It's been years since we last played Rust, and for me personally it must be closing on half a decade now. I think the last time I played was at the height of Covid. And the game has changed tremendously since then. It must be approaching on twice the amount of both features and content it had since the last time we played, and there's no slowing down as the roadmap looks as stacked as ever. So I've been thinking of getting back into the game for over a year now, but I always envisioned my return as a full month of shutting myself inside a room, and I just haven't been able to make the sacrifice, because of course Battlegrounds takes priority. But then last night, as I was catching up on the latest updates, I had an epiphany. I got the idea from the recent naval update that added, among other things, full blown tropical islands surrounding the game's main island! And immediately I thought of Atlas, because with all the new naval mechanics (including water bases and full granular shipbuilding!), they have basically added Atlas's key mechanics now, so I thought how cool would it be to find one of these tropical islands and take it over and fortify it and base yourself off of it? But remember that my ideal base site includes access to all features in the game, meaning it must be on the coast, but must also have train tracks going through, and a glacier nearby, etc. So there's no way the tropical island would be my main base. So why not just play a session where, instead of trying to build the biggest base ever with all mechanics featured, we just take over a small island and just build a naval yard, and that's it. The biggest and coolest and most functional naval yard, to be sure, but still only a naval yard, which should be doable in a couple of days, so I won't have to sacrifice a whole month or even a whole week for it. Which would mean I can play... pretty much immediately (as in this coming Thursday, more on which in my next post) instead of having to plan my whole freakin' YEAR around it.



And then we can have another weekend, say a couple months down the line, where we just build in the snow with a snowmobile garage, and another with just a farm (when animal husbandry is added in a few months), and another with a normal garage now that there are also motorbikes in the game and look super-cool, and another with a factory, etc. etc. So we focus on one building at a time, we plan it out and document it and refine it and post its blueprint in the Cult Base forum, and then once a year or whatever we can find a less cutthroat server and take a whole month to put all the pieces together and build the latest version of our megabase, and take pics to document it and post in the forum etc.

This way I, and everyone else who loves the game, can keep up with development with the knowledge that we'll be trying the new features soon, perhaps even monthly in single-day sessions, instead of seeing the new stuff come out without any hope of playing it for the foreseeable future. Moreover, people can also jump impromptu on any given Thursday or weekend to test out their own improvements to any of our base modules (i.e. buildings), so it should be viable to just play Rust whenever you want, even solo, while still contributing to our "metagame" so to speak of building the biggest and coolest base ever that features ALL of the game's mechanics and items (which by this point is ridiculously complex and difficult: just unlocking the full tech tree takes 10,000 scrap these days, according to Grok).

Another reason I've been champing at the bit to get back in the game is because I finally have a PC that can run it at 4K, plus a projector to see it on 100+ inches, AND there was a major graphical update a couple of years ago that none of us has seen yet:

World Update 2.0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9smd22_sC4



That was in October '24, so even the schaden-led game that took place in November '23 [ > ] didn't feature these graphics. None of us has seen them. And you know how immersive Rust's world was even before this update. I just need to see it with these graphics at 4K/100".

Don't forget also the June '26 update that improved player models and animations significantly:

Built Different
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_D9HEFkHCdo



They'd been talking about updating the models for ages, and I always thought that would wreck their vast library of item skins, but it looks like they managed the update without breaking anything. So if we add these updates to the world ones, the game's already staggering level of immersion must be through the roof now, let alone at 4K/100". I simply NEED to experience this, and I suspect that with my updated attack plan/metagame I might be able to just keep playing forever, alongside Star Citizen and my Battlegrounds of course.

Which reminds me that I have plans to write lore that connects Rust to Star Citizen (and later, Star Citizen to Battlegrounds). If you remember, I talked about writing lore for Rust many years ago because the devs will never do it (programmers, eh), but when I conceived the idea that the Rust island is just an Atlas-style archipelago planet inside Star Citizen's verse (a kind of Waterworld, if you've seen that movie), I realized this solves many of the devs' lore issues, since you no longer have to have it somewhere on Earth, and thus connected with Earth's history and politics. Cobalt then just ends up being a sci-fi company running human experiments on a distant planet, far from the UEE's reach. And every month they nuke the planet, because why not? That's how experiments work. Very simply, very cleanly, you've provided a full background to Rust that explains everything, and if you're a Star Citizen player you can imagine that you're still playing Star Citizen when you're playing Rust: you're just playing an alt account that has been abducted (or grown from embryo or whatever) to be experimented on. Just some head canon that solves all of Rust's lore issues and makes the experience even more immersive, if you like that level of roleplaying, like I do. At this point Facepunch could just ask an AI to write some goddamn lore for them, but again, programmers are retarded and don't think of these things. I could probably give the above prompt to half a dozen AIs and come up with a novella that explains everything, and I'll probably do it and post it in a new thread and sticky it in the forum. Hell I could get a full OPENING CINEMATIC TRAILER made in due course, and we can watch it every time we start a wipe.



