12:15am EST - With just 7 days before the forced blueprint and map wipe, we’ve got some exciting things on the horizon!

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

Monument puzzles

Helk and Vince continue their work on the largest upcoming shift to gameplay: Monument puzzles. With an expected debut at the update next Thursday, this shift to monuments will add an extra level of complexity to loot gathering. Instead of utilizing your parkour skills (and just pure luck) when finding that sweet swag around the map, you’ll now have to accomplish new criteria to gather that highest tier loot.

With a mix of kinetic wheels, blast doors, switches, electrical boxes, fuse boxes, and more, these new puzzles not only increase the dynamism of gathering loot, they lay the foundation of electricity for the game.

Still on a separate branch, monument puzzles will surely be a highlight for big update next week. Check back earlier in the week (once the branch is merged to staging) for a full write up on what to expect. In the mean time, here's a teaser picture Helk sent me of some of the new puzzle pieces...

Updated Diving Gear

Taylor has done an update on some of the diving suit model art. With a more refined approach to the diving tank, mask, and fins, he’s provided aquatic-seeking Newman's with a fresh look. As always, pictures speak louder than words, so here’s some eye candy:

New peeks at Bandit Town

Speaking of eye candy, Damian sent me a couple fresh shots of the newest work-in-progress monument, Bandit Town. As discussed last week, this new point of interest stands to be the antithesis of the Compound monument (or Outpost) - instead of catering to the PvE players, Bandit town will appeal to the assholes (Helks words, not mine). It may also usher in some new game dynamics such as faction ratings and other experiments.

As with many good things, we’ll have to wait to see this in the wild. Bandit town is not expected to go live with this next update. That said, I’d be surprised if it doesn’t make its way into staging sometime in June for its debut early July. As always, we’ll keep you posted - oh, and here’s those new shots from Damian.

Hapis Island improvements

Alistair just merged in his latest round of changes to our favorite non-procedural map, Hapis. Along with some new islands in the south, the Compound monument (aka Outpost) has been added near the center of the map. Although there is still some polishing needed, we can expect these changes to go live with the forced wipe next week.

Canoe and oar

A new form of water transportation is in the works. No visuals or definitive timeline in place yet, but know that another form of water transportation will be here before you know it.

Procgen native

Andre is working on some shifts to procedural map generation in anticipation of the next forced map wipe. As he told me just before, "it's all a secret for now". Stay tuned as we get closer to the wipe for more info.

AI Improvements

Pal has been doing a bunch of work on improving various elements with AI (both NPC and animal) this week. Along with starting work on NPC’s taking note of interesting throw objects such as flares, he’s started a new branch which addresses various optimizations with navmesh - the foundation of how NPC’s and animals navigate the terrain of Rust.

6/8 @ 10:30pm EST - Here's a fresh guide with Green Card locations and Basic Puzzle solutions! Blue and red guides coming soon...

6/8 @ 4:10pm EST - The update is live! Game on!

6/8 @ 3:00pm EST - We are waiting on the final build. Patch should hit soon! In the meantime, check out the devblog.

6/8 @ 1:58pm EST - With about an hour to go before the planned patch time, the devs are still working on some fixes. Looks like it might be later than 3pm before we see this go live...

6/7 @ 4:08pm EST - Update will be tomorrow around 3pm EST.

6/7 @ 2:28pm EST - And it's official - the patch is delayed till tomorrow. We're still going to do an update preview stream in half an hour.

6/7 @ 2:15pm EST - Got some bad news...

6/7 @ 1:00am EST - Update day has arrived, and with it, some huge shifts to how you get loot at monuments.

Given it is the first Thursday of the month, maps on all servers will wipe when the update hits. Facepunch has also announced a forced blueprint wipe, meaning everyone will have a completely fresh start.

There is no set time for when the patch will hit - and Helk warned me it may be a later one. Our update stream will start at 3pm EST (earlier if it looks like the patch is coming out sooner, but that's doubtful). Follow @Rustafied for news throughout the day.

Update summary video

Here's an update summary video from Puddy!

Overview of Monument Puzzles

Monument puzzles completely shift the dynamic of looting in Rust. No longer is loot freely scattered around landmarks, requiring players to simply account for other enemies, radiation, and maybe a little parkour to fill their inventory. Instead, security doors, keypads, fuse boxes, and more now stand in the way of many of Rust’s precious goodies.

Given this functionality was merged in to the staging branch less than 24 hours ago, it is very much still a work in progress. That means you should expect glitches, exploits, lack of balance, and maybe even some game crashes. That said, this new dynamic stands to drastically shift game progression and overall balance in the long run. Also, monuments in general look a lot more interesting and detailed, so that’s nice.

This post summarizes the core distinctions of monument puzzles. All is subject to change, so I’ll add edits as needed. I’m not going to get into how to solve any specific puzzles around the map, but we do plan on launching full guide in the next week or two which will delve into those types of solutions.

Security doors

Much of the loot at monuments is now locked behind various security doors. To open these doors, you must make sure they have power and the proper level access card to open (green, blue, or red).

Once opened, they will automatically close in a matter of seconds (so move through them quickly). On the inside of each door there is a red button to the left which, when pressed, will open it regardless of if there is power running.

Note: we have noticed some inconsistencies with this in testing, so it may be possible to get trapped (although Helk confirmed it is not intentional).

Key cards

Key cards are a requirement to accessing any security door. There are 3 types of cards - green, blue, and red - each with its own level of clearance. Key cards only work on their specific access level (so no using red cards to open green doors).

Cards don't stack and have durability, with a maximum of 10 swipes before they become unusable. In addition, not all cards you find have full durability - so mind your swipes! As expected, you can’t craft cards, they can only be found.

So where do you find them? In general, cards are found on desks located various places around monuments. Green cards - the lowest access level - will also drop from scientists periodically. Blue cards - middle clearance - will be available for purchase from the tool machine in the Outpost, but they will be very expensive. Red cards - top level of clearance - seem to only be found on desks behind blue security doors (makes sense, right?).

Access granted
Basic

Found
On desks
In Scientist loot

Access granted
Medium

Found
On desks
Purchase at Outpost

Access granted
Advanced

Found
On desks in blue access areas

Fuses, fuse boxes, and timed circuits

Once you have the appropriate access card, you’ll need to make sure the door has power. Enter the Electric Fuse. This new item can be pretty unreliable, but allows electricity to pass through for a short period of time when placed in a fuse box. They cannot be crafted, however, you’ll find them in various loot crates around the map. They can also be recycled for 20 scrap if you end up with more than you need.

