Rust News

Servers are now wiped and Santa is packing up and clearing out the bodies, but we hope you enjoyed the Holiday Season. We're getting back to work after a couple of weeks off, which is why this blog is lighter than usual, but we're looking forward to the journey ahead in 2024!

This year, we celebrated Rust's 10th Birthday, which has been an incredible journey. Rust is continuing to see year-on-year growth and for a 10 year old game, that's a rather impressive feat.

At a glance, here are some key gameplay features we added in 2023:

• Industrial system
  
• Drones
  
• RF Detonated C4
  
• Security Camera
  
• Player controlled turrets
  
• Pings
  
• Double horse saddle
  
• Missile silo monument
  
• Wipe event
  
• Building skins
  
• Sleeping bag limits
  
• Building upgrade effects
  
• Water refresh
  
• Tugboat
  
• Ferry Terminal monument
  
• Wounded info
  
• Chat emoji
  
• Attack helicopter
  
• Homing missile launcher
  
• Parachutes
  
• Armored hot-air balloon
  
• Above and below rail linking
  
• Underground train signals
  
• M4 shotgun
  

Alongside a metric ton of improvements.

Rust continues to be a labour of love from all of us at Facepunch, and we couldn't have done it without your passion and feedback. Rust has evolved around player feedback. It's not the game we initially set out to develop, but it's a game we're incredibly proud and passionate about to keep developing.

Thank you for being an integral part of this incredible journey, we look forward to delivering updates for the years to come.



If you're interested in learning more about Rust's history or a further look back at 2023, you can view the timeline here: https://rust.facepunch.com/rust10





What can you expect from us in 2024? More of the same! Guaranteed monthly updates every first Thursday of the month, along with frequent fixes, quality of life changes, improvements and holiday events.

[h2]Next Month[/h2]
On February 1st, we'll release the backpack update. Backpacks will be a new craftable attire, allowing the player to carry more items.



Can't wait till February? Backpacks will be publicly playable on Staging next week, allowing everyone to test and give feedback.

Next month we'll also limit the number of shelters players can have placed at any one time.

[h2]Forwards[/h2]
We have a ton of content currently in development, and if you're keeping an eye on our commits page, you'll already know some of them. This year, you can expect to see new and revamped monuments such as the compound, a tutorial system for new players, motorcycles, revamped server listings UI, new weapons.

A hot topic we see is improving the world and the environment. We have multiple patches lined up in 2024 to improve the world, creating unique buildable areas such as canyons and lakes and improving rivers. Procedurally generated caves, additionally, we'll be exploring and improving cliffs and rock formations.

We also plan to address the defender's advantage of sea-based monuments and events like the cargo ship. We are to rework the harbours, and the cargoship will soon dock with the harbours.

Outlined above is skimming the surface of only a few key features. We have a lot more planned.

[h2]But what about?[/h2]
[h3]Performance?[/h3]
Performance is always an ongoing process. We're constantly adding and improving new features monthly, often hidden in changelogs. There is no magic button to increase performance. Instead, it is a slow process of small gains.

Our immediate attention is on bringing memory usage down, which can provide a more stable and consistent FPS experience for some users. We've already got several improvements ready for internal testing and hopefully release in the coming month or two.

This year, we'll be bringing onboard new hires with a strong focus on performance.

We'll continue to share news on performance in our monthly development blogs.

[h3]Global Rendering?[/h3]
We first announced Global networked bases in September. Global rendering aimed to reduce bases popping in, significantly increase the view distance of player structures and reduce some performance overhead when rendering bases. Immediately we ran into some issues, applied fixes, re-released, and ran into further problems, this process repeated a few times and then went into development limbo.

It was clear to us that we pushed this out too soon, with a lack of internal testing. We're making time over the next two months to thoroughly test and evaluate global rendering with the hope of releasing it publically again in March.

[h3]Pets?[/h3]
If you follow our public commits page, you'll know we worked on pets for several months and suddenly stopped. For several reasons, we halted this project, and it will not be released this year.

Our goal is still to have pets in Rust, but we have several obstacles to overcome first.

We're currently hiring a game AI programmer to join the Rust team to help improve our AI and eventually assist in pets development.

[h3]Nexus?[/h3]
Again, if you follow our public commits, you'll have seen the Nexus system. What is the Nexus system? In short, the Nexus system allows us to cluster servers together and enable players to travel from server to server to server using flight and boats, effectively linking an unlimited amount of servers, creating an environment where you can interact with tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of players and explore multiple maps without the need to move servers permanently. Nexus opens many doors to us, for example, dedicated arctic maps and maps with advanced AI and high-yielding resource maps but with a dangerous environment.

We don't plan for Nexus to replace the current existing server format as you play currently, but rather an optional new way to play Rust if you wish if you choose to do so.

We plan to release Nexus in 2024 when ready, but much work is still ahead of us.

[h3]Night times?[/h3]
Another hot topic within the community, for years between 2015-2019, we experimented with brighter nights. Whatever we tried, we saw many players using third-party tools to gamma boost to see at night and gain an unfair advantage over other players. It's a complex issue to address, if we increase light levels at night, we'll reopen old lessons which we know did not work in the past. Night time acts as a natural time for players to take a break, craft, build or use the cover of darkness to move loot or harvest resources, we want to retain this and allow players to use darkness to their advantage with the use of night vision and light sources.

We do agree that being unable to see entirely at night and unable to navigate around is not a good or fun experience, and we plan to revisit the subject early this year. The aim of the change is to allow players to navigate around at night more easily, if you want to PvP at night, then flashlights and night vision are still a must-have.

[h3]Anti-cheat?[/h3]
A hugely complex topic. We work closely with Epic Games' Easy Anti-cheat, to aid in detecting and banning cheaters in Rust. We don't disclose what we do and don't do when it comes to anti-cheat for good reason. The more information we disclose publicly, the more it can assist cheaters and cheat developers to circumvent measures, it's a huge cat-and-mouse game.

One of the best anti-cheat measures is obscurity. The fewer people know what EAC and we are doing, the better. This comes with the drawback of not communicating enough, on the outside, it appears we're doing nothing. Almost every month, we're shipping improvements or fixing/restricting cheat features. We've fixed several high-priority exploits upon discovery or disclosure within hours through hotfixes we don't note publicly. EAC sometimes pushes several improvements weekly, which are applied when you start the game.

Our promise to you is we're actively monitoring and combating cheaters daily. Our internal systems keep improving, as do EAC. Last year, we overdoubled our support team to aid in player support issues, which included anti-cheat matters. This year we're dedicating more resources into anti cheat than ever and exploring some more radical measures.

[h3]Old Content?[/h3]
We've set aside multiple months in our internal roadmap of light or no content. These gaps are deliberate to allow us to be versatile and adaptive to community feedback, time to focus and address old content, and improve recent content. We have a lot we can keep building upon, not all content we add to Rust is supposed to become meta, but rather adding yet another way of achieving a goal.

At a quick glance, here are just some of the changes ahead:

• Older monument reworks and improvements
  
• Continue experimenting and making meta changes to gunplay
  
• Softcore game mode Improvements
  
• Hardcore game mode experimenting
  
• Experimenting with progression
  
• Improvements to AI
  
• Improvements to events such as the patrol helicopter, Launch site APC and Cargoship
  
• World environment
  
• Underwater exploration
  
• Missions
  
• Using our data analytics to identify less commonly used items and balancing
  
• Experimenting with new ways/events to encourage players to engage with PvP
  

[h3]Ragdolls Improvements[/h3]
Several server-side ragdolls improvements and fixes following last months changes

[h3]Map Focus Hotkey[/h3]
Pressing F now focuses the players position when the map is open

[h3]Scrolling Item Descriptions[/h3]
Long item descriptions now scroll





We're excited to announce that hJune has teamed up with Rustoria again for the next Trust in Rust tournament on Saturday, January 13th. Trust in Rust will be raising money for cancer research this year.





[h3]There will be Twitch drops![/h3]
Some exclusives for the event and general drops you can earn from your favourite creator channels.

