Celebrating Rust's 5th anniversary with a huge update: electricity is here, enabling players to build elaborate defensive contraptions and other amazing devices. This patch wipes the servers. Enjoy!

Electricity
Welp, that was fun.


Electricty has been added to the game! I've been wanting to do this for a long time and finally decided to take the plunge this month and get it implemented. It's not totally finished, but all of the heavy lifting has been done so we'll be able to expand on it with ease in the coming months.

Electrical Components
Here is a list of all of the new electrical components added to the game:

Up, up and away... Hot Air Balloons are in, along with anti-air missiles to take them down. There's a new type of Cargo Ship, nerfs, and more. This patch wipes the servers. Enjoy!

Hot Air Balloon
The Hot Air Balloon is now live! You'll find them all around the map, mainly in fields or other areas with flat ground. Hop on and fill it with Low Grade Fuel, hit the ignition and it's up, up and away… mostly.


To steer, you'll need to find a pocket of air moving in the direction you wish to go and attempt to stay in it by maintaining that altitude. To help you with this, the balloon has a windsock and various flags positioned around it to help you gauge the wind direction. If you're rising too far above the pocket, disengage the engine and allow the hot air to dissipate. This will lead you to lose altitude. Re-engage the engines to...

All aboard! The Cargo Ship event is live. The CCSC Lazarus patrols the waters, packed with Scientists and loot. We've also added the L96 rifle, a new scope, tactical gloves, and more. This patch wipes the servers. Enjoy!

Cargo Ship Event
The CCSC Lazarus has arrived. This periodic server event will trigger every two to four in-game days. The ship will approach the island and patrol it at about 200 meters offshore. It contains valuable loot, but is also guarded by Scientists.


To board, you must approach it with a boat and mount one of the ladders on its sides with the 'use' key (attempting to jump to the ladder from one moving boat to another is almost impossible). When on board, and after clearing the defending Scientists, you can begin hacking the two codelocked crates. Defend the ship until access is granted...

We took this month to focus heavily on performance, with lots of optimization. Let us know how we did. We also have a look at some upcoming additions: a new boat event, slot machines, and more. This patch wipes the servers. Enjoy!

Bandit Camp Performance
There were quite a few optimizations made to Bandit Camp this month. From excess draw call reduction via art and code, as well as new ways of drawing trees and you can see in Diogo's and Andre's Tree rendering related sections.

There has been some optimization on the art-side of the town as well. Damian has adjusted the LOD distances on dozens of small objects to make them LOD and cull quicker. Swamp cabins were given an additional LOD level and their LODs were merged to help with occlusion. Small foliage, such as reeds and water lilies, were also made to cull quicker.

The trees present in the Bandit Camp and buildable swamps have seen a significant performance...

Bandits have made camp in our new swamps. You can trade, bet in their casino, or even take them on with the new Compound Bow. This patch wipes the servers.

Bandit Town
Bandit Town is finally here. When exploring the island you will come across a foggy swamp, filled with wooden shacks and populated by bandits. The area contains several huts with merchant NPCs selling their wares, heavily armed bandit NPCs, and a dredge that contains a casino. Inside of it you will find a Big Wheel mini-game that lets you gamble away your hard earned Scrap.

Visually, the area has gone through many stages, and we've been able to achieve a high level of polish. As you explore it you will find that it is filled with small props and details, which should add another level of immersion to it.

Below are some screenshots of the finished monument.

A new Team UI is here, alongside the jackhammer, a deployable watchtower, and more. This patch wipes the servers.

Team System
We've added a rudimentary team system. This means you can create teams and invite other players to them. This will yield the ability for all team members to differentiate each other at long distances, as well as see each other on the map. You can also see if someone is online or dead. It's pretty straightforward:

To create a team, press tab and click the "Create Team" button. To invite another player, walk up to them and press E.


To kick a player out, you must be team leader (checkmark): hover over them in the tab menu and press "Kick". To promote another player to leader (if you're logging off,) hold "E" on a team member for 3 seconds. To leave a team, press the "Leave Team" button in the tab menu...