Above btw is the nuke effect found in the game's files that hasn't been implemented yet, although the nuclear missile silo is already in the game and operational, but doesn't go boom yet. So what does the site do? According to Gemini:

Gemini wrote:
The Missile Silo in Rust is a high-tier endgame monument and dungeon. It serves as a major tactical location for high-value loot (including elite crates and a red keycard), requires radiation protection up to level 25 in its deepest levels, and contains game lore revealing that "Rust" stands for Repopulation Unit Survival Test via an in-game bunker computer.

Squadron 66 – Official Cinematic Trailer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VDUNj8_j5z8



Jesus.

https://x.com/BBR_VIBES/status/2084931833939058845



Random hot French women are noting that game genre preferences are racial; how long before the only theory that explains this is taught at universities? Another decade? Two?

Then how much longer on top of that before they also teach the ultimate game and artwork, by the same author?

We're getting there, folks, one hot French woman at a time.

I can finally unveil Cult Games' latest project: a streamlined model-painting tool for all our games called Cultcoat!

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ti ... ing-studio

Cult Games wrote:
Cultcoat is a full 3D painting studio for digital miniatures.

It handles all the technical prep automatically (mesh optimization, UV unwrapping, material setup) and lets you get straight to the fun part: actually painting!

Export for Tabletop Simulator, TaleSpire and more!

Cult Games wrote:
Turn your STL files into painted, VTT-ready miniatures. Automatic shadows & highlights, bucket fill, free paint, custom stamps and more. Export for Tabletop Simulator, TaleSpire or as OBJ.

I bought a Talon with aUEC.

I bought a Starfarer Gemini with aUEC.

Here are the ones I have:


4.2.1


4.3.0


4.4.0


4.5.0


4.8.3


4.9.0

The first four are technically 4K, but not true 4K, since I was using DLSS when I took them, so they're upscaled from 1440p or whatever setting I was using at the time.

The 4.8.3 and 4.9.0 ones I extracted straight from the game files, so they're true 4K (except Imgur insists on resizing the 4.8.3 one, and only that one, regardless of the quality settings and therefore file size I convert the JPEG to, but I will send the original on Discord). The previous ones don't seem to be in the game files anymore unfortunately.

Goldsmith - Bundle $20.00
https://robertsspaceindustries.com/en/p ... le-Warbond

Cloud Imperium Games wrote:Look your best in black and gold filigree, whether mingling at a sophisticated cocktail party or fighting through the grimy halls of an abandoned space station. Includes the Bellator armored dress suit, Behring CQ7 rifle, and Goldsmith paint for the Mirai Fury series.

Blending cutting-edge technology with precise measurements, the Bellator armored dress suit provides light combat protection thanks to intricate graphene weaving, while the Behring CQ7 is a next-generation bullpup rifle built for close quarters engagements such as boarding actions.

The patch version is written at the top as "edition" or "release edition".

I found this, but I don't know if that's all of them, and only some are 4K: https://starcitizen.tools/Category:Load ... een_images

I'll go through my massive screenshots folder later to see what I have.

I've been collecting these for a while to make this thread. I am missing some before I started collecting, maybe 4-5 of them or something, but I don't think I am missing any since, though I may be wrong. I'll keep posting new ones, and if you have any I am missing, post them here (while DMing me on Discord the originals for later upload to my server because Imgur compresses them). Three things to note:

1. Mine are all from Live. I would rather not see any posted from PTU, because there can be errors like typos that they fix before going live.

2. Mine are all 1080p, and I would prefer to replace them with 4K versions, if anyone has them.

3. I haven't been keeping track of which patch version corresponds to which screen. Would be cool to have this info if anyone has it. I'll start noting it down going forwards.

At some point I will probably make a Reddit thread to ask people to help fill out the blanks.

Quick heads-up that since the Insomnia Twitter account was blowing up recently due to some non-gaming posts (mostly about the stupid Odyssey movie), I've repurposed it to an Orgy of the Will account with a new address: https://x.com/orgyofthewill

If you were subbed to the old Insomnia account, you are now subbed to this new Orgy account, so you don't need to take any action (unless you don't care about philosophy, in which case unsub).

What about an Insomnia Twitter?

I'll soon be repurposing the old Cosmic War Twitter account to that, and give a heads-up here.

https://www.reddit.com/r/starcitizen/co ... _t_o_c_o_l



I'd been having second thoughts about the Palatino Necropolis for the Master Chief because all the pics I'd seen of it were uninspired, but this new one completely changes everything. It looks fantastic. Now we just have to find one...

https://x.com/cultvgnews/status/2076379712524292461



The End of Videogame (and Art) Theory reaches over a quarter million views on Twitter.

