economy.xml

Purpose

economy.xml is a master toggle file for the Central Economy (CE). It controls whether each major entity group is initialized, loaded from storage, saved to storage, and respawned at server startup. Think of it as a series of on/off switches for the CE subsystems.

On console servers this file is rarely edited. The defaults work correctly for normal operation. It becomes relevant when diagnosing persistent world issues or when intentionally resetting specific entity groups.

Console Path

dayzxb_missions/dayzOffline.<mapname>/db/economy.xml    (Xbox)
dayzps_missions/dayzOffline.<mapname>/db/economy.xml    (PlayStation)

Full Block Structure

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?>
<economy>
  <dynamic  init="1" load="1" respawn="1" save="1"/>
  <animals  init="1" load="0" respawn="1" save="0"/>
  <zombies  init="1" load="0" respawn="1" save="0"/>
  <vehicles init="1" load="1" respawn="1" save="1"/>
  <randoms  init="0" load="0" respawn="1" save="0"/>
  <custom   init="0" load="0" respawn="0" save="0"/>
  <building init="1" load="1" respawn="0" save="1"/>
  <player   init="1" load="1" respawn="1" save="1"/>
</economy>

What the Vanilla Defaults Tell You

The table below reflects the block structure shown above as an observed mission snapshot. Treat it as policy this install ships with, not a value hard-coded into the engine — confirm against your own db/economy.xml before relying on it.

Reading these defaults reveals key design decisions about how Bohemia intends the CE to work:

Animals and zombies do not persist between restarts (load="0", save="0") — their populations rebuild fresh every restart.
Building loot persists but does not respawn on startup (load="1", respawn="0") — looted buildings stay looted at restart, CE gradually refills them during runtime.
Dynamic events and vehicles fully persist (load="1", save="1") — their world state carries across restarts.
Randoms and custom are disabled by default (init="0") — not active unless explicitly enabled.

Entity Groups

Element	What it covers
`dynamic`	Dynamic events (vehicle wrecks, heli crashes, item events)
`animals`	Animal population (deer, wolves, bears, etc.)
`zombies`	Infected (zombie) population
`vehicles`	Spawned vehicles
`randoms`	Random loot spawns
`custom`	Custom CE entities
`building`	Loot inside buildings
`player`	Player-related CE data

Attributes on Each Line

Every entity group element has four boolean attributes:

`init`

Type: Boolean (true/false)
Whether the CE initializes this entity group at server startup.

true — group is active and managed by CE
false — CE ignores this group entirely at startup. That group of entities will not exist.

`load`

Type: Boolean
Whether CE loads the previously saved state of this group from storage on startup.

true — server continues from last saved state (persistent world)
false — group starts fresh each restart (no persistence for this group)

`respawn`

Type: Boolean
Whether CE respawns entities from this group at startup.

true — entities in this group are respawned at server start
false — entities are not auto-respawned at startup (they must build up naturally)

Note: the installed example above has player respawn="1". Treat this as an observed mission policy, not a universal binary-hardcoded default — do not assume every install ships the same value without checking your own economy.xml.

`save`

Type: Boolean
Whether CE saves the state of this group to storage periodically and on shutdown.

true — state is persisted between restarts
false — state is not saved — all entities in this group are gone on next restart

Common Use Cases

Wiping loot on next restart

Set load="false" on building temporarily. On next restart, building loot starts fresh instead of loading from stored state. Set back to true after the wipe restart.

Wiping animals on next restart

Set load="false" on animals. Animal population starts from scratch.

Disabling vehicle CE entirely

Set init="false" on vehicles. No vehicle spawning at all.

What Console Admins Typically Adjust

This file is almost never edited in normal operation. The defaults are correct for a standard server. The most common reason to touch it is a deliberate wipe of one entity group without doing a full server wipe.

Common Mistakes

Mistake	Result
Setting `save="false"` on `building` permanently	Loot resets completely every restart
Setting `init="false"` on `zombies`	No infected spawn anywhere on the server
Leaving `load="false"` after a wipe restart	Entity group keeps wiping every restart