Happy Halloween everyone! It’s a fresh week in Rust development, and with the forced wipe right around the corner, we’re seeing some exciting changes to the landscape. Let’s get into it...

Topology tiers

Andre, working on the save153 branch, has added a labeling system for different topology. With 3 tiers total, these labels will help dictate where players spawn along with what biomes appear in each tier. At the moment, players will spawn on Tier0 beaches in temperate climates. Tier1 and Tier2 will have no players spawning, but will be either arid, temperate or arctic.

Keep in mind, this is mainly a labeling system, it does not necessarily mean huge changes to the overall layout of procedural maps. That said, it’s possible this categorization could be used in the future for other functionalities (i.e. certain loot for certain tiers).

The branch has not been merged into main yet, so there is no way to test it at the moment. Stay tuned here on Thursday for more information.

Ice sheets and Icebergs

Damien continues his work on the snow biome revamp branch. With a focus mainly on the new ice sheets and icebergs, it appears we may have a bunch of new sights and game play opportunities up in the arctic come Thursday.

Similar to the save153 branch, these changes have not been merged into main yet. Stay tuned for more visuals and info as Thursday approaches.

Hapis fixes

In preparation for the forced wipe, Hapis is seeing some love from Alistair this week. Along with the addition of the Bradley APC (no rocket factory added yet), we’ve got some exploit fixes and changes to radiation.

Savas tweaks

Savas is also getting some attention this week as we’re seeing some tweaks to loot, exploit fixes, map marker tweaks, and the addition of a north and south recycler.

AI Improvement

After the addition of murderer NPC’s for Halloween last week, we’re seeing some improvements and optimizations to the underlying AI system. Although the murderer NPC’s are only planned to be a Halloween event, they are a great test for upcoming scientist NPC’s to be added to the game.

EU Long launch!

I’m happy to announce our newest server launching this Thursday: EU Long. A clone of its US counterpart, EU Long will have 200 slots and only wipe the map when forced. The server is currently running for testing purposes, so look for it on the community list if you want to help test (or get a head start on some blueprints).