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The Big QOL Update

The big quality of life update, over 90 improvements and fixes. Rust is turning 9 years old, and Christmas is coming! 

01 December 2022
DEVBLOG
Rust 9th Birthday
Alistair
Rust turns 9 this month, that's 9 years of weekly and monthly updates. We’ll celebrate for one day only on 11th December with in-game birthday cake and hats. 
In the January end of years blog, we'll talk more about how 2022 has gone, what we've achieved and what we learned as well as our upcoming plans. 
Combat QOL
Helk

Burst

Following last month's burst module implementation, I have made the following changes and improvements:
  • Burst can now be toggled using the "M" bind
  • Burst module slightly lowers aim cone

LR & MP5

The LR and MP5 have seen lower usage since the recoil changes, players who used to opt for the LR often now feel more confident using the AK, so we're experimenting with the following changes to incentivize their use more:  
  • MP5 and LR now have inbuilt burst module
We'll continue monitoring and adjust accordingly in future updates. 

Slug Ammo

Slug ammo is regularly used over large distances effectively, whilst it's great to see slug ammo used to a greater effect with the recent changes, we agree with player feedback that it's too effective. The slug should be a hard-hitting option in close to mid-range combat and less effective over larger distances, so I've made the following changes: 
  • Slug now does 50% damage at 40 meters+ instead of 75% damage at 80+
  • Slug does 100% damage from 0-20m instead of 0-10m

Modular Car Code Locks
Bill B
Car keys have been removed from the game and replaced with code locks, which should be a lot more useful. These can be added at a vehicle lift in the same way key locks were added, and for the same price (75 metal fragments).

Features:
  • Add, change, or remove code locks from a car at any vehicle lift.
  • Code locks prevent mounting the vehicle - except for taxi modules - and also prevent access to storage. Players in a taxi module cannot swap seats to any other type of module.
  • To capture a car with code locks, you can reduce the health of a seating module to 20% or less, which will enable an option to break the lock.
  • Alternatively, if you can push the car to a vehicle lift, a new code can be set there. Note that locked cars cannot be pushed in safe zones.
  • A mounted player can flip the Central Locking switch in a cockpit module to unlock all doors, temporarily disabling code access. Code locks on the exterior of the car will light up green instead of red. If all players in cockpit modules dismount, the central locking is automatically re-engaged.
  • After entering the correct code, players are automatically whitelisted, and won't need to enter the code again.
Caboose at Outpost
Bill B
We've added a static (non-moving, indestructible) train caboose at the Outpost, which has the standard casino games inside: Poker, Slots, and the new Blackjack machine - so now you can play without the constant fear of death!

Find it at the small train platform.
Improvements & Fixes Highlights
Planter Improvements
Harvest/Clone/Remove all plants in a planter in one action
Stone Spear
Stone spear is cheaper and quicker to craft
Miner's Hat Buff
Miner's hat now offers better protection values
Roof Rotation
Roof can now be rotated before placement
Grenade Crafting Times
All grenade crafting times have been reduced
Attack Helicopter Loot
Improved Attack Helicopter loot tables
Garage Doors Pickup
Equipping a Hammer to pickup the Garage door is no longer required
Armored Door HP
Armored door HP increased by 25%
Repair Cost Fixes
Repairing deployables no longer require components
Instrument Range
Increase pitch range on several instruments
Junkpile Scientists
Reduced the number of Scientists at junkpiles
M92 Sway
Reduced sway when aiming with the M92
Despawn times
Various high value items 5min -> 60min
IO Deployment
Various IO entities can be placed near floor level
Projectile_Invalid
Will show when you died first vs projectile_invalid
X Days Upkeep
Shows days of upkeep rather than >72 hours
UI Scaling
Fix small UI on 4k+ resolutions
External wall Debris
Alistair
The debris system was introduced in 2019 to prevent the ability to replace walls and doors during raids immediately, we feel this system has worked well but often still see raids won purely from spamming walls. To make it a little fairer for the raiders, from today, external walls and gates now have the debris system applied. 