Look how few likes it got. It got even more retweets than likes. Hilarious. It may be the worst likes to views ratio in the history of social media. Why? Because practically everyone gets butthurt from it, even those who found it interesting enough to retweet.

157 comments practically none of which can grasp theory. Their brains just aren't made for it.

And here you can see the retweet comments: https://x.com/cultvgnews/status/2076379 ... 461/quotes

Same deal.

Now you would expect at least a few new subscribers, and maybe even a new Battlegrounds player or two after all this exposure.

Zero new subscribers.

Zero new players.

That's how you know how special you guys are. Without you to play with and write for, I would have quit years ago. Cheers.

I bought one.

I bought an MPUV Tractor with aUEC.

Something truly incredible.

ShinySkull666: https://mod.io/g/talespire/u/shinyskull ... -date_live

This guy has been recently uploading HUNDREDS of Dark Sun characters, animals and monsters to TaleSpire. He must be very close to having pretty much every miniature for the setting! Moreover, they're of EXCEPTIONAL quality! I have no idea how he's doing them, but they look exactly as in the illustrations!









I won't bother posting more examples, just look through the link and you'll see the exceptional breadth of characters and monsters, and insane quality.

So really "all" we really need to play Dark Sun in TaleSpire is the locations. There are already sufficient assets for all kinds of desert terrain, here's one from Baldrax (creator of the Houdini-powered procedural mapmaker) he calls "Dark Sun-style badlands desert":



Another one he calls "high desert":



You can make infinite permutations of these, which is what Dark Sun is all about. There are issues with some specialty terrain like the Sea of Silt, but you can produce close-looking alternatives by playing around with some niche tiles.

In short, the terrain and the minis are a solved problem. The remaining problem are the... buildings. We do have arabic-themed tiles for those, but not specific Dark Sun tiles. This means that the buildings are possible IF you have a VERY GOOD builder. And really the only one who is at that level currently is GM-Matt, the guy doing Planescape for us that I showcased before [ > ]. Planescape is WAY tougher to render in TaleSpire without specialty Planescape assets because it's so diverse, but this guy is doing it, and doing it stunningly, so he could easily do Dark Sun. But... he seems only interested in Planescape, so one way I could do it is ask him to mentor me, maybe do one or two examples for me to get me going, and I build the rest. If there's one project that could make me sit down and learn to build in TaleSpire, it is Dark Sun, and I will do it when the time comes if no one else has done it satisfactorily until then (a couple of people have already tried, but their stuff is crap).

In short, there is a super-high chance that by the time we're ready to play Dark Sun, we'll be playing in full 3D. And that's incredible. That makes me happy I didn't get to play a lot of it back in the '90s when the setting came out.

Watch this space for more news! And remember, Dark Sun only has a couple of campaigns. We can finish all of it in like a year if we play nothing else. We WILL do this at some point! Just hang in there and don't give up on me.

https://robertsspaceindustries.com/en/c ... undle-2026

Cloud Imperium Games wrote:
This month, embrace Alien Week with the new Xy'kara Bundle, featuring marbled metallic bronze over a black base. Includes the Syang Fabrications armor, UltiFlex Novian crossbow, and a paint for the Gatac Syulen.

Cloud Imperium Games wrote:
Embrace Alien Week with this Xi'an-inspired armor, weapon, and paint bundle, each featuring metallic bronze elements over black. Includes the Syang Fabrications Xy'kara armor, UltiFlex Novian crossbow, and Xy'kara paint for the Gatac Syulen.

The Xy'kara armor is the result of thousands of years of Xi'an combat expertise packaged for the Human body, while the Novian crossbow near-silently launches a heavy bolt that shatters on impact, causing devastating damage to close-range targets.

ABSOLUTE TABLETOP CINEMA
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/juf7wfZoSjM



New trailer. They've come a long way.

All this is fully playable in Cult Engine 2 btw and if you're wondering "when and how do I get to play it", all this content will be fully integrated in Master of Heroes so that, as you move your heroes around the overworld, you'll encounter and adventure in ALL these locations. Indeed you'll be competing with all the other players for them.

Return of Xenothreat 4.8.3 Event Guide | Star Citizen
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xsnPZuSLQnE

MrKraken wrote:
Return of Xenothreat event arrives with Star Citizen 4.8.3 and some time-limited blueprint rewards up for grabs. This quick rundown will give you all the information you need for what's arrived with this patch.