[h3]This is a charity event![/h3]
Proceeds from exclusive store skins sales and event donations go to Cancer Research. Cancer Research is the world's leading independent cancer charity dedicated to saving lives through research, influence and information.

Thank you to everyone that nominated Rust into the final round of voting for the Steam Awards!

Voting is simple - you can vote for us above in the Labor of Love category. We need you to do it!

But it just so happens that over the last two weeks, we’ve been celebrating 10 years of Rust.

Here's a recap of the last 10 years of development, community, and more - it brought a tear to our eyes!

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

We’ve seen an unprecedented amount of new and returning players, and the community is now bigger and more engaged than ever before.
With teams working around the clock, on almost every continent, we still continue to spend every day monitoring, maintaining, and nurturing the game.
And we release monthly updates - without fail - delivering new content, lore, plus regular Twitch drops, and seasonal events.



We had many kind words about all the work we put into Rust and it was clear to many that over the past 10 years, the game has transformed from a mere survival game to a global phenomenon, captivating all kinds of players with its unique blend of challenges, creativity, ways to play, and community spirit.
From groundbreaking procedural generation, to some of the most intense player interactions, Rust stands out as a testament to our creativity and we feel, the creativity within the wider gaming industry.



Recall those heart-pounding moments when survival meant outsmarting both the environment and other players. Rust's innovative gameplay has set the standard for emergent storytelling and PvP in the gaming world.



Rust's journey wouldn't be as remarkable without its vibrant and engaged community from all over the world. We, the developers at Facepunch Studios have continually embraced player feedback, ensuring that the game evolves with the input and creativity of its dedicated and growing player base.
In the last 10 years, the game has undergone some huge changes, including graphic, physics, and engine updates and rebuilds, all because we’ve wanted to make Rust what it is, and what it could be.



Why vote for Rust? Let's take Rust to new heights!
Winning the Labor of Love Steam Award would be the perfect way to honour Rust's incredible journey and the passionate community that has been an integral part of it.



How to Vote:

Make Your Voice Heard!
Voting for Rust in the Steam Awards is quick and easy. Here's a step-by-step guide:

Visit the Steam Awards Page:
Head over to the Steam Awards page on Steam.

Select the "Labor of Love" Category:
Find the "Labor of Love" category, a perfect fit for Rust's emphasis on our commitment to the community and collaboration.

Cast Your Vote for Rust:
Click on Rust to cast your vote and show your support for the game that has defined a decade of survival FPS.

As we celebrate Rust's 10th anniversary this month, let's unite and propel the game to new heights for many more years to come!

Vote for Rust! ːsteamthumbsupː

From everyone at Facepunch, we'd all like to wish you a Merry Christmas and happy holidays to everyone!

Rust and its DLC packs are currently on sale till the end of January with up to 50% off.

The Christmas Event is once again live! If you haven't been around for this before, here's what you can expect:

Every once in a while you will hear the sound of jingle bells. Run outside and look for a gift! Two gifts are spawned per player, in a radius of about 40m from where you are standing. Run up and bash it open to receive your Christmas presents. They come in three sizes: small, medium, and large. If you have enough small presents stashed, you can "trade up" to a medium or large. The contents of each present vary, but you'll find a mix of resources, weapons, and candy.



Once again, you will be able to find Santa hats and reindeer antlers, both of which can be worn and provide a decent amount of protection. There’s also a lickable candy cane club, and two types of stockings. If you hang a stocking inside your base when the jingle bells ring the stocking will fill up with loot. The larger stocking has a higher chance for better items and both last around 5-10 refills.



The advent calendar is a craftable deployable available to everyone during the Christmas event. Once placed you can claim an in-game surprise once every in-real-life day from the 16th of December.



The Christmas event ends on January 4th @ 19:00GMT

Have fun!





Run, run fast as you can, the gingerbread men are coming! Gingerbread houses have mysteriously started appearing throughout the world, leading to an underground dungeon, smelling a little like grandma's baking, but be careful, it's not going to be a cakewalk if you enter!



Server owners can adjust the portal count using the xmasdungeon.xmaspopulation convar.





We have brought some items from previous years, now purchasable from the Rust Item Store.

