Guide Economy Tuning

Loot Balancing Guide

Learn how to create a balanced loot economy. Understand rarity tiers, nominal/min ratios, category-specific balancing, and avoid common mistakes that ruin server gameplay.

Balancing Philosophy

Good loot balance creates a gameplay loop where players feel rewarded for exploration without becoming overpowered too quickly. The goal is a natural progression: coastal spawns provide basic survival gear, inland towns offer better tools and clothing, and military zones reward risk with high-tier weapons and equipment.

The key principle is scarcity drives engagement. If every building has an M4, players have no reason to explore. If no building has food, players quit in frustration. Balance sits between these extremes.

Before changing values, define your server's identity. A hardcore survival server uses lower nominals and longer restocks. A PvP-focused server increases weapon spawns but may reduce medical supplies. A casual server raises everything slightly. Your values should serve your vision.

Rarity Tiers

Use these tiers as starting points. Adjust based on your server population and map size.

Tier	Nominal Range	Min Range	Restock	Examples
Common	20–50	10–30	0–60	Canned food, rags, basic clothing, stones
Uncommon	10–20	5–12	60–300	Backpacks, axes, pistols, compasses
Rare	3–10	1–5	300–1800	Assault rifles, plate carriers, NVGs
Very Rare	1–3	0–1	1800–3600	M4A1, LAR, VSS, helicopter crash loot

Nominal/Min Ratio Guidelines

The ratio between nominal and min controls how the CE restocks items. Here are recommended ratios for different scenarios:

50%

Steady Flow

min = 50% of nominal. Frequent small restocks. Best for common items like food and basic tools.

60–70%

Balanced

The sweet spot for most items. Restocks feel natural without flooding the map. Recommended default.

30–40%

Scarce

Large gap means rare restocks in bigger batches. Creates scarcity windows. Best for rare weapons and high-tier gear.

Category-Specific Balancing

Weapons

Weapons define your server's PvP intensity. Keep assault rifles and snipers at rare/very rare tiers. Pistols and shotguns can be uncommon. Always balance ammo alongside weapons — a gun without ammo is just weight. Set count_in_player to 1 for top-tier weapons so hoarding reduces world spawns.

Food & Drinks

Food is the survival baseline. Too little and new players die before they learn the game. Too much and survival becomes trivial. Keep canned food common, fresh food uncommon. Drinks should be slightly more available than food since dehydration kills faster. Coastal areas need higher food density for fresh spawns.

Tools

Tools enable gameplay loops: axes for firewood, knives for skinning, shovels for gardening. Keep basic tools (knives, can openers) common. Specialized tools (shovels, pliers, hacksaws) at uncommon. Players should find a knife within their first few buildings.

Clothing

Clothing provides storage and insulation. Basic civilian clothes should be very common. Military clothing at uncommon/rare. Ghillie suits and high-capacity vests at rare. Clothing variety keeps the game visually interesting — don't make one outfit dominate.

Medical

Medical supplies determine how punishing combat and disease are. Bandages and rags should be common. Morphine and blood bags at uncommon. Epinephrine and surgical kits at rare. If your server has frequent PvP, increase medical spawns slightly to keep players in the fight longer.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

Setting nominal too high

Flooding the map with items kills exploration incentive and tanks server performance. More items = more entities to track = lower FPS.

Ignoring ammo balance

Increasing weapon spawns without matching ammo creates frustration. Decreasing ammo without reducing weapons creates inventory clutter. Always adjust both together.

Setting min equal to nominal

This makes the CE constantly try to restock, creating performance overhead and unnatural instant-respawn behavior. Always keep min lower than nominal.

Changing too many values at once

When something breaks, you won't know which change caused it. Modify one category at a time, test, then move to the next.

Forgetting about map size

Chernarus and Livonia have different numbers of spawn points. A nominal of 10 on Chernarus feels very different than 10 on a smaller map. Scale values to your map.

Step-by-Step Balancing Process

1
Define your server vision
Decide if your server is hardcore survival, casual PvP, roleplay, or a mix. This determines your baseline values.
2
Start with vanilla types.xml
Never start from scratch. The vanilla file has been balanced by Bohemia over years. Use it as your foundation.
3
Adjust one category at a time
Start with weapons, then food, then tools. Test each category before moving to the next.
4
Apply rarity tiers consistently
Use the tier table above. All items in the same tier should have similar nominal/min/restock values.
5
Set appropriate flags
Enable count_in_hoarder and count_in_player for rare items. This prevents hoarding from draining the world supply.
6
Test with real players
Solo testing doesn't reveal hoarding issues or high-traffic area depletion. Get feedback from your community.
7
Iterate based on feedback
Monitor player complaints and server logs. Adjust values in 10-20% increments, not wholesale changes.

Testing Methodology

Effective testing requires a systematic approach:

1. Set up a test server

Use a separate server instance with the same map and mods. Never test economy changes on your live server first.

2. Wipe persistence

Delete the storage_1 folder to start fresh. Old persistence data will conflict with new economy values.

3. Run multiple restart cycles

The CE needs 2-3 restart cycles to fully populate the map. Don't judge results after one restart.

4. Check multiple locations

Visit coastal towns, inland cities, and military bases. Loot distribution should match your intended progression.

5. Monitor server performance

Watch server FPS and entity counts. If performance drops, your total nominal values across all items may be too high.