Category: News Archives

Our Livonia server, which will open to the public when DayZ 1.25 is released has been hand crafted to be an amazing experience for all DayZ players. Let’s see what is different about this server!

A customized zombie experience: Using the PVZ Spawn System and Customizable zombies mods, we’ve created zombies that only walk but they are stronger than vanilla zombies. Not only do they pack a punch, but they can take a punch too! Their increased health makes them a double threat. At night, these ungodly creatures become even stronger! During the day you can hide from them inside of a locked building (they can break open a door if it’s not locked!) but at night, forget it! Even a locked door won’t stop them from breaking down the door. Think you’re going to simply run away from them, but if you travel to any built up area, you’re going to find great numbers of zombies! They are everywhere! Think a church is a safe place? Think again! Zombie priests are compelled by the power of Christ himself! These guys are tough cookies! Best to take them out from a distance!

DayZ Expansion is on the server: We are not using all of the features of Expansion. A common feature of Expansion is the map. On our server, you can only open a map if you find a paper map. You can not place 3D markers and if you want to write on the map, you’re going to have to find a pen. Global chat is active and that is part of Expansion. Some of the Expansion custom items can also be found. There are no traders or safezones however.

Base Building is SUPERCHARGED! Build anywhere on the map with the Base Building Plus mod! Throw in the items from Boomlay’s Things mod, you can furnish a nice base! With the Perishable Foods mod, you’ll need a powered fridge (such as those from CJ187’s Fridges mod) to preserve your food! The Much Stuff Pack will help you further customize your humble abode. Worried about protecting all this cool stuff? Put a code lock on it but be warned: Raiding is active on the weekends! Your base is safe during the week days. If you want a dimly lit atmosphere, try out the candles from bl_candle_addon. This mod has candles and candle holders!

Survival is a focus for us, which is why we have some mods that let you craft items that you might need. Boomlay’s Craftables lets you create sewing kits, whetstones, improvised knives and more! Bone knives can be crafted with the Craftable Bone Knives mod. Another important part of survival is finding stuff to survive with. That’s why the Garbage Search plugin is included. Be careful searching garbage though. That stuff stinks and it might make you sick. Throw in the Search for Loot Improved mod and you’ve got TONS of places to try to find that precious loot!

We’ve also got several mods that add new clothes, weapons and other items. These include Quadlock’s Pack, Windstride’s Clothing Pack, and Spurgles Bags.

Mods that add to the atmosphere are mods that change things up a little to make it either more realistic or more engaging. The Mag Obfuscation mod hides the number of rounds you have in a magazine or the weapon. It replaces it with a + to show ammo in the weapon or a – to show no ammo. Inventory Move Sounds creates sounds as you move items around in your inventory to simulate a player actually opening up their bag or taking things out. Weapon durability and ammo stacks are adjusted with the Expansion Weapon Durability + AmmoStacks mod. Gorez splatters blood when you kill a zombie.. or a fellow survior! Did you overturn your Lada while negotiating that hairpin turn? No problem! Equip a hydraulic jack or a wreck and flip it back over with the Flip Transport mod. Suppressors in DayZ just don’t last long enough and aren’t, well, suppressed enough. That’s not a problem with the Useful Suppressors mod. This mod decreases the amount of damage suppressors take by 90% and decreases the audible range of ammunition shot through a suppressor based on the size. Along the same lines as Useful Suppressors, the Durable Tools mod increases the durability of tools so they can be used longer. This ultimately helps you create your base by not destroying your axes and shovels super quick. If you’re the kind of player that likes to engage the players zeds from a distance, then you’ll enjoy the Advanced Weapons Scopes mod. This mod is designed as almost complete replacement for vanilla scopes for providing more smooth game experience. MRT’s Custom GUI replaces the default icons from DayZ with some much cooler icons. To make DayZ feel more alive (is that an oxymoron?), the Ambient Animals mod spawns rabbits, snakes and other creatures! You can even kill and eat them!

The server is whitelisted as of this post but it will be opened to the public once DayZ 1.25 is released! If you’re interested in joining the whitelist, see our Discord for details!

