I've recently been reading a bloody good article written by Michael Booth from Valve on Left 4 Dead's AI (
http://www.valvesoftware.com/publicatio ... _booth.pdf) and saw some pretty great points on static spawning that got me an idea for SCP:CB:
Instead of all the items being statically 'pre-placed' in the map data; why not simply put an entity called 'RandomItemSpawn' on each pre-determined desk/area, etc? This entity (as it's name suggests) decides to randomly create a document, keycard, Mapnav, Radio, Batteries, etc etc in it's place under different rareness spawns, but will run an algorithm check that there is always a level 2 keycard or so in a place the player can actually reach in every map seed so that the player may make progress in opening necessary locked areas and completing objectives; or to ensure there's a limit to radios or S-navs or to ensure they aren't all taking up all the spawns in one map.
The only big 'problems' I could see with this is the keycard's the player may need could be like 30 rooms away possibly from The Start. Or perhaps Items clipping through desk props cause those items may be too big or at a bad angle, etc.
Edit:
I've also been getting a little tired of always resting assured I'll find my safe little level 2 keycard in the office room on the desk in every playthrough.