When trying to solve a puzzle, you’ll want to look for a fuse box in the vicinity of the security doors (they are mounted on walls and often shooting sparks). Open up the box and place your fuse in the single slot. You may need to throw a nearby switch (also mounted on a wall) to get the juice flowing. Hurry up and get to the door with your key card ready to swipe as the circuit will blow within a short amount of time (causing the fuse to disappear). Keep in mind that a passersby can snatch a fuse straight from the box, causing power to be shut off immediately.

There are also timed circuits for certain puzzles. These are similar to normal fuse boxes, but instead of needing to place a fuse item, you can simply activate it to start the timer and get electricity flowing. Keep in mind, this is just a first pass on the functionality. Helk told me he plans on adding visible wires and more in the coming month.

Manual overrides

Occasionally you’ll come across blast doors with a manual override wheel next to it. These can be used to circumvent certain security doors (generally green ones) by simply holding ‘use’ on the wheel. Doing so will gradually open the adjacent blast doors. Once the door is raised enough, let go and run under it before it closes.

Where are these puzzles?

You’ll find puzzles at most monuments including power plant, launch site, military tunnels, sewers, airfield, train yard, water treatment plant, satellite dish, and harbors. Each monument has its own set of unique puzzles, each with various access levels and solutions.

As mentioned above, we plan on creating a guide in the near future which highlights specific ways to solve the puzzles. In the meantime, the main thing to know is: Find the access card, get the power running, and loot like hell!

What loot do you get?

Speaking of loot, what can you expect to get for solving all these puzzles?

It already looks like there are more loot boxes in general spawning in certain puzzle areas. I asked Helk, and he said although there haven’t been many adjustments to loot yet, he plans to make loot boxes found behind puzzles have twice the amount of items. I also wouldn’t be surprised if we see some other miscellaneous balance shifts to loot tables in general given this new dynamic.

The loot behind each puzzle resets every 30 minutes. Given it’s hard to tell when the last person solved the puzzle, sometimes you may hit the jackpot, while other times you may come up empty handed.

Edit: Puzzle doors now do not close until the puzzle resets. This means you'll be able to tell if there is loot in there or not.

Also, puzzles do not reset if there is a player nearby. If a player is nearby, the timer freezes then a 60 second cool-down period begins (so it'll try again every minute till someone isn't there).

That's not all...

Monument puzzles aren’t the only changes to Rust this week. Below is a summary of what else to expect...

Spas12 buff

At the request on the community, Helk has increased the damage dealt by the Spas12 shotgun. It now does 135 damage instead of 105.

Hapis improvements

Alistair has done a bunch of tweaks and improvements to the Hapis island map. Although the monument puzzles have not been added yet, the Outpost monument is now in along with some extra islands in the south. As usual, Hapis additions run a bit behind those to procedural maps, so expect more in the coming month.

New diving gear models

Taylor has done an update on some of the diving suit model art. Although this does not change the functionality in any manner, shape, or form, it does provide a fresh look to the diving tank, mask, and fins.

AI improvements

Pål has done a ton of commits over the past several weeks on improving AI. Along with enhancements to animal behavior, he’s completed a ton of shifts to scientists including better target detection, movement, cover finding, and more.

Misc. fixes and tweaks

• Longer despawn timer on gunpowder and sulfur
• Fixed being able to drink water from rivers forever to heal, maxes out at 50% now
• Various weapon material tweaks
• Fixed weapon skins overriding clothing skins on viewmodels
• Added Savas offshore junkpiles and dive sites
• Options Menu max gibs 2000 because 10000 is a bad idea (can be set higher via console effects.maxgibs)

Looking forward...

There are a bunch of exciting things on the horizon. Here are some broad strokes of what else is being worked on, expect more details from the developers in the devblog.

• Andre has started work on allowing for custom maps to be made in the future
• Progress on Bandit town continues moving forward
• A new model for C4 may be on the way
• More work on the new canoe and oar

Unity and performance

Now for the elephant in the room: is performance going to be better this update? The short answer is: probably not.

Yes, the game is running on a new version of Unity. And yes, this new version opens up the possibility of offloading certain processes to alternate threads. Unfortunately, it doesn’t do this out of the box. Each optimization must be manually completed, and the devs didn’t get any of that work in for this update. In addition to this, the new version has created some issues which cause the game to crash. The developers are aware of this, but it’s unclear how many fixes will make it in prior to the update going live.

That means you can expect server performance to still be shoddy across the board (especially on larger or longer wipe servers). In preparation of this, I did upgrade the dedicated box which runs our EU Main server (as performance on that has been particularly poor the past few weeks). Hopefully this upgrade helps a bit, but remember, this is a game wide issue and not related to any particular server / host.

Introducing: EU Hapis

I’m happy to announce we are opening our newest server when the update hits: EU Hapis. Due to popular demand, we are trying out a one month wipe cycle at 150 player slots. Look for it on the official list after the update hits.

12:00am EST - Another week in Rust development and we're seeing some interesting things coming. Along with several new models and items, a fresh feature to the HUD has hit staging.

Our update preview stream will go live at 3pm EST. Follow @Rustafied for news throughout the day. Let's get into it...

HUD Compass

Helk is experimenting with a HUD based compass. Similar to Fortnite, it shows up on the top center of the screen and points at your current heading (North, South, East, West, and degrees in between).

This is not a craftable, rather, it’s a new addition to the in game GUI (like the map). I asked Helk if he was thinking of tying it to an item you have to carry. He said, ‘Horse shit’ - so yeah, I don’t think it’s going to be part of an item any time soon.

From a community perspective, this compass has received mixed reviews. Some are very happy at the idea of callouts being much easier (i.e. There’s a naked by the tree around 280). Others worry this is just another thing which breaks immersion and caters to large groups.

Although I agree this will come much more in handy when you are in a group as opposed to solo (unless you like to call out specific locations to yourself), I don’t really think any benefit provided is anything to get worked up about. With regards to immersion, I agree, and think it’d be nice to have the option turn it off while leaving the rest of the HUD on.

This is why I think having this be a crafted item would be a nice compromise. If you don’t want it, don’t craft it. And, for groups to gain from it, they have to make sure they are all equipped with one.

As with all new things added to staging, nothing is set in stone. We’ll keep you posted as this new functionality progresses.

Puzzles polish (and Hapis)

Vince has resolved some issues with the new puzzles on a separate branch. Along with shifting some positions of barricades, he’s fixed a rooftop exploit at the trainyard. I’d expect some more tweaks and fixes to these in preparation for the next monthly update.

Also with puzzles, Alistair has started adding them to the monuments around Hapis. As with the polishing, we’re not going to see any of this launch till July 5th at the earliest.