In the latest news release by Bohemia, they have announced when 1.25 is released, Livonia will be given to everyone that owns DayZ! Since our Namalsk server has not been doing well for a while, and because our revival of that server only extended the server’s life shortly, we have decided to switch to Livonia! When 1.25 is released, the server will be opened! Until then, the Namalsk server will continue to run.

Some of the key aspects of the server are listed below. Everything on this list is subject to change:

■ The server will be PVP: There will be no PVE zones. The risk of losing everything, and taking a chance with interacting with a stranger is what makes DayZ such a powerful game. This doesn’t mean we can’t be civil with each other though!
■ Slow/walking dead zombies: Don’t let their speed fool you! They are stronger than regular zombies and it takes more to kill them! At night they become more powerful!
■ The zombies are also more dangerous due to their sheer numbers!
■ Hiding inside is no longer safe! The zombies will break down unlocked doors to get at you. At night, their increased strength allows them to break down even locked doors!
■ Searchable containers and garbage piles: Check everything! You may be able to search it. Be careful at garbage piles though. The stench of the garbage can make you sick!
■ DayZ Expansion: We’re using DayZ Expansion but with less elements than Namalsk.
■ No traders or safezones: You won’t find any of these on Livonia.
■ Maps: You need a map in your inventory to open up the server’s map. There is no marker showing your position and there are no 3D markers.
■ If you want to mark a position on the map, you need to find a pen.
■ Spawn select: You have a limited number of places that you can select to spawn at.
■ Custom GUI: Not the default vanilla style markers.
■ Global chat is enabled: It’s important to help build a community.
■ Perishable food with CJ187’s fridges: Food can spoil if not prepared in certain ways. You can extend the life of the food by finding a fridge and powering it with a generator or battery. Learn more about the perishable food mod here.
■ Base Building Plus: Just like our Namalsk server, BBP is the way to build on the server!
■ Max parties of 4. Pretty self explanatory…
■ Extra items: Several mods that add new clothing, weapons, etc.

We are currently testing the server and expect to go live when DayZ 1.25 is released. BI has indicated they will have a big announcement on May 20th, so we expect that 1.25 will be released shortly thereafter!

Remember, the server is a work in progress and configs may change. New things may be added! Keep an eye on Discord for the latest!

In January 2021, almost 3 years ago, I put my Rust server online. I designed it after a popular PVE community’s servers because I liked the way they had everything set up, but with the number of slots they ran and the presence of mega Amazon Fulfillment Centers that players built, their servers were always soooo laggy for me. Since I’ve been running game servers for many different games since 2004, I set out to host the best Rust server I could. Over the years, I’ve learned a lot about running a Rust server. I’ve played with many configurations and plugins. I’ve made many changes. Some were welcomed, some were not. I will always keep in mind that the most verbal players are the ones that don’t like the changes while the majority, who support the changes, remain silent. Therefore I am prepared to receive criticism and predictions of the demise of the server when changes are made. 

Many of the configurations and plugins, especially in the beginning, were added without thought to how they would affect the overall vibe of the server. I never desired to have a “Build Server” type of server, but unfortunately, some aspects of our server have lent themselves more towards that style rather than true PVE. I’m always working to balance a more PVE style with the flexibility of allowing players to play how they wish, but since the intention of the server is to be PVE and not Build, some changes are necessary. With that said, the update follows….

Greetings all. Here we are, another wipe approaching and another update status, but this one has some significant changes!

Skill Tree

The first step in extending the playability of the wipe is to slow down skill progression. This will be achieved by reducing the number of skill points earned for each level to the default/vanilla rate of 1 point per level. Earlier this year we bumped it up to 2 points per level. The maximum number of skill points that can be spent is being lowered from 200 to 150, so you’ll need to be more selective in where you spend your skill points. The cost to respec skill points is being increased from 30 scrap per point to 50 scrap per point because honestly, if you’re respecing points, chances are you have a significant surplus of scrap. To balance out these changes, Skill Tree will only be wiped every 3 months. You’ll have plenty of time to earn points and to respec your skills. After tomorrow’s server wipe, the next XP wipe will come on March 21st. With the extra time to work on your Skill Tree, this will give you the opportunity to try different configurations of skills to better suit your game play.

Injuries and Diseases

I am adding the Injuries and Diseases plugin. This will give you a chance to get a number of sicknesses including food poisoning (greater chance if you eat raw food), tape work, rabies (which is incurable on the Rust island), concussion, broken leg and (eventually) a virus from the zombies (This is still a work in progress). The illness from the zombies will be curable with the Health Injector, which can be found in medical loot. You can read about the plugin here: https://codefling.com/plugins/injuries-and-diseases

Injectors

The “Oregon Land of the Dead” map includes a custom plugin only available with that map. Since I own that map, I own the plugin too. This plugin introduces 4 injectors, which are reskinned medical syringes. When used, they boost scrap or resource collection, give you more strength when attacking or increase your maximum health and the one that increases your maximum health will be the one that will cure the disease you get from zombies. These items have a chance to be found in loot containers.

Food changes

The food loot has been edited so that the more hunger/thirst an item provides, the lower the chance of finding it. There are also new items that can be found in those food containers including rotten apples and rotten chicken, both of which have a good chance of making you sick but if not, they will increase your health. You may also find empty cans in the food containers. The amount of naturally growing food has been reduced so farming and hunting will be more important. Lastly, food that normally would need to be refrigerated, like berries, raw and cooked food, etc, will need to be put into a refrigerator. You will not be able to put them into regular boxes. Food such as canned items can still be placed in boxes. This will help make fridges more than just a decorative item.

Loot

Loot will be reduced to vanilla levels. No more 2X/4X. Over the next couple of weeks, I will be carefully looking over all loot containers to see if additional changes should be made to what spawns in them. I’m using Alpha Loot now, which is a very powerful loot editor. It allowed me to remove two plugins, Extra Loot and Magic Loot. I can now place custom items into Alpha Loot instead. I’m also working with the Spawn Control plugin to  further tweak loot spawns. This is an ongoing process.

Spawnable Vehicle changes

With the exception of minis/scrap helis, the ability to spawn vehicles/horses will be removed. This will also help us move away from the “Build Server” style by requiring players to grind for their transportation each wipe. If you had any spawnable vehicles besides the mini or scrap heli, please submit a support ticket and we’ll refund what you spent on those vehicles.

Zombie changes

The biome zombie spawns have been disabled. Zombies will only spawn at monuments. They will spawn in greater numbers, spread out over a larger area. They have increased health but can be killed with a headshot from certain weapons. The exception to this is zombies wearing head armor and the Frankenstein zombies. Those generally require several headshots. The zombies will move slightly slower.

The map for the next two weeks is Lapland, a Christmas themed map, as decided by your voting! Expect the server to go offline between 12pm and 1pm EST tomorrow, Thursday December 21st so that I may prepare the changes. The server will be available for all at 2pm EST. If you see it online before that and before I’ve posted that it’s open to all, it will be protected by a whitelist.

It’s a known fact that shorter domain names are preferred. It’s easier for users to remember and just looks better. A shorter community name allows for more information in a game server name, which, if you’ve been playing online games for any length of time, you know it’s an important place to highlight your server’s most desirable server features!

So, with that in mind, I have registered rustyog.net (Short for Rusty Old Gamers – Duh!). The new domain can be used immediately and rustyoldgamers.net will forward to rustyog.net The old domain will remain registered until it’s current period ends. All subdomains, such as link.rustyoldgamers.net or donate. rustyoldgamers.net should seamlessly forward to the new domain. Due to the way domain changes propagate through the internet, it IS possible some of you may have some temporary issues accessing the website. I wouldn’t expect that to last more than 2 days at the most. If you get any messages about out website being unsecure, you can safely ignore that. If you go to any rustyoldgamers.net URLs and it doesn’t display properly, just change it to rustyog.net.

The servers will have their names shortened to identify as “RustyOG” servers soon. Don’t worry. It’s the same old servers with a shorter name!

The Rust update is upon us! On Thursday, September 7th, at 2pm EST, Facepunch will release another Rust update. This update has lots of cool new features, which you can read about elsewhere because this post is about the ROG server!

