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.