New stone world model

Alistair has slipped in a new world model for stones (see above).

New C4 model

Speaking of new models, a fresh look for C4 is on its way in. Although it’s not on staging yet, you can see a sneak peek here.

Jackhammer progress

Tom has made some great progress on the upcoming Jackhammer item. Like the Chainsaw is to trees, the Jackhammer will allow people to gather ore much quicker than ever before. No word on an exact launch date of this new item, but I wouldn’t be surprised if we see it in the July 5th update. See more here.

New Rad Pill model

Tom has also posted a new model for Rad Pills.

Custom map progress

Andre continues his work on custom mapping. As he mentioned in the devblog last week, this will open up a ton of new possibilities for modders, server owners, and players. This week it appears he’s mainly focused on some refactoring in preparation for the world SDK. Although we can’t quite create and load custom maps yet, it seems that functionality isn’t too far off!

Puzzle guides

In the wake of puzzles being added to monuments last week, we have released some new guides which run you through how to solve them:

Green Puzzle Solutions

Blue Puzzle Solutions

Red Puzzle Solutions

12:00am EST - Another week for Rust development and we're seeing improvements to the new compass, Hapis puzzle progress, the launch of Rust World SDK, and a new type of boat entering the game!

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

Rigid-hulled inflatable boat added

The newest form of water transportation in Rust has made its way onto staging. Rigid-hulled inflatable boats can now be spawned using the ‘spawn rhib’ command. At the moment, this is a rough implementation. That means boats are not spawning on their own around the map and there is no functionality for fuel consumption yet.

That said, we do know some specifics. First, the boat seats a total of six people (one driver, four behind him, and one upfront). There’s also a small wood storage crate out front which holds space for 12 items.

I’d say it’s a safe bet that we will see this fully implemented in game for the next forced wipe on July 5th. Expect more functionality and details coming to light over the next two weeks.

Compass improvements

After adding the initial compass functionality last week, Helk has improved on it over the past few days. Along with adding the ability to toggle the compass hud view on and off in the escape menu, he’s added the ability to have it be toggled on and off with a shortcut key ('c' by default).

Players will now be able to choose whether the hotkey only displays the compass while holding it down or they can select to have clicking the 'c' key just toggle the compass on and off.

Hapis puzzles

Alistair has continued his work on adding monument puzzles to the Hapis Island map. Although we have no visuals on this yet, we can expect similar puzzles to those on procedural maps come the next forced wipe.

Rust World SDK released

Exciting news in the realm of custom maps, the Rust World SDK has officially been released on github. Although it doesn’t come with any map editing tools, it is expected that members of the community will soon create map editors utilizing this SDK. As always, we will keep you posted on further developments.

Paddle progress

The Rigid-hulled inflatable boats don't appear to be the only new watercraft coming to Rust. We’re also seeing a lot of work on title hold types, in preparation for a canoe and paddle. Although neither of these are in game yet, it does appear they soon will be.

Bandit town progress

Damian continues his work on the newest monument, Bandit town. This week he's done various tweaks and optimizations along with working on the cabins and tree's for this new swampy monument. I reached out to him for some teaser shots and will post them if he sends any.

Edit: Just got these two new shots:

Other stuff

• BBQ exploit fix
• Small refinery can no longer be fully submerge underwater
• Fix Junkpile Scientists not registering with Junkpiles properly.

12:00am EST - With one week before the update and forced wipe, we’re seeing an exciting new feature for teams coming in.

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

Team UI

Helk is working on a new dynamic for keeping track of team members. This team UI will not only shift the look of name tags over people's heads, it’ll give players the ability to distinguish their friends in a really fast, easy way. Still on a separate branch and a very rough work in progress, Helk shared some details about what we can expect (and even a short video).

Name tags will still appear over peoples heads and disappear after 4 meters, but now they’ll also be green dots which are used to identify your friends. These dots will stay visible after the name tag disappears and stay in sight up to 100 meters away. Looking directly at a friend will have their name show up at a distance Along with this, teammates will even show up on the map.

Helk mentioned that he knows some people are going to rage at this concept, but said if it truly isn’t good he’ll just remove it. Personally I’m excited to see how this will impact gameplay. It will be nice to not second guess friends in a firefight, be very useful for tracking neighbors and aquaintences, and also may open up more possibilities of randoms teaming up together.

Here’s a very rough work in progress video Helk shared with me. Keep in mind the UI is not yet complete and more needs to be done with regards to handling overlaps. Expect this work to be merged in early next week in time to go live with the update and forced wipe.

Hapis progress

Alistair has continued his work on adding puzzles to the monuments on the Hapis island map. As he mentioned to us last week, we can expect some of the monuments to have puzzles on Hapis, although more work will need to be done next month to continue adding them in.

Bandit town progress

Damian, Diogo, and Vincent have done a ton of commits for the next monument in the hopper: Bandit town. Although it is not yet merged in, a bunch of work has been made on materials, objects, water, terrain, and more. Although the artwork for this new monument is almost done, Damian shared that they are not planning on launching it with the next update in the interest of setting up more gameplay dynamics properly.

In the meantime, here are some more teaser shots Damian sent me:

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

12:35am EST - Update day has arrived and with it some exciting new additions to the game - team UI, watchtower deployable, compass, a new type of boat, and more!

Our update stream will start at 2pm EST (looks like the update will launch by 3pm EST). Follow @Rustafied for news throughout the day.

Update summary video

Here's an update summary video from Puddy!

Team UI

A huge new dynamic for building and tracking teams makes its way in today. The Team UI allows groups of up to 8 (by default, can be changed by server owners) to form an alliance and keep track of each other.

To start a team, hit ‘tab’ and select ‘create team’ on the bottom left. Then, as the team leader, you can go up to people and invite them with the ‘use’ key (providing they are not already on a team, in which case you won’t see any invite option). Only the team leader is able to invite others, and you can only be part of one team at a time.

When you get an invite, you’ll hear a noise and see a chat message on the bottom left. You then must hit ‘tab’ and select ‘accept’ or ‘decline’ on the bottom left. Once in a team, you can see your team members and their status on the bottom left of your screen at all times (green for alive, gray for asleep, and red for dead).

The name tags for each team member appear in green. There’s also a dot added below nametags, which, like the names themselves, are gray by default and green for your team. This dot, however, stays visible for your active team members for up to 100 meters, regardless of line of sight. If you aim directly at a green dot in the distance, the persons name tag will appear. You can also see the location of your team members at all times via the in game map overlay.