First and foremost, shit’s gonna break! There have been changes to Rust that require plugin devs update their plugins. I will do my best to track the plugins that need updating. Some features simply may not be available on wipe day because of this. Please check Discord periodically for updates!

The server will be taken offline around 1pm on Thursday so that I can prepare the server. I already have several plugins that have available updates that need to be applied. Once the server update and Oxide update is released, the server will be put back online. If you see it online prior to any announcement, it will be secured with a whitelist and you will be unable to spawn in.

This wipe’s map is an edited procedurally generated map. It contains some custom things like the Cobalt HQ, a police station and a combined Outpost and Bandit Camp! There’s no Bandit Camp on the map because of this combination but all vendors are available. There’s also a water based safezone with fishing stuff and some vending machines for other items. 

I’ve reworked the zombies as well. At the gas stations and supermarkets, you’ll find the lower end zombies with melee weapons only. These zombies also have less health than the other zombies. Some may be carrying smoke and/or flash grenades. At the other monuments, you’ll find the more challenging zombies. Some even carry pipe shotguns or bows and arrows. At Satellite and Power Plant, there are NPC’s with pistols. The Satellite NPC’s are wearing space suits and the Power Plant NPC’s are wearing hazmat suits.

So that’s it from this side of things! Have a fun wipe!

Hey everyone! It’s the first Wednesday in August so you know what that means!? Yesterday was Tuesday!! Tomorrow will be the monthly Rust game update. This update will bring about changes, as always. There’s supposedly a new skin for stone buildings. I expect the Building Skins plugin will be updated for that. Talking about plugins updates, there seems to be a lot of changes internally to Rust that may affect plugins, so be ready for a crazy storm of broken plugins upon logging in after wipe. What a time to be alive!

The map for August is a procedurally generated maps with edits. As always, the public heli tower is there. I’ve also got some other cool stuff like the Cobalt Police station, guarded by scientists inside and out. There’s a few new custom monuments added too. Crazy Bob the Prepper is back as well! You can see much of the custom stuff in the Update Preview chanel in Discord.

I’m going to break with the normal format of our biweekly update to talk about our “other” game, DayZ! In case you’ve been living under a rock, or in a tug boat, I’ve had a DayZ server running for a few months. It’s experienced some minor success with a small player base growing. I recently decided I’m going to revamp that server with the Expansion mod and a few others. I expect to have this up and running by Friday or Saturday, pending any issues. If you haven’t played DayZ, consider buying it. It’s a much more hardcore survival experience than Rust and the map that we run, Namalsk, is particularly brutal with cold weather and storms. See the DayZ channels in Discord for more information and updates.

As always, the events to be run for the next 2 weeks will be determined on wipe day. That’s all I have for now! See you online!

Middle of July update! This coming Thursday, July 20th, is our next wipe. This wipe will occur earlier in the day than normal. I expect it to be done no later than 9am EST. Skill Tree XP will wipe and BP’s will remain, so get those BP’s unlocked now! 

A new version of the XDQuest plugin, aka the Quest Room at Outpost, will be installed. There’s a bunch new features with the plugin which is why I am waiting for the wipe, as the data file needs to be deleted. 

The map will be another procedurally generated map without modifications. The reason for this is because I will be in Florida on wipe day and a proc gen map is less likely to have issues that need to be resolved. I am looking at a custom map for the August wipe.

Any changes to the events will occur on wipe day. I do not currently know which events will be active. I’ll decide that while I’m updating the server.

So, as you can see, no ground breaking changes this wipe. Nice and easy to limit the possibility of problems. I don’t know if I’ll be on for wipe day but it’s unlikely. Enjoy the wipe!

Happy July 4th to my American friends. Sorry for your loss to my British friends.

On Thursday, July 6th, we will get another Rust update from Facepunch. This one brings changes to the water, a new ferry terminal, a driveable ferry, a new DLC and a bunch of other things. Tldr; Shit’s gonna break on Thursday.

The wipe will occur at 2pm EST, when the patch is released by Facepunch. With the changes coming out with this patch, there’s a chance that plugins will break. I’ll keep an eye on everything and address any issues that pop up. The server will go offline at some point between 12pm and 1pm so I can prep the server.

