2:58pm EST - Update is live and devblog is out!

12:00pm EST - Our update stream is live!

12:01am EST - Update day is here and, although we’re not seeing a ton of changes to the main branch, there has been some great progress on prerelease. Also, Garry is back from paternity leave!

This update will not force a wipe, however, it’s the middle of the month, so all Rustafied servers (except Low Pop) will be wiping when the patch goes live.

Given the updates have been hitting a bit earlier lately, our update stream will go live at 12pm EST (then we might take a break if it’s going to be a later patch). As always, follow @Rustafied for updates throughout the day. Before we get into it, the question on everyone's mind...

When will the XP system launch?

There has been no official word from Facepunch, however, given the current state of the prerelease branch, I think it's very likely we'll see the new XP system launch with the forced wipe on July 7th.

After playing the past week, I’ve found the new character progression a refreshing change to gameplay. With item ownership and various other features planned, I’m really excited to track the progress of this branch over the next few weeks. If you haven’t checked it out, I highly recommend giving the prerelease branch a try.

Edit: Helk has confirmed in the devblog that we'll have a July 7th launch of the XP system!

Deployable decay

There has been an outcry after decay was added to most deployables last week, and for a good reason: Boxes and furnaces started decaying after a day and can't be repaired.

Thankfully, we’re seeing some improvements on the horizon: Deployables won’t start decaying till after two days of inactivity. Also, Andre confirmed with me that repair of deployables is on the list - unfortunately, as of this moment, it is not in.

Edit @ 9:00am EST - Repair for deployables has been added and boxes / furnaces now have a 2 day delay and 4 day decay duration.. nice!

Also coming this week

There are a couple other things going live with the update today...

River flow is back (but still needs some work)
Incorrect collision meshes on twig roof sides are fixed
Various improvements to the ingame anti-hack noclip detection

Radiation making a comeback

Along with progress on the artwork and textures of dungeons, Vince has added rads to various areas, and made radiation enabled by default once again. Not only does this make dungeons an even more inhospitable place, rad gear and pills will once again be relevant.

As with all changes to dungeons, this won't go live till the next forced wipe (July 7th).

Barren

As one of his first actions back, Garry added a new type of procedurally generated map to the prerelease branch. Originally named Baron, now called Barren (which makes more sense, although Baron did have a nice ring to it), this map offers the same procedurally generated terrain you’re used to, minus all the grass, bushes, and various rock formations.

Along with creating a more open environment, Barren boasts improved frames per second - a much sought after commodity, especially for those with less powerful machines. If you’d like to try it for yourself, simply opt into the prerelease branch and type “Barren” into the map filter.

Here are some pictures: