12:00am EST - Another week in Rust development and we're seeing some interesting things coming. Along with several new models and items, a fresh feature to the HUD has hit staging.

Our update preview stream will go live at 3pm EST. Follow @Rustafied for news throughout the day. Let's get into it...

HUD Compass

Helk is experimenting with a HUD based compass. Similar to Fortnite, it shows up on the top center of the screen and points at your current heading (North, South, East, West, and degrees in between).

This is not a craftable, rather, it’s a new addition to the in game GUI (like the map). I asked Helk if he was thinking of tying it to an item you have to carry. He said, ‘Horse shit’ - so yeah, I don’t think it’s going to be part of an item any time soon.

From a community perspective, this compass has received mixed reviews. Some are very happy at the idea of callouts being much easier (i.e. There’s a naked by the tree around 280). Others worry this is just another thing which breaks immersion and caters to large groups.

Although I agree this will come much more in handy when you are in a group as opposed to solo (unless you like to call out specific locations to yourself), I don’t really think any benefit provided is anything to get worked up about. With regards to immersion, I agree, and think it’d be nice to have the option turn it off while leaving the rest of the HUD on.

This is why I think having this be a crafted item would be a nice compromise. If you don’t want it, don’t craft it. And, for groups to gain from it, they have to make sure they are all equipped with one.

As with all new things added to staging, nothing is set in stone. We’ll keep you posted as this new functionality progresses.

Puzzles polish (and Hapis)

Vince has resolved some issues with the new puzzles on a separate branch. Along with shifting some positions of barricades, he’s fixed a rooftop exploit at the trainyard. I’d expect some more tweaks and fixes to these in preparation for the next monthly update.

Also with puzzles, Alistair has started adding them to the monuments around Hapis. As with the polishing, we’re not going to see any of this launch till July 5th at the earliest.

New stone world model

Alistair has slipped in a new world model for stones (see above).

New C4 model

Speaking of new models, a fresh look for C4 is on its way in. Although it’s not on staging yet, you can see a sneak peek here.

Jackhammer progress

Tom has made some great progress on the upcoming Jackhammer item. Like the Chainsaw is to trees, the Jackhammer will allow people to gather ore much quicker than ever before. No word on an exact launch date of this new item, but I wouldn’t be surprised if we see it in the July 5th update. See more here.

New Rad Pill model

Tom has also posted a new model for Rad Pills.

Custom map progress

Andre continues his work on custom mapping. As he mentioned in the devblog last week, this will open up a ton of new possibilities for modders, server owners, and players. This week it appears he’s mainly focused on some refactoring in preparation for the world SDK. Although we can’t quite create and load custom maps yet, it seems that functionality isn’t too far off!

Puzzle guides

In the wake of puzzles being added to monuments last week, we have released some new guides which run you through how to solve them: