11/23 @ 9:00am EST - Happy Thanksgiving! While Facepunch doesn't slow down for the holiday, Rustafied will be taking a break from our usual update stream to spend time with friends and family and to consume ridiculous amounts of turkey. We will be updating our servers when the server and client updates are released. We will also keep you posted throughout the day. Check out our Twitter for more updates.

9:30am EST - We have some clarification in response to a number of questions and concerns regarding shifts to building in the next forced update including "improved ways to counteract honeycombing" which was stated in Devblog 186. According to Alistair honeycombing is still a thing, but wall stacking should no longer be possible with these changes.

Update summary video

Here's our update summary video from Puddy.

Reinforced glass window

Helk has added a new way to safely catch a glimpse of what's going on outside of your base without re-purposing the metal shop front. This glass is pretty beefy at 500 health, taking 1 C4 and 2 satchel charges or 3 rockets to destroy.

Workbench requirement:
Tier 1

Crafting cost/time:
50 metal fragments/30 seconds

Research cost:
75 scrap

Info Panels

Helk has made some changes to the info panels that show statistics about various items. The panel now displays various statistics for armor, explosives, and weapon mods. In addition, some minor tweaks were made so the fully body armor values display properly. The bandana also had its bullet protection halved, and headdress had melee protection decreased by 20%.

New doo’s

Diogo and Matt are making a bunch of progress on player hair this week. Along with fixing several issues with graphical bugs, a third hairstyle is on its way in. Also, hair sets are now tied to players specific race and gender and the new hair colors are on the horizon.

This is still a work in progress and most of the big visual changes are not live on staging yet. That said, your player may be taking a trip to the salon prior to the next update.

Tree minigame fixes

After adding the tree minigame last week, Helk is providing some fixes and improvements. First, the X’s will no longer just go right. Also, they’ll be a bit easier to hit as the rotation of each X has been lowered and the starting X is relative to the initial hit as opposed to random. Finally, the X will always go in the same direction, and never switch directions.

Long and short: the tree minigame should be a bit easier this week.

Satchel changes

Helk has also added some welcomed changes to satchels this week. Now, if a satchel hits another satchel, they will attach together as opposed to falling off (no more wasted satchels!). Also, if a satchel is a dud, it will fall off of whatever object it is attached to.

Hapis progress

Alistair continues his changes to the Hapis island map. In addition to the loot changes and various shifts from earlier this month, the launch site dungeon is being added (with APC and all). As with all map shifts, these changes won’t go live till the next forced wipe (December 7th). Stay tuned for more information as the month progresses.

Half wall incoming

Andre - continuing his work on the building system 3.0 - has added a half height wall. Along with this, he’s adjusted the building block order in the radial menu and done more work on building privilege. Like the changes to Hapis, we don’t expect any of this to go live (or be in a testable state) till closer to the forced wipe.

Other stuff

• Progress on the new junkyards
• More work on the ‘ho-ho-ho’ Christmas content branch
• Fix for quickcraft icon lag when looting players
• This commit has been marked private, so it is hidden (your guess is as good as mine)

This Saturday (December 2nd) starting at 11am EST we're putting on our third annual, 12 hour live stream event to benefit charity. All the proceeds this year will go to Direct Relief. If you're not familiar, they help survivors of natural disasters and poverty in over 80 countries worldwide. 

Charitable Rust will take place on several custom event servers, each with slews of action including a casino, carnival, parkour challenges, mazes, DOA's bar, art contest, talent show, and much more. Oh, and we'll be running our Invasion event during the day.

We also have celebrity guests, huge prizes (including Helk's pickles - seriously), and some awesome skins (see below!) Stay tuned as Saturday approaches for schedule, server info, and more details.

Skins from Xtab!

The talented folks over at Xtab have once again created some awesome skins for the event. These will be available for a limited time, and all proceeds from Xtab and Facepunch will go to Direct Relief (Gabe still gets his cut). 

These skins are now available on the item store!

Charitable Rust Trailer

If you haven't seen it yet, check out our Charitable Rust 2017 trailer!

Development news

So far we're seeing improvements to grenades, shifts to recoil, the python is now skinnable, and a bunch more progress towards the next forced wipe.

We'll be back Thursday with a full update summary post on what you can expect to see in game this week.

6:15pm EST - Client update is out, we're updating our servers now.

6:07pm EST - The devblog is live!

5:50pm EST - Server update just hit! Client update and devblog still pending...

5:00pm EST - The update is still pending. Our weekly and bi-weekly US servers have just wiped - we'll restart them to update once the patch is live.

3:50pm EST - The staging branch is having a lot of issues at the moment. The devs are still working on getting to the bottom of it. We shut the stream down in the meantime, check @Rustafied for news as we get it.

For anyone wondering the status of wipe times for US Rustafied servers today: If the update is not live (or very close to) by 5pm EST, we will wipe our US servers. We'll then restart them once the update comes out, but not wipe again.

2:00pm EST - Our update stream is live! twitch.tv/rustafied

12:30am EST - Update day is upon us! With the forced map wipe just around the corner - Dec. 7th - there are some big changes about to come in. Given that, this update is a bit sparse on content, but does have some interesting changes.

Our update stream goes live at 2pm EST. Follow @Rustafied for news throughout the day. Before we get into it...

Charitable Rust is Saturday!

Our yearly charity event is this weekend! We’ve got a ton of special guests, prizes, games, and events throughout the 12 hour live stream. 100% of funds raised this year will go to Direct Relief - a not for profit organization which helps victims of natural disasters and poverty in over 80 countries.

Check out charitablerust.com for more information and be sure to tune in and join in on the action starting 11am EST on Saturday!

Get the skins now!

The Charitable Rust 2017 skins are now live on the rust item store! Proceeds from the skin sales will go to Direct Relief. A huge thank you to Xtab and Facepunch for making this happen!

A special thanks to Mambo Sauce for creating this video!

Update summary video

Here's our update summary video from Puddy!

Object outlines

Finding dropped items just became a lot easier with the addition of object outlines. Off by default at the moment, this feature can be turned on by running ‘effects.showoutlines 1’ in console.

Once on, items on the ground will have an outline when aiming near them and have a halo if they are occluded by grass. This will make it much easier to locate fallen items, especially at night. Here are some examples:

Recoil shifts

We’re seeing some changes to firing dynamics this week. First, the Thompson may be much more viable as its aimcone has been reduced. Also, semi auto weapons will feel a bit different as their recoil has been tweaked and aim sway reduced.

Finally, standing and tapping will be more accurate as stance recoil only comes into effect when moving or after the first shot.

Grenade improvements

Tossing grenades at your foe’s will be much quicker after this update. Not only does the pinpull and release happen much faster, grenades always throw at max velocity (so there is no longer a need to hold for a greater throw).

Python skinnable

We’ll be seeing some new flavors of Python’s in game soon as the weapon is now able to be skinned.

No more low X’s

Our newest favorite minigame will be a bit easier on the knees this week as the X’s will no longer be placed low enough to require a crouch when whacking wood.

Other stuff

• Fix for sign painting UI been dark
• minor debugcam fix
• Fixed culling-related flicker sometimes when spawning a new object

Announcing: AU Long

Our newest server is going live: AU Long. Based in Australia (dur), this is a clone of our US and EU long servers. Long and short (see what I did there?), it’s a 200 pop server which only wipes when forced - coming to an official list near you soon.

Blueprint wipe next week?

We’ve been hearing a lot of chatter about blueprint wipes (specifically, requests for one). Facepunch has said they may force a blueprint wipe at the next forced map wipe (on December 7th) but we have yet to hear confirmation on that either way. We’ve previously said we won’t wipe blueprints on Rustafied servers till Facepunch forces, but it’s also our priority to provide the best experience for players.

Given this, I figured I put out a poll to the community to see if they would like a blueprint wipe on December 7th.

Note: These results will not necessarily dictate whether we will or will not wipe blueprints on Rustafied servers - mainly looking to gauge the temperature on this one.

