Rust News

Above-ground Trains Update

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[h2]Above-Ground Trains[/h2]

We wanted to get some trains onto the above-ground rails this month.

We have some more train content in the works, but for this initial release we're mostly reusing existing assets in order to provide something to try out until that content is ready.

The above-ground Work Cart closely resembles the underground one, but now has coupling points at each end that can connect to other train cars. The bogies (also known as trucks - the wheel assemblies) have also been updated to rotate with the track more realistically.

We've taken some static train wagon models that we had and made them functional. These don't actually do anything special yet, but they spawn along with Work Carts on the new rail sidings and they can be shunted around.

The Work Cart train engines take low grade fuel as usual. Their target speeds at low/medium/high throttle are constant, but their acceleration and pulling ability are affected by gravity and how many couples wagons they're pulling as you'd expect. If your long train can't make it up a hill, it's possible to use multiple Work Carts in a multi-engine coupled setup for more power.

Coupling happens automatically when wagons collide at a low to moderate speed. High speed collisions will not couple, and may take damage instead. Uncoupling is manual - simply interact with the coupling point.

[h2]Rail Network Branch Lines[/h2]

The rail network has received secondary lines that branch off the main line and merge back onto it. This all happens entirely procedurally with no need for predetermined prefabs aside from the rail mesh itself, which results in a very flexible system that can cover a wide range of use cases as we expand the rail network in the future. For now, these branch lines are just where the trains are spawning. We will see how things work out and go from there.

[h2]Rail and road foliage improvements[/h2]

The foliage / bushes spawning next to rails and roads have received some optimizations to eliminate their overhead as you move around the world. They now also spawn in larger clusters with varying coverage, resulting in some dense areas and some open areas, which allowed us to also reduce their total count as a performance improvement without having it affect the visuals too much.

[h2]Zipline Improvements[/h2]

Ziplines seemed to be well used last month, but there were too many cases of ziplines failing to connect, leading to zipline platforms with no connections. I've improved the procedural generation process this month in a few different ways.

Ziplines are now better at routing around obstacles, allowing ziplines to go via 2 separate mid-points before arriving at their destination. I also added zipline arrival points at Sewer Branch, Stables, Lighthouse and Dome.

All of these changes combined have improved the number of ziplines on procedural maps by about 40%.

[h2]Death screen Improvements[/h2]

The death screen has been improved this month with many NPC's getting custom icons and proper translations. We've also improved how we show your death information if you suicide while downed. Previously doing this would result in the death screen showing your death as a suicide, preventing you from seeing the name and weapon of your attacker. This is now fixed and you will see the last attack details even if you suicide while downed.

[h2]Client Performance [/h2]

Client performance was identified as a growing issue last month so we all put some time aside to try and improve performance this month. We've made good progress in some key areas:

Fixed a regression introduced last month that was generating a lot of garbage and causing stutters. This was deemed high enough priority that we released it in a hotfix early in the month.
Identified a bug that was preventing lasers and some other heavy systems from budgeting their performance correctly (This was also affecting server performance).
Significantly reduced network traffic from planters and plants getting watered by sprinklers.

Performance is always a high priority for us and we've got more improvements being worked on for future updates.

[h2]General QOL[/h2]

SAM Site Damage - SAM Site can no longer be damaged by bullet type damage

Junkpile scientists - NPCs have returned to junkpile spawns

[h2]Community UI Improvements[/h2]

We've integrated several pull requests from the Community UI Github project this month, bringing improvements like blocking keyboard input while in text boxes, better item and skin rendering as well as fixing a handful of bugs. Thank you to Ailtop, Jake-Rich, shooter46 and Mughisi for the contributions.

We have some more improvements to this system in the works, specifically to improve rendering and network performance on rapidly updated UI displays.

[h2]Hapis Island[/h2]

Some of you have been waiting for Hapis Island to return after last year's graphical overhaul broke it. This is just a little heads-up to tell you that we are aiming for it to finally go live again in next month's patch.

[h2]Twitch Drops[/h2]

Starting from today till May 12th 23:59UTC Twitch drops are enabled for Rust Twitch streamers. You can earn special and unique skins simply by watching your favourite Rust Twitch streamers.

