[V3.0] What Changed in loot.xml — Removal of ignore_loot_abundance and the New abundance_type

loot.xml is smaller on net (-33KB), but this is not a removal of logic — rather, it’s the result of compressing redundant per-level definitions in the probability/quality tables into broader level bands. Not a single lootgroup / lootcontainer has been deleted (they all reappear under the same names).

Key Changes

Loot Abundance Support (the essential change)

• Removed ignore_loot_abundance="true" from all 46 containers (an attribute deprecated in V3.0)
• Added the new attribute abundance_type to roughly 68 lootgroups. Allowed values are Food / Drinks / Ammo / Meds / Resources / Armor / Melee / Ranged / Dukes / Magazines

Consolidation of the Quality Tables

• Removed lootqualitytemplate qualBaseTemplate (the old q1–q5, roughly 25 tiers in 10-level increments) and unified everything onto the quality-6 version (formerly q6Template)
• The name q6Template itself has been removed, and its contents were merged into the standard template → quality 6 is now promoted to the standard drop across all containers
• Compressed probability templates such as ProbT0 broadly toward 2-level increments (peaks shifted earlier) = a shift toward “high quality showing up earlier at the same level”

Other

• playerBackpack‘s destroy_on_close changed from true → empty
• New containers: beerCoolerPlayer / playerLandClaimStorage

Impact on MODs

• Since the group/container names are stable, most name-based xpaths are fine.
• However, there are three things to watch out for: (a) any set/append/remove that names q6Template will miss (the name is gone), (b) any xpath that touches or assumes ignore_loot_abundance will miss because the attribute is gone, and (c) if you were targeting qualBaseTemplate‘s qualitytemplate by ordinal (position), the wholesale replacement of the bands will cause position drift and misfires.

Reference: Example Diff

-<lootgroup name="groupAllArmor" loot_quality_template="armorQualityTemplate">
+<lootgroup name="groupAllArmor" loot_quality_template="armorQualityTemplate" abundance_type="Armor">

-<lootcontainer name="smallSafes" ... destroy_on_close="empty" ignore_loot_abundance="true">
+<lootcontainer name="smallSafes" ... destroy_on_close="empty">

* Based on investigation immediately after applying the experimental version (equivalent to B252).

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Related: List of MOD-making articles