A huge thank you to everyone who participated in Charitable Rust 2017! The numbers won't be flat till skins stop selling on Thursday, but I can say with confidence we raised over $30,000 for @DirectRelief this year between the stream and skins. Boom! *mic drop*

— Rustafied (@Rustafied) December 3, 2017

The day is here! Charitable Rust takes place today from 11am to 11pm EST. Tune in for to the live stream or get in on the action by joining one of the Charitable Rust servers (found on the official server list in Rust).

All proceeds this year to go Direct Relief - providing support to victims of natural disasters and poverty in over 80 countries.

Get the skins!

Make sure to grab your exclusive Charitable Rust skins from the item store! The proceeds from these skins go to Direct Relief. A huge thank you to the talented team at Xtab Studios for creating these!

Charitable Rust 2017 Hoodie

Charitable Rust 2017 Relief Crate

Participation events!

It’s not just the special guests that get to have all the fun today, there are several events where everyone can participate and win some awesome prizes!

3D maze
Location: Central Hub
Time: 12pm EST
Prizes: 
1st Place: 3 months of Platinum VIP + Round of GWF w Bugs & Rustafied Staff
2nd Place: 3 months VIP to server of choice
3rd Place: 1 months VIP to server of choice

Talent show
Location: DOA's Bar server
Time: 1pm EST
Prizes: 
1st Place: 3 months of Platinum VIP + Round of GWF w Bugs & Rustafied Staff
2nd Place: 3 months of Platinum VIP
3rd Place: 1 months of Platinum VIP
Participation award: Facepunch game key

Art Show
Location: Central Hub
Time: 4pm EST
Prizes: 
1st Place: 6 months of Platinum VIP + Round of GWF w Bugs & Rustafied Staff
2nd Place: 3 months of Platinum VIP
3rd Place: 1 months of Platinum VIP

Rap Battle
Location: DOA's Bar server
Time: 5pm EST
Prizes: 
1st Place: 6 months of Platinum VIP + Round of GWF w Bugs & Rustafied Staff
2nd Place: 3 months of Platinum VIP
3rd Place: 1 months of Platinum VIP
Participation award: Facepunch game key

* GWF = Golf with your Friends

The numbers aren’t final yet - as the skins are still for sale till Thursday - but it is clear, Charitable Rust 2017 has raised over $30,000 Direct Relief!

Over $12k in stream donations

We started with an $8,000 goal on our Tiltify campaign for the 12 hour stream. After reaching that in the late afternoon, we increased it to a $12,000 stretch goal - which, with about 15 minutes to spare, we surpassed. A huge thank you to everyone who donated, tuned in, and spread the word about this campaign to help us not only meet, but beat our goals.

Skin sales: still going!

Thank you to the talented team at Xtab Studios, Helk, and the entire crew at Facepunch for partnering with us to get two skins on the item store, the proceeds of which go towards our goal also! If you haven’t already, it’s not too late to grab yours on the item store (available till Thursday).

Although we don’t have an exact number at the moment, it’s estimated over $18,000 of the sales will be donated towards our goal. Facepunch and Xtab are both donating their entire proceeds, however, Steam is still taking its cut.

Once sales are complete, Xtab and Facepunch will donate their ends to finalize the Tiltify campaign.

Exact total later this week

Given these two numbers, we can reliably say Charitable Rust has generated over $30,000 for Direct Relief this year. We’ll check back in later in the week with a final number once the skin sales are complete.

Top donors

Thank you to everyone who donated during the stream, and a special thank you to our top donors of the day:

• Officer Jake
• isrustydotnet
• TankGirl (and her community)
• -RB- Rudeolph
• Grimmfang13
• 500 Anonymous
• VERTiiGO
• Ninfiniti
• /r/playrust mod and admin team
• ShackyHD
• Helk

To our special guests

This year was without a doubt a star studded affair! Thank you to every celebrity guest who showed up, including Tank Girl, Vertiigo, Foorun, DyannaTV, eNeru, ThatGermanGuy, RePug, Hutnik, rustintimberlake, ShackyHD, CoconutB, hJun, KillyKAPOWski, Satavej, SippyTango, AJ, JonnySomething, Scudpunk, Rust with Lou, Guacamole Jones, Miss Geek, irisk, FixedSkittlez, SuspectLive, DOA, Ser Winter, Trausi, Bizzlesnaff, Holdacious, Helk, Alistair, Holmzy, and everyone else! You all helped attract a huge audience and filled the day with awesome event after awesome event.

On behalf of our VIP’s

A special thank you goes out to every Rustafied VIP. It’s the VIP program which keeps Rustafied operating - without it we would not have the presence and servers which we do. We’ve saved some of the proceeds throughout the year for this and, on behalf of you all, Rustafied donated $2,300 during this event!

To the production team

This years event was the largest yet, and it took literally hundreds of hours to set up the server, prizes, invites, and everything else which went into the production. From the bottom of my heart, thank you to the entire team which helped out. There are way too many of you to name, but you know who you are, and I love you all!

Thank you to everyone else

These acknowledgement posts are always difficult, especially with such a large event. So many people helped us reach (and triple) our goal, it is simply impossible to adequately acknowledge everyone. To all of you who donated, watched the stream, spread the word about the event, or participated in any way - I thank you.

If I missed a special mention to someone in particular, I apologize, and please know that I am forever grateful for what you did.

Pictures!

Didn't get your prize?

A lot of people participated in various events throughout the day. In all the commotion, we were unable to track some people down. So, if you're owed a prize and we haven't reached out yet, please join the Charitable Rust Discord and message pandapuffs. Congratulations and thanks again to all who participated!

A big week for Rust!

With the forced map wipe just around the corner, there are some huge changes coming to the game this week. Expect a full summary of changes on our post Thursday.

BP Whip!??!

And now, for the question on everyone's mind: are blueprints going to wipe with the map this week? Although we have not heard official word from Facepunch yet, I am deciding to force a blueprint wipe on all Rustafied servers when the update hits - regardless of if its forced or not.

Thank you all who participated in the poll last week to help us gauge where the community stands on this.

The next iteration of Rust architecture is here: Building 3.0. After weeks of work from Andre and the rest of the team, these sweeping changes to construction are now on the staging branch and set to go live game-wide with the update on Thursday.

This new version of building not only adds more dynamism to the process - and a new building block (half wall) - it features some significant shifts to tool cupboards, authorization, and raiding.

This post summarizes the main changes to expect. Don’t be surprised if certain aspects of this change prior to the patch going live. As always, we’ll keep this post as up to date as possible.

Quick look video

Here's a video summary of the new building system from Puddy.

Building upkeep

The new building upkeep system has just been added to staging. Long and short: you add resources to the tool cupboard, and the cupboard reports how many resources are required to avoid decay.

This is the definition of game changer. Not just because of the functionality, but because of the apparent high cost of building upkeep. It will now take drastically more resources to keep your buildings from decaying - particularly when dealing with massive bases. Keep in mind: you can only add 6 stacks of resources to the cupboard at one time.

Edit: There are now 18 slots in the tool cupboard as opposed to 6.

Foundations snap at half height

One of the first things you’ll notice as you start to lay the groundwork of your base after the wipe is that foundations can now be snapped at half height. This opens up a world of new opportunities for building - especially on uneven ground. Both square and triangle foundations will snap at different levels to each other, provided the height is not too high or low off the ground.

We’ve noticed this placement can still be a bit buggy or difficult to accomplish. At times, ceiling tiles won’t snap halfway up a full wall. Also, you’ll notice many triangle configurations and placements which used to work, no longer do.

Half walls added

With the introduction of half height snapping, there is a new building block to fill in the inevitable gaps in side of your spiffy new base. The half wall can be placed on foundations and floors, and takes up exactly half the height of a normal wall (who’da thunk).

They can be stacked on top of each other, but mind the stability, as it will decrease as more half walls are added. Also note, the health, cost for initial placement, and upgrades is exactly the same as a regular wall.

