Dumpster Diving — Troubleshooting
The problems that actually come up, and what causes them.
No option on the bin
Only the models listed in Config.models are searchable — dumpsters, skips, wheelie bins and recycling bins. Other props are ignored deliberately.
If nothing appears on a bin you expect to work, add its model to that list.
"Nothing left in here" everywhere
That is the shared cooldown doing its job. A searched bin stays picked clean for Config.search.cooldown minutes for every player on the server, not just the one who searched it.
On a busy server a popular street will feel empty. Lower the cooldown, or spread players out with more bin models.
Searches keep getting refused
Three separate limits can refuse a search, and each has a different cause:
| Setting | Refuses when |
|---|---|
playerCooldown | Less than 8 seconds since your last successful search |
rateLimit | Less than 2 seconds since your last attempt |
minMove | You have not moved 0.8m since the last search |
searchesPerHour | You have hit 120 searches this hour |
The recycler won't buy something
An item can only be sold if it has a price in config/recycler.lua. Anything you added to loot.lua without also adding a price is unsellable.
Selling pays nothing
Check limits.cashPerHour. Once a player hits the hourly cash ceiling the sale completes but pays nothing further until the hour rolls over.
Items go missing / icons are blank
Every item in loot.lua and recycler.lua must exist in your inventory. A name with no definition silently rewards nothing.
Blank icons mean the PNGs from install/images/ were not copied into your inventory's image folder.
No perk bonuses
jj-perks must be running and the dumpsterdiving category added to its config — the file is in install/jj-perks-category.lua. Until it exists every player sits at level 0 and no bonus applies.
Also check Perks.enabled is true.
No police alerts
Set Config.dispatch.enabled = true and make sure a supported dispatch resource is running. The default chance is 6% per search, so a handful of searches proving nothing is expected — raise chance temporarily to test.
Tuning the economy
Three dials, in order of effect:
recycler.prices— what a haul is worth.search.cooldown— how fast an area regenerates, server-wide.limits.cashPerHour— the hard ceiling per player.
Turn on Config.debug to watch rolls in the server console while you tune.