8:41pm EST - Ugh, ok so here's the deal: Server FPS was shitty on main so I decided to do a restart. While attempting the load the map on the restart, we were getting errors on the stability check. I turned off stability and attempted a restart again, which worked. Unfortunately, buildings started falling down all over the place when stability was turned back on. I tried a rollback again but it still wouldn't load. Long story short, we had to wipe again. Sorry, not my intention but this shit just gets fucked sometimes, we have to roll with the punches.

5:15pm EST - There have been some sweet changes made in the past couple hours. Here’s some notable ones:

• Log when admins use inventory.give
• New trees, shrubs and water plants
• Foundations can be placed at variable height. It works by just looking up or down, nice!
• Foundations can be attached to the bottom of foundation steps
• It looks like the horizontal building glitch is fixed also!

11:32am EST - It is the second day of Rust development for the week and the team is making some great progress. We’re still two days away from seeing these changes launch to main, however, if you just can’t wait till Thursday, opt into the development branch to test stuff out. Let’s get into it...

Corpses last 30 minutes

Too often corpses have disappeared before people get a chance to loot them. To remedy this, as a final act of last night, Garry increased corpse longevity from 2 to 30 minutes. This is a huge positive shift in gameplay, an extra 28 minutes of loot time is a big plus.

Stone Pickaxe

Our new stone friend has entered the game, meet the Stone Pickaxe. This handsome character is the newest addition to the default blueprint lineup and is built for whacking nodes. I love seeing new items enter the game. Speaking of, where the hell is our candle hat? Anyway, here’s some details on this new tool:

• Cost: 250 wood, 100 stones
• Crafting time: 2 minutes
• ~38 stones / ore per hit
• Sucks at gathering wood (5 wood per hit)
• Can be crafted from the start (default blueprint)
• World model isn’t in yet, still showing the normal pickaxe when not viewing in 1st person.

Building block balance

Helk is doing some work on the balance of melee damage vs. building blocks. Although it is still a work in progress, the overall balance will be shifting in favor of the homeowner, making it harder for melee weapons to get through building blocks. Expect more insight into this soon as Garry has mentioned he plans on releasing the exact statistics for how many hits it takes each weapon to take down each tier wall.

Roof changes

Roofs have been kind of a pain in the ass to add up till this point because you had to make sure a floor was under each roof block. Thankfully, Garry just shifted how roof blocks work, allowing them to be placed just like a floor, no longer requiring the extra piece below it.

Airdrop altitude

Since the cargo planes started flying lower the other week, some server owners have noticed interest has dwindled because players don’t have time to get to the crate. To counter this, Garry has made it so the cargo plane is now flying at a higher altitude and moving faster. This should get more people's attention and give them a bit more time to get to the drop site and battle it out.

Tip of the day: Bow vs. barrel

We’ve all been here: You're wandering around the country-side when suddenly, you spot a barrel. Sure, you could go hit it several times with your rock like a peasant. But wouldn’t you rather practice your bow marksmanship whilst simultaneously spewing the contents of that barrel? Best part, it doesn’t even cost you an arrow, simply grab your arrow back as you pick up the other loot.

Question? Comments? Join the conversation at Rustaforum.com