fix: loot bag + beacon vanished on respawn under StreamingEnabled

Root cause: with StreamingEnabled (the new-place default), respawning away
from the death spot let Roblox evict the bag from the owner's client — the
bag looked deleted, and the local Destroying event fired, permanently killing
the beacon (server bag was fine all along).

- The bag is now a Model set PersistentPerPlayer for its owner
  (AddPersistentPlayer) — it never streams out of the owner's view.
- The beacon is position-driven plain data: no Instance in the remote, so no
  replication race (the 0.5s delay hack is gone) and no streaming fragility.
- The beam clears on an explicit server nil-fire when the bag is truly
  emptied/expired (plus a lifetime fallback), not on replica Destroying.

Live-verified (fresh bytecode confirmed via bag ClassName): beacon appears
instantly, survives respawn, bag stays visible to the owner, loot restores
everything, beam clears on empty.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>

CHANGELOG.md

@@ -5,6 +5,16 @@ All notable changes to SurvivorCore are recorded here. The format follows
 [Semantic Versioning](https://semver.org/spec/v2.0.0.html). At release time, `## Unreleased`
 is promoted to the new version and `main` is tagged `vX.Y.Z`.
 
+## Unreleased
+
+### Fixed
+- **Loot bag + beacon vanished on respawn (StreamingEnabled places)** — respawning away from the
+  death spot let Roblox stream the bag out of the owner's client: the bag looked deleted and the
+  local `Destroying` fired, killing the beacon. The bag is now a **stream-persistent Model for its
+  owner** (`AddPersistentPlayer`), and the beacon is **position-driven plain data** — no Instance
+  reference, so no replication race (the 0.5s delay is gone) and no streaming fragility. The beam
+  clears on an explicit server signal when the bag is truly emptied/expired.
+
 ## 0.7.2 — 2026-07-06
 
 ### Fixed

src/client/LootBagBeacon.luau

@@ -2,9 +2,12 @@
 --[[
 	LootBagBeacon — client. Owner-only "your stuff is over there" juice (TCE port).
 
-	When the server drops YOUR loot bag it fires `LootBagDropped` at you; this raises a tall golden
-	beam + a soft ground ring + a point light over the bag — visible only to you (built locally).
-	Everything cleans itself up when the bag despawns or empties. Booted by startClient().
+	The server fires `LootBagDropped` at the owner with a POSITION + lifetime (plain data — immune
+	to instance-replication races and streaming eviction); this raises a tall golden beam + ground
+	ring + light there, visible only to this player. It clears when the server signals the bag is
+	truly gone (a nil fire: looted empty or expired) or when the lifetime lapses — NOT when the
+	bag's replica streams out, which is what used to kill the beacon on respawn. Booted by
+	startClient().
 ]]
 
 local RunService = game:GetService("RunService")
@@ -19,18 +22,20 @@ local started = false
 
 local GOLD = Color3.fromRGB(255, 220, 80)
 
-local function bagHost(bag: Instance): BasePart?
-	if bag:IsA("BasePart") then
-		return bag
+local currentBeam: BasePart? = nil
+local currentToken = 0 -- invalidates stale lifetime timers when a new bag drops
+
+local function clearBeacon()
+	currentToken += 1
+	if currentBeam and currentBeam.Parent then
+		currentBeam:Destroy()
 	end
-	return bag:FindFirstChildWhichIsA("BasePart")
+	currentBeam = nil
 end
 
-local function buildBeacon(bag: Instance)
-	local host = bagHost(bag)
-	if not host then
-		return
-	end
+local function buildBeacon(position: Vector3, lifetime: number)
+	clearBeacon()
+	local token = currentToken
 
 	local beam = Instance.new("Part")
 	beam.Name = "_LootBeacon"
@@ -41,7 +46,7 @@ local function buildBeacon(bag: Instance)
 	beam.Color = GOLD
 	beam.Transparency = 0.35
 	beam.Size = Vector3.new(0.8, 120, 0.8)
-	beam.CFrame = CFrame.new(host.Position + Vector3.new(0, 60, 0))
+	beam.CFrame = CFrame.new(position + Vector3.new(0, 60, 0))
 
