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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

- 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.

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 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 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.

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?

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.

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.

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.

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.