During the final 24 hours of the Rust Twitch drop campaign, all drops will be moved to general.

Learn more at twitch.facepunch.com.

[h2]Changelist[/h2]

Added rail network branch lines
Added above-ground trains
Added 4 type of train wagons
Improved client performance
Improved zipline placement and monument integration
Reduced network traffic of sprinklers watering large amounts of filled planters
(Community UI) Added support for natively showing item icons (thanks Mughisi)
(Community UI) Added support for read only and multi line InputFields (thanks shooter46)
(Community UI) Added support for the NeedsKeyboard component
(Community UI) Adding "needsKeyboard" to an InputField will block keyboard input only while that input field is focused
Improved and fixed several issues in collection of official server analytics
Improved rail and road foliage performance and visuals
SAM Site can no longer be damaged by bullet type damage
Reduce the chance of vehicle parts from junkpile_j
Fixed grenade launcher reload error when first person spectating
Fixed long ziplines disappearing when the player is at the end of the line
Fixed a bug that was disabling the performance budget of budgeted systems (lasers, walk animations, etc)
Fixed incorrect prevent building bounds when building around zipline wires
Fixed very long ziplines disappearing when a player was near the end of the line
Fixed several overly strict antihack configs resulting in unable to damage construction
(Community UI) Fix countdown not working (thanks Ailtop)
(Community UI) Fix RectTransform only being added when a graphic component is added (thanks Jake-Rich)
Fixed junkyard keycard not respawning

Happy Easter

[h2]Easter Hunt[/h2]

For the next week, every 24-38 hours in-game hours an Easter egg hunt will begin. You'll have 3 minutes to collect as many eggs as you can. The top 3 players are given special eggs as a reward. These eggs can be cracked open for various types of loot ranging from scrap all the way up to an M249!

If you don't make the podium, that's okay. The painted eggs you collect can be upgraded to Bronze eggs once you collect 10. If you collect 10 bronze eggs then you can upgrade to a silver egg, eventually all the way to gold!

There are various items available to help you during your hunt. The Easter Basket will allow instant pickup of eggs and the Bunny Onesie and Ears will provide you with an advantage via Egg Vision.

Have fun!

[h2]Easter Store Returns[/h2]

A number of items are hopping back into the store this year:

Egg Hat

Bunny Hat

Easter Wreath

Zipline & Rail Update

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[h2]Procedural Rail Network[/h2]

The first iteration of the procedural rail network is now live! Any map size 4250 or larger should have a single railway in the shape a ring going around the entire island.

This is just a tech test / proof of concept for now, so there's no official gameplay element to it yet. Please report any weird looking areas you might encounter.

In the near future, you can expect driveable above-ground trains.

[h2]Powerline Ziplines[/h2]

Powerlines have had an upgrade this month, with new platforms and ziplines now appearing across procedurally generated maps. To access the zipline you'll need to climb to the top of the new platforms that are attached to some powerlines. Once at the top, you can use the zipline to travel to another platform further along the chain of powerlines or to nearby monuments.

You can speed up on the line by holding forward and jump off at anytime with the jump key (just be careful of the drop!). Colliding with anything solid while on the line will also knock you off the line, this includes trees, players and vehicles, so use with care.

We'll be improving the generation of these over time to connect more monuments, as well as exploring ways for players to place their own ziplines in the future.

[h2]Achievements[/h2]

Since launching out of early access in 2018 Rust's achievements have served as a way for new players to learn the basics of the game. Unfortunately they haven't kept up with the amount of new content added to the game every month so we've made a set of 18 new achievements to earn. As usual, achievements can only be earned on official servers.

[h2]Monument Lighting Continued[/h2]

We have continued improving the lighting setup for our monuments. This month we have focused mainly on the monuments such as; Lighthouse, Fishing Villages, Stables, Excavator, Arctic Research Base and Airfield.

The degree of improvements varies depending on the monument. Some of the newer monuments like Fishing Villages, Stables and Excavator received only minor updates. This includes changes such as adding darkening volumes to interiors, adding new ambient lights and enabling interior lights during the daytime.