When external gates or walls are destroyed, they'll now leave debris for 2 minutes. 
World Event Notifications 
Alistair
Players will now be automatically notified via a small UI prompt when world events begin, such as Cargoship, Oilrig crate, Ch47 Cargo etc. We hope this encourages players to engage with world events more actively and addresses a growing problem of players using third-party services to gain this information instantly before others and having an unfair advantage. 

We acknowledge a UI notification is not the best solution, but for now, it'll put everyone on the same playing field while we work towards a better solution in the near future. 
Quarry update
Alistair
Mining quarries have been updated to run on diesel fuel and output rates greatly improved. In the past, quarries have seen little to no use. We hope these improvements will encourage their use more. We'll be monitoring and tweaking accordingly. 
In addition to spawning at the Dome, Oil Rigs and Junkyard, diesel fuel now spawns at the following monuments: Water Treatment Plant, Power Plant, Military Tunnels and Airfield.
Updated Colored IO
Jake_Rich
There were only 5 colors of wires originally (4 hose colors) which hasn't been enough to organize the creative builds the community has made!

Existing Colors

  • black
  • red
  • green
  • blue
  • yellow

New Colors

  • light blue
  • orange
  • pink
  • purple
  • white

Recolor Existing Wires

Press "R" while looking at an existing wire to recolor it.
Separate network groups for tunnels
lamalove
For some background, network groups are what Rust servers use to figure out which entities to network to players. It basically divides the world up into chunks and tracks which entities are within each chunk. This way the Rust server just needs to network the few chunks around each player.

Previously the world was divided up into a two dimensional grid of chunks, and that worked great for a long time, but then we added the underground tunnels. Using two dimensional network groups means the tunnels would network to players up on the surface, and players in the tunnel are being networked things from the surface, which isn't great because they can't see any of that so it's just wasted work.

I updated the network group system this month to add support for vertical layers. So now, instead of a just a single two dimensional grid, it essentially stacks multiple two dimensional grids on top of each other and uses entity's altitude to figure out which layer it belongs on.

Tunnel entities will no longer network to the surface, and the surface will no longer network to players in the tunnels. We have found that this can save up to 0.4ms of frametime on the surface by not networking tunnel NPCs to the client.
JUNKPILE AI
Adam W
I've made a few improvements to help with some of the complaints that people have with Junkpiles. 

The bushes that spawn with junkpiles now block AI line of sight. This should make the Scientists easier to spot when they're shooting at you because they will no longer stand in the middle of a bush.

I've also made the junkpile Scientists more defensive in nature, and they won't engage from as far as they used to.

Lastly, I've tweaked the AI data for the junkpile cover positions so they're fully in cover, which has the knock on effect of reducing return fire.
ANIMAL AI
Adam W
I've added some biome and topology-specific functionality:

Animals will no longer roam directly to ocean-side locations, to help keep them away from beaches.

Polar bears will now only roam to arctic and tundra areas, and they will also now return to these areas if they need to leave briefly for any other reason.
WORLD FOOD QUICk-EAT
Adam W
I've added a menu option for eating world foods, such as berries, corn, mushrooms, etc, directly from the ground. Look directly at the food and hold E then select "Eat".

You still receive seeds and other items as usual.
Netting FIXED
Jake_Rich
Netting now allows you to walk above without getting stuck. You can also climb up and slide down without bouncing off the wall frames.

Before

After

Turret AUTH EASIER
Jake_Rich
Turret UI used to close after you authorized each player. The UI now stays open after each player you click, until you press "Esc".

Before

After

WALL PLACEMENT IMPROVEMENT
Jake_Rich
Building jump ups used to be difficult when you had to look down precisely to get it to snap to the correct place. It now will correctly try to attach to the top of walls.

Before

After

LOCKER FILL IMPROVEMENTS
Jake_Rich
Filling lockers was difficult with the amount of left click dragging required. You should now be able to mindlessly right click armor and have it go into all the correct slots.

Before


After

SAM Site pass-through
Jake_Rich
It used to be devastating if enemies shot out your SAM sites & were able to shoot off a MLRS strike before you had a chance to react.