MrKraken wrote:
0:00 Return of Xenothreat
0:15 What is the XT event?
0:38 Event points split or shared
0:53 What event contracts are there
2:36 Are rewards hangar attributed?
3:31 What blueprints are awarded?
4:07 Event participation

Status effects are now in beta! Should be in live within days. For a detailed preview check my timestamp: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rdEnbzGUZh0&t=12m59s



They look great and bode well for spell effects, but I wish they'd done spell effects first because they're way more important.

Note that modders had added status effects years earlier, and many more of them, and they looked pretty cool too with for example medical crosses hovering above your character to denote healing etc., so I believe the modders will rework them in the new system and we'll soon have a huge variety of them.

Return of XenoThreat #1 with ysignal and The Cult
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yz81jH1iwrE

Return of XenoThreat #1 with shubn and The Cult
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJQfMvs57rw


ysignal gearing up as Pilot Master Chief


ysignal with helmet in the M80


icycalm looking at posters in shubn's hangar


Cult Pilots flight-ready: shubn as Captain and ysignal as Master Chief in the front, and in the back as Inqusitors, left to right: Some guy, icycalm, Adjudicator

icycalm wrote:
Going in for rearming after finishing the first mission against XenoThreat.
We have an almost fully-crewed Perseus, 5/7 people.
But we think the extra 2 are for loading/firing torpedoes and the engineer.

icycalm wrote:
Rearming again after 3-4 successful missions.

We got the 15% BPs.

icycalm wrote:
It looks pretty awesome to be in a fully-crewed Perseus bridge.
You look to your left and both of the other seats are taken, 3 in total, everyone working together.

Still TBA 2026.

https://x.com/RealMrKraken/status/2073365983922675947



UNDERCOVER SPEC
Oni Half-mask [N/A]
Bellator Jacket/Shirt/Pants [N/A]
All other equipment Individual Choice

This was scheduled for 4.9 this month but it looks like it'll slip to 4.10 next month to coincide with the (hopeful) introduction of suit lockers. Either way when I saw MrKraken's video and pic I had to add it to the Spec for the Assassin, I just couldn't hold myself. And since it looks like I'll be giving him the Wolf too, it'll be a smashing combo. Now we just need to find the kind of missions and loops that can be used with it.

The "John Wick" suit might be a bit too soon... | Star Citizen 4.9 PTU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HccBxuQsCDY

MrKraken wrote:
How to get the new "John Wick" Bellator combat clothing coming in Star Citizen 4.9. Putting it to the test for how much protection it provides & everything you need to know about getting the blueprints and crafting the armored clothing.

https://robertsspaceindustries.com/en/c ... -Week-2026

Alien Week is about to end and I'd like to post a note about the offerings. The alien ship lines have been expanding recently, as well as the range of paints for them which are excellent, so what's their place in the Cult Spec?

It all revolves around the Aves armor, which is super-cool and alien-themed, and which I've given to Commanders as their standard medium armor: the one they're supposed to be wearing most of them time. And since this armor goes very well with many of the alien ships and paints, I am giving all those to Commanders as a kind of alternate, luxury ships, kind of like how I give Pirate Commanders the Vanduul ships. So regular commanders get Banu, Tevarin and Xi'an ships, and the Pirates get Vanduul, and the paints that match best each type of Commander (so, leave the purplish ones for me since there is also a purple Aves). I'll be adding all this in detail in the Spec eventually, but here's a heads-up for you.


The super-cool Insularis paints introduced this year

Quick paints guide:

Insularis (silverish): Pirate Commanders
Luminary (greenish): ysignal
Ocellus (reddish): Adjudicator
Harmony (blueish): shubn
Wanderer (purpleish): icycalm

There is currently a massive sale on Steam for the original Warhammer 40,000: Mechanicus from 2018. The Complete Collection is -75% at €10,21.

Warhammer 40,000: Mechanicus
https://store.steampowered.com/app/6738 ... Mechanicus







Why am I making a big fuss about it? Because it's about to be unlocked in Battlegrounds. It's already been semi-unlocked by Recover the STC Fragment, and will be fully unlocked at the end of its upcoming sequel, "Transport the STC Fragment" which we're playing either next weekend or the one after it at the latest.

Why do these missions unlock Mechanicus? It's true that Mechanicus features Necrons, like these two missions. But they aren't playable, they're the antagonist. The protagonist is the Adeptus Mechanicus.

Seen that way, the unlock makes no sense. But it begins to make sense once you realize that the Space Marines and Mechanicus are part of the same mega-faction: the Imperium of Man. In fact Mechanicus makes the Marines' gear and vehicles. So instead of focusing on the Marines, focus on the Imperium. In the "STC Fragment" missions, the Imperium is shown to face the Necrons in a kind of mini/side mission like the opening of a Bond movie. So it makes sense that, after this introduction to the Necrons, the camera would pull back and zoom out and pan across the galaxy to a hotspot where a MAJOR plotline takes place between the Imperium and the Necrons. And that hotspot is... the planet of Silva Tenebris.