Other monuments like Lighthouse and Arctic Research base received more extensive upgrades, which includes a whole lot of new lights, that will make the monuments significantly brighter during nighttime and more atmospheric during daytime.

The monument that received the biggest upgrade this month is the Airfield. Here we have added not only new lights and darkening volumes, but also tweaked some materials and added a lot of new prop dressing to bring it to the same level of quality of our newer monuments.

[h2]General QOL[/h2]

Landmine Update - The landmine has received a visual refresh
Loading Background - Loading screen image will now alternate between images
Magnet Crane - Further improvements to the junkyard magnet crane handling

[h2]Steam Networking[/h2]

We have updated Steam Networking to the latest version, which comes with a number of important performance improvements. It's still disabled by default, but we will run some tests on various official servers to provide feedback to Valve regarding any potential issues. In the medium term, we hope to switch all servers to Steam Networking by default.

[h2]Official server analytics[/h2]

Balancing Rust can be a daunting prospect given the wide variety of play styles and content. With that in mind, this month we're releasing our first pass of server analytics for official servers so we can start to gather some data about how you play Rust. While this will be invisible to you, we're hoping to use this data to better allocate resources to parts of the game that need work as well as identifying balance issues.

If you're playing on an official server, thanks in advance for helping us out. We'll be sure to share any interesting stats that pop up.

[h2]Twitch Rivals[/h2]

On April 14th at 8:00 pm GMT a team of 80 well known Twitch creators with 40 players from North America (team Disguised Toast) will face off against a team of 40 players from Europe and Latin America (team Alexby11) in this massive global Rust competition, taking place over 48 hours with a prize pool worth $100k.

During the Twitch Rivals event, Rust Twitch drops will be enabled for 3 days from selected participating channels, well-known streamers such as hJune, xQcOW, Welyn, Silithur, BaboAbe, sykkuno, Ray__C, LakshartNia and of course the team captains Alexby11 and Disguised Toast.

Over the course of the 48 hours, teams will build up their bases and supplies. During this time, teams can gain access to additional resources by getting kills, completing objectives, and claiming crate drops. The final hour of the competition will be an all-out battle, as both teams try to raid the opposing base. The team that collects the most dog tags will win.

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

Learn more at twitch.facepunch.com

[h2]Easter Event[/h2]

On April 14th at 19:00 BST / 18:00 UTC / 14:00 EST we'll be releasing an optional update to enable this year's Easter egg hunt event, more details to follow in an upcoming blog on the 14th.

[h2]Changelog[/h2]

Powerline ziplines
18 new achievements
Server analytics on official servers
Added dog tags (for event use only)
Generic snowmobile model updated to include visible lights
Updated landmine model
Magnet crane pedals now animate and have IK for the driver's feet
Added a blue light to the Magnet Crane cockpit. When the magnet crane cabin is within 10 degrees of facing straight forward, it lights up
Holding the crouch key while in the Magnet Crane now automatically rotates the cabin back to zero
Debug camera controls while spectating or in demos now uses the players movement bindings instead of WASD
Made lighting improvements to Airfield, Arctic Research Base, Excavator, Fishing Villages, Lighthouse and Stables monuments
Loading screen now alternates between a selection of images
Hopeful fix to prevent certain crashes when switching servers
Fixed missing passthrough name on DLC industrial wall lights
Fixed camper module rear lights not working correctly
Fixed magnet crane physics behaving strangely when the magnet arm was extended far out in front
Magnet crane is now much less prone to 'digging in' its magnet arm, getting it stuck in the ground without being able to easily back out
Fixed players being able to grip on to the sides of the train tunnel elevator shaft while falling down it
Fixed not being able to kick passengers from the taxi module
Fixed not being able to hear notes played from deployed instruments while mounted to something
Fixed the helmet slit overlay blocking the status effect UI, and fixed the scope overlay being in front of the helmet slit overlay
Fixed the autoturret idle animation moving more slowly at higher server framerates
Fixed Rust's graphics Quality setting defaulting to 0/6 ("Super Potato") on first install. Set the default to 4/6 ("Good")
Fixed loading screen text overflow
Fixed Ice AK showing an extra particle effect in first person

The Rust rail network (partly) arrives in the April update

A Rust rail network is coming, and the first iteration of it lands as part of the April update. This month's update also introduces powerline ziplines to make it easier to get around the map, new achievements to earn, further improvements to lighting on monuments, and more.

