# Dayz Globals > Use when working with a DayZ server's db/globals.xml or central economy tuning — loot damage and item condition, cleanup and corpse lifetimes, loot respawn rates, initial and restart spawn percentages, territory flag refresh, idle mode, login/logout/hopping timers, zombie and animal population caps, food decay — or when a globals.xml change did not take effect. - Skill: `submtd/dayz-globals` (Agent Skill, multi-file: 4 files) - Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add submtd/dayz-globals` - Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/submtd/dayz-globals/raw - Safety review: pending - Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex - Category: Coding & Dev Tools - Author: submtd (https://skillmd.com/u/submtd) - Updated: 2026-09-22 - Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/submtd/dayz-globals --- # DayZ db/globals.xml Thirty central-economy tuning variables, read from `db/globals.xml` in the mission folder. Vanilla source: `BohemiaInteractive/DayZ-Central-Economy`. **Vanilla `globals.xml` is identical across Chernarus, Livonia and Sakhal.** Unlike `cfggameplay.json`, there is no per-map variance to reconcile. **These servers are Xbox on Nitrado.** No mods; `init.c` is inert. See the `dayz-cfggameplay` skill for what that rules out. ## Never answer from memory Every variable name, default and unit **must** come from `references/vars.md`. An agent asked eight routine questions about this file said `ZombieMaxCount` does not exist ("that's not in globals.xml"), put `CleanupLifetimeDefault` at ~14 days when it is **45 seconds**, inverted `FlagRefreshMaxDuration`, read `IdleModeStartup` as a duration when it is a 0/1 flag, and invented an elaborate wrong story for `InitialSpawn` / `SpawnInitial` / `RestartSpawn`. Only the `type` attribute came back right. **The wiki is also wrong twice** — `LootDamageMax` and `LootSpawnAvoidance` defaults disagree with every shipped file. `references/vars.md` marks each claim **[source]**, **[wiki]** or **[unverified]**. Do not promote an `[unverified]` claim to fact. ## The rule that matters most **Almost nothing in this file works alone.** Every variable here that has real gameplay effect is half of a pair with another file. Changing one side and not the other is the characteristic failure — it produces no error and no result. | To change | You must also touch | Why | |---|---|---| | Loot condition (`LootDamage*`) | `cfgspawnabletypes.xml` | **Any `` entry there wins**, including `0.0/0.0` | | Base cleanup speed (`FlagRefresh*`) | `db/types.xml` lifetimes | The flag only postpones those lifetimes | | Infected density (`ZombieMaxCount`) | `env/zombie_territories.xml` | The cap does not spawn anything | | Animal density (`AnimalMaxCount`) | `env/*_territories.xml` | Same | | `FoodDecay` | `WorldWetTempUpdate` **in this file** | Food decay requires it set to `1` | Details and worked examples in `references/cross-file.md`. **Read it before changing loot condition, base decay or infected counts.** ## Things that are not what they look like - **`CleanupLifetimeDefault` is not a `types.xml` fallback.** It is **45 seconds**, for entities with no economy setup **and damage ≥ 1.0** — a sweeper for untracked dead or ruined things. - **`ZombieMaxCount` is a ceiling, not a lever.** Raising it spawns nothing on its own; lowering it silently clips your zone definitions. - **`FlagRefreshMaxDuration` is how long the flag keeps refreshing**, not a grace period before decay. **[source]** `totem.c:12`. - **`IdleModeStartup` is a 0/1 flag**, not a duration. - **`InitialSpawn` and `RestartSpawn` are percentages; `SpawnInitial` is a retry count.** Different things despite the near-identical names. - **`RestartSpawn` defaults to `0`** — restarting does *not* top loot up. - **Damage is a durability budget, not just condition.** An item at `0.8` ruins after one use, which makes it a single-use key. See `cross-file.md`. - **`TimeHopping` penalises your incoming players.** It is added to the login timer for anyone arriving from another server — i.e. every new player. ## Diagnosing "I changed it and nothing happened" 1. **Is it half of a cross-file pair?** Check the table above first. This is the most common cause by a wide margin. 2. **Did the server restart?** These are read at startup. 3. **Does the `type` attribute match the value?** A float written under `type="0"` is truncated silently. Only `LootDamage*` are floats. 