Only 1 tool cupboard per building

Half walls and foundation placement just scratch the surface of the changes with building 3.0. Many of the underlying mechanics of building identification and permissions have been shifted as well. One of the most stark changes being: Only one tool cupboard is allowed per building.

Now you may be asking, and rightfully so, “What qualifies as a building?” Buildings are now defined by any foundation that snaps with another, and any blocks connected to said foundations. If a corner is touching another corner, it does not count as the same building.

There are still some issues with regards to properly assigning building ID’s, especially when blocks are removed and then rebuilt. The devs are aware of this and planning some fixes prior to the update going live on Thursday.

Privilege radius based on overall structure, not cupboards

Building privilege is now based on the building blocks instead of exact radius around the cupboard. That means the placement of the cupboard inside the building has no impact on that structures exact build privilege area. Rather, the building itself defines the radius of build privilege (which is currently 16 meters).

See the pictures below for some examples of what that looks like in game.

No more twig foundations when building is blocked

With all these changes to cupboards and build privilege, the developers have nerfed a big aspect of raiding. Twig foundations are no longer able to be placed when building is blocked. Although floors and ladders can still be placed, this stands to make it more difficult or costly to raid in many situations.

Roof changes

Roof blocks and their placement have also been shifted to reduce abuse. They now occupy the wall socket at their bottom end, so you will need to choose between a roof or a wall. Also, roof blocks are currently able to be placed off foundations - although that may change prior to launch.

Wall stacking / honeycombing ramifications

Most traditional ways of wall stacking have been removed - although there are still certain ways to stack walls. Honeycombing, however, is still possible in most scenarios. You’ll also notice certain placement of triangle foundations which used to work, no longer do.

Optimizations

With all these changes to building, Andre has also improved how some things are running under the hood. First, he optimized the building ID refreshes when placing and removing building blocks. He also has removed socket colliders during building placement, which should improve frame rates while building. Both of these optimizations should be even more noticeable with larger buildings.

Armored cost reduction

Armored building blocks have been reduced to 25hqm instead of 50hqm, and wood, and stone.

Things you used to be able to do, but now can’t

Finally, here are a few examples of build techniques you used to be able to do, but now cannot accomplish with building 3.0.

7:09pm EST - The client update just hit! Our servers are updated and live. Game on!

7:05pm EST - The devblog just hit and the client update is going live now!

6:57pm EST - The server update is out! Client and devblog still pending...

6:10pm EST - The final build is building!

5:48pm EST - Still waiting on that final build. Stay tuned...

4:30pm EST - Shut the stream down because update is going to be delayed a bit. Stay tuned to @Rustafied for news as it happens.

2:00pm EST - Our update stream is live! twitch.tv/rustafied

12:30pm EST - Just heard from Helk, a forced blueprint wipe is confirmed for this update. Also, the patch will be late today. We'll still do our update stream for an hour or two starting at normal time.

12:00am EST - It’s the first Thursday of the month, and you know what that means: Forced map wipe incoming! That’s right, when the update hits today - at no set time, as always - all servers will have a fresh start (from a map perspective - no word on a forced blueprint wipe, but Rustafied servers will wipe blueprints regardless).

As with most first updates of the month, this one is full of changes to maps, monuments, and dungeons (including some new ones!). On top of that, there is a whole new iteration of building dynamics!

Our update stream will go live at 2pm EST. Stay tuned to @Rustafied for news throughout the day. Now, let’s get into it...

Update summary video

Here's our update summary video from Puddy!

Building 3.0

Most significant of all changes, building 3.0 goes live today! This latest iteration of Rust construction not only adds a new building block (the half wall), it completely changes how foundations are placed, how building privilege extends, how cupboards operate, and how you’ll think about raiding.

This change is so substantial, we created an entire article and video to highlight all the new dynamics. Check them out below.

Procgen changes

As you’re running around after the wipe, looking for that perfect place to build your base, you’ll notice some changes to your surroundings. On top of the new Junkyard and Mining Quarries (detailed below), the roads are now paved (sort of). Not only do they have a new look, road placement around the map is much more effective at connecting monuments, and less prone to being split in half by water or flooded.

Along with roads, the placement of powerlines and monuments in general has been greatly improved. Biomes have also been tweaked as the snow biome is now smaller while the arid biome has increased in size. Finally, don’t always expect it to be cold up north and hot down south - biome placement is much more random than before.

Junkyards added

A new monument has arrived: say hello to the Junkyard! This low tier dungeon spawns in arid and forest biomes (yet to see in snow), features a number of opportunities to grab barrels and wood crates, and is surrounded by an array of vicious barbs.

Given it’s an early game area, you’re not going to find any radiation or high tier loot, much less a recycler. That said, there are a number of loot spawns, and the design as a whole looks awesome - very in line with the Rust aesthetic.

With about 10 points of ingress and many intersecting routes, this new dungeon will inevitably offer some great PvP opportunities, especially for primitive players. Amidst the rubble of rusted tanks, trucks, and helicopters, there are several opportunities to gain the high ground - including crane and walkway near the middle of the area.

Just make sure to mind the barbs as you walk around, as much of the surface area of the Junkyard is lined with rusted spirals of spiky metal. Try getting through and you’re going to have a bad time. Also, keep an eye out for the several hobo barrels if you need to cook up some meat on the fly.

Mining quarries added

The dynamic of material extraction has drastically shifted as the quarry item is no longer able to be crafted. Instead, you must now find quarries in various preset places. Labeled on the map as ‘Mining Quarry’, there tend to be between 2 to 4 on a normal size map.

At the moment, they all have the same yield (see below), regardless of location on the map, and they appear in all types of biomes. There are 3 versions, some have a watch tower and others don’t. Also, given these changes, survey charges have been removed from the loot tables. Here are some more details and pictures.

Edit: Mining quarries across the map now have different yields depending on location.

Hapis improvements

Our favorite non-procgen map has gotten some love over the past month. Along with the new roads and mining quarries (2 total) found on procgen, the Launch Site has been added. Nestled up in the top of the mountains, this dungeon is not only a hike to get to, it’s freaking cold once you get up there - adding an extra layer of difficulty. Site A and B have moved due to this addition.

Speaking of cold, the new icebergs have been implemented at various areas around the coast - including a new abandoned boat with loot up north. There’s also a larger no build zone at the tunnel entrance and ore nodes are more likely to spawn inland rather than on coastal cliffs.

Along with this, there have been a ton of various fixes and tweaks in general. This includes many changes to loot spawns such as: junk piles now spawn along all roads, slightly less loot at refinery, and a whole new world of loot up north by the new abandoned boat.

Grenade changes

After some significant shifts to how grenades are timed and thrown last week, Helk has made a couple more tweaks. First, grenades now inherit the player velocity when thrown. That means if you throw while running forward, you’ll get more range. Also, the grenade has a larger damage radius, so it should be a bit more deadly.

New furnace look

The go to smelting device of every Tom, Dick, and Newman has received a facelift with this update. Although it still functions the same, the furnace now has a nice new look.

Animal AI improvements

Animal AI has also been overhauled this month, producing some changes and improvements to animal behavior. Based on a couple of test hunts, it appears docile animals will now run away quicker while bears seem to be more aggressive. Also, pigs still attack, so watch out!

Other stuff

• Voice communication is no longer P2P - it's now through the server!
• The cost of experimenting at the Tier 1 workbench has been reduced from 100 scrap to 75 scrap.
• Stone Spear no longer requires a workbench
• Dropbox now requires Tier 1 instead of Tier 2
• All ammo crafting is reduced to 3 seconds
• A bunch of optimizations for both clients and servers
• Quick craft is now hidden while looting
• Loot Boxes are now known as Gambling Boxes
• Admins can now pause time with ‘env.progresstime 0’
• Some more camera fixes (admin stuff)
• Lots of new on/off/ignite/extinguish sounds for deployables
• Lots of new active/burning loops for deployables
• Open/close sounds for a few deployables
• New sounds for searchlight movement

Blueprint wipe?

