RESOLVED

(But feel free to read what happened.)

Story time for context (TL;DR at the bottom).

It's my 3rd horde night, I have 2 hours until it begins and I'm beefing up my hatch hallway. I decided to use some concrete plates on the ceiling since I was told that I would still be able to walk under them, swing at enemies, and they wouldn't be able to crawl through. Previously, I had installed the hatches on the floor and then I had one set of iron bars placed at the front. The idea was that once that one got low, I would move back to the next hatch and place more bars. But this time I decided to try the concrete plates.

So, when placing blocks, it alerts you via color when the structural stability is inadequate. It does not alert you if you have already placed the blocks, and it was supported, and once you upgrade them then the stability wavers. Needless to say, my entire horde base collapses an hour before time.

I survived, but I immediately look around at the debri and there's a backpack. I had placed a crate and filled it with absolutely everything that I would need (level 6 smg, ar, a level 4 revolver, ammo, meds, xp boosting items). I check the backpack and, yes, everything is there. Great. Now I panic that I don't have a horde base and try to salvage what I can. After about 15-20 seconds pass, I tell myself that I should at least get my guns and ammo, so I can defend myself if I don't finish in time. The backpack is gone.

I close out of the game and try to reload, hoping that maybe it didn't save. Nope. Everything is gone. All my tools, all my ammo, all my weapons. Sure, I have things in my main base, but that was literally every weapon except for the club and the pistol in my hand, with only 146 9mm to use with it. I lost everything that could have saved me. Fast forward about 4 hours and 30 minutes in game. I'm speeding around on my motorcycle at 30 hp as acid spitting vultures (like, what? When were these added?) run me down. I died, unsurprisingly, and logged out.

I feel defeated. I had just gotten back into the game after about 4 years of having not played it. I was having fun. My first horde night went terribly, but I died because I was unprepared. This time I died because everything I owned disappeared. If the backpack stayed there and I just made a last stand and died, sure, I'd be irritated that my whole base collapsed, but I would just pick myself up and keep playing. This... this just sucks.

Anyways, getting to the point, so I lost everything. Is there a way that I can reload saves of the game so that maybe I can try again? I don't normally like save scumming, but this is one of the exceptions where I at least want a chance to try again. And are backpacks disappearing normal? I've read before that when you die and your inventory drops, there have been instances where it disappears, but does this happen with chests/boxes too? Is there any way that I can get my things back or anything? I'm just... beat.

TL;DR - Chest broke and items inside disappeared after a few moments, causing me to die. Lost everything. Can I reload save or find backpack, or is it just gone?

UPDATE - Just debugged most of my items back in. Unfortunately, I couldn't remove the experience I got from my little half hearted final stand, but I died so that should balance out my gamestage with the added levels. Made sure to check everything and properly support the structure this time. I'll let you guys know if I die again or if I have another 7 days in me.

UPDATE 2 - Alright, so, the plan was to have a horde night again and see if I survived, but there's an issue. I used the settime command to go back to day 20 that way I would have time to get my things back and then remake my horde base. However, now it seems that the horde night is not on day 21. I looked around and found the messing with time travel can be messy (go figure). In my search, I found this post in a steam discussion, stating roughly how to fix the problem, so we're going to try that. Whatever it takes.

UPDATE 3 - Okay, so I'm just stupid. Before I could do anything, the day color just changed to red (Day 21 8:13), so we'll see what's up tonight. Man, and I really hyped myself up for a minute with that Endgame clip. Only a little time travel this time. Next update is the last. Wish me luck!

UPDATE 4 - Horde night, indeed. Not as bad as the one I was supposed to have, but fun and a little stressful all the same. Base held up, guns mowed down (love the little smg, btw), and xp came rolling in. Now I want to try electric fences and turrets, though I've never used electricity in this game before. I'm excited to see what I can do! Thank you everyone for all of your helpful responses and input on the situation!