Leadership of a team can be transferred from the leader by simply going up to another team member, waiting for the ‘transfer leadership’ tooltip, and pressing ‘use’. Leaders can even transfer leadership to a sleeping member of their team (must hold 'use' to bring up option). Leaders can also kick members of the team at any time by pressing ‘tab’, hovering over the member, and pressing ‘kick’.

This is a first iteration of a new system and is bound to need some tweaks, fixes, and balance. We'll keep you posted with any shifts.

Watchtower deployable

Coming out of left field, Helk has added a new deployable to the mix. The Watchtower is a tall, wooden structure which can be placed on the fly and climbed up to gain a height advantage. This not only stands to be a new must have for compounds, it may also come in handy during raids and PVP. Here are some details:

Crafting cost
2500 wood

Found
BP in barrels

Decay time
8 hours (with 5 hour delay) outside TC

Research cost
75 scrap

Workbench
Level 1

Health
500

Rigid Hulled inflatable boat

It looks like a new form of watercraft is also making its way in today. Originally expected to be a server event, the Rigid Hulled Inflatable Boat will actually just be a rare spawn for the time being. That said, Helk did mention he plans on adding some around the map with shooting scientists eventually. For the time being though, here’s what you need to know:

• It’ll be found rarely around the map
• Seats 6 people
• Small wood storage up front
• Consumes fuel
• Faster than the rowboat

Compass added

A new tool to navigating the Rust landscape has been added to your arsenal as of this update. The compass is a new HUD element which tells you the direction you’re looking in the form of north, south, east, west, and various degrees in between. It is on by default, but you can switch it to a toggle key (of ‘c’) or turn it off completely in the escape menu options.

Jackhammer

The newest powered tool is here! The Jackhammer can only be found or bought, not crafted. Once you get one, you'll be able to demolish ore nodes in a matter of seconds. It doesn't require any fuel at the moment, but its durability does go down over time.

Hostile scientists are back

Strolling down the roads of Rust will be a bit more treacherous post update as Scientist NPC’s have been made more aggressive. After becoming overwhelmingly docile after the update last month, these blue-clad, geiger-counting NPC’s will once again be hostile to those who get too close - you’ve been warned!

New C4

Timed explosive charges have received a face lift as the model has been updated. This change is purely visual, no stats with regards to C4 have shifted.

New stone world model

Dropping stones on the ground will no longer give you minecraft flashbacks as the world model has been shifted. No longer a crudely textured cube, the new stone world model looks closer to the pick-up-able ore you find around the map.

Hapis Puzzles delayed

Alistair was working on (among other things) translating puzzles into the monuments on Hapis. It looks, however, like he bit off more than he can chew as these puzzles are simply not ready for primetime this wipe.

Other stuff

• Can place storage boxes under research table (not repair bench though)
• Small signs can be placed on shelves (place the sign before your boxes and the boxes will clip through the sign)
• Puzzle polish
• Fixed passing loot through walls using research table exploit
• vending machine rotate exploit fix
• BBQ exploit fix
• Small refinery can no longer be fully submerge underwater

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

Fixed monument puzzles

Last weeks update introduced a number of game changing features as well as a few potentially serious bugs. The most notable being broken puzzles at several monuments. Facepunch initially said that the problem could not be resolved without another forced wipe (which they chose not to do) on all servers. However, they did state that servers with a shorter wipe cycle (i.e., weekly, biweekly) could be fixed using the wipe based patch. Over the weekend though we received news that the problem could be resolved on all servers with a new patch and debug command. 

Team UI progress

The compass strip has been updated to better align with the existing UI graphics

Old compass strip

New compass strip

A rather frustrating problem with the new UI has been fixed this week, streamer mode now works on the team list so you can use these new features without giving up your info. 

Bandit town

The Rust commits page has been blowing up since the July 5th update with tons of commits centered around the bandit town monument branch. Earlier this evening it appeared that it might be coming to the staging branch for public testing today but at this point it has yet to be merged. A number of teasers and cryptic commits have been added though including things, such as a number of graphical additions, agriculture (kettle, milk churn, and moonshine), and tools (hand saw, rake and horse yoke).

Other stuff

Unity 2018.2.0 implementation
Continued SDK progress
 

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

12:00am EST - We’re at the halfway point for Rust development this month and the team is working on new functionality.

Our update preview stream goes live at 3pm EST. Stay tuned to @Rustafied for news throughout the day.

RHIB event progress

Helk is building out some AI for new server events, the first of which being the Rigid Hulled Inflatable Boat (or RHIB). After being partially implemented last month, the RHIB now has fuel and engine functionality, along with with some fixed issues with collision.

Although not fully flushed out yet, it is expected this event will occur at certain intervals on each server, and feature scientist NPC’s traveling across the water in the RHIB. Players will then be able to engage the NPC’s in an attempt to take control of the RHIB.

Larger than the rowboats found along the shore, the RHIB seats up to 6 people, has a small wood storage, 1000 health, and moves much faster. It is unknown at the moment as to exactly how many NPC’s will be on each boat, how hostile they’ll be to other players, or exactly how often they will show up. As always, we’ll keep you posted as this functionality is built out.

Compound bow

Thomas has completed much of the art for a new Compound Bow! Although other things like sounds and animations are still needed prior to full implimentation, this is a critical step towards seeing this new weapon in the game. 

See more at Thomas' ArtStation page.

Procgen native

Andre has continued his work on the procgen native branch. As with most commits with the word ‘procgen’ in them, this project will likely involve some tweaks / changes to terrain generation in the game. Still a little shrouded in mystery, it’s not completely clear what exactly or how significant these shifts may be. That said, I do have a hunch it’ll include the new swamp areas coming with Bandit town.

Bandit town

Speaking of Bandit town, work continues on the art and implementation of this newest of monuments. Expected to go live with the next update on August 2nd, this new location will not only be visually stimulating, but stands to have some new gameplay dynamics interjected with it.

Rustafied server IP changes

We've switched two of our servers around to help better balance the load between our dedicated machines. Please note the new IP's:

• US Small - 162.248.92.69:27095
• US Long - 74.91.119.142:28056

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

12:26am EST - With just one week before the big update, we’ve got a new type of bow on the way!

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

Compound Bow

A new type of weapon is almost here! The initial implementation for the Compound Bow is in progress on a separate branch. Although we can't test it out in game yet, Helk shared some details (and a video) with me.

The Compound Bow builds strength as you pull back on the string. The longer you hold, the more damage your arrow will do (and the farther it’ll go). It has a strength meter directly under the iron sights to show how hard you are pulling. This meter will reset if you move, so only those standing still will be able to fire a full power shot. See it in action here.

We’ll update this post with all the pertinent information once the branch is merged in and we can test it out.