Although Facepunch said they are considering forcing a blueprint wipe across the board, we have yet to hear any official word. That said, Rustafied servers will be wiping blueprints when the update hits.

Edit: Just heard from Helk, a forced blueprint wipe is confirmed game wide for this update.

It’s a fresh week for Rust development and we’re seeing some tweaks and changes from the team at Facepunch. Let’s get into it...

Cupboards no longer drop loot

Following the huge changes to building and base upkeep last week, Helk has made it so tool cupboards will no longer drop loot when destroyed.

Sheet metal tier rework

In a change which has seen mixed reviews so far, Vincent has reworked the texture of the sheet metal tier - closing off the holes in walls. As expected, this means you can no longer sneak a peek through sheet metal. Here are some screens.

AI Work

After a bunch of changes to animal AI came in last week, Pal is working more on tweaking animal behavior this week. This work is on a separate branch at the moment (animal_ai2), so we’re unable to test, but stay tuned for it to be merged in the near future.

Server hotfixes

If you’re a server owner, you may have noticed some small server updates over the past few days. The first was to fix resource yields on quarry monuments and tool cupboard spam in server console. The second hotfix was to fix a rare StackOverflowException with large buildings on certain servers. Both of these updates are optional, but recommended.

Other stuff

• Building blocks that are inside now decay at 10% of their normal decay rate
• Foundations now decay at the same rate as other building blocks when their upkeep is not paid
• Barricades can be repaired

6:05pm EST - The client update and devblog are live!

5:54pm EST - Server update just hit! Client and devblog still pending...

5:00pm EST - Waiting on the final build now - update should be live in the next half hour or so. We had to shut our stream down in the mean time, follow @Rustafied for more info.

3:00pm EST - Our update stream is live! twitch.tv/rustafied

11:20am EST - Update day is upon us and with it, Christmas has once again come to Rust! For the third year in a row, the developers are celebrating the holidays with some yuletide content. We’re in for a special treat this year, as there are more Christmas goodies than ever before!

Our update stream will go live at 3pm EST (new time). Stay tuned to @Rustafied for news throughout the day. Now, let’s get into it...

Update summary video

Here's our update summary video from Puddy!

New decorations

The team has added a bunch of new items this year to spread holiday joy. These items will likely go up for sale on the item store today (similar to the Halloween items). They will then be crafted and placed around your base with care - in hopes no raiders will soon be there. With a new wreath, lights, garland, and even a snowman, bases will be looking more festive than ever this year!

Edit: Here are the crafting costs of these decorations. You can find them for purchase on the steam item store.

Candy cane club

Decorations aren't the only new holiday items coming in today. The candy cane club will not only allow you to whack the Christmas spirit into your fellow Newman, you can also lick it for some nutritional value. Watch out though, several licks is all it takes to get to the center of this candy club.

Reindeer antlers

Some new festive head ware has also arrived. Along with the Santa hat from previous years, we now have Reindeer Antlers added to the holiday headgear arsenal. Also featuring a cherry red nose, they are not able to be crafted, but you will find them in presents and stockings. Providing a little bit of head protection, your player model will surely look thrilled to be wearing them.

Stone fireplace

A late addition to the party this week, the stone fireplace has been added. A default blueprint, the fireplace must be placed inside against a wall. Costing 500 stones and 200 wood to craft, it provides comfort and can cook food just like a campfire (same number of slots too).

Edit: This is no longer a default blueprint - it costs 20 scrap to research.

Christmas tree

In a final last addition, Helk has added Christmas trees. This item is a default blueprint, can be crafted for 500 wood and 30 cloth, and can be decorated with various ornaments you'll find in loot during the Christmas event.

Snowballs

Another late addition, it appears snowballs are making their way in for this Rust holiday season. They currently have the same stats as a rock and the icon of a bone knife. I'd expect them to drop randomly in loot, but we'll see...

Edit: Looks like these won't be in this week.

Xmas event

As you may remember from previous years, Rust Xmas occurs once every ingame day. Accompanied by that old familiar jingle of sleigh bells, present boxes are spawned around players. By default, 2 presents are dropped within 50 meters of each player on a server - although this can be tweaked server to server via a series of cvars (for list, type “sv find xmas” in console).

Xmas Loot

When you hear those jingles, look around your general location for present boxes on the ground. After you whack their 30 health away, you’ll be greeted with a Christmas loot drop of 1 or more small and medium presents. These presents can be unwrapped or upgraded to higher tiers, which yield better loot. Here are some details...

Small Present

Possible Contents
Reindeer antlers
~245 wood
~124 stone
~36 metal frags
~3 chocolate bars
Candy cane club
Eoka + 10 shells

Upgrade to medium
10

Medium Present

Possible Contents
Waterpipe + 10 Shells
Syringe
150 Low Grade Fuel
1000 Stone
Small Stocking
Pookie Bear
Salvaged Cleaver

Upgrade to large
5

Large Present

Possible Contents
Revolver + 20 Bullets
20 High Quality Metal
Pump Shotgun + 12 Buckshot
250 Crude Oil
Flame Turret
Large Stocking

Stockings

Hung around the chimney (err, campfire) with care, this duo of deployables will load up with items over time - a long time. You’ll know when there’s some goodies inside when they start dazzling sparkles from the top.

Small Stocking

~250 wood
~150 stone
~25 metal frags
Eoka + ~10 shells
Reindeer antlers
Candy cane club
~5 Chocolate Bars
Coal

Super Stocking

~250 wood
~150 stone
~50 metal frags
Eoka + ~10 shells
Waterpipe shotgun + ~10 shells
Medical Syringe
Coal

Wood and sheet metal rework

Not all changes this week were just in the holiday spirit. Reworks of both the wood and sheet metal walls have been completed, sealing up all the little gaps and holes in each. These changes - especially the wood tier - have come under some scrutiny. I don’t think, however, most people realize what one of the main motivators of the devs doing this was.

Helk enlightened me: these changes stand to improve client performance. Think about it, if you don’t need to render what’s beyond walls, looking at bases can be less intensive on players, thereby improving FPS.

Building health increases

In some last minute changes here, Helk has increased the health of sheet metal and armored building blocks. Sheet metal is now two times stone health (which is a 70% increase) and armored is two times metal health. Here are some new stats based on our tests:

Stone wall

Health
500

To destroy
2 C4
4 Rockets

Sheet metal wall

Health
1000

To destroy
4 C4
8 Rockets

Armored wall

Health
2000

To destroy
8 C4 *
15 Rockets

* Note: 7 C4 brings an armored wall to under 100hp

Edit: Upgrade cost of sheet metal is now 200 metal fragments

Upkeep changes

In the wake of the huge changes brought on last week by building 3.0, the team has made some tweaks and changes to building upkeep. First, all doors, wall frame inserts, ceiling frame inserts and barricades require upkeep. Although the exact figures are still being tested, this will mean base upkeep is now more expensive.

In the realm of decay, foundations now decay at the same rate as other building blocks when their upkeep is not paid. Also, building blocks that are inside now decay at 10% of their normal decay rate (this can be modified by server owners with the ‘upkeep_inside_decay_scale’ convar).

More slots in tool cupboard

An extra row of slots has been added to the tool cupboard!

Tool cupboards no longer drop loot (nevermind)

Along with the upkeep changes, tool cupboards no longer drop loot when they are destroyed. This should make it a little less advantageous for raiders to destroy cupboards.

Edit: Nevermind - Helk just told me they are reverting this. Tool cupboards will still spew items when destroyed.

Other stuff

• Open/close sounds only play for the local player
• Small furnace is now skinnable
• Can no longer use broken items for purchases at vending machines (min 50%)
• More improvements to AI behavior
• Barricades can now be repaired

4:30pm EST - The update and devblog are live. Our servers are now updated, game on!

3:00pm EST - Our update stream is live! twitch.tv/rustafied

2:34pm EST - Throwable flares were just added! More info coming soon...