4. **Is it session-scoped, and does your restart interval outlive it?** A 2-hour restart cycle means any session countdown longer than 7200s never elapses — that is why One Life's `IdleModeCountdown: 21600` is effectively "never". Lifetimes and flag refresh are persistent in CE storage and are *not* reset by restarts. 5. **Is a player standing there?** `CleanupAvoidance` and `LootSpawnAvoidance` are both 100m, so nothing spawns or is deleted inside a 100m bubble around any player. 6. **Run the validator** — it checks the cross-file pairs. ```sh python3 skills/dayz-globals/scripts/validate.py /path/to/mission/db/globals.xml ``` ## Item condition scale Damage runs `0.0` (pristine) to `1.0` (ruined). Confirmed boundaries: | Damage | Condition | |---|---| | `0.0` | Pristine | | `0.25` | Worn | | `0.8` | Badly damaged | | `1.0` | Ruined | **[unverified]** Where badly-damaged becomes ruined is not established. Do not state a cutoff. ## House conventions (One Life / Clan Wars) One Life keeps all three maps in sync — the same seven deviations everywhere, maintained from `../globals.xml` in the parent folder. Clan Wars has nine. | Variable | Vanilla | One Life | Clan Wars | |---|---|---|---| | `LootDamageMin` | `0.0` | **`0.25`** | `0.0` | | `LootDamageMax` | `0.82` | `0.82` | **`0.0`** | | `FoodDecay` | `1` | `1` | **`0`** | | `RespawnTypes` | `12` | `12` | **`25`** | | `FlagRefreshMaxDuration` | `3456000` | **`604800`** | **`1209600`** | | `IdleModeStartup` | `1` | **`0`** | **`0`** | | `IdleModeCountdown` | `60` | **`21600`** | **`0`** | | `TimeHopping` | `60` | **`0`** | **`0`** | | `TimeLogin` | `15` | **`5`** | **`5`** | | `TimePenalty` | `20` | **`0`** | **`0`** | **The loot damage rows are a deliberate philosophical split.** One Life spawns loot damaged (`0.25`–`0.82`, never pristine) — degraded gear is a decision and repair matters. Clan Wars spawns everything pristine (`0.0`–`0.0`) — item condition is friction between players and the fight, and an unequal random roll is unfair rather than interesting. **Clan Wars is a coherent base-decay system**, and this is the reference example: base parts at `604800` (7 days) in `types.xml`, flag refreshing every 5 days for up to 14. Stop maintaining a base and it is gone in a week. That is the intent, and it works. **⚠ One Life's `FlagRefreshMaxDuration: 604800` is a known-broken artifact.** It was shortened from 40 days to 7 to clean up abandoned bases faster, before the mechanic was fully understood — but base part lifetimes were left at vanilla `3888000` (45 days). Since the flag only postpones those lifetimes, a 7-day refresher on a 45-day lifetime does almost nothing. - **Do not "normalise" it back to vanilla** as though it were drift. It is there on purpose, aiming at a real goal. - **The actual fix is `types.xml`**: shorten lifetimes on `Fence`, `Watchtower`, tents and containers, then set `FlagRefreshMaxDuration` to a sensible multiple of `FlagRefreshFrequency`. - The operator intends to revisit this. Offer the fix; do not apply it unasked. **Both servers zero the hopping penalties** — `TimeHopping` and `TimePenalty` to `0`, `TimeLogin` to `5`, `TimeLogout` left at vanilla `15`. The reasoning is player retention, not fast travel: the penalty is added to the login timer for players arriving from another server, so it punishes exactly the people you are trying to attract. Leaving `TimeLogout` at 15 keeps the combat-logging deterrent — *leaving* stays costly, *arriving* does not. **Both disable idle mode.** On Nitrado you pay for the box regardless, so there is no saving to capture, and a frozen economy overnight means the first player on in the morning finds a stale world. Clan Wars does it with `0`/`0`; One Life with `0`/`21600`, which its 2-hour restart cycle makes equivalent. **Clan Wars leaves two `` entries in `cfgspawnabletypes.xml`** — `PunchedCard` and `ShippingContainerKeys_Red`, both at `0.8/0.8`. These are deliberate single-use keys, not a missed strip. See `cross-file.md`. ## Editing Same discipline as `cfggameplay.json`: **splice, do not reserialize.** Change the bytes you mean to change; leave the rest byte-identical so the diff is reviewable. Commit messages should name the gameplay effect and give before/after values, since these are numbers someone will want to diff later. A deploy is not a live change — the server reads this at startup.