Since last year the festive garland pack now includes a double door garland. If you've already purchased this pack, you'll now be able to craft this item.







This year, we've teamed up with Twitch to celebrate this festive season. To commemorate this landmark partnership, we're dropping winter-themed items, as seen below.



Learn more at twitch.facepunch.com





We are excited to announce the annual Rustmas base decorating competition is back!

We're looking for the best festive base Rust has ever seen!



[h2]Winner[/h2]
£120 worth of skins of their choosing and two Rust DLC/Items.

[h2]Runner up[/h2]
£75 worth of skins of their choosing and one Rust DLC/Item.

[h2]How To Submit[/h2]
Once you’ve completed decorating your base, take some screenshots or video and upload them to X/Twitter using the hashtag #Rustmas2023

The winner and runner up will be announced from Rust's Official X/Twitter account on January 12th.

Please also be following the Rust Twitter so we can DM you. If we do not get a response within 1 week of the winner announcement a new winner will be chosen.

[h2]Evaluation[/h2]
Submissions will be judged based on the following:

• Creativity
  
• Design
  

Judging will be performed by Facepunch Staff.

Bonus points if you remove the UI and your graphics are set higher than 1 :)

[h3]Terms[/h3]
This competition is run by Facepunch Studios Lt. The competition ends on January 4th 2024 23:59UTC. No more than three entries per person. The winner and runner-up will be selected based on which Facepunch thinks is the most original/creative and any decisions Facepunch makes will be final. The winner and runner up must claim their prizes within one month of the closing date (which Facepunch may exchange for an alternative of the same or greater value). Our terms of service apply to any content you make for the competition: https://facepunch.com/legal. Winning entries must pick items from the Rust marketplace with market value.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

This month marks Rust's 10th birthday. We’ll celebrate from today till the 16th of December with in-game birthday cake, hats, throwbacks and some new items.

Rust has undergone significant evolution since its launch in 2013. It initially began within the Unity Engine 4, playable in a web browser. Later, a standalone version launched on Steam early access, the beginning of which is now known to most as Rust Legacy. With rocky foundations, a complete overhaul was done to what we have today, known as Rust reboot, or just Rust nowadays.

Over the past ten years, Rust has sold over 16 million copies (not counting console).

Rust Legacy 2013


Rust exceeded everyone's expectations and has grown yearly for ten years. We have delivered monthly updates for ten years straight, as we continue to expand the Rust development team, we have no plans to stop providing you with guaranteed monthly updates.

Rust Reboot 2015


Below are some exciting metrics we've achieved over the past 10 years.



If you're interested in learning more about Rust's history, you can view the timeline here: https://rust.facepunch.com/rust10

On behalf of everyone at Facepunch Studios, we'd like to wish you a Happy Holidays. In the January end-of-years blog, we'll discuss how 2023 has gone, what we've achieved, what we learned, and our upcoming plans for 2024.





Take your best shot at the new Pinata deployable, available to be crafted for 500 wood. Destroying the Pinata will drop a random selection of goodies, remember to share with your teammates.







Mark the occasion with the Confetti Cannon! Simply light the fuse and sit back while the confetti rains down.








Remember those first few hours of Legacy Rust? Farming resources for your first big base, and needing a place to call home in the meantime? The shelter was the answer. Now it's back!



The shelter comes with an included door, key lock and even a small radius of building privilege! The perfect start to your Rust journey.



Shelters will decay naturally, provided the door isn't interacted with (by someone with a key or ownership of the shelter) at least once a day. Make sure you keep using your shelter in order to keep it! Shelters placed within a tool cupboard radius will use TC upkeep as normal. They can also be repaired with the hammer, the same as any other deployable.

Hello!
I'm Ian, the new Gameplay Programmer! I remember cowering in my shelter back in 2013 Rust. It's incredible knowing I'm giving new players the same experience I had back in the day by bringing Vincent's awesome model to life.

I can't wait to bring you more in the future.





The legacy bow is a limited-time only store item which is only purchasable during the month of December. This bow skin pays homage to the first-ever bow model in Rust.