Edit: The Compound Bow is now on the staging branch. Here is some more info and pictures:

Cost
100 Wood
75 Frags
2 Rope

Ammo
Arrows (duh)

Blueprint
Default

Workbench
Level 1 required

Plant information

Farmers of Rust just got a powerful new tool. An information panel has been added when looking at items you’ve planted (in planters and out). It includes the plants age, progress, hydration, and yield percentage. Now you no longer need to guess how far along your crops are or if they need water.

Bandit town guards

Work this week has started on guards for the upcoming Bandit town monument. This new monument, set to be added next week, plans to be the ying to the outposts yang. What does this mean exactly?

Based on what Helk has shared with me, the Bandit town guards are basically like the Scientists at the Outposts, but they look like normal people. Although there won’t be a ‘safe zone’ per say, these guards will engage people who fuck around.

As with all in progress functionality, all this is subject to change prior to going live next week.

Underwater vegetation

Diving in Rust should be more interesting soon as Vincent has started work on an underwater vegetation branch. Although there are no visuals for this yet, it appears various foliage will soon be added to the underwater sections of the map. More on this as it progresses.

Underwear art assets

It looks like a new article of clothing may soon be making its way into the game. Underwear art assets have been committed by Taylor. No word on exactly how or when this will be added, but as always, we’ll keep you posted.

Here is a small preview of the Bandit Camp that is expected to go live with the 8/2 update! Our full update post will be up early Thursday!

NPC's selling various items are found throughout the bandit camp.

A few of the items available in exchange for scrap.

The roulette wheel for betting.

Seats at the betting terminals.

Placing a bet using scrap with the terminal.

Results of said bet. Winnings were "easy come, easy go". It's possible to get a hot streak then lose it all just as quickly.

3:45pm EST - The update is out and devblog is live!

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

12:45pm EST - Durability of key cards has been reduced, they now last for half as many swipes. Also, some of the items for sale in Bandit Camp have changed.

12:00am EST - Update day has arrived, and with it, some great new additions to the game. Along with the amazing looking new monument, Bandit Camp, we’ve got a new compound bow, swamps, the rigid hulled inflatable boat, underwater vegetation, puzzles on Hapis, and more!

As always, there is no set time for the update to hit. Generally speaking though, it tends to happen between 2 and 5pm EST. Our update stream goes live at 2 PM EST (subject to change depending on status of the patch). Stay tuned to @Rustafied for news throughout the day.

Update summary video

Here's an update summary video from Puddy!

Bandit Camp

The newest monument in Rust has finally arrived and it looks spectacular. Shrouded in a permanent layer of fog, Bandit Camp (as it’s labeled on the map - not ‘Bandit Town’ as previously referred to) provides a semi-safe zone for players to trade, purchase goods, and even gamble.

Although it doesn’t feature any loot or puzzles, Bandit Camp introduces different gameplay dynamics and a fresh new atmosphere to Rust. Please note, this is an initial implementation so things are subject to change. Also, Bandit Camp does not appear on every map - try a new seed if it’s not showing up on your server.

Below you'll find an overview video, pictures, and explanations of the different aspects of Bandit Camp.

Bandit Guards

One thing you’ll notice upon entering Bandit Camp is the armed guards scattered about. Although these guys aren’t dressed like the scientist NPC’s you see around the Compound, they do behave in a similar manner. They are there to keep the peace and will eliminate any one in the area who attacks them or other players.

Unlike the Compound guards, these bandits don’t mess with you for just having a weapon out. Referred to as a ‘soft-safe zone’, the majority of this new camp permits wielding weapons, looting bodies, and even killing others (as long as the guards don’t see you). Also, if you do happen to get caught and killed by a guard, there is no cooldown for re-entry - you can simply come back without getting attacked again.

Gambling

A completely new dynamic has been added with Bandit Camp: Gambling! Taking place in one room (in the second floor of the biggest building), roulette can now be played by up to 6 people at a time.

To play, simply sit down at one of the chairs in front of the big wheel and interact with the metal console on your side. A countdown timer runs for 45 seconds prior to the wheel spin, giving you time to place your bets. Using scrap as currency, you can place your bet on any one of the 5 options (each with different odds and payouts).

As you may expect, security is a bit higher in the gambling area. In fact, throughout the entire building there is a safe zone similar to that of the Compound - no brandishing weapons or any violence of any sorts is permitted. Failure to follow these rules will result in your swift execution and a cooldown period (of 30 minutes) before you're welcome to return.  

NPC Shops

Also introduced with Bandit Camp is NPC shopkeepers. With 4 shops total, this new attraction allows you to buy a variety of goods. To purchase something, simply walk up to one of the shop fronts. You’ll be greeted with a friendly wave from the shopkeeper. Press ‘E’ when looking at the NPC and a buy menu will show up.

Here’s a list of what’s for sale and the prices of each item. Also note, only 1 person can buy from the a shop at once - so wait your turn!

Other stuff

There’s also a recycler and research table in Bandit Camp.

Abandoned Cabins

Bandit Camp isn’t the only new landmark on the map this week - Abandoned Cabins have been added to maps also. This small monument tends to appear once per map seed and features some low level loot along with a green card on a desk (in the second floor of one of the cabins). Like the Bandit Camp, you can’t build anywhere in this area.

Swamps

Also added to the map, two new swamp areas will now randomly spawn on procgen. Similar to the ice lakes in the arctic biome, players can build anywhere in these areas. With the same feel as the Bandit Camp and Abandoned Cabins, these new areas greatly add to the contrast of procedural map generation, and they provide some loot too!

Compound bow

A new generation of bow has arrived! The Compound Bow is a low tier weapon and default blueprint which packs quite a punch (when used correctly). Similar to the hunting bow, you simply aim and pull back on the string to fire. Unlike the hunting bow, you can hold the string back on the compound bow to gain strength.

Hold the string back, take aim and you’ll see a strength meter show up just under the iron sights. As the meter goes up, so does the velocity and damage of the arrow you’re firing. Here’s the catch though: if you move at all while priming the bow, the strength resets to zero.

Damage wise this bow yields less impact on HP than the hunting bow at minimal strength. That said, priming the bow to full strength has devastating results on opponents, with the ability to down a geared player in one shot.

Here are some details and pictures:

Cost
100 Wood
75 Frags
2 Rope

Ammo
Arrows (duh)

Blueprint
Default

Workbench
Level 1 required

Rigid Hulled Inflatable Boats

Helk has added spawns for the newest type of Rust watercraft, the Rigid Hulled Inflatable Boat (or RHIB for short). Originally planned as a server event where players must battle scientist NPC’s to commandeer this vessel, these boats will be found just like the rowboats are - for this month at least (the server event is still planned in the future).

With 5 RHIB’s spawning on a map at a given time, they feature seating for 6, 1000hp, a small wooden storage, and a speed much greater than that of the rowboat. Enjoy these while you can because August will probably be the only month where you can simply find them along the shore.

Plant information

Gone are the days of guessing how far along your crops are or if they are properly hydrated! Farmers of Rust have gotten a powerful new tool as Helk has added an information panel when looking at items which have been planted. This panel includes the plants age, progress, hydration, and yield percentage.

Underwater vegetation

Diving in Rust has gotten a bit more interesting this month as Vince added a slew of new underwater vegetation. Mixed in with the already existing underwater loot, this new aquatic foliage makes the murky depths of Rust look much more lush.

Hapis puzzles

Alistair has completed the first round of work adding puzzles to the Hapis island map. Similar to those of procedural maps, these puzzles require the proper color key cards to access the subsequent loot. Currently there are puzzles at Military Tunnels, Site B, Water Well, Refinery, and Loading Dock (no puzzles at Launch Site yet).

This is a first iteration, so don’t be surprised if you see changes or more puzzles added to Hapis over the next month or so.

Compass improvements

The HUD compass, added last month, has been polished a bit for this update. It still functions the same, but you’ll notice it looks a bit better.

Other things

• Durability of key cards has been halved
• Streamer mode now works on the team list
• ESP disabled for team members (must have line of sight to see green dot)
• Added team member names overtop of map indicators
• 'You are here' marker always displays on top of team markers
• Fixed corpse warnings / NREs from 27668
• Potential fix for silly macOS+AMD MRT blending bug/unity_2018.2.0
• Fridge exploit fix
• Waterjug bug fix
• Riot helmet LOD clipping fix RUST-48
• RUST-41 Fixed see through gap between single sheet metal door and doorways
• RUST-42 Fixed food crate spawner max per tick value being over the top
• RUST-39 Attempting to fix fallen logs blocking APC pathing at LS by making building topology wider on terrain
• RUST-54 Section of LS ladder cannot be climbed (missing volume)
• RUST-115 Fixed inaccurate colliders on powerline base
• RUST-110 Fixed out of bound exploit at MT
• Wire barricades no longer damage players through floors
• Wire barricades slightly easier to place on rough terrain

Blueprint wipe

Although there is not a forced blueprint wipe expected with this update, all Rustafied servers will wipe blueprints when the update goes live.

Introducing: Rustafied EU Trio

Due to popular demand, we're opening our first solo / duo / trio server today! Rustafied EU Trio will go live shortly after the update today. For full details, check out our new trio page.

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

12:05am EST - It’s a fresh month for Rust development and after a successful update last week, the team is working on a new weapon, a new server event, some tweaks / bug fixes, and best of all, optimization!

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

L96 Incoming

A new weapon is on its way. The L96 is a military grade sniper rifle which features an 8x scope. Tom completed the model, materials, and collision mesh this week, checking off an important milestone in seeing this in game.

The specific details of this weapon won’t be defined untill actual implementation. That said, there are a couple of likely possibilities: It probably won’t be craftable, will very likely use 5.56 ammo, and will only be obtainable through very few means (maybe a server event).

No set date for when we’ll be able to play around with this new weapon in game, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it makes its way in for the update next month. As always, we’ll keep you posted on the progression.

In the meantime, here's what the model looks like. Check out Tom's ArtStation page to see more.

Bandit town tweaks

Rust’s newest monument - after a successful launch last week - has received a couple tweaks. Specifically, Bandit guards are now more reactive to explosives. Also, guards have been added to the base level of the dredge.

Skin optimization

Andre is playing around with how custom skins are loaded. Previously, they would just be loaded on the fly as they showed up in game. This was not ideal as it caused many clients to continually lag out in game. This problem has been compounded over the last months due to the sheer number of skins added each week.

Thankfully, Andre has switched it to simply include all skins in the main install of the game. Although this will cause for a larger install file, it should help significantly with stutter issues in game.

Cargo ship event

Vince and Damien are working on the art to go with an upcoming server event, the Cargo Ship. As described in the roadmap, the Cargo Ship will periodically circle the Rust island, carrying scientists and equipment, allowing players to approach and board to battle each other and secure loot.

I asked Damien for some sneak peeks but he said he'd rather hold off another week for something more concrete to show off. No word yet on when this’ll make it into the game, however, given it’s top on the “Now” list of the roadmap - I’d say it’s likely to happen sooner rather than later.

Other stuff

• Fixed glitchy RHIB visuals under shader level 300
• Fix for ambient sounds
• Fixed boats decaying while in use

12:00am EST - We’re near the halfway point for development this month and the team at Facepunch is working on fixes, optimization, and some new items!

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

Smoke grenades

Helk snuck a new item into the game this week. Smoke grenades can now be purchased at Bandit Town for 10 scrap each. They cannot be crafted and appear to only be obtainable at the weapon shop of the newest monument.

A handy tool, smoke grenades emit a large amount of - you guessed it - smoke. The smoke lasts around a minute and does a good job of obscuring the area. In the interest of performance, Helk has significantly lowered the amount of particles. He's also added a full grey-out effect when in the smoke to prevent anyone from being able to see out.

Available at
Bandit Town

Cost
10 scrap

Duration
~1 minute

Optimization

The team continued working on improving performance. Among other things, Diogo and Helk removed allocations for garbage collections in a bunch of places. Given this appears to have been another source of stuttering in the game, players will hopefully experience much fewer issues come the next update.

Skin icon fixes

For a while now, icons for certain skins haven’t been loading properly. Thankfully, that appears to be resolved this week after Andre has rebuilt all skin icons. He’s also fixed skinned mesh render bounds not always refreshing when rendering icons, which could lead to odd icon scales.

Recycler improvement

Helk has modified an annoying trait of the recycler. Instead of anyone being allowed to turn it off - which opened up for a lot of trolling around communal recyclers - only the user of the recycler may now operate it.

Cargo ship progress

Vince and Damien have continued their work on the art to go with an upcoming server event, the Cargo Ship. As described in the roadmap, the Cargo Ship will occasionally circle the map in Rust, allowing players to approach and board to battle scientist NPC’s and each other to secure loot.

No visuals from the team on this yet, but it does appear to be a priority to get in for this months update. More on this as work progresses in the coming weeks.

Other stuff

• Recycler added to Bandit Town
• inventory.give now takes item condition as an optional third parameter
• Icon for supply signal has been updated

12:00am EST - Another week in Rust development and we’re seeing improvements to AI, tweaks to the newest grenade, progress on the cargo ship, and more!