You can now pass power through the sam site & link it to a smart alarm to detect it being destroyed.

deploy guide UPDATES
Patrick Mazzolo

T3 workbench

Tier 3 workbench deploy guide now shows the entire model for more precise placement.

stone gate

High stone gate deploy guides now show doors rotating in the direction which the gate opens.
Steam Networking postponed
Alistair
As mentioned in last month's blog, Steam networking was planned to be switched to the default networking layer for Rust today. Due to several issues discovered recently (now fixed), we're postponing enabling Steam networking by default until January, by then, we hope to be completely satisfied with server stability. 

As a reminder: This change requires servers to have a separate Steam query port set via the -queryport server startup parameter. When no query port is set, the server will default to either game port + 1 or rcon port + 1, depending on which number is larger.

Hosts of shared servers will need to ensure the query port is forwarded correctly, which is why we are making this announcement ahead of time. Servers can be switched over to Steam Networking for testing via the -swnet startup parameter, which we recommend doing ahead of time in order to ensure a smooth transition.
Christmas Update
Alistair
On December 15th at 19:00GMT / 14:00 EST we'll be releasing a mandatory server and client update to enable the Xmas event and some festive features!
Charitable Rust Recap
Errn
On November 19th Rustafied held their 8th annual Charitable Rust event. They had event servers up where hundreds of content creators all took part in fun custom games, bed wars, carnivals, boat combat contests, and much more.

The community raised over $27,000 in donations alone.


We also put up some unique charity skins on the Rust item store for a week and the proceeds to that go towards the charity as well.

While we do not have exact totals yet and the skin sales take a few weeks to come in but we guestimate $150,000 in total, going to World Central Kitchen.

We're very proud of everyone involved and thank you to those that helped out in any ways to make this event possible!
Patch Name The Big QOL Update
Changelist Title The big quality of life update
date_range Thursday, December 1, 2022
add_circle

Features

  • •
    Added a static train caboose with Blackjack, Poker, and Slots to Outpost
  • •
    Added Burst toggle
arrow_circle_up

Improvements

  • •
    Flashlight tool can be toggled (uses toggle light bind)
  • •
    Added a Clone/Pick/Remove all option when looking at plants in a planter
  • •
    Modular cars now use keycode locks instead of keys
  • •
    If an instrument doesn't have a note assigned to a MIDI code, it will now be silent
  • •
    Improved MIDI code assignments for drumkit
  • •
    Increased instrument note range on Bass Guitar, Acoustic Guitar, Jerry Can Guitar, Flute, Trumpet and Xylophone
  • •
    Improved effects for thrown snowballs
  • •
    Fixed swap item interaction when dragging a non-cassette onto a portable boom box
  • •
    Added coloured icons for berry clones
  • •
    Adjusted colour of hemp in Ripe stage to differentiate it from other stages
  • •
    Improved layout of slot machine payouts
  • •
    Can no longer throw Beancan Grenades, Molotovs or Smoke Grenades underwater
  • •
    Molotovs and Beancan Grenades no longer explode underwater
  • •
    Added a small icon on the belt bar if a weapon's light attachment is active
  • •
    Improved Blackjack gameplay flow
  • •
    Added LODGroups to the few remaining primitive cubes (for modders) that didn't have them
  • •
    Updated deploy guide for T3 workbench - now shows the entire model for more precise placement
  • •
    Updated deploy guide for high stone gate - now shows doors rotated in the direction which the gate opens
  • •
    (Community UI) Added ability to destroy ui within AddUI rpc (PR#40, thanks TactiTac0z)
  • •
    Removed car parts spawns from non vehicle junkpile spawns
  • •
    Stone spear cheaper to craft
  • •
    Reduce stone spear crafting time (10 seconds)
  • •
    Removed stone spear from elite/hackable crates
  • •
    Hot Air Balloon storage increase 12 -> 18
  • •
    Boat storage increase 12 -> 18
  • •
    RHIB storage increase 30 -> 36
  • •
    Submarine storage increase 12 -> 18
  • •
    Reduced underwater labs to 1 from 3
  • •
    Underwater labs always now generate large variants
  • •
    Updated Heli Loot tables
  • •
    Increased Oilrigs reset timers
  • •
    Cargoship events less frequent
  • •
    Miner's hat now offers better protection values
  • •
    Allow rotation of roofs blocks before placement
  • •
    Garage door no longer requires a hammer to be equipped to be picked up
  • •
    Removed condition pickup from Garage door
  • •
    External walls and gates can now be rotated 90° instead of 180° before deployment
  • •
    Added external wall and gate debris blockers
  • •
    Added diesel spawns at Water Treatment Plant, Power Plant, Military Tunnels, Junkyard, Airfield
  • •
    Reduced the crafting time for all grenades
  • •
    Reduced the crafting time for embrasures
  • •
    Fixed BBQ static hidden having incorrect slots
  • •
    Shotgun slug now does 50% damage at 40 meters+ instead of 75% damage at 80+
  • •
    Shotgun slug does 100% damage from 0-20m instead of 0-10m
  • •
    Added fire mode toggle bind
  • •
    MP5 and LR have inbuilt burst module
  • •
    Burst module lowers aim cone slightly
  • •
    Bushes at Junkpiles now block AI line of sight
  • •
    Junkpile Scientists are now more defensive in nature
  • •
    Reduced Junkpile Scientist aggro range
  • •
    Animals no longer roam directly to be beach locations
  • •
    Polar bears now only roam to tundra and arctic locations
  • •
    World food items can now be eaten directly from the ground using a new radial menu option
  • •
    Can right click items into the repair bench to swap them
  • •
    Show "X Days" of upkeep rather than ">72 hours"
  • •
    Increased despawn time of HQM ore, aiming module, MLRS rocket, HE grenades, sam site, beancans, grenade launcher, metal ore
  • •
    Optimized turret performance on server to prevent them lagging and not targetting players
  • •
    Patrol helicopter will no longer fly around safezone monuments
  • •
    Show "you died first (REASON)" rather than "projectile_invalid" if you died first on the server
  • •
    Can use "unlockall <steamid>" command on other accounts now
handyman