Battlegrounds wrote:
Take control of one of the most technologically advanced factions in the Imperium: the Adeptus Mechanicus. As Magos Dominus Faustinius, you'll lead operations on the newly rediscovered planet of Silva Tenebris. Customize your force, manage resources, discover long-forgotten tech, and fight to prevent the Necron awakening across 50 hand-crafted missions.

Not needing to move the large or capital ship with hangar facilities has even more implications than merely helping stranded fighters.

Firstly, a Starlite inside the Idris gives it the capability to refuel OTHER large ships using the Idris' own on-cargo-grid hydrogen/quantum fuel stores—use the Starlite as the "Intermediary"/"Buddy Fuel Pump" to get the fuel from the Idris' hangar cargo consumables, to the Starlite via the Idris' hangar services. The Starlite full of fuel can then fly out and relay the fuel to the stranded large ship.

The other use case is if stealth fighters or small surveillance ships are detached on extreme range patrols/surveillance missions deep into hostile territory, and the nature of their mission requires that they cannot stray too far from their objective.

Bringing the Idris towards the fighters that are keeping eyes on target is risky as its inherently large signature will reveal its presence if it gets close. As of the current patch, no stealth capital components are available for the Idris, and even then, it is safer to send a stealth-kitted Starlite close enough to a fallback position/rally point where the surveying stealth craft can take turns refueling their tanks.

Even better, since the Starlite has an interior, interior-less small craft pilots may also EVA into the Starlite to stretch their legs, open helmets and use the Starlite's kitchenette, dining table and shower/toilet to refresh themselves before re-boarding their small craft to return to station to resume surveillance of the objective.

Yes, one might bring up the Drake Herald surveillance ship, which does have an interior, but as of the current patch it has no shower (only a rudimentary toilet), and no cooking facility or meal table.

A Drake Herald supported by a stealth-configured Starlite can have its two-man crew take turns EVAing to the Starlite for a shower and freshly-cooked hot food. I also foresee the Starlite being used to rotate active crew members out from an extreme duration survey mission back into the Idris or other ship and rotate in fresh, well-rested pilots to man the small craft that never need to leave the assigned surveillance zone.

I believe the Starlite could be eventually replaced with the Aegis Vulcan which can not only refuel, but also do simple repairs and basic maintenance. This assumes the Vulcan stays at its current dimensions and doesn't get bloated up in size until it can no longer fit into the Idris hangar.

Obtaining the Starlite is a contingency against this worst-case scenario, as its a straight-to-flyable ship, and its size is already set in stone.

Great thinking on the Starlite. That functionality hadn't occurred to me. It massively extends the scope of fleet operations since it can be sent to bring back stranded fighters and small ships without having to move the entire Idris (or, next year, the Kraken).

Right at the end of Drake DefenseCon 2956 Concierge extended sales, I pledged for the following:

Main Account: Tiburon, M80. The M80 is likely not going to stay in my fleet for long.

CULTCLONE-2: Starlite. Decided that this ship makes a great addition as it fits inside an Idris hangar.

GM Note: This is where the battlefield would be linked in the overworld so players could check it out in advance and discuss it, etc. Due to shortness of time, however, we'll do this at the start of the session, and I will later update this post with the link, and bump the thread to notify. -icy

We're tackling Return of XenoThreat starting today, Saturday, July 4 @ 3 PM UTC and continuing through the weekend. We have no tactics briefing because these are just reskinned normal missions, so we can try them as many times as we want via different approaches. When we figure out optimal methods, we'll post them in the thread.

Let's get this done, soldiers O7.


P.S. You can join in anytime after 3 PM UTC, that's just our official start time, and the leaders will all be there at that time on the dot. In fact some of us might be on earlier to prepare, and you're welcome to join us for the prep and ask for help with anything.

Here is the trailer with audio and subtitles, only up to 720p unfortunately: https://x.com/RobertsSpaceInd/status/20 ... 7022401629



Everyone in the comments wants to join them.

There are no web hangar rewards, just as there weren't for the 4.8.1 Defend Location missions. So what's the point of limiting it until July 15? And what about the blueprints? They won't be acquirable after the 15th, until they rerun the event? And btw, those Defend Location BPs can't be acquired anymore? Let me know if anyone knows.

This can't be popular, and they'll be seeing it in their stats.

The best thing about the event is the XT-branded Calva helmet. We should try to grab a bunch of those.

I've seen a YouTube guide, but won't be looking at it or posting it until after this weekend, so we can try figuring out everything ourselves.

