8/22 @ 3pm EST - Lot's of work this week on optimization, bug fixes, AI and dungeon art. Check back here Thursday for a full summary of what's coming.

6:30pm EST - The mandatory server and client update has hit. We're rolling our servers now to update them. No wipes are planned.

5:10pm EST - A forced update is incoming to fix the steam auth issues... No ETA yet. It will not force a wipe, however, servers and clients will need to update and restart.

4:55pm EST - Server owners: Having trouble with steam auth timeouts after the update? try setting 'authtimeout 60' on your server.

4:10pm EST - Client and server update are out. Devblog is live!

2:00pm EST - Our update stream is live! twitch.tv/rustafied

12:30am EST - Update day is upon us and we have larger spawn areas, reduced fog, optimization, and potentially much more.

Our update stream starts at 2pm EST. Follow @Rustafied for news throughout the day. Let's get into it...

Update summary video

Here's the update summary video from Puddy.

Recoil changes

Helk has just added deterministic recoil to the M92, AK47, and P250! Along with this, he's improved the recoil on the MP5. Expect more tweaks and changes with this in the coming weeks, but it looks like this 'learnable recoil' system is taking the place of the previous recoil.

Larger spawn areas

Newmans will be more spread out when arriving on a beach as the coastal spawn areas have been made larger. The spawn handler density enforcement has also been improved, meaning it should be less likely to spawn right next to someone.

Bradley progress

Helk has been working on the Bradley a lot this week. He's finished a bunch of functionality, including the basic navigation and path finding of the launch site dungeon. It is not yet clear if this will make it into the update this week, but Helk told me he is trying very hard to make that the case.

Fog reduced

The density and distance of fog has been reduced by up to half in certain conditions. Here is an example of old fog vs. new (it may look slight here, but keep in mind fog amounts vary depending on position and time).

Edit: This change has an even bigger impact in clear conditions.

Garbage collection

Andre, focusing on optimization (as he does) honed in on garbage collection this week. Garbage collection is used to free up resources in the game. Unfortunately, if garbage collection happens too frequently, it can be a source of hitches and poor performance. With this in mind, he’s eliminated a bunch of garbage collection allocations for various sounds and effects.

Less logs

You’ll be seeing less logs on the ground as of this update. After being made harvestable back in July, wooden logs (or driftwood) will now spawn 30% less than before.

Heavy plate armor buff

Helk has buffed the heavy plate armor a bit this week. The helmet now protects 90% of damage against arrows and bullets (instead of 60%) and the heavy plate body/legs protect 75% against bullets (was 60%).

Small monuments soon

Vincent and Damian continue trucking on the small monuments branch. These small monuments will spawn near roads around the map and provide fresh opportunities for new players to find loot.

As with all monument and dungeon art, we can’t expect to see these in game till the next forced wipe at the earliest (on September 7th).

Other stuff

• Riot helmet no longer requires sewing kit
• Bone armor now takes cloth instead of rope
• More description fixes and updates
• A bunch of fixes for OSX
• Removed max draggable from items (except liquids)
• Added "authtimeout" convar (default = 10 seconds)
• Progress on the AI branch

Rustaforum design update

I’m happy to report the new design for rustaforum.com is complete! All the functionality is the same, however, the design now matches rustafied.com. If you have any comments or questions about the new design, please put in a ticket at our support page.

Rustafied 2017 Poll

Our mid-year poll for Rustafied is still going on. If you haven’t already, please take a couple moments to answer some questions. We use this data to plan our growth and prioritize shifts in the organization, so your feedback is greatly appreciated.