This month's update brings you TWO new weapons - the handmade SMG and SKS rifle, additionally, new and improved wolf AI, Gesture Pack DLC, plus the usual bug fixes & QoL changes!
This month, we're adding new weapons. Firstly, filling a gap in the weapon lineup, the Handmade SMG is unlockable near the end of the T1 tech tree.
While it lacks accuracy and raw damage, it compensates for this with
sheer volume, letting players unleash a hail of bullets. Skilled
survivors can use it to stay competitive by timing their attacks and
positioning themselves carefully, allowing for surprise bursts against
better-equipped foes.
Unlockable at the start of the T3 tech tree, the SKS bridges the gap between the SAR and the M39. This mid-tier powerhouse combines punchy damage with accuracy, making it a reliable pick for players who want a no-nonsense rifle with solid range and stopping power. The SKS delivers balanced performance with a kick that seasoned survivors will appreciate.
I recently joined Facepunch to work full-time on the AI and it's been a blast so far.
This month, we're releasing the first step of a major AI overhaul. We're starting small by just updating the wolf, but long-term, the goal is to update Scientists and all other animals.
The why
The current wolf feels a bit like a landmine: if you're walking around and you didn't see it or hear its footsteps, you die. That issue is of course amplified in the pitch black night.
Since wolves run faster than players, once spotted, your only options are to try to kill it before it kills you, or jump out of reach if possible.
Since the wolf charges in a straight line, you don't really have to aim and if you have a nailgun or better, it's just a matter of unloading the magazine into the animal as quickly as you can.
Assuming you spotted the wolf before it spotted you, hunting it was not really engaging. When shot from a distance, wolves don't charge and just flee very far away, often forcing you to engage in a long hike to get it's loot.
The result of this is that the wolf was either frustratingly hard to handle, or trivial, with no in between. This motivated us to reshape the wolf into something that would pose a challenge that feels fair, and can be tackled in multiple ways.
The how
I could write an exhaustive list of all the new behaviors, but I think it'll be way more fun for you to experiment, and I'm confident the community will find even the cool hidden ones.
Forget everything you know about the old wolves and just try out stuff that seems like it should work!
This month, we've added more ways for players to communicate and express themselves with the introduction of our first gesture pack - available now on Rust's permanent item store.
The pack includes 8 new gestures:
Rock Paper Scissors (Mini-game)
Loser / L Hand
Knuckle Crack
No-No / Wagging Finger
Cut Throat
Shush
Watching You
Finger Gun
NOTE: You'll need to assign the gestures to a slot on the gesture wheel
via our new gesture wheel customisation on the main menu under Options > Gestures (learn
more below)
Rock Paper Scissors
Included in the pack is our first ever gesture minigame; Rock Paper Scissors.
Trying to decide which teammate does the next farming run? Or who gets to use the L96? Now you can settle the score with a round of Rock Paper Scissors.
To play, select Rock Paper Scissors from the gesture wheel then wait for an opponent to interact with you to start the minigame. (Note: you'll need to assign the gesture to a new slot via the main menu for it to appear on the gesture wheel)
Once a 2nd player joins, you'll be prompted with UI to choose a hand/option to play - use the numerical keys on your keyboard to make a selection of either rock, paper or scissors. Both you and your opponent will have 10 seconds to make a choice; if the timer runs out or a player moves too far away, the mini-game will end.
After selections are made by both parties, each player will "shoot" simultaneously on the count of three to determine a win, lose or draw result.
We look forward to seeing how you all use the minigame - our plan is to add similar interactive gestures in the near future.
In order to support the new gesture pack, we’ve added the ability to customise your gesture wheel this month, as well as adding a new wheel so you can access double the gestures. You’ll find this in the Options > Gestures menu.
Customising your wheel is straightforward from this menu. Simply click on a slot to change what gesture is assigned, or use RMB to clear a slot. You can access the second wheel via the arrows at the top, and use E/Q to switch between gesture wheels in-game.
We’re just exposing two wheels as even with the new gestures, you won’t be able to fill them up, but we’ve now got the system built so we can add more wheels as we release more gestures down the line.
Many official Facepunch servers, especially those in Eastern and Western Europe and Eastern US, have been upgraded to new, higher-performance hardware. This long-awaited upgrade should significantly improve stability in these regions during peak time. Some servers also received a slight increase in their max player capacities.
Following this update, you may find that your favourite Facepunch server is no longer on your favourites list. To find it, please use the search bar in-game and, if needed, enable the "show empty servers" option.
Upgrades for other regions will be rolled out in the coming weeks.
All blueprints have been transferred, so no progress has been lost.
Since our last anti-cheat update back in July, we have applied an additional 91,676 bans, 19,398 of these were temporary, and the remaining were permanent bans. Here's the breakdown per patch:
World Update 2.0 - October
22,473 permanent bans
6,735 temporary bans
113,580 reports
Time To Kill - September
14,885 permanent bans
5,294 temporary bans
77,871 reports
Stay Alert - August
22,827 permanent bans
1,386 temporary bans
105,031 reports
Road Renegades - July
12,093 permanent bans
5,983 temporary bans
102,764 reports
Notes
Patch-specific report data is only
from Facepunch Official servers due to data reliability originating from
non-official servers, the total number of reports across all server
since July is 5.3 million.
Patch-specific ban data is global, and counts for all Facepunch applied game bans across any servers
Bans that were later reverted are excluded from these metrics.
Bans
are placed for multiple reasons. The numbers above do not strictly
reflect only cheat-related bans, but cheat-related bans make up the vast
majority of bans.
A single player can receive
multiple bans, for example, if a user is temporarily banned and then
later switched to a permanent ban, this is counted as 2 bans in the
above metrics.
The above is to provide context and transparency, not to state we're
doing a good job, there is much more to be done in this area, and we are continuing to
work on it.
Next
In July, I talked about server-side player culling, if a player is behind a hill and you can't see them, don't network the player. We feel we've done all we can in internal testing and will now roll out this change slowly across all official servers starting this month.
We teamed up with a third party to handle takedowns on our behalf. One of the core objectives is aimed at cheat-related material. The takedowns will be made at the request of Facepunch staff after manual review. There is no automation, and there is no room for innocent content to be taken down.
We've taken down over 1200 cheats-related media on social platforms.
We're working continuing to work on several other legal fronts to disrupt cheaters.
Rust Kingdoms returns! The ultimate battle for control begins this Friday on Twitch!
Watch live as some of the biggest creators both in and out of the Rust scene stake their claim for the throne, through serving/defying their masters, picking battles carefully, or risking all their rewards - who will rule the kingdom by Sunday 17th?
Event hosted by Rustoria.
Don't miss out on lots of epic Twitch Drops too! You can sync your account at any time here.
