partially looted chests will de- and respawn eventually. I'm not sure this has been proven, though.
- Chests in group dungeons and trials have chests that are individually instanced, so if you leave something in them, it'll be left behind, no one else can get it.

bmnoble

Whatever you leave behind, in a chest, the next person gets, when they loot it. Normal containers seems first come first served unless you leave something behind then the next person gets it. Lockboxes and thieves guild boxes are treated the same way as chests. Don't know about heavy sacks, haven't known anyone not to just loot them and move on.

Leads are an exception I think, some guild mates were telling me how during the recent alchemy node wars in Shadowfen as a group they would each check an alchemy node without looting it, since it had a chance of generating the lead for each player as they interacted with it, when all of them had checked one of them would loot the node rinse and repeat, rather than just first come first serve and having to wait for the nodes to re spawn.

Stealing stuff from containers seems to be different though, seems tied to the player, when I used the belkarth apple orchard to level ledgerdemain, others were stealing stuff from containers I emptied and when I would go into the thieves den and then back out again the containers would be reset for me to loot again.

Pick-pocketing though seems shared, gone to the Ebon heart docks to do pick pocketing on a few occasions to find all the NPC's empty due to the last thief not wanting to use the blade of woe to reset them.

Paulytnz

Magdalina wrote: »

deyjasagus wrote: »

doright wrote: »

Another question, if a delve is thoroughly looted by previous player does exiting and re-entering reset the containers?

Yes, exiting and then re-entering an instanced area such as a delve will reset the containers. You can also reset containers in an area like the Daggerfall Castle in Glenumbra by doing the same thing or just logging out to character select and then logging back in.

Not entirely true. If I remember it right, refreshing the instance (be it by leaving and re-entering or simply relogging) will trigger a refresh on containers such as urns, wardrobes, etc, BUT each container has its own timer for when it can refill, and if you rush through then relog, ~95% of freshly reloaded containers will be empty. I imagine it's to discourage container farming in certain container-rich areas not that it helps, the container timers are per character, not account.

That's, of course, only true for actual containers, chests and stuff work differently.

I have a theory that the Delve/whatever place will only respawn the containers if no one else is in the instance. Example in some places I noticed there were a LOT of empty ones (the ones I looted on my first trip) and the full ones were actually the empty ones on my first trip there. This is when I started noticing there was another person or more in the same instance. So I think you will return to the exact same instance of the delves/whatever simply because someone else is still in there keeping it open. At least this is what I have seen in some places.

I have had cases where it can also happen without other players there. But I think these are very few places and may be because there a lot of containers there or they may drop special loot. The only place where I have seen this happen so far is in Hleran Ancestral Tomb in Vvardenfell. I was farming there for a special furnishing. I don't remember what it is because I never got it. But I recall that is the only place you can get it from and this place has over 50 Urns.

Even logging out fully and swapping to another char would not respawn the containers in this place, sometimes changing to a 3rd char still had the same effect. This is the first time I have EVER seen this. Usually swapping to another char will ALWAYS respawn places no matter where you are. Yet, not this place.

I am a console player so there are far less players in places when I loot them, especially in my time zone (UTC +12) which is 12 hours ahead of UK time and I play in the PS Euro servers. I have it sweet at times for farming things.

doright

So to sum up, speed auto looting stuff from containers (urns, crates, sacks...), much of which I don't really want, is not very friendly to other players that come behind me. They have a chance to get something they need if I don't empty the container of its lockpick. The containers that appeared empty to me may not be empty for others, so they will likely still have something to loot.

Varana

doright wrote: »

So to sum up, speed auto looting stuff from containers (urns, crates, sacks...), much of which I don't really want, is not very friendly to other players that come behind me. They have a chance to get something they need if I don't empty the container of its lockpick.

No, that is not how it works. Containers are individual to you. It has no effect on others whether you loot them or not. They have their own version of these containers.

LalMirchi

Varana wrote: »

doright wrote: »

So to sum up, speed auto looting stuff from containers (urns, crates, sacks...), much of which I don't really want, is not very friendly to other players that come behind me. They have a chance to get something they need if I don't empty the container of its lockpick.

No, that is not how it works. Containers are individual to you. It has no effect on others whether you loot them or not. They have their own version of these containers.

I for one would like some concrete evidence of this statement.

zaria

LalMirchi wrote: »

Varana wrote: »

doright wrote: »

So to sum up, speed auto looting stuff from containers (urns, crates, sacks...), much of which I don't really want, is not very friendly to other players that come behind me. They have a chance to get something they need if I don't empty the container of its lockpick.

No, that is not how it works. Containers are individual to you. It has no effect on others whether you loot them or not. They have their own version of these containers.

I for one would like some concrete evidence of this statement.

Then just follow someone looting containers, preferably an friend as you make sure they loot all.

Another place to check this very visible is the apple orchard next to Belkart in Craglorn.
This is an popular place to train legerdemain as its lots of baskets with apples, this is nice as they stack, you steal them and other stuff and sell at nearby thief guild, then you exit the containers are full again and you can repeat.
The apple baskets is not emptied for you then other loot it only you.

LalMirchi

Thank you @zaria I will test that now.

whitecrow

Once I looted a Psijic portal in Summerset and there was a gold lead I already had (for the music box I think). Rather than have it evaporate into the ether, I left it for another person. Would that have worked, or would the next person see something completely different?

Fennwitty

whitecrow wrote: »

Once I looted a Psijic portal in Summerset and there was a gold lead I already had (for the music box I think). Rather than have it evaporate into the ether, I left it for another person. Would that have worked, or would the next person see something completely different?