Available now from the Rust store is the new Legacy Wood building skin, the first Wood building skin. Owning this skin will allow you to change the visuals of your wood tier base.



This skin is for sale at the Steam store. To use, simply equip your hammer tool, display the wheel, and enable building skins. This should reveal the skin's wheel on which you may choose Legacy Wood upgrade.







The M4 shotgun was first introduced way back in Rust Legacy in 2013. To celebrate 10 years of Rust, we've decided to revive it. The M4 is an uncraftable military-grade shotgun; unlike other shotguns, the M4 has a much stronger range attack.



The M4 shotgun is a rare drop in high-end loot crates.






The Legacy Furnace is a free skin for the furnace based on the original model from 2013.



To earn the Legacy Furnace, simply play for 3+ hours during the month of December. The furnace will be automatically issued to your Steam Inventory to use!



Fun Fact - The original furnace was made of starter rocks copied and pasted together in the shape of a furnace.








The paint UI has been in need of an overhaul for a while and that's what it got this patch! Not only does it look way better than before, it also has a lot of new features and improvements.



[h3]New features:[/h3]

• Eraser tool for all types of signs
  
• Colour picker tool
  
• Made the brush size and opacity options sliders (instead of buttons)
  
• Added a brush spacing option as a slider
  
• Added a more natural looking paint brush
  
• Added two air brush types
  
• Button to reset the camera to face the object straight on
  
• Button to switch the preview lighting on or off (removes glare at some angles)
  
• Allow chatting while in the painting UI, with a button to hide it
  
• Bound Ctrl+S to the save button
  
• Added a button to download the image currently being edited to your desktop
  

[h3]Now have bindable convars for controlling the tool and brush options while painting[/h3]

• paint.selectedtool lets you set the current tool (as a number starting from 0, wrapping around at the end)
  
• paint.selectedbrush lets you set the current brush
  
• paint.brushsize sets the brush size slider
  
• paint.brushspacing sets the brush spacing slider
  
• paint.brushopacity sets the brush opacity slider
  
• Note: These function as convars so binds like "bind L meta.add paint.selectedtool 1" will switch to the next tool
  
• Note: You may need to re-open the paint UI after adding a bind when the paint UI is open
  

[h3]Improvements:[/h3]

• Fixed ugly UI, made it easier for us to maintain the three different types of paint UIs
  
• Added canvas scaler so UI isn't tiny at large resolutions
  
• Fixed gap visible between preview and right UI at some resolutions
  
• Clicks on top of UI will now never paint on the sign
  
• Added tooltips to all buttons so it is clear what they do
  
• Optimized 2D painting implementation so long, quick strokes don't kill framerate
  

The Contact Shadow option has been in the Experimental section for some years now. I believe the main reason for this is related to a very obvious over-darkening of Grass/Foliage shadows. Foliage materials have a shadow intensity option that allows artists to control penumbra darkness, making it a bit more realistic. Contact Shadows, basically, ignore that parameter.

Last month, I decided to go over it and fix the problem, while tweaking and optimizing the effect in the process.



It should now look a lot more seamless when toggling on/off, respecting shadow intensity while still grounding the grass.





Continuing with the theme of throwbacks to celebrate Rust's 10th Birthday, you've asked, we've listened, Hapis Island is back.. again! This map version is community-made and based on the 2018 version. If there's one thing the Rust community doesn't lack, it is passion.



We plan to host Hapis Island until March 2024.


We're hosting two servers of Hapis Island across different regions. These can be found in the official server list by searching "Hapis"

US - 54.39.130.95:28015
EU - 51.210.222.218:28015






Player ragdolls - the floppy state a player's body enters after being killed - have been revamped this month.

They can now collide with all vehicles in the game (trains, cars, boats, helicopters etc), where previously they simply fell through. Issues with ragdolls stretching out unnaturally have also been eliminated. If you ever saw a corpse where the interaction wasn't lined up with the visible ragdoll, that's fixed too.

[h3]Old Behaviour[/h3]
When a player died, a corpse entity used to spawn that was basically just a pelvis-sized collider, which was physically simulated on the server. The position of that "corpse" would sync with every client.

