12:00am EST - With just one week before the update and forced wipe, a slew of things have made their way in. Coming off the numerous quality of life improvements from last week, the team is tearing it up again with some great additions to gameplay.

We’ll show everything off during our update preview stream which starts at 3pm EST. Follow @Rustafied for news throughout the day.

Fractional reloading added

One of the most anticipated and longest hyped features has made its appearance this week: fractional reloading has been added to the Pump Shotgun, Spas Shotgun, and Bolt Action Rifle.

If you’re not aware, fractional reloading allows for the incremental loading of shells into a weapon. This is a great shift away from the all or nothing action which cancels the entire reload if you switch away. For example, if you have a fully loaded Bolt Action Rifle, take a shot, and hit reload, it’ll only place one bullet back in the gun instead of running through the full (and longer) reload animation. Additionally, if you’re in a firefight and you run out of shells in your Pump, you can reload just one bullet then fire again as opposed to having to wait for all the bullets to be reloaded.

Long and short, this is an amazing improvement for combat and gun play. A huge shout out to Helk for adding it!

Fall exploit fixed

The team has shifted a bunch of things in relation to players falling this week. Not only do these changes provide better behavior in certain instances, they fix exploits used by players for a long time now.

Along with improving the calculations of fall damage on the server end, players will now fall to the ground whenever they are disconnected or sleeping. Wounded players will also no longer hover in the air, instead they will drop to the ground as expected. Finally, if a building block which players are sleeping on is destroyed, they will fall to the ground as you would expect.

Debris system improvements

Adding to the significant shifts to online raid defense of last week, Andre has now included wall frames to the debris system. As you may recall, this new system blocks building where a wall or door was recently destroyed. This limits defenders as they can no longer simply build another wall when one is destroyed in a raid. With the addition of frames this week, shop fronts are also now blocked from building for 30 seconds after demolition.

More QoL improvements

The team continued their streak of quality of life improvements this week with the addition of a bunch more fixes and tweaks. Here’s the low down:

Fixed Muzzle Brake not properly applying recoil reduction
Muzzle Brake reduces damage by 15%
Compound Bow behaves exactly like hunting bow when not charged (same rof/damage etc, was 80%)
Compound Bow costs 25 metal frags instead of 75
Code locks are stackable in players inventory
Tracers are visible from long distance but are 1/4 the length
Shelves can no longer be placed on top of each other
Barricades now stack (10)
Dropbox can now be repaired
Vending machine can no longer be placed through world layer

New Scientist NPC models

Some new models for Scientist NPC’s made their way in this week. Both roadside blue scientists and peacekeeper NPC’s in the Compound monument now have a fresh look!

Pooling optimization

Andre has continued his efforts on optimization by adding object pooling to a number items in game. If you’re unfamiliar, object pooling pre-instantiates items needed during gameplay, reducing the need to create and destroy them on the fly (which is notorious for slowing down CPU’s and creating hitches in gameplay).

This pooling has been added to corpses, ragdolls, and a slew of various items in the game. Although there is no silver bullet for perfect performance, this is a huge step in the direction of smoother gameplay and fewer hiccups.

HAB exploit fixes

Some exploits relating to the Hot Air Balloon have been cleared up this week. Players can no longer use weapons when tangled in a deflated Hot Air Balloon canvas. Also, they can no longer see through the canvas when inside.

Military Flamethrower art

Thomas has posted a new military grade flamethrower to his Artstation page. This comes in the wake of his grenade launcher art, posted just the other week. It appears as these two powerful new weapons may soon become part of the Heavy Scientist arsenal. Both are still pending full implementation, so no confirmation on exactly when we’ll see them enter the game.

Oil Filter Silencer

Thomas has also committed some art for what appears to be a new type of silencer. The Oil Filter Silencer will likely be a lower tier version of the silencer weapon attachment we’re all used to. No visuals or further information on this quite yet given only the artwork has been completed. Stay tuned for more information as this new attachment makes its way into the game.

@RustUpdates is back!

The Rust updates Twitter feed, which had been inactive since November of last year, has finally returned! Follow this account to see all the commits to Rust as they happen.

Other stuff

Pump shotgun has slightly less zoom
Explosive ammo sound tweaks
More progress on the Giant Excavator monument
Compound and Bandit Town lighting overhaul progress
Fixed FOV bug which zoomed weapons in too much if fov was not default (75)
Recycler no longer shares phrase string with furnace
Recycler no longer marks players as hostile
Laser attachment, muzzle brake, chair, dbs, leather, bone fragment, road sign descriptions updated