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

AI Improvements

Pål is progressing on several improvements to both animal and scientist AI. This includes going dormant properly, awareness of thrown objects, avoidance of explosions, robust sensation data around explosions, and more.

Mainly these improvements have been based around behavior, but some performance optimizations have also been made. Long and short: AI should behave better with less overhead.

Smoke grenade tweaks

After adding smoke grenades in last week, Helk has made a few adjustments. They will now stack to two, players can throw them farther, and you can’t use them underground.

As you may recall from last week, smoke grenades last about 60 seconds, obscure the area they are thrown in, and can only be purchased at Bandit Town for 10 scrap.

Cargo ship event

Progress on the newest server event continues this week as Damian and Vincent polish the art of the Cargo Ship. As mentioned in the devblog, this ship will sporadically circle the waters of Rust, giving players the opportunity to board, loot, shoot, and more.

Damian said he’d send me some shots at some point today, so stay tuned for some initial images.

Edit: Just got the above shot from Vincent!

Hapis 10

Alistair is working on another iteration of the Hapis Island map. With a focus on polishing some areas up, he’s doing more fine tuned work this month with the intention of putting some large changes in next month for longer testing.

Other stuff

• More work on optimization
• Misc Bandit Town fixes

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

2:30am EST - A bit of a light week for Rust commits but we’re seeing improvements to AI, tweaks to food, QOL additions. Also, many larger changes are still not on staging to test before the monthly forced update week!

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

QOL Additions

Alistair has added the ability to place deployables on the repair bench. You are now also able to place a small box underneath the BBQ.

AI Improvements

Some more forward facing AI tweaks this week including bandit guards taking action if a player is sleeping too long or if a smoke grenade is deployed.

Slot machines incoming

It looks like another type of gambling is on the way as the art for a slot machine was completed this week. No word exactly how these will be implemented yet, but we'll keep you posted as we know more.

Food and Health tweaks

Corn and pumpkin growth time has increased now that they are complete when you pick them. They can be stacked to 20 in your inventory including your hot bar for some pumpkin spam healing! With that in mind though, health over time takes much longer to convert to actual health. At this time we cannot display this effect until it is merged into staging. Stay tuned!

Other stuff

• A new convar added to allow people to hide signs (good for streamers)
• Snow jacket name fix
• Graphical effect tweaks
• Tons of work on Cargo Ship event
• Lots of additional upcoming work on AI
• More work on L96 8x military-grade sniper
• Tweaked cover and spawn points at MT
• Experimenting with Scientists using thrown weapons

1:45pm EST - The update is live and devblog is out!

1:00am EST - Update day has arrived and with it some optimization, quality of life improvements, ai tweaks, and a new tool.

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

Update summary video

Here's the update summary video from Puddy.

Smoke grenades added

A new item is here to help obfuscate views. Smoke grenades are now in the game and can only be purchased at Bandit Town for 10 scrap each.

A handy tool, smoke grenades emit a large amount of - you guessed it - smoke. The smoke lasts around 45 seconds and does a good job of obscuring the area. In the interest of performance, Helk has significantly lowered the amount of particles. He's also added a full grey-out effect when in the smoke to prevent anyone from being able to see out.

Optimization / performance

Andre has focused a lot this month on improving client performance. Along with fixing some long standing issues with skin icons not loading, he has made it so all custom skins are downloaded with the game installation files as opposed to loading on the fly.

There's also been a slew of other things done with the intention of improving client performance all around. Expect to see some more specifics on the devblog.

Bandit town tweaks

The newest monument on the block has had some modifications this month. Not only has a recycler been added, Bandit Town guards have several new characteristics. They now react to explosives and smoke grenades plus they will apparently kill sleepers (although we haven’t seen this in action yet). Also, a couple new guards have been added and several exploits have been resolved.

Hide signs option added

A great new option for streamers is available as a ‘hide signs’ option has been added to the escape menu. Hiding all custom painted signs, this feature may help streamers from inadvertently broadcasting offensive material.

Decay changes

You’ll notice some changes to decay times across the board this month. The mailbox, search light, barricades, large furnace, furnace, small and large water catcher, repair bench, oil refinery and research table all decay much faster. Also, workbenches now decay after a long period.

Farming and food shifts

There have been some significant shifts to farming with this update. Not only do pumpkins and corn no longer have a condition, they now stack to 20. This means they have full health when harvesting and players are able to consume them quicker than before.

Deployable placement

Base design has gotten a bit more flexibility as deployables can now be placed on the shelf under the repair bench. Also, you can now place a small box under the BBQ.

Other Stuff

• Recycler can only be turned on or off by the player interacting with it.

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

Pumpkin nerf

Well, they’re all over. The Sept. 6th update brought in a few changes to farming and food consumption including stackable pumpkins. In line with many earlier changes, the community was quick to pounce on this commit. Replacing meds in their toolbars with pumpkins, people effectively spammed health, giving tons of seeds, leading to pumpkin plants growing everywhere.

This has led to many of our servers having tens of thousands of pumpkins growing at any given time. The devs have released a server update to help limit the growth rate and therefore the availability. Clients and servers should see some improvements from the patch thanks to the growth change.

Cargo ship progress

Earlier today the feed filled up with cargo ship event commits. While it’s not on the staging branch yet, it does seem like Helk is hard at work on getting this event ready for the October 4th forced wipe.

This commit has been marked private, so it is hidden

This has been a popular commit as well… Looking forward to see what the devs are cooking!

Other stuff

• Underwear, burlap gloves, and tactical glove work done

• Unity 2018.2.7

• New hemp models coming

12:20am EST - We’re at the halfway point of the development month for Rust and the team is making some great progress on this new server event.

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

Cargo ship progress

The primary focus for most of the team this week has been on the upcoming cargo ship server event. As you may recall, this large vessel will traverse the waters of Rust, stocked with scientists and loot. Players will be able to board the cargo ship, PvP, grab some loot, engage a scientist or two, then depart with their plunder.

A large percentage of the commits this week were towards the cargo ship branch, which is still not merged with staging. So although we can’t experience it in game quite yet, we can get a sense for some of what has been worked on.

Along with handling the pathfinding of the ship itself, the team is tackling the extra level of complication added when you have what basically amounts to a large monument slowly moving around the map. Not only does it need know where the ship can and cannot go, it needs to track and match the velocity of all individual items (players, deployables, etc.) along with it. This can especially be challenging when you have to track projectiles such as thrown objects (which is still on the todo list).

