7:00am EST - Facepunch will be issuing a forced server and client update in another attempt to fix skins, as well as allowing servers to not require a restart for new skins to function properly. They are hoping to release this update at 4pm EST (8pm GMT).

12:00am EST - Thursday has arrived and we’re seeing some exciting progress on the staging branch! As usual, I’ll update this post as the developers send me more information.

Our update preview stream goes live at 3pm EST. Follow @Rustafied for news throughout the day.

Video: A quick look at boats

Here's a short video of the new rowboat in Rust.

Rowboat added

An exciting new mode of transportation is just around the corner as Helk added the first boat. The ‘rowboat’ can only be spawned in by admins at the moment, but it represents the initial functionality of bringing water craft into Rust.

With space for 3 passengers and the driver, up to 4 players can sit in the boat at once. It can zip up and down rivers and around the map at a decent pace, but mind the shoreline, because it can get beached if the water is too shallow. Thankfully Helk has added a simple ‘push’ dynamic, allowing players to move the boat back to greater depths.

The boat can also sink, so watch out, because enough damage and you’ll quickly find yourself being dragged to the murky depths below.

Similar to the sedan, this vehicle is not yet ready for vanilla gameplay. That said, Helk shared with me the general plan: boats will spawn at lighthouses, lakes, and beaches - maybe about 15-20 on a server at any given time. They’ll need to be filled with low grade fuel and will have some storage in the forward compartment.

Expect boats to be in game for the April 5th update.

Note: Admins can spawn the boat using the command: ‘spawn rowboat’

Map overhaul

Garry has modified the in-game map, giving it quite the visual overhaul. It not only looks better, it now provides a clearer sense of the actual topology of the map seed. There’s also a new ‘focus’ button which will bring your player location icon back into view if you’ve panned away.

Mountable AI

Pal continued his work on AI this week on a new branch called ‘mountable_AI’. An important feature of the newest server event, AI scientists will pilot the Chinook 47 helicopter to various rad zones and drop a locked crate of loot.

We expect this event to go live for the next update on April 5th. Stay tuned for more specifics as we get closer to next month.

Conditional building blocks

Andre has been working on some changes how building blocks - specifically roofs - behave in certain situations. Likely brought on by the heavy use of roof vaults, the ‘conditional_models_3’ branch includes a new triangular wall piece which is added or removed from the sides of roofs depending on the blocks around them.

Long and short: enjoy those roof vaults while you can, because it looks like they will be a thing of the past come the next update (on April 5th).

Hapis progress

Alistair continued his work on updating the Hapis island map. With the goal of improving various points of the map which aren’t used often, he’s already added new tunnels, tweaked various rad areas, and enhanced various parts of the map.

This week, he’s made progress on Outpost B3, a small monument with lots of barrels and a low chance of green crates (see images below). He’s also made several other parts of the map more interesting and advantageous to build on (example one and two). Finally, site A now has a proper road instead of dirt path.

Other stuff

• Horse meat added
• Updated Savas Koth loot tables - Chainsaw, fire arrows, nailgun and flamethrower