The next iteration of Rust architecture is here: Building 3.0. After weeks of work from Andre and the rest of the team, these sweeping changes to construction are now on the staging branch and set to go live game-wide with the update on Thursday.

This new version of building not only adds more dynamism to the process - and a new building block (half wall) - it features some significant shifts to tool cupboards, authorization, and raiding.

This post summarizes the main changes to expect. Don’t be surprised if certain aspects of this change prior to the patch going live. As always, we’ll keep this post as up to date as possible.

Quick look video

Here's a video summary of the new building system from Puddy.

Building upkeep

The new building upkeep system has just been added to staging. Long and short: you add resources to the tool cupboard, and the cupboard reports how many resources are required to avoid decay.

This is the definition of game changer. Not just because of the functionality, but because of the apparent high cost of building upkeep. It will now take drastically more resources to keep your buildings from decaying - particularly when dealing with massive bases. Keep in mind: you can only add 6 stacks of resources to the cupboard at one time.

Edit: There are now 18 slots in the tool cupboard as opposed to 6.

Foundations snap at half height

One of the first things you’ll notice as you start to lay the groundwork of your base after the wipe is that foundations can now be snapped at half height. This opens up a world of new opportunities for building - especially on uneven ground. Both square and triangle foundations will snap at different levels to each other, provided the height is not too high or low off the ground.

We’ve noticed this placement can still be a bit buggy or difficult to accomplish. At times, ceiling tiles won’t snap halfway up a full wall. Also, you’ll notice many triangle configurations and placements which used to work, no longer do.

Half walls added

With the introduction of half height snapping, there is a new building block to fill in the inevitable gaps in side of your spiffy new base. The half wall can be placed on foundations and floors, and takes up exactly half the height of a normal wall (who’da thunk).

They can be stacked on top of each other, but mind the stability, as it will decrease as more half walls are added. Also note, the health, cost for initial placement, and upgrades is exactly the same as a regular wall.

Only 1 tool cupboard per building

Half walls and foundation placement just scratch the surface of the changes with building 3.0. Many of the underlying mechanics of building identification and permissions have been shifted as well. One of the most stark changes being: Only one tool cupboard is allowed per building.

Now you may be asking, and rightfully so, “What qualifies as a building?” Buildings are now defined by any foundation that snaps with another, and any blocks connected to said foundations. If a corner is touching another corner, it does not count as the same building.

There are still some issues with regards to properly assigning building ID’s, especially when blocks are removed and then rebuilt. The devs are aware of this and planning some fixes prior to the update going live on Thursday.

Privilege radius based on overall structure, not cupboards

Building privilege is now based on the building blocks instead of exact radius around the cupboard. That means the placement of the cupboard inside the building has no impact on that structures exact build privilege area. Rather, the building itself defines the radius of build privilege (which is currently 16 meters).

See the pictures below for some examples of what that looks like in game.

No more twig foundations when building is blocked

With all these changes to cupboards and build privilege, the developers have nerfed a big aspect of raiding. Twig foundations are no longer able to be placed when building is blocked. Although floors and ladders can still be placed, this stands to make it more difficult or costly to raid in many situations.

Roof changes

Roof blocks and their placement have also been shifted to reduce abuse. They now occupy the wall socket at their bottom end, so you will need to choose between a roof or a wall. Also, roof blocks are currently able to be placed off foundations - although that may change prior to launch.

Wall stacking / honeycombing ramifications

Most traditional ways of wall stacking have been removed - although there are still certain ways to stack walls. Honeycombing, however, is still possible in most scenarios. You’ll also notice certain placement of triangle foundations which used to work, no longer do.

Optimizations

With all these changes to building, Andre has also improved how some things are running under the hood. First, he optimized the building ID refreshes when placing and removing building blocks. He also has removed socket colliders during building placement, which should improve frame rates while building. Both of these optimizations should be even more noticeable with larger buildings.

Armored cost reduction

Armored building blocks have been reduced to 25hqm instead of 50hqm, and wood, and stone.

Things you used to be able to do, but now can’t

Finally, here are a few examples of build techniques you used to be able to do, but now cannot accomplish with building 3.0.