12:00am EST - 'Tis the season! As Christmas rapidly approaches, the last update of the year is upon us. With it, we’re seeing notifications for building upkeep, changes to night, a new handheld flashlight, and more!

Our update stream will go live at 3pm EST. Stay tuned to @Rustafied for news throughout the day. Now, let’s get into it...

Update summary video

Here is our update summary video from Puddy.

Decay notification

After the advent of building 3.0 the other week, building upkeep is more important than ever. Couple hours late on filling that cupboard? You have a serious problem on your hands. This in mind, Helk has added some better notifications for the upkeep status of your buildings.

When in a building privileged area, you’ll now see a countdown of how much time is left before your building decays or a notice that your building is actively decaying. Note: these only show up for people with building privilege, while they are in the direct build radius of the base.

Also, if you hover over the 'Cost per 24 hours', you can now see how many blocks and what upkeep percentage you are at.

Easier upkeep

In a last minute change, Helk has shifted two things about decay which should make it a bit easier to upkeep your base:

• Time for blocks to decay has increased by 30%
• Decay tiers have been increased by 50 blocks (cheaper decay)

Night changes

Twilight in Rust will be a bit different this week as the team has implemented some shifts to lighting. Here’s the gist:

• No moon should now be pitch black, with the goal of making many gamma boosting techniques ineffective.
• Night time with a moon is now a bit brighter (but this may change prior to the update).

A picture is worth a thousand and all, so here are some examples of full moon vs. no moon on the staging branch right now:

Handheld flashlight

With the darker nights, a new tool has been added to the game to help Newman's navigate. This handheld flashlight is a default blueprint, can be crafted for 30 metal frags, and can even be used as a melee weapon (and therefore has durability). At this time the world model is that of a torch, but I'd expect this to change soon.

Edit: The world model has been added.

Flashlight

Cost
30 metal fragments

Blueprint
Default

Workbench
Level 1 required

Throwable flares

The flashlight isn't the only new way to illuminate this newfound darkness, throwable flares have been added too! These items can be crafted, but are mainly meant to be found (in caves specifically). They can be thrown by equipping one and pressing the left mouse button, or dropped by pressing the right mouse button.

They are not a default blueprint, but can be researched relatively cheaply (20 scrap). They can be stacked to 5, provide about 2 minutes of light, and will set you back gunpowder and metal frags if you choose to craft one. Here are some pictures and more details.

Flare

Cost
20 gun powder
15 metal fragments

Crafting time
1 second

Light duration
~2 minutes

Throw distance
26 meters

Research cost
20 scrap

Workbench
Level 1 required

Admire animations added

A new way to appreciate your skins is here as the long awaited admire animations have been added! Simply press 'N' while holding a weapon and your player will look at both sides of said weapon. The animation can be halted immediately by pressing fire and cannot be seen by people around you.

Increased miner hat light

The size of the light for the miner hat has increased with this update. Here is a before and after shot:

Roof fixes

Another thing which shifted with building 3.0 was roof placement. Specifically, roof blocks now occupy the wall socket at their bottom end, so you need to choose between a roof or a wall. Although this has been a successful nerf for roof stacking, it has come with a few quirks.

Thankfully, the team has fixed some conditional models, so roof visuals should be more consistent now.

Tree revamp (in progress)

We’ll be seeing some shifts to the tree’s in Rust in the near future as Damian has started on a fresh branch called ‘tree_revamp’. In the first (of likely many) commits, a douglas fir prototype has been added.

Given this is on a separate branch, we’re unable to see or test any of this at the moment. Although I wouldn’t expect to see these changes in till the new year, we’ll hopefully get some sneak peeks in the devblog later today.

Other things

• Huge improvements to culling - great FPS improvements!
• Downed (wounded) players no longer block player movement
• Flashlight can now be added to crossbows
• Festive window garland now includes the door garland too
• Game tips now tell players to place and fill cupboards
• Lots of fixes and tweaks to fog
• More work on animal AI behavior
• Upkeep also scales with decay.scale convar (easier testing)
• Small sign placement fix

Charitable Rust 2017 follow up

Our yearly charity event, Charitable Rust, took place at the beginning of this month. It not only was an amazingly fun time, but we smashed our goal out of the park!

With an original goal of $8,000, we raised over $12,000 in donations for Direct Relief during the 12 hour live stream event. In addition, there were 2 skins for sale (courtesy of our friends at Xtab) on the item store - the proceeds of which, are also being donated.

I’m thrilled to announce, the total revenue from those skin sales was around $37,000!

Couple things though:

• Steam still takes their cut. I can’t get a clear percentage from anyone on this, but it seems to be somewhere in the realm of 30%
• Steam takes upwards of a month to distribute the earnings to Facepunch and Xtab

Given this, our Tiltify campaign is still sitting at $12k and change, while the actual amount raised is almost $40,000.

Facepunch and Xtab will be contributing their portions of the proceeds directly in the Tiltify campaign once distributed, so we should have a final number within the first week or two of January. I’ll be sure to post a follow up here as soon as that happens.

A huge thank you again to everyone who participated! We set a high bar for next year!!

Oh, and as for Helk’s pickles, I’m still waiting on them. Expect to see me eating them live on our first update stream of the new year (January 4th).

Happy holidays!

This is the last update of the year, and with that, this is the last update post we’ll do for this year. I wish you all a very happy and safe Christmas, New Years, and whatever else you may celebrate. Much love from the entire team at Rustafied!

Jan. 4th @ 12:50pm EST - The devblog and client update are live!

Jan. 4th @ 12:28pm EST - Server update just hit! Looks like an early update today.

Jan. 4th @ 12:00am EST - It's a bit of a slow week for commits as the team is still getting back from the holidays. There is still an update and a forced map wipe expected today (no forced blueprint wipe). Here are a couple things to expect in the update today:

• Xmas content is disabled
• Some fixes to cupboards not being destroyed if their construction below is destroyed
• Tweaks / fixes to Hapis and Savas
• Tweaked animations for the LR300, M249, and M92
• Third person melee weapon swing sounds

Our update stream will go live at 3pm EST. Follow @Rustafied for news throughout the day.

Note on future Rustafied blueprint wipes: We're going to start wiping BP's on a set schedule of every 2 months. Given the last BP wipe was in December, we'll be wiping BP's next on Feb. 1st.

Jan. 1st - Happy New Year everyone! It has been an incredible 12 months for Rust. To provide some perspective, this post summarizes additions to the game, month by month, in picture form. Keep in mind, much more happened throughout the year, this is just a highlight reel so to speak. Enjoy!

January

February

March

April

May

June

July

August

September

October

November

December

2:50pm EST - It’s a fresh week for Rust development and we’re seeing some tweaks and bug fixes, along with the addition of scientist NPC’s in the near future...

Scientists on the way

The long awaited scientist NPC’s are getting a bunch of love in the form of tweaks, fixes, and behavioral improvements. Although this new PvE element will not be in game this week, Alistair told me we may be seeing them go live as soon as next week. Stay tuned for more information once they get merged in.

Tidying up and optimization

Andre is doing a bunch of miscellaneous tasks so far this week ranging from fixes to build warnings to deleting unused prefabs. He’s also optimized a couple of things in the interest of server performance. Although you won’t necessarily notice these things post update, optimization and cleanup commits are always good to see.

Atmospheric fixes

In addition to the above, Andre is also tweaking some things with the atmosphere and weather. First, you should be seeing stars in the night sky better as they will no longer be occluded by fog. Also, weather (only fog at the moment) is now randomized every 18 hours, and fades over 6 hours. The sky will also now be slightly darker at midnight, while the sky shouldn’t be as washed out around noon in the temperate and arid biomes.

Building blocks damage

Vince is working on a new branch called ‘building_blocks_damage.’ This does not encompass any changes to how buildings calculate damage, rather, it is a new set of visuals to display the current state of damage on a given building block. This will make it a lot easier to size up the health of a structure, as you will no longer need to go up to each block to see the health.

