Did some testing the other day. I went through an area and picked up every piece of loot that I found and dropped it in the same spot. Some of this was obviously player-dropped loot - a 'wet' hunting jacket in a garage (this had been there for two days as I came across it before), damp jeans in a hunting stand, etc... but most was spawned loot. I covered a fairly good-sized area, going through houses, garages, a few barns and a police station.

In one area I dropped four hats, two inside a deer stand, and two about 30m away near a tree. In each instance I dropped one directly, swapped it with one in my inventory, then dropped it again.

When I went back through the area about 45 minutes later, every single piece of loot I picked up and then dropped was gone, regardless of how I dropped it. Every, single, one.

There's definitely something strange going on, as I said some of this was absolutely player-dropped loot and I know at least in the case of the hunting jacket, it had been there for at least 2 days. So perhaps it's only when you swap something that is equipped and it drops to the ground? I'll hopefully get to test that tonight.

For now Ill update the reproducibility to random.

Tested one scenario last night on a private hive.

Cleared out a couple buildings of all loot (minus one backpack) and dropped the loot nearby in the woods under two separate trees. Came back an hour later and all loot was gone minus a couple mags that were among it, which makes sense as guns - and presumably their parts - are on much longer timers. The mags also helped account for someone stumbling on the stash.

The loot consisted mostly of clothing, medical supplies, and some food.

Oddly a roll of duct tape dropped nearby by someone else, closer to the cleared building, did not decay.

I can confirm Shagohads report.

Every time it's happened to me and every time I've seen it happen while watching a streamer, it was just before an encounter with another player or spotting one close by.

Makes me wonder if it's related to the hand bug fix or trying to fix desync of doors and the like appearing in different states to different people.

I did some testing last night (out of necessity, I was freezing to death!) and it seems to be limited to area, almost like the game is cleaning up certain items far too aggressively. This would also happen with rags and paper (notes) in the same area.

It was happening originally within the fenced area of the factory/quarry just east of Kamensk. I tried four fires total and they all disappeared, once I stepped out the entrance and across the road it stayed and I could light it. This again happened in the group of houses around the water pump south of the main road, in the eastern most part of Stary Yar as you're entering town. Any rags, paper, etc... would almost immediately disappear, while other items - battery, duct tape and thankfully my mosin - would stay on the ground without issue. So it definitely seems to be confined to small areas AND certain 'junk' items when it's happening.

If I come across another area I will add it to the post.

Image of first area - http://i.imgur.com/uaOKd5I.jpg

Can confirm as well. Crafted 4 in a row and they all disappeared in under 5 seconds.

OS: Windows 7
Version: 0.58.128852
Server: US East 0-1