Big update next week
12:00am EST - With one week till the forced wipe and update on April 4th, big things are happening over on the staging branch. It looks like much of this stuff will be making it in for the update and forced wipe next week!
Our update preview stream goes live at 1pm EST. Follow @Rustafied for news throughout the week.
Bradley scientists
Bradley will soon have some new behavior! Long and short: Once you attack Bradley enough (a couple rockets worth), there’s a big puff of smoke and 4 scientist NPC’s pop out. This of course adds to the complexity and challenge of taking good ole’ Bradley out. This appears to not only happen at the normal stomping grounds (Launch Site) but also towards the end of wipe when these guys spawn all over the map.
Harbor rework and cargo ship event
The Harbor has been reworked and is now part of the Cargo Ship event! Along with an awesome new layout, the Harbor is now temporary home to the Cargo Ship. Stopping in to dock as part of its normal patrol, the Cargo Ship stays at the Harbor for about 8 minutes total. During this time, two cranes load a total of 4 containers onto the ship.
As a cool side note: players are able to open and close the doors of these red shipping containers, allowing them to stow away on the ship! Still on the Aux2 branch, it’s looking like this will make it in for the update next week!
Oilrig changes
Also related to monument reworks, the Oilrigs will soon have a new point of ingress. Specifically, a moonpool connected to a large vertical tube has been added. Like the underwater labs, these moonpools will allow for people to enter the monument from under the water via scuba diving or submarine.
Once at the moonpool, players are able to climb up the tube several levels. There is an exit at the water line and then another on the 3 floor of the rig. Doors to the tube can be open and closed, but not locked. Like the Harbor changes, it looks like this will make it in for the April update.
Minigun incoming
A new high tier weapon is in the works as we’re seeing a lot of commits to the Minigun branch. No specifics yet as to how this gun will function and how / if it will be obtained. As it stands, most is unknown, but word on the street is it’ll make its way in for the update next week. We’ll keep you posted as more info as it comes to light.
Edit: The Minigun has been added to staging! It has 300 rounds of 556 and requires it’s own ammo backpack to hold more rounds. This is still WIP so remember: SUBJECT TO CHANGE!
Anticheat improvements
Alistair made a post which not only summarized what's coming in the update next week, but also gave some insight into anti-cheat improvements they are working on:
A lot of work is being done behind the scenes on anticheat, over the past and coming months we've slowly been closing information leaks such as networking health, items, stashes, auth lists and more. We've fixed several long-standing cheat features.
Expanding the support team sizes has allowed us to get more staff support focusing on anticheat, which includes going in-game and dealing with and disrupting cheaters directly based on player reports. Some staff will soon be dedicated to anti-cheat measures full-time.
This is awesome to see!
Other stuff
Electricity improvements
AI tweaks to the attack helicopter
New world models for seeds incoming
New burlap sack model for heads
More work on the first cupboard skin (coming next week)
More work on the military flamethrower (looks to be an NPC controlled weapon)
More work on bikes (including a sidecar option) - See sneak peak here!