12:00am EST - With the update and forced wipe just one week away, the team is cranking on new features, quality of life, and more!

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

Backpack progress

Backpacks continue to take shape on the staging branch. As you may recall, there are two backpacks (a large and a small) coming in the February 1st update. This week we’re seeing the introduction of some new features such as holstering weapons, despawn rates, and variable views for dropped bags.

First, weapons now mount onto the side or back of the backpack (instead of on the player's back, causing overlap and visual issues). Also, the initial despawn rates have been set for dropped backpacks: 20 minutes for a small, 40 minutes for a large backpack (when empty). When full, the despawn time is variable based on the items inside, going up to a max of 2 hours to fully despawn.

Next, the UI for backpacks has been updated, giving better spacing for backpack slots while still showing the player model. There’s also a cool animation now when opening the backpack which slides the player model over and rotates to the back view.

Finally, the number of slots for the large backpack was dropped to 28 (from 30). Keep in mind, all of this is subject to change prior to going live in the game next week. We’ll have a full writeup on backpacks with our update post next week.

Metal Detector

Commits continue to pour in with work on the upcoming Metal Detectors. Still unknown exactly how these will integrate into the game, it looks like they will likely function similar to how Metal Detectors do in real life - allowing players to find various treasures under the ground. Also, as often needed with real Metal Detectors, a shovel will be added to aid in the recovery of any found items.

All of this is still on a separate branch and subject to change. Currently there is no word on exactly when this will enter the game. We’ll keep you posted as more comes to light.

Edit: It appears the Metal Detectors have been merged into staging. I’ll post some more general info here shortly.

The basics:

• It works like a metal detector: equip it and it’ll start beeping as you get close to something metal under the ground. There’s also some LED lights to help guide your way

• Hold right click to strafe back and forth to pinpoint the dig spot. A small pick with a flag will show up once you’ve pinpointed it

• Then bust out the new shovel and start whacking (digging isn’t quite a thing yet)

• Your loot will pop up out of the ground in a couple whacks

• Loot appears to be metal frags or cans of beans / tuna

  • We did find an AK in the loot, however, the devs have confirmed the loot will be changed and that was not intended

• Metal detector is a default blueprint. 200 wood and 2 rope to craft

• Shovel is also default blueprint. 50 wood and 75 frags to craft

• All of this is subject to change

Compound redesign

The Compound facelift continues, taking the spotlight in this year's round of monument updates. According to recent commits, the developers are adding some exciting new features, including a City Hall building, rope bridges, and a new helipad. While we don't have any pictures to show just yet, stay tuned - we'll make sure to keep you in the loop with any new visuals as soon as they're available.

Misc quality of life

• Prevent launch site SAM sites shooting down MLRS rockets

• Eoka more likely to shoot after every failed strike

• Fixed artifacts in reticle-full crosshair texture

• Ladder hatches no longer require ladders to repair

• Increased all plants ripe stage duration from 4h to 14h

• Warning popup when logging out in a safe zone

• Embrasures and shutters also rotatable using R when being deployed

Other stuff

• More work on a new American truck models (M939)

• Update unused mining quarry deployable (for modding, not vanilla)

• Industrial improvements

• Work on a Dragon Launcher for Chinese New Year

• More work on an improved skin viewer

• Fixed spraycan not reassigning the owner id of entities when reskinning to a redirect skin

• More work on tutorial island

• More work on an improved vendor UI for ingame maps

• Capped burst module size to match other weapon mods

• Work on a nightlight