 	local ring = Instance.new("Part")
 	ring.Name = "_LootBeaconRing"
@@ -53,21 +58,22 @@ local function buildBeacon(bag: Instance)
 	ring.Color = GOLD
 	ring.Transparency = 0.55
 	ring.Size = Vector3.new(0.2, 5, 5)
-	ring.CFrame = CFrame.new(host.Position + Vector3.new(0, 0.2, 0)) * CFrame.Angles(0, 0, math.rad(90))
+	ring.CFrame = CFrame.new(position + Vector3.new(0, 0.2, 0)) * CFrame.Angles(0, 0, math.rad(90))
 	ring.Parent = beam
 
 	local light = Instance.new("PointLight")
 	light.Color = GOLD
 	light.Brightness = 2.5
 	light.Range = 18
-	light.Parent = host
+	light.Parent = beam
 
 	beam.Parent = workspace
+	currentBeam = beam
 
-	-- Clean up when the bag goes away (looted empty or despawned).
-	bag.Destroying:Connect(function()
-		if beam.Parent then
-			beam:Destroy()
+	-- Fallback cleanup at lifetime (the server's nil-fire normally clears it first).
+	task.delay(math.max(1, lifetime), function()
+		if token == currentToken and currentBeam == beam then
+			clearBeacon()
 		end
 	end)
 end
@@ -78,9 +84,11 @@ function LootBagBeacon.start(_options: { [string]: any }?)
 	end
 	started = true
 
-	Remotes.event("LootBagDropped").OnClientEvent:Connect(function(bag, _lifetime)
-		if typeof(bag) == "Instance" then
-			buildBeacon(bag)
+	Remotes.event("LootBagDropped").OnClientEvent:Connect(function(position, lifetime)
+		if typeof(position) == "Vector3" then
+			buildBeacon(position, tonumber(lifetime) or 300)
+		else
+			clearBeacon() -- nil = the bag is truly gone (looted empty or expired)
 		end
 	end)
 end

src/systems/LootBags.luau

@@ -198,9 +198,27 @@ local function dropBag(player: Player, position: Vector3)
 		return -- died empty-handed; no bag
 	end
 
+	-- The bag is a MODEL so it can be made stream-persistent for its owner: with the default
+	-- StreamingEnabled place, respawning far from the death spot would otherwise evict the bag
+	-- from the owner's client — it looked deleted (and killed the beacon) even though the server
+	-- still had it.
 	local tmpl = bagTemplate()
-	local bag: Instance = if tmpl then tmpl:Clone() else buildPlaceholderBag()
+	local inner: Instance = if tmpl then tmpl:Clone() else buildPlaceholderBag()
+	local bag: Model
+	if inner:IsA("Model") then
+		bag = inner
+	else
+		bag = Instance.new("Model")
+		inner.Parent = bag
+		if inner:IsA("BasePart") then
+			bag.PrimaryPart = inner
+		end
+	end
 	bag.Name = "LootBag"
+	pcall(function()
+		bag.ModelStreamingMode = Enum.ModelStreamingMode.PersistentPerPlayer
+		bag:AddPersistentPlayer(player)
+	end)
 
 	-- Aggregate contents as IntValue children (item id → qty), equipment included.
 	local counts: { [string]: number } = {}
@@ -268,13 +286,18 @@ local function dropBag(player: Player, position: Vector3)
 	Hooks.run("lootbag:dropped", ctx)
 	EventBridge.fire("lootbag:dropped", player, { position = position, items = total })
 
-	-- Owner-only client juice: beacon + "your things dropped" toast. The beacon fire is DELAYED a
-	-- beat — the bag was created this frame, and an Instance sent before it replicates arrives as
-	-- nil on the client (the beacon would silently never appear).
+	-- Owner-only client juice: beacon + "your things dropped" toast. The beacon payload is PLAIN
+	-- DATA (position + lifetime) — no Instance reference, so there is no replication race and no
+	-- streaming fragility; the client builds the beam at the position and keeps it until the bag
+	-- is truly gone (the nil-fire below) or the lifetime lapses.
+	local host2 = bagHost(bag)
+	local beaconPos = if host2 then host2.Position else position
 	if cfg.OwnerBeacon ~= false then
-		task.delay(0.5, function()
-			if bag.Parent and player.Parent then
-				Remotes.event("LootBagDropped"):FireClient(player, bag, lifetime)
+		Remotes.event("LootBagDropped"):FireClient(player, beaconPos, lifetime)
+		bag.Destroying:Connect(function()
+			-- Truly gone server-side (emptied or expired) → clear the owner's beacon early.
+			if player.Parent then
+				Remotes.event("LootBagDropped"):FireClient(player, nil)
 			end
 		end)
 	end