The map will be a procedurally generated map without any customizations due to the changes to Rust and the new monument. This will reduce the chances of issues that could arise from using a custom map or an edited proc gen map.

The mid-July wipe scheduled for July 20th will most likely occur on July 19, in the late evening EST. I’m leaving for Florida early in the morning on July 19th and will be trying to drive as far as I can before stopping for the night. Since I’ll be on the road at 2pm on the 20th, I’m planning on doing the wipe when I’m at my hotel on the 19th. Should this change, I’ll post at the time. 

That’s all we’ve got. See you all on Thursday!

Hey everyone, it’s a third server update for June! Since there’s 5 Thursdays this month, we’ll have our 1 week wipe from 6/29 to 7/6. Since it’s the third wipe, there will be no wiping of BP’s or Skill Tree XP. The map will be an unedited procedurally generated map. We’re not running a custom map or customized proc gen due to our change to Carbon.

What is Carbon? I’m glad you asked! Until now, we’ve used Oxide with our server. Oxide is a framework used to run the plugins we have on the server. Carbon is a newer framework that touts better performance as well as some built in features that eliminates the need for some of the plugins we’ve been using. In theory, this should allow me to increase the maximum slots again and to potentially add features to the server that might otherwise cause too much of a load on the server.The tradeoff is that some plugins will not work but these are relatively minor plugins that aren’t essential.

I will be taking the server offline around 12pm EST on Thursday. I need time to ensure that everything is set up properly when I do the switch over. I need to transfer data and configs as the server files will be an actual new installation configured on the same port as the current server.

Monument Owner is back for this wipe. It’s a new version that hopefully resolves some issues we’ve had in the past. I plan to enable the zones on most of the monuments. I’ll keep an eye on the locking of the monuments and how it affects the players. Hopefully we won’t have any issues, but if one arises, please use the /staff command to see me or any of the moderators are online. If not, put in a support ticket on Discord.

If you’ve been watching the server updates, you’ll know this, but I’ll reiterate it. I will only be running events from now on that use the PVE Mode plugin. This plugin is responsible for locking events to the first player/team that meets a certain requirement and locks out players not on that team. This is necessary as we’ve had some incidents recently where people couldn’t play nice at events that didn’t lock. This includes the Airfield Drops, Cobalt Labs and Crashed Plane. I’m sure there’s a few more that I’ve run in the past as well.

That’s it for this update. I hope to see everyone on the server!

Tomorrow, Thursday, June 15th, we have our middle of the month wipe. Blueprints will not wipe, but skill tree XP will wipe. We’ll have a new map, another customized proc gen map. You may have already seen some of the screenshots from the Map Update Preview channel in Discord. For those that have been around for a while, you will be happy to know that our favorite off-his-rocker prepper, Crazy Bob will return with his bunker. His bunker won’t be marked, but if you find him, kill him and you can access his bunker of loot!

At the harbors, you’ll find some new barges floating. These give more loot opportunities while changing things up a little. The Launch site has some nefarious experiments going on inside and it seems that the Cobalt company is bringing some odd equipment into the airfield as well. As you drive around the map, you may encounter new roadside monuments as well.

There’s a cargo ship stuck in the ice. Scientists are keeping it safe until the spring thaw. The bridge is protected by a blue card puzzle. There’s lots of loot to be gotten so go check it out! There’s a motel in the desert with a green card door on the motel office. That must be where they keep the good stuff. In the winter biome, you’ll find a Christmas house. Nothing too special there, just some loot and holiday cheer.

Our events will be determined while I’m updating the server. The wipe will take place at 4pm EST, two hours later than normal due to an appointment I have. Once I’m home and ready to work, I’ll stop the server and do the update. Once it’s ready, it’ll be online for all to play, even if it’s before 4pm. As of this writing, I have no plans to introduce anything new and revolutionary to the server.

An important note: This month has FIVE Thursdays. That means that we’ll be having a 1 week wipe from June 29th to July 6th. No BP’s or Skill XP will be wiped for that one week. I will choose a custom map to be run during that time. I will be traveling in July during our mid-month wipe, so that wipe may be delayed or even done a day late but that’ll be addressed when it gets closer.

That’s it for this update! See on the server!