It's a fresh week for Rust development and we're seeing some fixes to vending machines, metal shopfronts, progress on AI, and the makings of an interesting new functionality...

Automatic door closer

Helk has started implementing a new item: a door closer. As you would guess, it automatically closes a door if left open. Contrary to popular belief, this is not a convenience thing. Helk explained to me it has more to do with charging people money to use room or access different areas.

It currently cannot be crafted or found as the functionality is not complete. Helk told me it may come in this week if he gets a chance to complete it. More on this in our Thursday post (if applicable).

Edit: Looks like this probably won't make it in this week.

Metal Shopfront added

A new building item is here: the Metal Shopfront. Big brother to the existing shopfront, this metal structure could provide new ways to trade goods in Rust. Unlike its wood counterpart, this piece does not have a door to walk through - simply a barred window and drawer.

It's not that functional at the moment, however, as the drawer does not do anything and it's pretty difficult to drop items through the window. We may see some more functionality added prior to the update, so stay tuned. In the meantime, here are the current crafting details...

Cost
600 metal frags

Crafting time
30 seconds

Edit: Just got some more info from Helk...

It'll be bulletproof
Users will be able to add items to the drawer on each side and see each others items
Both will be able to press a check box to swap the items
Any movement of items will cancel the trade
Should be in this week

Vending machine changes

Helk has also shifted a few things with vending machines. After making their way in last week, a few issues were uncovered. Mainly, the back of vending machines could be accessed from the front if you alt-looked the correct way. This has been resolved so you can only access the inventory if you’re truly in back of the machine.

Additionally, the days of using these as vaults are over as they can no longer be locked. On top of that, a rotate feature has been added if the vending machine is empty. Finally, vending machines now must be placed on construction blocks - no more placing them all willy-nilly in a field.

AI progress

Garry is making some headway with AI on the prerelease branch. His addition of ‘zombies’ to servers rightfully turned a few heads. He clarified, however, these zombies are not new PvE elements, they are purely for testing pathfinding and performance for the new AI. Thankfully, not only does performance appear to be holding up, these new AI don’t run through rocks or up gradients which are too steep!

As with all changes on the prerelease branch, the soonest we’ll see the new AI live in the game will be the next forced wipe (March 2nd). Stay tuned here for more info over the next couple of weeks.

Foliage system

Andre is working on a new branch called ‘foliage system.’ This appears to be a body of work aimed at improving performance of the various vegetation across the Rust landscape. Stay tuned for the devblog for more information on this.