Leads appear to be character based, but the rest of the loot in a psijic portal acts like a normal overland node or chest. Anything you left in there will remain until the node eventually self-despawns (takes a fairly long time I think).

doright

Gotta say for as long as this game has been out I'm surprised that this mechanism is still a topic of such diverse opinion.
Wish this was a huge multiplayer game and I had several reliable friends to conduct testing with.

Shazanti

My husband and I duo together every night. Random lootables (urns, crates, barrels, backpacks, dressers, wardrobes, etc.), are individual to each of us. He can check the dresser and I can check the dresser at the exact same moment and we'll get different items. The backpack will be open and unlootable for him, but lootable for me, and if I check it but decide not to take its contents, he can't, because the game already spawned his character-specific-lootable backpack for him. So it goes. For chests, he can partially loot one and I can loot the rest, because those AREN'T individually instanced. All as expected.

doright

Varana wrote: »

No, that is not how it works. Containers are individual to you. It has no effect on others whether you loot them or not. They have their own version of these containers.

This just doesn't seem right. I checked in a delve by checking the contents of containers in an area (not looting), than watch another person come and loot some of those containers. Those containers now show as <empty> for me and I can't loot the items that I saw in those containers just a few minutes prior.
So perhaps the contents or lack there of of each container is unique to the player. The status of the container, has it been looted or not, is not unique to the player.

Varana

LalMirchi wrote: »

Varana wrote: »

doright wrote: »

So to sum up, speed auto looting stuff from containers (urns, crates, sacks...), much of which I don't really want, is not very friendly to other players that come behind me. They have a chance to get something they need if I don't empty the container of its lockpick.

No, that is not how it works. Containers are individual to you. It has no effect on others whether you loot them or not. They have their own version of these containers.

I for one would like some concrete evidence of this statement.

In addition to what others suggested, run any dungeon with a group of friends, preferably on voice so it's faster. Compare any containers you open - which group members can loot them, what's in there, and you'll quickly notice that it's as I said.

I'm not sure why this is even contested. It's really obvious once you start paying attention, esp. the lootable/empty status of containers. A lootable container will not become suddenly empty for you because someone else looted it. I can only imagine that many people - unless they're furnishing farmers - don't really bother and just go with what they assumed.

doright

Shazanti wrote: »

My husband and I duo together every night. Random lootables (urns, crates, barrels, backpacks, dressers, wardrobes, etc.), are individual to each of us. He can check the dresser and I can check the dresser at the exact same moment and we'll get different items. The backpack will be open and unlootable for him, but lootable for me, and if I check it but decide not to take its contents, he can't, because the game already spawned his character-specific-lootable backpack for him. So it goes. For chests, he can partially loot one and I can loot the rest, because those AREN'T individually instanced. All as expected.

Nice! Interesting observations. In the dresser example you see different items, but can you both take them or is it first come?

I also wonder if delves work slightly different than an area in a city. Which would explain some of the different observations.

Varana

That may be. Although I did a few Traitors Vault runs now and then back in the day (there's a room with wardrobes lined up all around the walls), and there were usually several people in there, all looting different stuff from the containers, and those before me not emptying out any of them for me.

Shazanti

doright wrote: »

Shazanti wrote: »

My husband and I duo together every night. Random lootables (urns, crates, barrels, backpacks, dressers, wardrobes, etc.), are individual to each of us. He can check the dresser and I can check the dresser at the exact same moment and we'll get different items. The backpack will be open and unlootable for him, but lootable for me, and if I check it but decide not to take its contents, he can't, because the game already spawned his character-specific-lootable backpack for him. So it goes. For chests, he can partially loot one and I can loot the rest, because those AREN'T individually instanced. All as expected.

Nice! Interesting observations. In the dresser example you see different items, but can you both take them or is it first come?

I also wonder if delves work slightly different than an area in a city. Which would explain some of the different observations.

We can both loot the dresser (at the same time, or a few seconds apart, it doesn't matter), because both the dresser (or whatever container) and the loot within are specific to each of us. He'll get Corundum, I'll get a lockpick. If he doesn't loot his Corundum, I can't loot it. It's for him alone. Same for any base lootables in delves, same for public dungeons, same for regular dungeons. Again, thieves troves/locked chests are a different matter entirely. Those have an entirely different system.

EDIT TO ADD: He can even get a Lead out of a lootable, and I will not, even if he doesn't loot whatever was in the item. However, I can't say we've done much testing on this one particular aspect. Only twice, I believe. He doesn't do the Scrying game, and I do, so he always complains every time he gets a Scrying update that he can't give it to me.

KMarble

doright wrote: »

This just doesn't seem right. I checked in a delve by checking the contents of containers in an area (not looting), than watch another person come and loot some of those containers. Those containers now show as <empty> for me and I can't loot the items that I saw in those containers just a few minutes prior.
So perhaps the contents or lack there of of each container is unique to the player. The status of the container, has it been looted or not, is not unique to the player.

The reason why the containers became empty in your experiment isn't because other players looted them. It's because you checked. You can only open so many containers before they change status (close to open). Different places - I think - have a different threshold for how many you can open before a container goes empty.

I steal. A lot. Because we have a limit on how many items you can launder/sell to the fence daily, I'm selective about what I steal. That means that I go into an area and check all containers but only take from the ones that are profitable. I lost count how many times I've seen a container go from closed to open right before my eyes even though I'm alone in that area/room. Even opening the same container more than once counts against how many containers you checked.