Long and short, some great progress is being made on this new server event and it’s likely we’ll see it in game for the October 4th update. In the meantime, Helk sent me a quick video of him running around the cargo ship:

AI improvements

Pål did some work on improving AI this week. Not only did he fix several errors and compile issues, he has made it so NPC’s now also support custom waypoint pathing instead of the default navmesh form of navigation. This will give the dev team the ability to set custom routes for NPC’s to navigate if they so choose.

New plants

It appears some new plants are on the horizon as Damian has been working on art and styles of a potato plant. Looking at the roadmap you can see Farming 3.0 is right around the corner, so expect it to become a larger dynamic of gameplay in the coming months.

Hidden commits

Another week of large amounts of hidden commits. What is hidden behind these commits? Is it optimization? Antihack improvements? A fundamentally shifting new gameplay dynamic everyone will lose their shit over how it will totally ruin the game and then get used to after a day of playing? Only time will tell…

Other stuff

• Garage door easier to open/close when placed near ladder hatch

• Metal shop front exploit fix

2:00am EST -Big update here! A new server event, new gloves, new rifle, new attachment, and extra clothing slot are all coming into the game today.

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

* Additional news from the day moved to bottom of post for ascetic sake

Update summary video

Don’t like reading shit? Check out our update summary video from Puddy.

Cargo Ship event

A new server event is coming in this week - the long awaited Cargo Ship will now be patrolling the waters of Rust. This floating PvP arena is loaded with several elite crates and two countdown locked cargo crates similar to the Chinook event.

The Cargo Ship will swing through the waters of Rust ever couple of in game days and hang out for around 40 minutes. You board it via a ladder on the side so best to be in a boat on approach. There are roughly 11 scientist NPC’s, so watch out as you go searching for that loot. Finally, there is a RHIB in the rear which can be used for a quick escape.

New gloves

There are three new types of gloves, each with their own benefits.

Burlap gloves

Blueprint
Default

Craft
5 cloth

Time
30 seconds

Roadsign gloves

Blueprint
20 scrap

Craft
20 leather
1 roadsign
2 sewing kits

Time
30 seconds

Tactical gloves

Blueprint
None

Info
Removes aim sway. Cannot be crafted but for sale at the compound monument

Cost
40 scrap

Extra clothing slot

A seventh clothing slot has been added! After a few years of player requests and recurring Reddit threads the devs have added a seventh slot. They’ve also updated the locker accordingly.

L96 Rifle

A new bolt action military grade rifle has arrived. The L96 is a powerful ranged weapon with a 5 round clip . Like other military grade weapons, it’s unable to be crafted, but can be purchased at Bandit Town for 500 scrap.

This beast has almost no bullet drop given the insane velocity, meaning it can level enemies in short order from great range. If you come across one you don’t want to use, it can also be recycled for 20 HQM, 3 pipes, 3 springs, and a moderate chance for rifle body.

Armor

Naked head shot
Heavy mask head
Metal mask head
Hazmat suit head
Coffee can head
Heavy chest
Metal chest
Roadsign chest
Naked chest

Damage

Full kill
22
90
Full kill
Full kill
25
67
72
90

Bleeding

N/A
4%
18%
N/A
N/A
11%
14%
14%
18%

8x scope

Along with the new L96 rifle, there is a much more powerful scope for long distance shots. It’s quite effective at range and cannot be crafted. Pick one up at your local Black Market shop in Bandit Town for 300 scrap.

Other stuff

• Halloween event coming week of October 15th!

• You can now zoom map out farther

• A bunch of AI fixes

• Monument optimizations

• New skins are out on the item store

• Work on hot air balloon (not in yet)

Timeline of the day

Here’s how the day went down (moved from top of post for legibility)

6:17pm EST - The devblog is live and client update just hit! Game on!

6:10pm EST - Our servers are updating and wiping, client update should hit momentarily…

5:58pm EST - The server update just hit, client and devblog still pending…

4:40pm EST - The team at Facepunch are still working out a few kinks with this new server event so the patch is a bit delayed. Our update stream is no longer live but I’ll tweet as soon as any news comes our way.

3:00pm EST - The update is still pending and our update stream is live! twitch.tv/rustafied

1:30pm EST - The devs let me know they are shooting to get the patch live in the next hour or so. As always, we’ll keep you posted.

Charitable Rust 2018

Survival gaming gives back
A 12 hour streaming event, raising funds for charity

The landscape of Rust is harsh and brutal. Although it is fun to play in brutal virtual environments, harshness in real life is no game. Help us improve the lives of people through the power of playing Rust.

Join us Saturday, November 17th, 2018 on twitch.tv/rustafied as we stream live Rust gameplay with special game events, your favorite Rust streamers, and awesome giveaways.

100% of proceeds from this year go to:

12:00am EST - An exciting new mode of transportation is on the horizon - literally! Hot Air Balloons are making their first appearance on staging this week along with a couple miscellaneous fixes and such.

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

Hot Air Balloon on staging

That’s right! The Hot Air Balloon is on the staging branch… technically. At the moment, it doesn’t do much other than float around after you spawn it, so much of its functionality is still in development.

Spawned via the ‘spawn hotair’ command in console, the Hot Air Balloon quickly lifts into the sky, randomly travelling higher and higher until the inevitable POP! Just kidding, it just despawns.

Of course, this is not its final form. According to Helk, the Hot Air Balloon will not only be available for purchase, you’ll be able to craft them too. Once in your possession, you’ll deploy, board, and take to the sky’s!

Looking around the interior, you see a red ‘ignite’ button on one handrail along with some makeshift controls up top. How exactly you pilot this new vehicle remains to be seen.

The cost and other specifics are also up in the air (rim-shot). That said, the team is making some great progress on this, so I wouldn’t be surprised if they are fully inflated and ready to go come the November 1st update. As always, we’ll keep you posted with its development throughout the month.

10/12 Edit: The Hot Air Balloon is now fully functional on staging! Flying it is very difficult, you can just climb or descend as the wind takes you. Check out Shadowfrax’s video for more info.

L-96 admire

Newest weapon in the game, the L-96 has received its admire animation. Like all other weapons, simply press ‘b’ while holding one to see for yourself (after the November update that is).

Cargo Ship fixes

After being added last week, the newest server event has gotten some expected fixes. Mainly, the developers fixed the trajectory of arrows when fired on the cargo ship during a turn.

Edit: A small optional update just came out to fix several small issues with the Cargo Ship.

Hidden goings-on

As with the previous weeks, there have been tons of “This commit has been marked private, so it is hidden.” What exactly are the developers hiding? Although there are some rumors circling the community, there has been no official word from Facepunch on exactly what this body of work entails.

Other stuff

• Halloween event starts next week!

• Work on Drone meshes, textures, and prefabs

• More work on AI

• Possible update to Unity