Given this is on a separate branch, we’re unable to grab any screens quite yet. Also, this stands to be a sizable body of work, so don’t hold your breath to see it in this week.

3:50pm EST - The client update and devblog are live!

3:00pm EST - Our update stream is live! twitch.tv/rustafied

12:05pm EST - Update day is here and with it, two new arrows and several other changes.

Our update stream goes live at 3pm EST. Stay tuned to @Rustafied for news throughout the day. Let’s get into it...

Update summary video

Here's our update summary video from Puddy!

Fire arrows

Helk has added two new arrow types this week. First, we have the fire arrow. This non-default blueprint costs wood, cloth, and low grade to craft. At the moment each arrow automatically lights up when you go to fire it, however, I expect that to soon require an actual flame source prior to ignition.

It can be used in combat against other players or as an early game raiding tool against wood structures. Unfortunately, it doesn’t currently light the object it hits directly on fire. Instead, it drops fire on the ground near the point of impact. This can make using it to raid a wood door difficult if there isn’t a stair or floor block directly in front of the door.

Edit: The ability to raid with fire arrows has been removed for the time being.

Edit 2: Raid ability has been added back but had been nerfed.

Cost
20 wood
10 cloth
10 low grade

Yield
2 arrows

Time
3 seconds

Blueprint
Not default

Workbench
Level 1 required

Research cost
20 scrap

Bone arrows

Second of the newly added projectiles: bone arrows. This default blueprint costs wood and (you guessed it) bone to craft. Its description boasts a larger arrowhead which allows you to more easily hit your targets at the expense of damage.

Cost
25 wood
10 bone

Blueprint
Default

Craft time
3 seconds

Yield
2

New HV arrow model

In addition to the two new arrow types, Helk has updated the high velocity arrow model. Although it has a nifty new look, it doesn’t appear any of the damage stats have shifted with this.

Key lock changes

Helk has changed a couple things with key locks to make them more user friendly and secure. First, the person who placed the key lock can always open the door and operate the lock, even if they have never created and don't carry a key. Also, in the interest of reducing key lock raiding, the total combination of possible keys has jumped to 1,000,000.

Junkpile spawn fixes

Andre has fixed some placement issue with junkpile spawns. They will no longer appear partially on roads or in weird positions (like too far above terrain).

Purple crate model update

The purple crates have recieved a face lift today as Helk updated the model to a brand new toolbox. Although the placeholder art is gone, the loot inside is still the same.

Atmosphere shifts

You’ll notice some shifts to lighting and fog at certain points in the day after this update. First, expect more stars in the night sky as they will no longer be occluded by fog. Also, weather - only fog at the moment - is randomized every 18 hours, and fades over 6 hours. The sky will also now be slightly darker at midnight, and won’t be as washed out around noon in the temperate and arid biomes.

Finally, the fog density no longer changes given the biome you're in as it would give an unfair advantage to those looking in from a different biome.

Scientists soon

Rad zones will soon have an new PvE element as the scientist NPC’s are almost ready to go. Although they didn’t quite make it in this week, a bunch of bug fixes and improvements were completed, and we’ll hopefully see these in game in the next couple of weeks.

Staging 2

Garry has started working on something called 'staging2'. A critical step in leaving early access, staging2 will be a separate install of the game which will allow people to have both the main version and staging version of Rust installed at the same time. This will make it a lot easier to test new features as people won't have to switch back and forth via the 'betas' tab.

Building blocks damage

Vince has started work on an exciting new feature which will allow you to gauge the health of a building by looking at it. It’s on a branch called ‘building_blocks_damage’, so no visuals yet - hopefully the devblog will give us a sneak peek.

Other stuff

• CH47 server event progress (not in game yet)
• Work on a new water well mini monument (expect next forced wipe)

1:45pm EST - It’s a fresh week for Rust development and we’re seeing some important bug fixes, quality of life improvements for players and admins, and more progress on long term projects. Let's get into it...

Explosive ammo bug fixed

As pointed out on Reddit the other day, explosive ammo has not been behaving as intended on garage and double doors. Thankfully, Helk has swooped in and fixed the issue. While at it, he also shifted it so you no longer need to aim slightly away from target to deal maximum damage with explosive ammo.

Show report button on death screen

Garry, who has been working on separating the staging branch (see below), has also snuck in some quality of life changes. First, a ‘report cheat’ button is now shown on the death screen. When clicked, a browser window takes you to the Rust feedback page (just like when you hit F7). Also, the attacker name is more faithful to the ingame name on the report page.

Admins can get combatlogs of other people

In a huge quality of life improvement for server moderators, Andre has made it so admins can now get the combatlogs of other people in the server! This should make it easier for admins to track sketchy players and follow up on hacker reports.

Vending machine destroyed with construction below

In the interest of stopping certain glitches (i.e. the unraidable truck shop), Alistair has made it so vending machines will actually be destroyed if the construction below them is removed.

Scientist on staging!

Scientist NPC's are now in the military tunnels on the staging branch. If this goes well, we may see them other places in game after the update on Thursday!

More staging branch work

Garry continues his work on separating the staging branch. As he mentioned on Reddit the other day, this will allow players to have both the main version of the game and the staging branch installed at the same time.

Garry also hinted at what we can expect in the future for update schedules: “Once we leave early access this will be updated every day and the live version will be updated every month.”

Other stuff

• Jack O Lantern can no longer be placed through walls or picked up and it only accepts wood now
• More AI work
• Optimizations to workshop skin downloading
• Show different arrowheads for bow / crossbow ( in 3rd person )
• Updated flare view model
• Work on water well small monument

4:00pm EST - The update and devblog are live!

2:30pm EST - Our update stream is live! twitch.tv/rustafied

12:00am EST - Update day is here and with it, there’s a new hazmat suit, QoL improvements, bug fixes, and maybe even scientist NPC’s!

Our update stream goes live at 3pm EST. Stay tuned to @Rustafied for news throughout the day. Let’s get into it...

Update summary video

Here's our update summary video from Puddy.

30 second repair delay

In a buff to online raiding, Helk increased the repair cooldown for building parts. Previously 8 seconds, this timer prevents players from repairing building parts after they’ve been attacked. Now 30 seconds, attackers will have a bit more leeway when raiding, as defenders will not be able to repair as quickly.

Scientists in?

The long awaited scientist NPC’s are currently being tested on staging. These blue hazmat suit wearing PvE additions are armed with either a pump shotgun or MP5 and drop a variety of loot including bow/arrows, components, tools, and even the occasional piece of high quality metal.

Given these are still being tested, it’s not clear if they will actually make it in when the update goes live. Alistair told me they’ll be doing some more profiling in the morning and decide from there. Stay tuned for more info on this as we get closer to update time...

Edit: Just heard from Alistair - scientist NPC's won't be going in today, however, they can be turned on manually by server owners with this command: squadmanager.squad_disable false

New hazmat suit model

The Hazmat Suit has received an facelift today as the model was updated. The suit is still 1 whole piece and has the same stats, however, it now has a more rusty look. It is also now able to be crafted…

Hazmat suit craftable

Along with the new look, the hazmat suit can once again be crafted. A non-default blueprint, they cost 250 scrap to research and a level 2 workbench to craft. Here are some more details:

Cost
5 tarp
2 sewing kits
8 high quality metal

Time
20 seconds

Research cost
250 scrap

Workbench
Level 2 required

Quality of life

There are several miscellaneous quality of life changes coming this week. Here's a summary:

• Furnace gives off heat
• Can rotate workbenches with R during deployable phase
• Can rotate tool cupboard with hammer + priv
• Can no longer build around heli crash site
• Small refinery now produces charcoal
• Updated outlines for new arrow types

Explosive ammo fix

Explosive ammo will no longer tear through garage doors like wet tissue paper as Helk has fixed a bug with damage values. He’s also made it so you no longer need to aim slightly away from target to deal maximum damage with explosive ammo - direct hits should now do the most damage.

Report button on death screen

Garry improved a bit on the in game report functionality this week by adding a ‘Report Cheater’ button to the death screen. This button loads up a web browser and takes you to the same place F7 does. Along with this, he’s improved the placement of the killers name on the report form.

Vending machine destroyed with construction below

In the interest of stopping certain glitches (i.e. the unraidable truck shop), Alistair has made it so vending machines will actually be destroyed if the construction below them is removed.

Admins can get combatlogs of other people

Andre has made it so admins can now get the combatlogs of other people in the server! A huge quality of life improvement, this should make it easier for admins to track sketchy players and follow up on hacker reports.

Other stuff

• Junkpile respawn time is now 30 minutes (instead of 20)
• Can no longer place dropboxes under water
• More AI work
• Optimizations to workshop skin downloading
• show different arrowheads for bow / crossbow ( in 3rd person )
• Updated flare view model
• Work on water well small monument
• Jack O Lantern can no longer be placed through walls or picked up and it only accepts wood now

Looking for moderators

We're looking for more people to join our moderation team. If you are 18 years or older, have experience with moderation, and are interested in helping keep our servers hacker free, please apply below!

1/25 @ 3:23pm EST - The update and devblog are live!

1/25 @ 2:40pm EST - Our update stream is going live a bit early today as the update should hit shortly. twitch.tv/rustafied

1/25 @ 1:35am EST - Looks like it's mostly just more tips for new players coming in the update (one of the final things to check off the roadmap prior to leaving early access). No word on if scientist NPC's will make it in. I'll keep this post up to date with any other additions.

The update stream will go live at 3pm EST. Stay tuned to @Rustafied for news throughout the day.

1/23 - It’s a fresh week for Rust development and there’s some big news about leaving early access...

Leaving Early Access

Garry posted a blog yesterday announcing that Rust will leave Early Access on February 8th. He was quick to note this will not be a huge event or spectacle, rather, business as usual. The team will still keep working on new features and updates will still be released. A few things, however, will shift. Here’s the lowdown:

• Updates will happen monthly instead of weekly
• The staging version will become standalone so players can easily try out new things daily
• The price will go up to $34.99

At Rustafied, we’ll continue to bring you news throughout the week on development, stream each week to show what's new, grow our guides, and host the best servers we can. We’re also looking at the possibility of adding more staging servers to better accommodate those who want to see the latest additions to the game in real time. Stay tuned as we get closer to February 8th for more information.

Just the tip

Helk has added a ton of tips for new players this week both in game and on the loading screen. From how to build a base to how to place a sleeping bag, these tips will help new players figure out what to do - while making seasoned veterans sick of all the blue messages telling them things they already know.

Although there is no way to disable tips completely at the moment, you can run the command 'gametip.hidegametip' to remove the current one showing (you may want to bind that to a key).  

Fixing crash on exit

Andre has been toiling away, attempting to fix the longstanding crash issue while exiting the game. After a bunch of tests and a tweak with shutting down EAC on server disconnect, we’ll hopefully experience less crashes when trying to close the game.

DB for BP

Garry is working on some improvements for storage of blueprints and deathlogs. Working on a separate branch, he’s transitioning the saving process for both into a sqlite database. A step up from text documents, these databases should allow for quicker and more reliable access to the data.

Planter fixes

After being disabled for a while now, hydration levels of planters will once again be shown with darker soil, allowing Rust farmers to more easily tend to their crops. Here’s an example of dry soil versus wet soil.

Other things

• SMG costs reduced
• Machete is default blueprint, required WB1
• Removed wood cost from sleeping bag/sheet metal door
• Removed paper, note/building plan requires wood
• Patrol Helicopter debris wont float in the sky anymore when crashing at junkyard
• Potentially fixed bandana crafting issues
• Fixed banned user check being slow with 20,000 banned users
• Added simple collider to wind generator so it can be removed by admins using ent kill

3:40pm EST - With a forced wipe just around the corner, the team is improving procedural maps and getting ready to leave early access.

More cliffs and hills

As with many forced wipes, we’re seeing shifts to procedural map generation. Working on the ‘save156’ branch, Andre has added significantly more cliffs and hills. No visuals on this are available yet, as the changes are still on a separate branch. Expect screenshots and more information once the save156 branch is merged into main over the next day or two.

Water well monuments coming

Also on the save156 branch are the new mini water well monuments. Similar to other small monuments, we can expect these to spawn around the map and feature some loot drops. Water well monuments are also expected to provide - you guessed it - water.

Like the other procgen changes, stay tuned for more information after the merge.

Rivers are no longer green

Rivers have gotten more visually appealing as Andre has shifted the water color. No longer a murky green, rivers are now a more welcoming hue of blue. Here's a before and after:

Pillar removed

Andre has also tweaked some things with building on the save156 branch. Along with removing some support sockets (likely in the interest of optimization), he’s removed the pillar building block. “How much outrage could this possible cause?” he asked in his commit. So far, it appears 1 table flip worth of outrage.

Recycler added to Junkyard

After several requests, a recycler has been added to the junkyard dungeon. This is also on the save156 branch, so no word on exact location yet, but I’ll make sure to include that in the Thursday update post.

AI work

Improvements to AI and the upcoming NPC scientists continues. One of the final items on the roadmap list to leave early access, these blue non-player characters are getting smarter by the day. Not only are they better at moving around the various navmesh making up the map, they can now open doors and break barricades in their way.

Still off by default, these scientists can be turned on by a server operator with the ‘squadmanager.sqaud_disable false’ command. Will they be turned on for all servers this week? Only time will tell...

Disable tip option

Helk, after adding a ton of these in the last two weeks, has added a menu option and convar to disable blue tips for new players. Found under the main game options, this new setting will make a lot of veteran players very happy.

More tips

Along with the disable option, Helk has added a couple more tips for sleeping bags, spears, and cloth collection.

Blueprint wipe

When the update and forced map wipe hits this Thursday (Feb. 1st), all Rustafied servers will also wipe blueprints. There is no word from Facepunch on a forced blueprint wipe at the moment. The next blueprint wipe on Rustafied servers will be April 5th (or when forced).

5:05pm EST - The devblog is live!

4:35pm EST - The client and server update are live! Looks like the Rust website is having some issues so no devblog posted yet.

3:00pm EST - Our update stream is live! twitch.tv/rustafied

2:40pm EST - Note on blueprint wipes: I just heard from Facepunch that they are planning on doing another forced map wipe and a forced BP wipe next week to leave early access. Therefore, we will not be wiping blueprints on Rustafied servers today. There is still a forced map wipe today when the update hits.

8:45am EST - Our favorite time of the month has arrived! This update day includes changes to maps, new monuments, shifts to building, and more.

This update will force a map wipe on all servers when it hits. As per our new 2 month schedule, Rustafied servers will also wipe blueprints. As always, there is no set time for when the update will hit.

Our update stream goes live at 3pm EST. Follow @Rustafied for news throughout the day. Let’s get into it.

Update summary video

Here's our update summary video from Puddy.

Map changes

We’re seeing several changes to the overall landscape of Rust as procedural map generation has been tweaked. Not only are there more cliffs and hills than before, a whole new hilltop topology has been introduced - including some new rocks, which are just ‘yuge.’

Hilly terrain isn’t getting all the love - rivers are now a bright hue of blue, as opposed to the murky green we’re all used to. Also, in the interest of preventing exploits, trucks have been removed from our favorite flat lakes of ice in the cold.

Water well monuments

You’ll find a whole new type of small monument as you roam Rust post update. Water wells are now scattered about the landscape. They look like abandoned bases and provide - surprise, surprise - water.

There are about 12 per 4k map and there are several different types of well ranging in size. To get water from a well, it appears you must operate a manual pump then retrieve the water from a nearby water collector. This functionality seems a little wonky on staging at the moment, but I expect it'll smooth out prior to the update going live.

Military tunnel updates

In preparation for the Scientist NPC's, the military tunnels have gotten a facelift. There is now a lot more debris down there, along with some spot lights and irradiated barrels. 