Rust's monthly update arrives on April 7 at 11am PDT / 2pm EDT / 7pm BST. Further details will hit the official site at the same time, but for now, the devs have provided a press release with early info on the big features. The biggest is the new procedural rail network. As of this update, "Any map size 4250 or larger should have a single railway in the shape of a ring going around the entire island. This is just a tech test / proof of concept for now, so there's no official gameplay element to it yet. Please report any weird looking areas you might encounter. In the near future, you can expect drivable above-ground trains."

You'll also find new platforms and ziplines atop certain powerlines on procedurally generated maps. These will let you quickly travel along the powerline chain, or to connected monuments.

Read the rest of the story...

March 2022 Update

[h2]Monument Lighting[/h2]

This month we’ve made visual improvements to some of our older monuments to get them more consistent with the quality of our new content. This includes changes such as adding darkening volumes to interiors to prevent them from becoming too bright during the day, adding new lights and effects, tweaking existing lighting and other minor visual improvements.

As a result, the interiors should feel much darker and more atmospheric. The monuments that we’ve changed so far are the Supermarket, Oxum's Gas Station, Bandit Camp and Launch Site and we plan to improve more of them over time.

[h2]Soundtrack Release[/h2]

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This month we're really excited to announce the release of Rust's official soundtrack - available now on Steam, music streaming services and a handful of digital stores. This initial release (Volume 1) is comprised of 29 tracks clocking in around 1 hour and 45 minutes of music.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1701720/Rust_Soundtrack/

Alex originally wrote a lot of these songs for our update videos but he's been expanding them into more fleshed out, standalone pieces of music. There's also some songs he has written to fit the occasional calm moment in game that you won't have heard at all yet.

Alex is in the process of getting these songs chopped up and implemented to playback dynamically in game as well. Around half of the new tracks are ready in this update, and the rest should follow shortly.

Listen now on your favourite music streaming platforms, including:

Spotify Apple Music Bandcamp YouTube Music Amazon Music
And many more digital music stores!

[h2]Improved vehicle body visuals[/h2]

This month we've been exploring new ways to improve the visual experience when driving vehicles. While we initially explored dedicated viewmodels for vehicles (floating arms in front of the camera) we settled on using the full body mesh with tweaked hand logic. You can see this most obviously on the Snowmobile, the driver seat of Modular Cars and the Workcart, while it's visible but less obvious on the Minicopter and Scrap Transport Helicopter.

This approach allows us to highlight the hand IK on vehicles like snowmobiles and cars so you can see your arms turning. There's also some subtle camera movement if the player model leans or moves (like on the Snowmobile).

[h2]Magnet Crane Cleanup[/h2]

We looked at the junkyard magnet crane this month to see if some bugs and the general feel of it could be improved.

It's now a bit more stable to drive, and old issues like the driver not quite visually syncing up with the cabin as it rotates are fixed.

Another concern with the crane was that with its controls being pretty complex, it was easy to burn through your fuel just learning them. To combat that, we've reduced the fuel it uses at idle by 80%, and the maximum fuel it uses when not holding anything by 25%. So if you're just practicing moving the magnet arm and rotating the cabin, your fuel will only be being consumed at 20% of the rate it was before.

[h2]Snowmobile Cleanup[/h2]

We added some small final touches to the snowmobiles.

Most were minor bug fixes, but an obvious one is that animations are improved, with the driver now getting visually bumped around at times, and showing an idle animation cycle. Audio is improved as well, with the snowmobile revving more realistically when driving up hills.

For game balance, the arctic base snowmobile no longer comes loaded with any fuel.

[h2]World Model Update[/h2]

There are some assets that need world models and some that needed refreshing so towards the end of last year Tom completed a number of new and updated world models, these are now in-game!

