Table of Contents

Create Your First Loot Container

This guide creates a chest that rolls loot the first time a player opens it.

By the end, you will:

  • create one loot template
  • create one container item template that references it
  • validate both files with moongate-template
  • spawn the chest and see generated loot in game

Before You Start

Finish this guide first:

You also need:

  • your shard root is ~/moongate
  • moongate-template is installed
  • your server is configured to run against ~/moongate
  • you can log in with an account that can run .spawn_item

Step 1: Create The Loot Template

Create this folder:

~/moongate/templates/loot/tutorial/

Inside it, create:

~/moongate/templates/loot/tutorial/first_loot_table.json

Paste this content:

[
  {
    "type": "loot",
    "id": "tutorial_chest_basic",
    "name": "Tutorial Chest Basic",
    "category": "tutorial",
    "description": "My first loot table.",
    "rolls": 2,
    "noDropWeight": 0,
    "entries": [
      {
        "itemTemplateId": "gold",
        "weight": 5,
        "amount": 50
      },
      {
        "itemTemplateId": "torch",
        "weight": 2,
        "amount": 1
      }
    ]
  }
]

What this does:

  • the table id is tutorial_chest_basic
  • the chest will roll twice
  • each roll picks one weighted entry from the list

Step 2: Create The Chest Item Template

Create:

~/moongate/templates/items/tutorial/first_loot_chest.json

Paste this content:

[
  {
    "type": "item",
    "id": "tutorial_loot_chest",
    "name": "Tutorial Loot Chest",
    "category": "tutorial",
    "description": "My first loot container.",
    "tags": ["tutorial", "container", "loot"],
    "itemId": "0x0E80",
    "hue": "0",
    "goldValue": "0",
    "weight": 1,
    "scriptId": "none",
    "isMovable": true,
    "container": [],
    "containerLayoutId": "metal_chest",
    "weightMax": 40000,
    "maxItems": 125,
    "lootTables": ["tutorial_chest_basic"]
  }
]

Why these extra fields matter:

  • container: marks the item as a container template
  • containerLayoutId: must match a valid container layout
  • lootTables: points to the loot template you created in step 1

Step 3: Validate Both Templates

Run:

moongate-template validate --root-directory ~/moongate

Stop here if validation fails. Loot containers depend on both the item template and the loot template being valid.

Step 4: Restart The Server

Restart the server so the new templates are loaded.

Step 5: Spawn The Chest And Open It

In game, run:

.spawn_item tutorial_loot_chest

Click a nearby tile to place the chest, then double-click the chest to open it.

Expected result:

  • the first open generates loot into the container
  • you should see a couple of items based on the weighted table
  • opening the same chest again reuses the generated contents instead of rolling from scratch

Common Mistakes

  • Writing the loot template under the wrong tree instead of ~/moongate/templates/loot/
  • Forgetting containerLayoutId
  • Referencing a loot table id that does not exist
  • Expecting loot generation on chest spawn instead of on first open

Next Step

Continue with Create Your First Scheduled Event.

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