Tons of tutorials

In the interest of completing one of the last items on the roadmap prior to leaving early access, Helk has added a bunch of tutorials and tips for new players. Thankfully, he’s also added a cvar and menu option for disabling tips!

Scientist NPC’s

Although there has been a ton of work on the scientist NPC's, they are still not enabled by default this week. 

Building changes

There have been some shifts to building dynamics this week. First, the pillar building block has been removed along with its support sockets. Also, the wall frame now provides the same stability as a wall.

Edit: The wood cost for double sheet metal doors has been removed.

Recycler added to junkyard

Newmans now have another reason to visit the junkyard as a recycler has been added. You can find it on that platform with the chair.

Hapis changes

Alistair has given the non-procgen maps some attention, too. Starting with Hapis, he shifted the loot so smaller monuments have slightly less spawns. Also, cave lighting was reverted to an old version, site A got a couple tweaks, and there were several other small bug fixes.

Savas KOTH tweaks

Savas KOTH also got some love. Along with updated loot tables, the spawn locations of junkpiles and barrels has been tweaked. Players will also find more resources in construction loot. Finally, a recycler has been added.

More achievements!

Helk has added a whole bunch of new achievements. Now 41 in total, these achievements can only be gotten on official servers (like the previous couple).

6:20pm EST- With the exit of early access just around the corner, it just got a lot easier to keep up to date with the latest changes to the staging branch. With the forced BP and map wipe this week, we've got some great visual changes coming in - and pickles.

Standalone staging branch

Gone are the days of having to choose between the staging or main branch of Rust - you can now have them both installed at the same time! Simply go to your steam library, scroll down to Rust, and install the newly added ‘Rust - Staging branch’.

This will make it a lot easier to stay up to date with the latest changes, especially now that the team is switching from weekly update releases to monthly.

Forced map and blueprint wipe incoming

To mark leaving early access, Facepunch is starting every Newman fresh by wiping maps and blueprints when the update hits on Thursday. As with all updates, there is no set time for it to go live. That said, it generally happens sometime between 3 and 5pm EST.

Save 157

There are a bunch of changes to procedural maps on the way including a tree revamp, more terrain tweaks, and a new experiment with how things look and feel in general. All of this stuff is still on a separate branch (save157), so we don’t have any visuals yet. Stay tuned for a ‘merge from save157’ commit.

Edit: These changes have been merged in, and they look awesome!

Scientists NPC's coming this week

Alistair just confirmed with me that the plan is to have scientist NPC's turned on by default after the update this week! Check back on Thursday for more information on these guys.

Edit: Just heard from Alistair again - he told me official servers will have scientist NPC's turned on, however, community and modded servers will need to turn them on manually if they want them.

Helk's pickles are here!

Helk has added a new food item to the game: Pickles. They can be eaten and come with a chance of botulism!

In perfect timing, I actually received Helk's pickles in the mail, so I will be testing them for botulism and eating them live on the update stream this week.

1:00pm EST - The update is live and devblog is out!

12:00pm EST - Our update stream is live and the update is expected to hit in an hour!

12:00am EST - The time is here: Rust is leaving early access! With the update today, Rust officially moves into the next stage of development. 

Given it’s a special day, we’ll be starting our update stream a couple hours early at 12pm EST. Stay tuned to @Rustafied for news throughout the day. Let’s get into it...

Update summary video

Here's an update summary video from Puddy!

Leaving Early Access

Rust officially leaves early access today. What does that mean? Well, Garry summed it up pretty well the other day, but here’s the skinny:

• Updates will now come out monthly instead of weekly (so next update after today will be March 1st).
• The staging branch is now a standalone game in your steam library
• The price will be increasing from $19.99 to $34.99

Here at Rustafied, we still plan on bringing you details of the latest additions to the staging branch on a weekly basis. We’ll also continue doing update streams each Thursday (stay tuned for specific times) and keep expanding our guides.

Forced map and blueprint wipe

In exiting early access, the team at Facepunch has decided to give everyone a fresh start. Therefore, all blueprints and maps will wipe when the update hits. As always, there is no set time for the update to hit. While it normally comes out between 3 and 5pm EST, there are fringe cases where it’s earlier or later.

Frog Boots return!

As a reward for leaving early access, the infamous Frog Boots have been added back in and awarded to every account which played during early access. These boots are not marketable or tradable, so only people who actually played during early access will ever have them. They also have more utility than ever, as Helk gave them a buff!

Graphical improvements

The team really knocked it out of the park with the Rust environment this week. Not only did the much anticipated tree revamp make its way in, but a new round of visual experimentation has been completed. The result is astonishing.

The new variants of trees look amazing. The sense of density created in these new forests is majestic. The vibrant colors of the landscape are a breath of fresh air. Oh, and rivers? They look awesome.

All this - coupled with the topology changes of last week - and the overall environment of the game has completely shifted. Best of all, I’m not noticing any significant decrease in FPS. *

* As always, performance may vary. This game still has a lot of work in the realm of optimizations, and slower computers will not render optimal results. Please consult a doctor (err, Amazon) if symptoms persist.

Recoil changes

What’s leaving early access without a couple shifts to gunplay? Helk agrees, and so he’s tweaked horizontal recoil so it kicks in faster when firing the AK. He’s also made aim sway no longer a factor while tap firing.

Barrel buff

Getting all your favorite BP's just got a bit easier as barrels now have twice the amount of scrap (2 instead of 1).

NPC Scientists on Facepunch servers

One of the final items on the roadmap out of early access, the NPC Scientists are going live on the Facepunch official servers today. They are still, however, turned off by default on all servers.

If an individual server owner would like Scientists on, they can simply run  squadmanager.squad_disable false in the server startup config.

At the recommendation of the devs, Rustafied servers will be keeping the Scientist NPC’s off till they’ve had a bit more testing and, more important, optimization.

Pickles added

In little a homage to Charitable Rust 2017 (read more below) - and because he was going to add food preservation at some point anyway - Helk has added pickles. They can be found in food boxes and provide 5 healing, 50 calories, and 20 hydration. They of course, come with a chance of botulism.

Standalone staging

Another step in leaving early access, the staging branch is now a standalone installation. That means you’ll never have to opt into staging through the properties menu in Steam again. Instead, you simply need to install the ‘Rust - Staging Branch’ item in your Steam Library (it automatically shows up if you own the game).

This will make it much easier to experience the latest changes of the game while still being able to play the main version.

Other stuff

• Double metal door default
• fire arrow costs less cloth
• Netting costs 1 rope instead of 3
• Workbench experiments can reveal ammo types
• Changed the way upkeep payments are processed so the decay time on the cupboard is more accurate and more intuitive
• Fixed door protection properties protecting against decay damage
• Road/scrap tutorial completion
• New default server browser image

Media team recruiting

Our media team is recruiting. We’re focusing on content creators - so if you can edit videos, use photoshop, or write a killer script, and you’re looking for a creative outlet, fill out an application!

Charitable Rust 2017 update

We have an update on the numbers for Charitable Rust 2017! Facepunch received their portion of the skin sales and have donated them to the Tiltify campaign.

This brings the official amount raised for Direct Relief up over $46,000!

This also does not even include Xtab’s portion of the skin sales. Estimated at around $7,000, these funds will be donated to the campaign too as soon as the they are dispersed to Xtab.

Speaking of unfinished things from Charitable Rust...

Helk’s pickles

Helk made a couple jars of pickles while researching food preservation for Rust. I thought it’d be fun to auction off Helk’s pickles live during Charitable Rust to raise more for Direct Relief.

To my dismay, people were much more interested in bidding for me to eat the pickles during a live update stream instead of bidding for the pickles themselves. In the interest of charity, I accepted.

Today, my chickens come to roost. Helk’s pickles have finally arrived at my doorstep, and I will eat them live on stream today at 12:30pm EST (that is, if the test for botulism comes back negative of course).