How often can I look over a stretch of land for new items?

[KrojinKin]

Subject says it all, I'm traveling down a strip of land once in a while, and yea just wondering when I can travel to find new items.

[lachlaan]

I could be wrong, so wait for other feedback as well, but if i recall stuff spawns when the server loads the area. So when it goes from unoccupied to occupied. Not sure if it's every time you enter or if it's after everything despawns. Since an area unloads like .. in the same time frame argos despawn? Yeah, wait for other feedback xD

[Chiprel]

From my experience I would say that it takes 5-23 mins for area to unload(if there was noone on that map area for that long). Would say 15 mins on average.
Wait 20mins to be almost 100% sure that you'll see new stuff while traveling over same areas but 15mins should be enough in most cases too.

[L33LEE]

Some information given is wrong, some is right, one thing is for sure, everything and everything has different timers etc.

For example, if you find a singing log but do not pick it up, almost as soon as it leaves your line of sight (It disappears from your loaded screen / mini map), Its GONE, no running back to collect it etc, however other items such as chestnuts can last a bit longer.

Its more random than anything(Well not really random, but would take a hell of alot of research to catalog everything), If you run over 1 area, come back 60 seconds later, stuff could have all totally vanished and new stuff respawned, yet on another occasion, stuff might not despawn or respawn for 10~ mins.

One thing is for sure though, It seems little to do with timers, its more of a FoV (field of view) thing(with a small amount of a timer) When it comes to items, There are hidden grids, were mini map tiles are made up of 100(10x10)(Guesstimate) subsections, and as you move through the world, you can physically see each mini map sub-section load (Well the items load on it) As you move, you do not passively see new items for each step you take, its about every 10-20 steps it loads another section of the mini map, and new items pop up. Im sure different items, have a different range on its despawn, like singing logs, feathers etc will instantly despawn when out of FoV, were as other items will require you to move a much further distance away from it to despawn.

So in regards to foraging for items, you are always best to explore a much wider area, then circle back around after you have moved at least 3-4 mini map tiles away from it, rather than run back and forth across 1-2 mini map tiles. When i would do my searching / foraging for items, i would tend to find a lake and do runs / laps around it.

EDIT: Another good route i used to do, was run 2 tiles north from home, 2 tiles east, 4 tiles south, 2 tiles west, 2 tiles north then i would be back home, and most of the time have a full inventory of stuff.

2ndEDIT: It would require more research, but it might be a combination of both a time, and distance from / FoV of the item, were as for an example a feather has 0.1s despawn timer when out of FoV, were as another item might have a 60second time before it despawns when out of your FoV. (As items tend to be loaded only when in a players FoV (On load of the mini map tiles Sub-sections as mentioned above) And items are NOT loaded across the whole mini map tile which most people believe)

[Chiprel]

Nicely written Lee but I really disagree about some stuff insta despawning. I came back for feathers and logs a lot of times(when they went outside render range).
Each item have some base value if it'll be visible for you or not. For feather you might need to reenter area like 10-15 times for it to become visible again.
Lets say for grass its 1000, for feather 9000. Each time you enter said 'minimap zone' game is rolling a number for each item(lets say in range of 0-10000) to see what you'll 'randomly' see and what not.
I am almost 100% certain(almost cuz testing this stuff is painfull xD) that it either unloads(despawns) everything on 'minimap area/zone' or nothing.

It's the same system in hnh(cept you can raise your visibility of items in there with one stat and skill while in salem we only have movement toggles).

[L33LEE]

Nicely written Lee but I really disagree about some stuff insta despawning. I came back for feathers and logs a lot of times(when they went outside render range).
Each item have some base value if it'll be visible for you or not. For feather you might need to reenter area like 10-15 times for it to become visible again.
Lets say for grass its 1000, for feather 9000. Each time you enter said 'minimap zone' game is rolling a number for each item(lets say in range of 0-10000) to see what you'll 'randomly' see and what not.
I am almost 100% certain(almost cuz testing this stuff is painfull xD) that it either unloads(despawns) everything on 'minimap area/zone' or nothing.

It's the same system in hnh(cept you can raise your visibility of items in there with one stat and skill while in salem we only have movement toggles).

Yea thinking about it some what you would make more sense, it would expain some things, but not others. Like yes, i have seen feathers instantly despawn after leaving its view, but can vaguely remember passing inaccessible items, and when going back past 5~ min later are still there.

Suggesting it could work more along the lines of how scents work, were even though they are there, the items(scents) might not even be visible and would require an area reload to be able to see them.

Yea, as i said, it would require alot of research into how it works, how long items stay for, if its range based, time based, full tile deload based.

Like if you load a whole mini map tile, it loads ALL items on it into a table?, however as you explore, when you load each little sub-section were you see items, you have a % chance of seeing what items are there, so it might be worth running over each tile a few times to fully load all the items, then leave the mini map tile to deload etc, to get a new table of items?

Who knows how it truly works. Only Jorbta.

Could be totally random as you explore(% based), but items stay for XXX amount of time on the server / minimap tile, then despawn, has nothing at all to do with mini map tile generation/loading, just what you are personally loading in your field of view, and the Terran type.

[Kandarim]

Well, i can only add this:
Dropping items in a busy town with a couple of OCD's is not a good idea. Dropped dross or humus, or other miscellaneous items, can last for hours, up to days when the environment is always loaded (i.e. there is always someone walking around it). Of course they might be different than forageable items. But some items (e.g. woodchips) always disappear on a timer, while others (e.g. seeds) only seem to despawn on map unload.

[L33LEE]

Well, i can only add this:
Dropping items in a busy town with a couple of OCD's is not a good idea. Dropped dross or humus, or other miscellaneous items, can last for hours, up to days when the environment is always loaded (i.e. there is always someone walking around it). Of course they might be different than forageable items. But some items (e.g. woodchips) always disappear on a timer, while others (e.g. seeds) only seem to despawn on map unload.

I find this hard to swallow, unless the system has changed within the past 3 months, with a hidden update, as items such as dross, woodchips etc, will ALWAYS vanish after 15~ mins(If not picked up/redropped), this also happens with clothing, which saw many items decay to the server when The Devs dropped rare items, with several people camping them and they just decayed to nothing after 15 mins, and everyone lost out.

As far as im awear dropped items will vanish, even if the screen is loaded after XX period of time.

I have even witnessed bears de-spawning after a couple of hours in "Traps" i made around one of my bases, to test bear turrets. Its practical black bile draining tactics, however as they despawn after a period of time, even when inside your field of view and with a loaded tile, its not worth it.

[Kandarim]

I usually plant fields in pairs, so I'd use 15 seeds for two cabbage patches and have one seed leftover, which i drop.
This morning the single seed I dropped last night was still there.

Possibly humus/dross was a bad example, but seeds definitely stick around for a long time, if not forever, without map unloading.