[h2]General QOL[/h2]

Slower Car Decay - Cars decay 4x slower when left outdoors
Alt Look Restrictions - Restrict how far up a player can look with alt look while looking down
Water catchers & barrels now decay - Should lower the number of catchers and barrels that are left outside
Large Furnace Heat - Large furnaces now provide comfort and heat
Monument Loot Hiding - Monument loot no longer spawns when players are within 20m of the spawn point
Phantom Footsteps- We believe we've now fixed a long standing issue of hearing phantom footsteps

[h2]Night Vision and post fixes[/h2]

We've had reports of the NVG effect being blown out for a while. When we looked into it, we realised that it only looks incorrect on procedural maps.

After a lot of digging, we found that there was a post process volume placed inside one of moon pools set to global rather than local erroneously.

This means that it was being applied all of the time and messing with exposure settings. This also means that it's had an effect on the overall exposure of the game for while also, although this has been a bit less apparent than with NVG.

[h2]Search and loading screen update[/h2]

The loading screen was long overdue for a revamp, you'll now see server stats and a more clear tooltip sections while loading into the server of choice.

In a future update, the background image will randomly change through a preselected gallery on each load.

Additionally, we've added support for tag filtering to the server browser to make finding servers of interest easier.

[h2]Changelog[/h2]

Added support for tag filtering to the server browser
Added new in game music
Added 14 new world models
Updated loading screen
Improved arm and body visuals on some vehicles
Improved 3rd person keycard animation
Can no longer reskin doors that are open
Can now switch to and from Ice Rifle skin regardless of ammo or attachments
Added support for infinitely scrolling MIDI knob convar bindings (see MidiConvar.BindKnobRelative convar)
Restricted how far a player can alt look up when looking down
IO Entities can now decay (fixes Water Barrel, Water Catcher, Above Ground Pool, Boom box, CCTV, Connected Speaker, Counter, Disco Floor, Sprinkler, Wind Mill, Car Lift, Paddling Pool, SAM turret, Search Light, Smart Alarm, Solar Panel, Sound Lights, Telephone, Water Pump not decaying when placed outside of a base)
Removed slot 8 input bind
Renamed slot 7 input bind to "Holster Item"
When opening the inventory the currently equipped belt item will automatically be selected
Modular cars take 4x longer to decay
Increased local player voice volume when recording a cassette
Junkyard magnet crane is more stable to drive
Junkyard magnet crane now uses 80% less fuel when not driving around, and 25% less fuel when not carrying anything on its magnet
Added Always Sprint to the game options. If enabled, sprint key behaviour is inverted. Player sprints by default, and holding the sprint key will return them to walk speed
Improved lighting in the Supermarket, Oxum's Gas Station, Bandit Camp and Launch Site
Large furnace now provides a small amount of heat and comfort
Added BuildingDark and BuildingVeryDark volumes for map makers
Polar bear should no longer migrate to warmer climates
Horses now trigger pressure pads
Fixed a case where changing weapon while gesturing would lead to incorrect viewmodels (missing attachments)
Fixed case where changing clothing while inventory was full would sometimes incorrectly delete an item
Fixed rounding issue when using Pure Ore Teas leading to an ore node giving 1501-1505 resources (now gives 1500)
Fixed some out of date radio stations
Fixed phantom footsteps continuously playing
Fixed incorrect sfx footsteps playing
Fixed modular cars using no fuel if they had multiple engine modules and one of those modules had no components
Fixed magnet crane arm movement speed slowing down at low server framerates
Fixed magnet crane driver not syncing up visually with the crane itself when rotating the cabin
Fixed magnet crane magnet hurting the driver if it was positioned as close as possible to the cabin
Fixed magnet crane treads sometimes animating in the wrong direction when turning
Fixed the snowy edges of ice lakes also being considered ice by modular cars and snowmobiles
Fixed the Tomaha suspension snapping to the wrong position when active updates stopped
Fixed a sleeper loot exploit
Fixed CCTV clipping exploit
Fixed BBQ looting exploit
Fixed pickle jar desc typo
Fixed Excavator puzzle reset bounds exceeding the prevent building volume, causes player to die when logged out
Fixed missing passthrough name on DLC industrial wall lights
Fixed oil hunt mission reward only being 50 scrap
Arctic base snowmobile no longer comes with 20 low grade fuel
Arctic base snowmobile garage no longer spawns puzzle loot