1:00pm EST - Showing off the Work Carts on our update preview stream! twitch.tv/rustafied

10:00am EST - Work Carts can now be tested on the ‘workcart’ staging branch! We’ll stream entirely from this branch on our update preview stream today!

12:00am EST - With one week before the big update, the team at Facepunch is cranking out some exciting new functionality.

Our update preview stream goes live at 1pm EST. Follow @Rustafied for news throughout the day.

Rust Console limited beta

The limited beta for Rust Console Edition starts soon! Many users who signed up to the Double Eleven mailing list received an invite email earlier this week. With the beta opening up to a limited number of people in North America and Europe, this period will act as an initial stress test of Rust on console. It’s not yet clear exactly when this beta will open up, however, more and more people are expected to be added as the stress test increases.

It’s not too late to sign up. Just head over to the Facepunch site and fill out the form. For more information, check out D11’s FAQ’s on the matter.

Work Carts coming March 4th!

Taking the gold for most commits to a branch once again this week, the workcart appears to have all hands on deck and be full steam ahead. With a good portion of the team at Facepunch working on this new vehicle and underground tunnel system, testing on the staging branch is set to go live today.

As you may recall from previous weeks, the work cart branch represents not only a new rail-based vehicle, but also an entire new network of tunnels underground. As of writing this, the work is still on a separate branch, so we are unable to determine certain specifics like how many workcarts there will be, how extensive the tunnel system is, etc. That said, according to Alistair, we should be able to start testing today!

I’ll do a full write up of everything you need to know about the Work Cart prior to the update going live next week.

Edit: Work Carts can now be tested on the ‘workcart’ staging branch!

Edit 2: The ‘workcart’ branch is looking beautiful! We’re gathering data for an in-depth article, but in the meantime, here are some pictures and things of note:

Things to note:

• Work Carts spawn randomly around the map on the underground tunnel tracks (~40 by default atm)

• Work Carts run on low grade fuel and have 3 speeds (slow, medium, fast)

• They'll fit around 15 people with 1 driver

• The tunnels go all over the map, connecting most monuments at stations

• There is loot to be found down there (boxes, tool boxes and military crates)

• There is new AI down there (armed guards in Jumpsuits)

• There are 2 levels of tunnels (one for train, one for players)

• You can see train stations on the map

• Once in tunnels, you can see the tunnel map

• There are helpful signs in the tunnels to know where you are

Slots at Bandit

Slot Machines, which were merged into staging last week, have now been placed on the map. With three added to Bandit Camp, roulette is no longer the only game of chance in this safe zone.

In case you missed it, Slot Machines operate using scrap — at a cost of 10 scrap per spin. With a number of prizing winning combinations available, these Slot Machines might just be your ticket to the scrap big-league. As expected, these will not be able to be crafted or placed in bases. They will, however, provide even more motivation to head to your local Bandit Camp when you feel that urge to gamble.

Jumpsuit: Female model

A new article of clothing, the jumpsuit, was added to staging last week. This week, we’ve seen the addition of a female variant of this new one-piece outfit. No word yet on exactly how these will be obtained in game, but we’ll keep you posted.

Edit: Looks like Jumpsuit will just be used for the new NPC’s in the tunnels

Save204

Some changes are coming to procedural map generation with the update next week. Not uncommon the week prior to a monthly update, a ‘save’ branch has been created to apply certain changes to the map. Specifically, radiation has been removed from roadside substations. Also, a terrain filter has been added to Outpost to ensure it does not spawn in the snow.

Server browser improvements

A couple of small changes have been made to the server browser to help improve results. By default, the browser list will now filter out empty servers, allowing more active servers to show up first. On the contrary, the favorites and history tab will now always show empty servers. Finally, the view of the tags has been improved a bit (less bright, more squared).

Miscellaneous fixes

There were a number of miscellaneous fixes merged in this week. Here are some highlights:

• Stricter large swimming pool volumes (exploit fix)

• Fixed wind generator volume prevent building and deploy volume mismatches causing confusing behavior

• Allow small box placement under mixing table

• Holding RF Transmitter no longer flags the player as hostile

• RF Pager Silent typo fix

• Fixed XL neon signs blocking windows

• Fixed fridge excessively large prevent building volume

Other stuff

• Hapis rework progress

• Network tick optimizations

• Server performance optimizations

• Gesture menu progress