THE RETURN OF XENOTHREAT
https://robertsspaceindustries.com/en/c ... -Alpha-483

Quick heads-up that Return of XenoThreat starts tomorrow. Everyone is free to start making progress on it, or you can wait until Saturday after the 40K mission Recover the STC Fragment to play it together. Approximate start time is 3 PM UTC. I'll make all the relevant announcements posts well before Saturday.

But why can't the bad GMs run the game at all without cheating? Saying they're bad at it doesn't suffice and it's little more than an insult: to acquire a full picture of what's happening and arrive at a real theory, we must specify their deficiencies, and ideally provide techniques for improvement.

It didn't use to be this way—by which I mean so difficult to run the game—because in the old days the game was much simpler. The early D&D adventures were all dungeon crawls with minimal plot. Groups were simply thrust into dungeons to face foes, acquire loot and level up, then return to town to heal and upgrade, and head out again. With such a simplistic setup, cheating wasn't needed. When players got wiped, it was just another doomed group to add to the dungeon's death toll and mystique, and the players quickly rolled a new group, and tried again, until victorious.

However, this primive design, while fun, grossly underdeveloped the game's immense potential, so gradually more elements were added, both in terms of mechanics and narrative. Adventures appeared that featured increasingly elaborate backstories, characters, and plot beats, and sophisticated mechanics were devised to simulate them. And that's when bad GMs started cheating. They couldn't figure out what to do when events didn't go 100% as laid out in the book, so they started cheating on the rolls and even on narrative beats in order to "railroad" the players into essentially stage-acting the "canon" outcome of the adventure.

But adventures don't have canonical outcomes. Alternative outcomes are often discussed or at least hinted at throughout the books, and Paizo's campaigns often end with a page or two of advice on how to deal with all sorts of failed or alternative conclusions, many of which sound even more fun than the default one! Of course any deviation from the simplest, most direct line through the adventure requires extra work from the GM, and of course bad GMs don't want to do that.

Which makes it extremely ironic when you realize that bad GMs are the same ones who never tire of extolling the virtues of "homebrewing"! Why don't you "hombrew" an alternative path through the professional adventure then, fuckwits, instead of cheating on every other roll to railroad your players through it!

And the answer is of course that improvising random stupid shit on game day is a lot less work than figuring out how an entire world essentially will react to every unexpected player action and then building out characters, locations and plot beats to facilitate those interactions. And that's what I call Ultimate Fudging. Which of course isn't fudging at all but merely running the game as written.


To be continued....

Krafty Matt: Facing the Dark Lord, I knew my PC would die. I knew my men would die. I dove headlong into battle to save my friends, and save the kingdom. The GM fudged the dice, completely destroying the moment because he didn't want to kill a PC, taking that heroic moment from me.

Alexander Macris: When you fudge, you steal from your players the chance for real glory.


What is fudging? It's the GM changing dice results without telling players. In other words, it's cheating: Fudging is the euphemism bad GMs have invented to camouflage their cheating. Roleplaying is a tough genre, and toughest of all on the GM, so few can do it properly. And those who can't, cheat—same as in any other game.

Now you will find countless pages of discussion on this subject across the internet, with the bad GMs trying their best to justify their cheating against the arguments of the good GMs. But in print, you will find nothing—let alone in GM guides. There is no book—not even GM-specific book—that says "but you can change the results whenever you feel like it". This alone tells the whole story: that the math and rolls are in the game for a reason, and that arbitrary modulation of the results isn't a game mechanic, and is thus cheating.

But the bad GMs persist nonetheless, and now and again even get a designer to side with them. In some cases, even legendary designers like Sandy Petersen. But if Petersen believes that arbitrary result modulation is part of the game or should be part of the game, why doesn't he put it in print? Why hide it in random Twitter posts? And it's supposed to be an important rule! Why then hide it from the GMs? Why hide it from the players?

Of course the answer is because it would destroy the game, and designers know this on a gut level. But gut level isn't theory, theory requires something much higher than the gut: it requires the brain. And designers simply suck at theory almost as much as the bad GMs whose bad GMing they feel obliged to defend, since they comprise at least 50% of their customers. Not to mention that designers themselves are often bad GMs, since designing and GMing are two distinct disciplines which therefore require distinct competencies. Even fewer are therefore good at both than those few who are good at either. Practically no one, then (except me, of course).

The final nail in fudging's coffin is that it can only work in the short- and medium-term. In the long run, players will figure out the GM is cheating, and stop playing. Alexander Macris (who's half-Greek btw, and that's why he's good at both design and theory), explains:


Around 1876, wargames were divided by a disagreement into two camps, "rules kriegspiel" and "free kriegspiel". The division has never healed. Most of today's RPG debates are just reiterations of that classical rules vs. free kriegspiel debate.

