2:00pm EST - The update and devblog are live!

1:00pm EST - Our update stream is live! twitch.tv/rustafied

12:00am EST - Update day has arrived, and with it, an entirely new paradigm for progression in the game along with a slew of balance changes which are almost too long to list!

The update is expected at normal time (2pm EST / 7pm GMT) and will force a map wipe (no sign of a blueprint wipe). Our update stream goes live at 1pm EST. Follow @Rustafied for news throughout the day. Before we get into it...

Charitable Rust 2020: Around $200,000 raised!

I am very proud to announce that Charitable Rust 2020 successfully raised around $200,000 for Rise Above the Disorder through our on-stream campaign and skin sales through the week. A huge thank you to everyone who donated, bought skins, and participated in any way! You can find more information in my post from last week.

Update Summary Video

Here’s our update summary video from Puddy!

Tech Tree’s

A new way to unlock items is here! The tried and true method of Tech Trees has been implemented in Rust. It doesn’t replace researching, but experimenting is gone and progression has fundamentally shifted.

Overview
There are 3 tiers of tech tree (T1, T2, T3), each independent of each other, each linked to a work bench (WB Level 1 = T1 items and so on). To access each tech tree, you must first craft a work bench and place it. From there simply click ‘Use’ on the work bench then click the green button to open the tech tree. 

Once in a tech tree you can drag around to explore, scroll to zoom in and out, and click on each item to see the cost of unlocking it.

How you progress
If you’ve ever played a game with tech trees in it before, this system will make perfect sense to you. Progressing through each tech tree involves unlocking each item in a linear fashion. To unlock an item, you pay a certain amount of scrap — ranging from 20 to 500 scrap depending on the item's value / tier.

As you unlock one item, one or more become available to unlock below. You must unlock each item down the line to access the ones below - no skipping around. Generally speaking, the better items are on the bottom. As mentioned above, each tech tree is independent from the others.

What about researching?
Now if you’re sitting here concerned they fucked progression up by adding this, never fear, researching is still here. These tech trees did not replace researching at all. You can still find an item, bring it to a research table, and pay the scrap to get the blueprint. 

That said, you won’t be finding blueprints in barrels and crates around the map as those drops have been removed from the loot tables.

What about experimenting?
This system did, however, replace experimenting. You can no longer plop an amount of scrap on a work bench and receive back a random blueprint of a certain tier.

Shifts in Tier
As you’ve probably figured out, the items in each tech tree align with which work bench level is required to craft them. Along with all the balance shifts listed below, several items have moved tiers. Likely most impactful of these changes, the Garage Door and High External Stone Gate are now T2 items.

How this will roll out
This is a first iteration of a rather large change to the game. As such, nothing is set in stone. The team is planning on using December to allow players to test the system and provide their feedback. Changes and balance is expected throughout the month, ironing out a more solidified variant for January. 

Come the new year, a full rollout and forced blueprint wipe is expected. Therefore, give your feedback! If something isn’t working or you think it should change, F7 that shit. Bitch - I mean provide rational, well worded explanations - on Reddit. Hell, scream out your window, fists shaking wildly in the air. That last one may be less effective.

Balance shifts

Accompanying this new type of progression, a huge number of balance / quality of life changes have been made. These changes are so vast in numbers, the specifics would take up way too much space to list here. Given this, we’ve created a separate public Google doc which lists them out over 32 pages (I told you it was a lot). If you’re not interested in the nitty-gritty and would just prefer the broad strokes, here they are:

• Many items have had their crafting time and or cost reduced. Some are now stackable

• Hazmat suit now has durability. 30 ak shots (at close range) will break it

• Many clothing items have had their protections rebalanced

• Large medkit now provides small amount of instant health (10) and reduced crafting cost and time

• Electric components now cost metal frags instead of high quality metal

Loot shifts

Along with all the above changes to balance, certain high tier loot drops have been changed. The loot tables for airdrops, heli crates, and Bradley crates have shifted. You’ll now find less junk in the bradley and heli crates. As for the supply drops, their gun loot table has been altered. Here are a couple sample supply drops:

Map changes

As with many monthly updates, there have been a few shifts to procedural map generation. Most notable this month, radiation has been added to the Launch Site floodlight towers, increasing the difficulty of certain approaches. Also, Stables will no longer be spawning so close to other monuments and the size of their safe zones has been slightly decreased.

Transportation availability shifts

Following last month's slashing of modular vehicle costs, the team has made other modes of transportation a bit more obtainable this month. Not only have the scrap price of Saddles, Boats, and RHIB’s been reduced (see below), but certain amounts of horses and boats will now spawn in the wild around the map.

Saddle
75 scrap

Boat
125 scrap

RHIB
300 scrap

Other stuff

• Fixed not being able to equip bone armour with bone helmet

• Chainsaw never takes more than 3 attempts to start and uses 75% less fuel

• Exploit fixes

A note on Rustafied server rules

In the last two months, we implemented some new policies regarding association and trio server violations. This was done after an outcry that we were being too lenient on such offenses and we needed to be stricter. Although much of the new policies are working (more bans, less offences), I did not properly train my team on how to handle certain fringe cases. This unfortunately resulted in instances where people who shouldn’t have been banned were banned. To make matters worse, due to my lack of clarification with my team, some of these bans were upheld for some pretty bullshit reasons. 

I understand the upset this has caused certain players and groups and apologize for the shitty experience. I’ve since instructed my team to give more benefit of the doubt in these instances, especially when it comes to first offences. 

It is likely we’ll need to continue tweaking these rules to find a proper balance between punishing true offenders and unjustly banning legit players. Know that it is my goal to run the best servers we possibly can, and I am always striving to improve.

If you believe you or your team was negatively impacted by the above, please put a support ticket in with the subject “Request for senior mod review”. It’ll be forwarded to my senior staff who will review the case and do what they can to make it right.

Thank you for your understanding in this matter.

Much love,
Bugs

Pre-Wipe community events

I’m happy to announce we will be running monthly community events the Wednesday night before forced wipes. These events will features various activities and custom gameplay modes from Charitable Rust (because one day isn’t enough time to show it all off). You can find more information on our new community site.