Fixed

  • •
    Fixed drumsticks sometimes floating in air after dismounting drumkit/xylophone
  • •
    Fixed boomboxes getting into a permanent loop when framerate gets too low (some stuttering may still occur)
  • •
    Fixed muted players still being audible if they are using a megaphone
  • •
    Fixed water jug errors while first person spectating
  • •
    Fixed vagabond mission objectives sometimes spawning underneath the map
  • •
    Fixed several incorrectly assigned note issues on various instruments
  • •
    Fixed player name label not showing when obscured by Snowman headwear, Pumpkin headwear, Nomad Suit backpack, Arctic Suit backpack etc
  • •
    Betting wheel terminals now make sure they're only assigned to a maximum of one wheel - whichever wheel is closest to them (for custom maps)
  • •
    Fixed armoured vehicle module windows not opening/closing on the client side when the vehicle is idle
  • •
    Fixed modular car central locking switch not updating visually when the vehicle is idle
  • •
    Fixed modular car module parts not falling off immediately when taking damage while the vehicle is idle
  • •
    Fixed Caboose not shutting off the lights anymore when there's no-one nearby
  • •
    Fixed slot machine null reference exception if player dismounts during a spin
  • •
    Fixed error when joining a server after disconnecting from a server while the tech tree was open
  • •
    (Community UI) Fix images loaded from web using a low Mip level (PR#43, thanks Kulltero)
  • •
    Fixed elite create inventory item spawns amount exceeding available inventory slots
  • •
    Fixed supply drop red siren (light) animator culling close range
  • •
    Fixed baseball bat available in loot tables
  • •
    Fixed chairs leaking to the world origin
  • •
    Fixed BBQ static hidden having incorrect slots
  • •
    Fixed IO entities unable to be placed near floors
  • •
    Fixed IO entities able to be clipped into building blocks
  • •
    Fixed Press Button sending 2 pulses of power when passthrough is connected
  • •
    Fixed crude being stuck "on fire"
  • •
    Fixed shop front right clicking into 2nd slot
  • •
    Fixed progress bars getting stuck on output items in small furnace
  • •
    Fixed various UI being very small on 1440p, 4k+ resolutions
  • •
    Fixed patrol helicopter getting stuck at fishing village on various seeds
  • •
    Fixed deployables (garage door, shotgun trap, etc) taking components to repair with hammer

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