Imagine a Prussian staff officer who runs free kriegspiels in 1880. He is asked by the King of Prussia to run a wargame that will "inspire the young prince to take up the profession of arms". "Make sure he wins gloriously", the king adds. Our officer therefore makes sure that the outcome of the wargame is exciting and dramatic. Having the prince get killed by a sniper in the first 15 minutes is off the table, even if it's "what really would have happened". He's running a sort of narrativist game.

Later, he is asked by his army commander to run a wargame designed to test how his corps's leadership fares under adversity. When he runs the game, he uses his power as game judge to make sure events always go wrong, every decision leading to bad, stressful outcomes. The goal is not realism or fairness, it's inflicting stress through unfairness to see how people respond. He's running a reverse gamist wargame (unfun is the goal).

Finally, he is asked by the Prussian general staff to run a wargame designed to evaluate their plans to invade Estonia. When he runs that game, he uses all of his knowledge to make the game as realistic as possible, so that the officers can evaluate their strategy as plausibly as possible. He's running a simulation.

Free kriegspiel is thus a method that can be applied towards any goal. Whether it achieves that goal consistently and reliably is a different question. The Prussians ultimately decided free kriegspiel was *better* than rules kriegspiel for training officers for war, and the free kriegspiel tradition continues to be widely used by DOD today in the form of "matrix games" and similar rules-lite judge-ajudicated games.

So why do I not personally use free kriegspiel? I believe that free kriegspiel, when used outside of simulation, gradually undermines its own basis; and when used inside a simulation, requires such a level of objectivity and experience that it's a hard ask of the judge.

For instance, the Prussian prince enjoys the wargame where he is a heroic military commander precisely because it's being run by a senior staff officer who normally runs kriegspiel simulations. The officer's experience as a judge of simulations validates the reality of the experience for the prince, making it "feel real". The same game run by the prince's nanny wouldn't inspire him at all; and if the prince knew the judge had been instructed to let him win, the game would lose its value. If the prince plays once, he'll be fooled. If he plays a hundred games, he'll realize it's a sham. Note that this is simply the same debate as "should you fudge?" Fudging only works if the players believe you don't fudge. Eventually they figure it out.

Likewise, if the officers undergoing the test of adversity realize they are undergoing a test of adversity, the kriegspiel fails. It is only the pretense that it's a simulation that makes it seem fair and plausible. And they will eventually realize it's a forced test, because without dice or probability, it will eventually become evident that the judge is just against them. At that point future effort becomes worthless; and the player develops an ironic distance to the game that robs it of some of its value. Note that this is just the railroad problem in D&D, applied to a wargame. In a D&D railroad, no matter what you do it advances the GM's plot. In the free kriegspiel, no matter what you do, it causes more friction of war. Same thing, and equally damaging in the long-term.

So for free kriegspiel to work long-term, it has to be grounded on judges who are actually interested in simulating what would really happen. Unfortunately, that requires an enormous amount of experience from the judges, as well as a deep commitment to objectivity and fairness, and a willingness to let things sometimes be "unfun" in the short-term. This is the complete opposite of the advice given to judges (GMs) today about when to fudge, when to override the dice, and so on.


In sum, the fudgers have no leg to stand on at this point, and nothing proves this more than the fact that they have to constantly hide their cheating from their players to avoid their game collapsing, even though they know that, in the long run, the players will find out and collapse is inevitable. But they struggle so much with running the game that even a short-term cheating-based game is preferable to not being able to run the game at all.

Bought the Redline bundle because the base Tailwind suit's hands and feet are bugged for the moment. Forgot I also have the Twitch drop suit, but whatever. I wanted this bundle eventually anyway, so I am keeping it.

Rustafied wrote:
Apartments & Rent System

The apartment complex monument is shaping up to be much more than just a location, with a full rent and upkeep system continuing to take form. Apartments calculate upkeep based on stored items, with players able to deposit scrap into dedicated upkeep terminals to maintain their space. A new "Rent Due" HUD indicator warns players when upkeep runs out, and the entire system now persists properly across restarts.

There's also been a strong push toward making apartments feel safe and livable. The monument is now fully integrated with safezone rules, and players who disconnect inside won't be killed anymore—instead, they'll be teleported back into their room when possible. Alongside all this, the monument itself continues to receive heavy polish, including new materials, trims, and ongoing work on higher-end apartment variants like penthouses. Not merged into staging yet, it's unclear which update this will go live.

Built Different | Launch Trailer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_D9HEFk ... XVyolQO3wj

Facepunch wrote:
This month's update brings Rust's biggest player overhaul in years, featuring new player models and animations, a new armour set, and the M16A2 rifle. It also includes QoL improvements, bug fixes, performance enhancements, and much more!

https://www.reddit.com/r/starcitizen/co ... nt/opl1byi

_Husker81_ wrote:
This won't have any EVA thrusters, IIRC.

