Vehicles and Companion App!
1:00pm EST - Our update preview stream is live! twitch.tv/rustafied
12:00am EST - Great progress being made this week as the developers work on vehicles, the mobile companion app, building blocks, and more!
Our update preview stream goes live at 1pm EST. Follow @Rustafied for news throughout the day.
Help test vehicles!
The new Vehicles beta branch went live earlier this week, allowing all players to try out these new cars. To join, simply follow these instructions:
Download “Rust Staging” from steam
Right click “Rust - Staging Branch” in your steam library, go to Properties then the BETAS tab
Opt in to the “Aux1” branch
Once you’ve done this, Steam should start downloading the beta.
This branch is in place to allow for public testing of vehicles without having to launch them with the next update (June 4th). Vehicles are expected to go live for the July 2nd update.
Vehicle video
In case you missed it, here’s a video from Puddy which summarizes the basics of these new Vehicles. For even more information, check out my (recently updated) post: Vehicles: What you need to know.
Vehicle module crafting
Since going live for general testing earlier this week, the vehicles branch has received a bunch of attention from the developers. Top of the list, vehicle modules can now be crafted and researched. This should make modules a lot more obtainable, as previously they were only found with vehicles on the side of the road.
Vehicle engine internals
Getting vehicles moving will be a bit harder as engines no longer run without a full set of internal items. As long as there’s 1 of each part - it doesn’t matter what tier they are - the engine will start.
Similarly, engines will now stop working if one of the internal parts breaks. Thankfully, the health of each internal item has been increased, so they shouldn’t break quite as quick.
Vehicle movement tweaks
Along with the changes to internals, vehicle movement has shifted this week too. Vehicles have received a bit more power for hill climbing - a good thing given how poorly they were previously able to tackle hills.
Cars are now allowed to throttle forward and hill start when rolling backwards at less than 2 meters per second. They can also throttle forward while rolling backwards at any speed.
Horns ho!
The initial setup of horns was completed on a separate sub branch. Although not able to be tested yet, it appears horns on vehicles will be triggered by pressing Primary Fire. Expect them soon in a Rusty vehicle near you.
Companion app incoming?!
After their addition to staging the other week, the new Smart Alarm and Smart Switch have received sounds along with a couple other tweaks. Although these items are able to be researched and crafted on staging, a critical piece is still missing… companion app itself!
As Alistair confirmed with me late last year, there is a mobile companion app in testing. It appears these new Smart items are the first in-game integration to said app. When will we see this go live? No word from the developers yet, however, given these new items are getting their finishing touches, I wouldn’t be surprised if June ends up being ‘The Companion App Update.’
Edit: It does look like the devs are shooting to make this in for the June 4th update.
Edit 2: Just added the crafting costs and some teaser shots from the devs!
Smart Alarm
Crafting
3 high quality metal
1 tech trash
Craft time
30 seconds
Power usage
1
Workbench
Level 1 required
Research for
75 scrap
Recycles for
2 high quality
chance of tech trash
Smart Switch
Crafting
3 high quality metal
1 tech trash
Craft time
30 seconds
Power usage
1
Workbench
Level 1 required
Research for
20 scrap
Recycles for
2 high quality
chance of tech trash
Building blocks 2020
There has been some further progress on the upcoming building blocks. First seen the other month, the building blocks 2020 branch holds several new building goodies including: triangle ladder hatches, triangle grates, vehicle ramps, modified foundation stairs, and spiral staircases.
This week, a certain commit confirmed for the first time that the spiral staircases will have both a square and triangle version. Nice!
When will we see these in game? It appears like the devs are planning to release these on June 4th!
Console servers
A commit from the console version branch introduced the ability to run multiple servers on a single host by utilizing some new command line arguments. It provides example commands on how to run a local Linux server on custom ports along with one to run a linux server on Digital Ocean.
So how will console version server hosting work? Will individuals be able to run their own community servers like the PC version? Or will console server hosting be limited to certain parties? That remains up the air at the moment as the developers have not stated either way how this will work. We’ll of course keep you posted as we know more.
Mixing table
The mixing table continues to mystify with regards to what the fuck its actual purpose will be. That said, some berry consumable balance has been done, along with balance and icon work. What will these tables do exactly? That remains to be seen but we’ll let you know as soon as more information is available.
Other stuff
Some fixes to ocean level
Fix NRE when opening the mining hat in the workshop editor
Visual fixes to minicopter
The ‘fixcars’ command now takes a parameter to control what tier part to apply (only for admins and developers).