9:45pm EST - New server: client.connect 198.27.69.25:28015

9:41pm EST - Switching to new server, transferring the save. Back up in 3 minutes.

9:38pm EST - Still getting some drops on the server. Working on tracking it down, will post updates as I have them.

8:47pm EST - Server was experiencing mass drops. I've just restarted and loaded the map.

5:15pm EST - After a silent couple of hours, the @RustUpdates twitter just dropped 6 commits in a row. Most are random bug fixes but the two things to note: Faster load time and Protocol++. Faster load times are always welcome, Protocol++ however, means we'll have to wipe the map on the next update. Looks like this will be the perfect opportunity to switch to our new server box. In the mean time, if you want to test out the new server, you can do so here: client.connect 198.27.69.25:28015

2:57pm EST - Updated our tools guide and getting started guide to reflect the changes to the hammer and bone knife.

1:00pm EST - Another small client update came out. Many of the changes below are live with this update (walking on sand sounds much better) but the item changes may need a server update.

12:55pm EST - Another busy day in Rust development. Continuing with the theme of this week, the team is squashing bugs left and right. Along with bugs, some big changes have taken place to the bone knife and wooden hammer. There have been 2 small client updates already today, each about 20mb. Neither of them have forced a server restart or update. I still plan on switching to our new, beefier server box but will wait till gameplay needs to be interrupted by an update. Now, on to the highlights…

The Blacklist

This was technically last night but I wanted to make sure it got mentioned: To combat servers with redirects and fake player counts, Garry has created a server blacklist. It appears to be working because, as of last night, many of the servers on the first page when sorting by player count have vanished. Awesome! On a related reddit post, Garry quipped: Do you guys love me again yet? He's gotten more upvotes than down so it seems the general consensus is: Yes. Before you put your pitchforks away, you may want to check out the changes to the hammer and bone knife...

Hammer slowed

It is not a good day for hammer fans. Last night, the hammer was made shittier at gathering. Today, it has been slowed. Lets look at the stats:

New Stats

Repeat Delay: 0.5
Gather Proficiency: 0.01

Old Stats

Repeat Delay: 0.25
Gather Proficiency: 0.1

The delay has been doubled and the gather proficiency has gone down by a factor of 10. I never really gathered with the hammer so who gives a shit about that, but doubling the delay? That means doubling the build times across the board. Fuck! It may be time to revisit the salvaged hammer. Although it still has a greater delay (0.09), it is much more proficient at building levels 4 and above:

Hammer

Build Proficiency
1,
0.5,
0.5,
0.2,
0.2,
0.1,
0.01

Salvaged Hammer

Build Proficiency
1,
0.5,
0.5,
0.4,
0.4,
0.2,
0.1

I'll do some more extensive testing once this update goes live but it looks like the salvaged hammer may actually now have a use for levels 4 and above.

Bone knife 'fixed'

The other big item change to take place today is with the bone knife. Up till now, the bone knife has been the best and cheapest gathering tool in the game (even though its technically a weapon). Yielding as many resources as the pick axe, it only costs 60 bone fragments and 30 cloth. Given the crappy damage, it has never been a viable weapon, but boy could it gather!

That all changes today. The gather proficiency is officially a big fat ZERO. Also, the damage is officially set to 8 meaning it does less damage than the hammer (at 10).

Why the huge change you ask? Well the bone knife raw json data has been missing come critical information up to this point. Therefore, it inherited some default (overpowered) stats. These newly added stats are a reflection of the teams original vision of the weapon (which I guess is basically a big toothpick you can annoy people with). I will be updating all the language in the guides today to reflect this.

Audio fixes

Garry is doing some much needed work around the audio today. First order of business was to add in some audio convars. Now, when people ask how to change their audio settings, they get a better answer than, "That little knob on the speaker." Garry has also added footstep sounds to the mixer and swapped out the shitty sand footsteps. Holy shit, I might actually walk on sand again!

New Convars:

• audio.mastervolume
• audio.musicvolume
• audio.gamevolume
• audio.voicevolume

They are all set to 0 by default which is a little weird, however, setting gamevolume to 5 does appear to increase the volume. Warning: Do not set any of these to more than 10 unless you want permanent ear damage.

Esc shows menu

A small change with huge impact: You can bring up the escape menu when sleeping. Sweet!

More debug for wakeup

Still trying to catch this elusive wake up bug, Garry has added more debugging into the player state. Hopefully he wrangles this once and for all!

No more fisheye

The field of view command has been limited to numbers between 60 and 80 (default being 75). This is good because people could run around in fisheye mode, drastically increasing their peripheral vision.

vis.lerp and vit.net restricted

This one also happened last night and is a really positive change. These commands are to help developers debug and test. With them toggled on, however, people were able to see things about other players they otherwise would not (for instance, you could see a player hiding in a bush). Garry has limited these so normal players can no longer use them. Awesome!