Sherool wrote:
Also can't self-heal and probably use most tools, just walk and shoot for the most part. It's for very particular use and preferably need allies to cover your flanks and top up your health.

Chad_illuminati wrote:
I would love to wear this and have a combat ATLS suit on top. Just march through areas with super heavy armor in an ATLS.

Nomarnas wrote:
I doubt you'll be able to get into a pilot seat at all in that thing, which maybe makes the rumored drop of suit lockers in 4.9 make more sense.

rucentuariofficial wrote:
Drop from orbit in this and CIG would finally have a justification for us going through planets.

Fell-Hand wrote:
Well played, John Crewe. The Emperor protects.

Inevitable_Reward823 wrote:
Super Palatino Super Heavy Super Armor

levios3114 wrote:
Kinda looks like an upgraded version of Palatino armor. I hope the chin guard thingy actually blocks part of your view.

Xasf wrote:
ADP-mk4 already blocks your view if you try to look straight down as armor is also a real physical object, I'm sure this will be suitably worse in that regard.

So we recently got a credible breakdown of what's coming for the second half of the year. Take a look at it, and then check my analysis below: https://www.reddit.com/r/starcitizen/co ... n_qa_notes

WarmRecord6045 wrote:
Rotterdam Bar Citizen Q&A Notes
Nyx 1 teased for September

No Squadron 42 at Summer Game Fest

New enemy faction in 4.9

Base-building "2027"

Ironclad to get piloting from the bridge

Second GATAC ship releasing alongside the Railen for Alien Week is an industrial ship "inspired by a scene from A Space Odyssey"

Suit lockers teased for 4.9/4.10

Siege of Orison + Instancing for 4.9

4.8.3 to have alien ship-defense missions

https://robertsspaceindustries.com/spec ... une-3-2026

Cloud Imperium Games wrote:
Super Heavy Combat Armor
Implementing the Super Heavy armor class, enabling players to equip and operate a new category of powerful super heavy weapons.

Cloud Imperium Games wrote:
Apocalypse Arms "Vendetta" HMG
Implementing a brand new weapon type: the Heavy Machine Gun, with the Apocalypse Arms "Vendetta" HMG. Belt-fed and usable with the new Super Heavy Armor and its dedicated ammunition backpack, it delivers sustained high-rate fire from a large rotating barrel while carrying up to four magazines of ammunition.

Adventurous_Log7634 wrote:
Now I can black out for the entire flight!

Adventurous_Log7634 wrote:
Probably would be bad to even ride on a ship wearing this, eventually. Once the G-force effects apply to passengers too.

https://x.com/echovectorbravo/status/20 ... 2897367187

Dillon Murray @cmdr_murr wrote:
Nice shot! How do you hold the helmet like that?

EchoVectorBravo @echovectorbravo wrote:
I did a rebind of my keys, but the defaults are H and Alt+H. One hooks it to your back, the other lets you hold it like this.

https://www.reddit.com/r/starcitizen/co ... ow_spent_5

Hot-Panda3884 wrote:
Bought Star Citizen yesterday and somehow spent 5 hours accomplishing absolutely nothing

Started in New Babbage, made the trip from the city to the spaceport about five times while figuring things out. Learned how to take off, flew to another planet for a wildlife hunting contract, fell through the ground, died, restarted.

Flew all the way back, realized my inventory was gone after death, bought new weapons and ammo, returned to the planet again. Then discovered my ship's radar wasn't working and spent almost an hour trying to figure out why. Relogged, radar magically fixed itself.

At that point the sun was already coming up outside.

The weird thing is... I loved it.

The game is unbelievably buggy. In 5 hours I basically achieved nothing. Yet half a day later I'm sitting here thinking about when I can get back into the game.

How does that make any sense? What kind of space wizardry is this?

I wrote:
You are playing a metaverse game. Just being in this world is fun, even if you accomplish nothing. Like sitting on the beach irl. I can give you books to read to understand this new artistic genre.

The Siege of Death Mire – #New40k Global Battle Announcement | Warhammer 40,000
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SxaNJcI ... XVyolQO3wj



One battle per week for three weeks. You can play at home or at a Warhammer store. Results submitted online and summed over. Winning faction every week gets new models. Winner at the end determines a substantial new lore development.

They've done stuff like this before, but very rarely and only at stores, and without the bonus model unlocks. Now they're going harder on the design and grabbing ideas from competitive RPG events like Pathfinder Society. Similar stuff to what Star Citizen is trying to do (SC calls it "Global Event", 40K calls it "Global Battle"... it's a tactics game after all).

Everyone's moving in the same general direction because they're making metaverses and that is the correct direction to move towards.

Pathfinder is doing it better than anyone else by far because they have the tools to do it. Of course my Battlegrounds will be doing it far better, because Ultimate Edition gives me even more and better tools.