On the client side, a separate "ragdoll" object would spawn, that was a whole visible person with a full set of physically simulated limbs. That ragdoll was attached to the server-side-simulated corpse basically by a tight spring.

The corpse object controlled the actual loot interaction.

Essentially the intention was:

• Let the client do the work of simulating a whole body. We don't really care how their arms and legs are positioned, on the server. If it's different between clients, also don't care.
  
• Keep the loot interaction consistent between clients by simulating just that part on the server.
  
• Keep the (client-side) ragdoll and the (server-side) corpse together with the spring.
  

In reality, things were not perfect:

• If a player died somewhere like the top of a wall, the corpse might fall down but not the ragdoll, or vice versa. Since the collision setup was quite different between (server-side) corpse and (client-side) ragdoll - only the pelvis area matched - this was relatively common. The result would be a mismatched position between corpse and ragdoll, sometimes putting the interaction in a strange place.
  
• The client-side ragdoll joints really did not like working with the pelvis position data that was coming from the server. If movement was sudden, rather than just ending up in the wrong place, the ragdoll would sometimes stretch out unnaturally.
  
• If a ragdoll was on a moving vehicle, things were especially bad, to the point that we couldn't enable ragdoll collision with vehicles at all. Things would happen like a ragdoll dangling under a scrap heli because it had fallen out but the "corpse" hadn't.
  
• This was exacerbated by the fact that the client-side ragdoll physics simulation didn't work well with the fact that the vehicle was being moved on the server, rather than simulating on the client like the ragdoll was. Although the physics did work, they acted like the surface had zero friction, so the ragdoll would tend to slide around while the server-side corpse wanted to stay put - and the spring kept trying keep them together.
  

[h3]New Behaviour[/h3]
My first instinct for the simplest fix was to try just locking the ragdoll to the corpse, rather than using a spring. That would force them to stay together.

Unfortunately locking the pelvis to a position that was coming from the server, whilst simulating all the connected joints on the client, made the physics system very unhappy. Trying Unity tricks like using 'rigidbody.MovePosition' versus '.position', projection on or off, more solver iterations etc didn't really help. The limbs would really want to stay where they were while the pelvis pulled them around, and you'd just end up with a horrifying stretched-out ragdoll instead of one that was simply in the wrong place. Plus the limbs still had some of the old problems, like the zero-friction-on-vehicles issue.

The pelvis also didn't always simulate well for a full body, since it didn't have any of the connected torso/legs/arms/head, so it'd try to go places the full body didn't want to go. The spring allowed for that kind of leeway, but a fixed connection didn't.

So ragdoll-on-vehicle support was going to require either writing a custom physics solution for simulating the limbs on the client plus making something better for the pelvis simulation on the server side, or moving the whole ragdoll simulation to the server.

Ultimately the custom physics solution was going to require most of the same work that a fully server-simulated ragdoll was, on top of being difficult to code on my own in a way that came out superior to what Unity has already managed with 7,700 employees. So server-side ragdolls was the winner.

The new ragdolls work like this:

• A corpse spawns on the server, and that corpse is a fully simulated ragdoll with limbs etc.
  
• The base position of that corpse syncs to the client like it did before, but now the limbs also sync, in an efficient way that's packed into a couple of 32-bit integers.
  
• The client no longer has a ragdoll object that's separate from the corpse. The corpse is the ragdoll, and it's simulated only on the server.
  

That basically eliminates all the problems at once, apart from the performance cost on the server of simulating more than it did before. To handle that, I've made sure that ragdolls stop simulating as soon as they've settled down, including when they're on a moving vehicle. Overall the performance cost on the server is low, and behaviour is much improved.

[h3]Reverting[/h3]
If anything does go wrong, there is a new 'serversideragdolls` console command that can be set true or false. It's now true by default, but setting it to false will immediately revert to the old system.






