Enter: The Scrap Transport Helicopter
3:00pm EST - The update is live and devblog is out!
1:45pm EST - Our update stream is live! twitch.tv/rustafied
1:00pm EST - Just heard from the developers that the update is going live at 2pm EST! We’ll be starting our update stream at 1:45pm EST.
12:00am EST - Big changes and additions this month as the ramp up in staff at Facepunch is starting to show. Not only is a lot coming in this month, there are some long term projects on the horizon, tracking towards drastic, fundamentally shifting updates later in the year.
Our update stream goes live at 1:45pm EST. Stay tuned to @Rustafied for news throughout the day.
Update summary video
Here is our update summary video from Puddy.
Scrap Transport Helicopter
A new air vehicle hits the skies of Rust this month. The Scrap Transport Helicopter is a behemoth - with 2 seats up front and a whole bunch of room for junk in the trunk. This scrappy uses twice as much fuel as its little brother (the Minicopter) and will easily crush anyone it happens to land on.
Like other vehicles in game, it spawns randomly around the map. On a default world size (4k) there appear to be 5 spawning at once, so it is definitely a rare commodity. As far as decay is concerned, it’ll last 3 hours (no benefits for storing inside).
It has 1000hp and the controls are just like the Minicopter: WASD combined with mouse movements for pitch and roll. It handles as you would expect; a bit sluggish while being pretty forgiving when it comes to losing control.
And how many people exactly can you fit in the back of one of these? Our preliminary tests show that upwards of 20 people can squeeze into the back of this thing. Add the two people up front, and you’ve got a huge group which can be transported at once.
For full details on the Scrap Transport Helicopter, check out my post from earlier this week.
Anti-aircraft buffs
With all this added air superiority, increased ground defenses are certainly in order. Accomplished through a series of buffs, players on the ground will have an easier time competing with aircraft.
First, the Rocket Launcher is now a Tier 2 item and cheaper to craft. Also, a new type of damage has been added for HV Rockets and SAM Sites, which deals extra damage to air vehicles. HV Rockets have also been made cheaper, tier 2, and are now more accurate and faster than before. Finally, the Minicopter now has 750hp, making it easier to destroy.
Here are some numbers on what it now takes to bring down helicopters:
Minicopter
HV Rocket
2
Rocket
1
556 Ammo
230
Explosive 556
45
SAM Rocket
6
Scrap Transport Helicopter
HV Rocket
3
Rocket
2
556 Ammo
300
Explosive 556
55
SAM Rocket
8
New Rocket costs
As mentioned above, prices have lowered for the Rocket Launcher and HV Rocket. Here are the numbers:
Old
Cost
50 HQM
6 pipes
Workbench
Tier 3
New
Cost
40 HQM
4 pipes
Workbench
Tier 2
Old
Cost
1 pipe
100 gunpowder
2 explosives
Workbench
Tier 3
New
Cost
1 pipe
100 gunpowder
Workbench
Tier 2
Auto Turret shifts
As alluded to by the devs earlier, base defense has received some significant changes this month. Specifically, Auto Turrets now require electricity (10 units) and only fire when they will hit a target - making them theoretically undrainable.
Along with the electricity, Turrets now have added abilities through several outputs. This allows you to link electrical components (such as lights) which trigger when the turret is low on ammo, out of ammo, and has an active target.
F1 Grenade changes
Given Turrets got a targeting buff, a bit of offensive balance was needed. F1 grenades to the rescue. They are now more predictable and less bouncy. Their fuse is shorter (3.5 seconds to 3 seconds) and they do more damage to Turrets.
F1 Grenade vs. Auto Turret
Damage per hit
107 damage
How many to destroy
10 grenades
Small Fuel Generator added
With more electricity requirements comes more ways to generate electricity. The Small Generator creates 40 power by burning Low Grade Fuel. It’s a pretty common blueprint, requiring only 75 scrap to research and a Tier 2 workbench to craft.
It also features inputs to force start and force stop - allowing you to hook them up to switches or other electrical components, creating a bunch of interesting possibilities (like solar during the day, generator at night).
It burns about 8 Low Grade per minute, so at max capacity (500 Low Grade) it’ll run for just over an hour.
Small Generator
Craft time
30 seconds
Workbench
Tier 2
Cost
15 HQM
2 Gears
Research Cost
75 scrap
Electricity Generated
40
Consumption per minute
8 low grade fuel
Pressure Pads can be hidden
In a buff to base protection, Pressure Pads can now be hidden under rugs. They also output a slight amount of power for a split second if they are triggered with no power. This is enough to open a door briefly, turn on a light for a second, or increment a counter. It is not enough power to turn on a Turret.
Quality of life changes
The team has implemented a couple miscellaneous quality of life improvements. Here are the main ones:
F1 console now auto focuses the text input
Tool Cupboards automatically auth the person who places them
Hitching post and trough can now be placed on construction
Door knocker no longer prevents explosives damaging doors
Fixed loading screen button being 1 pixel smaller than the bar next to it
UI changes
You’ll also notice some subtle changes to UI elements. Here are some examples:
Texture streaming
After being added and subsequently removed several times, it appears as though texture streaming is here to stay. A big step in the optimization realm, texture streaming allows for only the textures which are needed to be loaded into memory, lowering overhead on clients.
Monuments added back to small maps
In the wake of an unpopular change last month that removed large monuments from maps smaller than 3500, the team has stepped back on some of the change. Large monuments have been added back to small maps, but launch site and excavator still require at least 3500 world size.
Given this, Rustafied servers with small maps (Small’s and Odd Jr.’s) will go back to a 3k map size after the next update.
Horse leading
Your trusty steed is a bit more vulnerable this month as horse health has been reduced to 400. In addition to the health changes, Helk has fixed some animation issues, made horses more responsive, and optimized them a bit.
There’s also been added a rudimentary 'leading' system so that you can make a horse follow you if it gets stuck somewhere. You can also now place horse troughs indoors - hello horsey garages!
New Large Battery model
A new model for the Large Battery has arrived. All the functionality appears to be exactly the same, it’s just got a fresh look.
Buh bye, game launcher!
That little window which allows you to choose resolution and quality has been moved! Now part of a new menu in options called ‘Screen’, all these settings are now located in the game. Allowing you to change resolution, fullscreen, and V-Sync, this new menu makes the launcher obsolete.
So long, Linux!
As of this update, the Linux client of Rust will no longer be supported! Read more about it on this post from Garry.
Debug camera improvements
The debug camera got some love this month with several notable improvements. Although this doesn’t at all impact regular players, it’ll definitely make the lives of content creators and developers better. Here are some specifics:
R reset camera
Q/E move vertically
Z/Y/C and +/- control zoom
Arrow keys control roll
Save and load camera positions with the debugcamera_save and debugcamera_load console commands
Added debugcamera_autosave and debugcamera_autoload to automatically save and load the debug camera state (separate convars to enable certain use cases)
Added camzoomlerp (like camlerp)
Other stuff
Wires and power lines have been optimized and added to some monuments
Autoturret requires empty inventory to be picked up
Cargoship exploit fix
HAB inflation collider is disabled when rigidbody is asleep
Increased HAB nobuild zone to encompass inflated balloon
Removed damage values from building hammer
Introducing: BR Long
After a successful opening last month, BR (our newest region) is getting a new server! Catering to players all over South America, BR Long is a 200 pop server, with a 4k map, which only wipes maps when forced by the game (monthly). You can find it on the official list now!
Moderator applications open
I’m happy to announce applications for our moderation team are once again open! If you are over 18 and interested in helping keep our servers clean of hackers, please fill out an application at the link below today!