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.
Nuclear Missile Silo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TSZ6ckRYGv4
So every piece of lore the devs have built into the game so far perfectly matches my lore. For example, why is the fucking jungle biome 20 minutes' walk from the ice biome? Makes no sense on Earth, or in any scenario other than a terraformed planet in a science-fiction setting, etc. So my lore might as well be true, if you care about such things, as I do.
I can't stress enough the metric ton of stuff that has been added to the game since we last played, both in terms of standard items, and DLC. In terms of standard items and mechanics, these are all the new ones since schaden's game according to Gemini (but note also there was a lot of stuff added before schaden's game that we still haven't seen/played):
Island-wide electrical grid activation, Power Plant heavy fusebox staging, Green Recycler speed and efficiency scaling, Red Recycler activation, Satellite Crash event triggering, Launch Site computer terminal targeting, Safe-zone apartment renting, Rentable player-operated marketplace shops, Crude Oil pump system extraction at Dome, Small and Large Oil Rig switch synchronization, Supermarket freezer cooling via power grid, Water Treatment Plant gearbox interacting, Water tank filling mechanics, Roadside water pipe dispenser filling, Airfield terminal airdrop fall rate boosting, Chinook helicopter summoning, High External Wall upkeep costs, High External Gate upkeep costs, Sleeping Bag favoriting, In-game Clan system with custom roles, Clan chat channels, Clan map locations and markers, Softcore 2x gather rate scaling, Softcore strict 6PM-9PM raid windows, Master Key lock-picking held-key animation, Center-screen lock aiming during break-ins, Key-jingling lockbreak sound cues, Momentum-based swing set ragdoll ejecting, Public Oxum gas station car lift utilization, Public Oxum garage door powering, Industrial pipe automation, Industrial item splitting, Industrial conveyer routing, Industrial automated crafting, Base turret auto-sorting, Safe-zone marketplace stall renting, Modular shipbuilding, Deep sea diving exploration, Tropical island exploration, Tug Boat floating base commandeering, Attack Helicopter aerial combat, Ranged weapon charm attaching, Modernized player skeleton art pipelining, Smooth running and sprinting character animation logic, Fluid weapon-handling character state layering, Stationary mortar shelling bombardment, Workbench upgrades, Bar games, Clothing statistical buffs, Vendor trade adjustments, Demo UI framework recording, Heavy Fuses, Aiming Module, Tanker vehicle, Green Recycler (monument-managed variant), Red Recycler, LazyCell, LazyLock, Once, OnceLock, M16A2 Rifle, Mortar, Tin Can Alarm (Improved), Weapon Charms, Apartment Complex rent boxes, Master Key (Apartment variant), Apartment Complex swing set, Glowing Wallpaper Pack, Metal Shopfront (Workshop Skinnable), Discord Orbs, Industrial Storage Barrels, Food Freezers (Supermarket variant), Functional Car Lift (Oxum variant), Powered Garage Door (Oxum variant), Roadside water pipes, Craftable modular sea vessels, Sunken ship treasures, Ghost ships, Stationary ballista, Ballistic helmet, Ballistic leg armour pieces, Ballistic vest, Bamboo barrel.
As for DLC, it's crazy. On top of very functional items like weapon racks and working pool tables, they have so many building skins and floor skins and wallpaper skins now that every building can have an entirely unique look. You can easily spend a couple hundred bucks buying all the DLC, in addition to thousands of dollars on community-submitted skins as always. I'll start slowly accumulating stuff, prioritizing whatever feature we're focusing on every session, so naval stuff for our first session on Thursday.
P.S. There is now Warhammer 40,000 DLC in the game. And you should know by now what that means.
For those looking to catch up with the game more fully than the summary I've provided here, head to Rustafied's blog and keep scrolling down/back: https://www.rustafied.com
But if you don't have the time for that, you can catch up in half an hour by just going through the major update trailers:
Power Trip
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ynUzYLpvmXs
Common Ground
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q9BpyXSjrac
Naval Update
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qVYe0pT6wJc
Jungle Update
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D0BHMuwU4Nk
Crafting Update
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGrxEguK0pY
Primitive Update
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ctPXY2Ofm_M
Road Renegades
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pDb_ukRu2Us
Waves of Change
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-AcOf4L0zw
Bags to Riches
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hqPFJQPsKwc
Airborne
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gTKll4bk968
Deep Sea
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JFY0ZF2XL8w
Eye In The Sky
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ywsSzO7vucM
Industrial Update
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GMybqJ2eYSc
I've left out the DLC trailers so, if you're interested in uber-customization, just head to Facepunch's recent videos page on YouTube and you'll find them there: https://www.youtube.com/@fcpnch/videos
And you can browse the items and prices in detail at the slick new store page: https://rust.facepunch.com/store
Finally let me just say that I fully realize many of us have already put hundreds of hours into the game and may not be interested in returning, and I am sure we won't get the large team sizes we used to have (I think we topped out around 9-10 players for our biggest sessions back in the day). But honestly I'll be perfectly happy to play even solo, and anyone joining me will be just a bonus. Even if someone isn't interested in building at all, and just wants to log in and shoot some of my neighbors, that too is helpful, and it's welcome.
Look forward to my scheduling post that will set us up for Thursday! There's a lot to go over in there too.
God I am excited for this.