[h3]Industrial Pipe Colors[/h3]
Added teal, orange, pink & purple

[h3]Sprinkler Water Fix[/h3]
Fix sprinklers wasting up to 40% of water (4 or 9 planters)

[h3]Fixed Tugboat FPS[/h3]
Tugboats were rarely causing a large FPS drop when coming into range

[h3]Car Lift Pickup[/h3]
The car lift can now be picked up when not in use

[h3]Hot Air Balloon[/h3]
Fixed Players falling out of the hot air balloon

[h3]Heli Crate Remodel[/h3]
Updated patrol heli crate

[h3]Fixed Explosive Ammo Splash[/h3]
In some situations, explosive ammo was not correctly applying splash damage

[h3]Square Sun[/h3]
Did you ever notice the sun was square sometimes? No? Well, it's fixed

[h3]Controls Search[/h3]
Added a search box to the binds sections of the options menu

[h3]Drone ID[/h3]
Drones now show their ID inside the player's inventory

[h3]Ore Harvesting[/h3]
Ore collection tools now have a slightly further attack, no longer have to duck/crouch to harvest

[h3]Bandage Revive[/h3]
You can now revive players by using a bandage on them, restoring a small amount of health





Exactly 1 year ago we increased the respawn delay of oil rigs from 30min -> 1 hour.

We noticed something strange though... the monument was sometimes taking hours (plural!) to refresh. After looking into it we realized some players were staying on Oil Rig & blocking the respawn for a number of reasons; ranging from farming resources to siting afk in vents to grief the monument.

Radiation will now appear on oil rig 30 minutes after the hacked crate unlocks. It will apply low but consistent radiation (regardless of what armor you are wearing) forcing players to leave oil rig after the event is over.

We also resolved the issue of players leaving a single item inside the hacked crate to keep the crate's map marker on the map when it was "empty".

To communicate this new change with radiation there are multiple danger indicators when it starts:





Note: that the alarm sound has changed what danger is signifies: it has changed from "heavy scientists incoming" to "radiation starting".

These changes should ensure the Oil Rig event keeps refreshing & you always have loot to fight over.





As the year ends, we look back at what has and hasn't worked well, we have decided to make the following changes:

[h3]Hardcore[/h3]
Hardcore was released in August 2022, a game mode aimed towards veteran players, with creature comforts such as safe zones, team systems and maps disabled. Since its release, hardcore has seen a declining player base, and we feel now is the right time to retire Hardcore from official servers.

It was an exciting game mode for us to experiment with, but we missed the mark on its implementation.

We have collected a lot of community feedback for if and when we choose to revamp this gamemode in 2024.

Hardcore can still be enabled on community servers.

[h3]Barren[/h3]
Barren was introduced as a map to cater for the low-end system and before the introduction of custom maps. We've made some advancements in performance since, regular community use of custom maps, and declined user base on Barren servers, we feel now is the right time to retire Barren.

We also think Barren looks ugly and not a good representation of Rust.





On December 16th at 19:00GMT / 14:00 EST, we'll be releasing an optional server and client update to enable the Xmas event and some festive features!







Beginning December 7th till December 31st 2023 we will be hosting our very first Twitch - Support a Streamer Campaign!



During this period anyone that purchases 2 (two) subscriptions from any participating Rust Streamer will earn an exclusive Creator Computer Station to use in game! Participation is open to any Partner or Affiliate on Twitch, streaming Rust.

There are some qualifications and steps involved to redeem the Creator Computer station please inquire the FAQs on our website for more info!

https://rust.facepunch.com/support-a-streamer





On December 11th at 8:00 pm GMT a team of 150 well-known Twitch creators from around the world will compete in this massive global Rust competition, taking place over 5 days with a prize pool worth $100k.



During the Twitch Rivals event, Rust Twitch drops will be enabled for 5 days from selected participating channels, and well-known streamers such as hJune, Welyn, Willjum, Panpots, Buddha, DisguisedToast, Mendo and many more.


We'd like to thank Rustoria for working with us and Twitch to make this event possible.

Learn more about this event at Twitch Rivals
Learn more about drops at twitch.facepunch.com






Another monthly round-up of data that we've captured in the last 30 days. We've got a lot of data at hand but we're trying to pick out the more interesting bits to share.

The data shown below is only from Facepunch official servers, we eliminate data from community-run servers to ensure accuracy within the data we share.