30
Apr
2021

Kits Updated on PvE and PvP – QoL

After two days of work, kits have all been updated on all the Rust servers as well as the kits plugin. To celebrate this, I reset the player data so that even if you’ve claimed all your kits, you get them all back again for this last week. Yay!

If you do /kit in game you’ll see the shiny new interface. Click on a kit to view it fully before you redeem it.

You can also see the images and associated kits all updated on the PvE donation page and the PvP donation page.

Yeah it’s been a lot of work.

I deliberately held off doing anything with the new version of the plugin for about a month after release as it was in beta for a few weeks before full release while most problems were ironed out. Since then there have been lots of other issues with it, but it looks like 95% of them have either been fixed now because other admins have reported them, or the other niggles don’t affect us because we don’t use those features.

As soon as I saw the number of problems when it was first released I decided to avoid it until it was stable. I also decided not to update the website donation pages until I knew this was all sorted. The PvE kits have been overwritten at some point (god knows when) by the PvP kits, and while the job was on the list, I’ve just been putting it off and concentrating on other stuff until this new Kits plugin was all good. All now fixed and the PvE skins are as they should be.

The next big job for me to do is to set up the new store donation page(s). We’re going to a monthly donation model soon, but you can still get lifetime access on the donate page if you’re quick. (Yes I  know that it was supposed to be live already on April 1st. That was an unintended April Fool’s Day joke.)

I haven’t finished work on the kits yet, treat this as phase one. Phase two will be adding and removing stuff from the kits, and possibly adding in some fun stuff too.

Posted by PPlank in General, Rust Servers, Server Updates
28
Apr
2021

Additional RP for playtime

As of a few days ago, all the servers were updated to issue everyone 1rp for every minute played on the server.

This is in addition to RP already earned for various activities such as gathering, crafting, killing, etc. This RP is awarded for every 15 complete minutes on the server, ie 15rp per 15 minutes play time.

In addition, vip ranks get a boost in the form of a multiplier depending on vip rank. This multiplier is for both the activities mentioned above, plus time spent on the server.

free vip ~ x 1.2 RP boost
vip+ ~ x 1.4 RP boost
vip++ ~ x 1.6 RP boost
vip+++ ~ x 1.8 RP boost

Yay!

You can donate for any of the + ranks here.

You can also now buy the callheli command in the ServerRewards store (/s) for 5000rp.

Posted by PPlank in General, Rust Servers, Server Updates
28
Apr
2021

Refer new players for Reward Points

You can now refer players ingame and receive 1000rp (/s Reward Points) for doing so. Even better, the player you refer will also get some RP – 500rp for them.

You can spend your RP in the Rewards Store (/s).

You can refer as many players as you like but you can only get the reward for a newly referred player once.

How it works. You (PlayerA) invite another Rust player (PlayerB) to one of the servers. For the reward to be issued PlayerB simply has to type ‘/refer PlayerA’. That’s it, you (PlayerA) get 1000rp and PlayerB gets 500rp. Once PlayerB has registered their referral they can never do this again, however they can invite as many other players as they want and get these new players to /refer them for 1000rp for each one.

Hint. If you are already playing on a server with a friend, you can both earn some RP simply by one of you doing ‘/refer player’ – this is completely okay as far as I’m concerned.

Have fun with your new Reward Points.

Posted by PPlank in General, Rust Servers, Server Updates
21
Apr
2021

PvE Quarries now protected – QoL

Following on from this post, which was *supposed* to protect quarries from being opened and turned on and off by other players, but didn’t seem to do so… hopefully that’s now fixed.

The plugin that handles quarry levels now has the ability to protect quarries in the way mentioned above. I’m trying to find out if it support friends/teams/clans. I think it probably does as two of the config options say:-

  • PreventUnauthorizedToggling – When enabled, only authorized players can toggle quarries/pumpjacks
  • PreventUnauthorizedLooting – When enabled, only authorized players can access the quarry/pumpjack.

Hopefully the dev will confirm this soon.

Posted by PPlank in General, Rust Servers, Server Updates
17
Apr
2021

RP Reward for Raidable Bases – QoL

There is now an RP (RewardPoints) reward for completing a RaidableBase.

I’ve set them a little high to begin with (I think so, maybe not), so expect these to be reduced especially if I enable the purchase of a RaidableBase event. Make hay while the sun shines.

PvE: Easy – 200; Medium – 500; Hard – 1000; Expert – 2000; Nightmare – 5000.
PvP: Easy – 100; Medium – 250; Hard – 500; Expert – 1000; Nightmare – 2500.

Posted by PPlank in General, Rust Servers, Server Updates
14
Apr
2021

Wipe Every 2-3 Weeks

In line with this post all PvP servers will be wiped tomorrow 15th April (at approximately 7.00pm) and replaced with x3500 maps.

PvE will not wipe or change for the time being, but after next forced wipe on the 6th May, I’ll be revisiting that.

Please don’t complain to me that you “didn’t know.” I post plenty of information on here and the #announce channel in Discord gets automatically updated with any posts that appear here.

In case you didn’t read that post, go read it now. I’ve changed my mind about a couple of things. PvE won’t be wiped every 2 weeks, but all the PvP servers will be and their map size reduced to x3500 instead of x4000 – it seems that on maps smaller than x3500 the Launch Site doesn’t spawn. You probably won’t notice the difference of the slightly reduced size maps.

But watch this space as I’m hoping to be able to learn how to add custom monuments to maps shortly. If all goes well and it isn’t too unwieldy a process expect to see smaller maps appearing. I think it’s important that every server has the Launch Site (Bradley APC) and the Military Tunnels (elite loot), as well as Outpost and Base Camp.

Why am I making these changes? Two reasons.

#1 – Because there’s limited server hardware capacity and I’d like to introduce a BIG static map for PvE, either 5000 or the max 6000.

#2 – There’s currently a limited number of players and so I feel that x4000 maps aren’t necessary.

As the Summer approaches I hope to attract more players (and hopefully more donations), and I’ll change my tack on these reasons as hopefully #2 won’t exist any more.

If there are more donations then I’ll consider getting more hardware and making all the maps much bigger. You may not remember (or have been here for) the heady days of 3-4 years ago, but there were actually 2 dedis in operation and I was hoping to get some MineCraft stuff going. Blimey. 😉

As I’ve always said, I don’t make any money at this hobby, every penny that comes in goes into server hosting hardware or software for the game servers. I am often short of cash each month and I then have to pay for things out of my own pocket.

But hey! Things change. Onwards and upwards eh?

Posted by PPlank in General, Rust Servers, Server Updates
13
Apr
2021

Raidable Bases now live on all servers

There are now 50 different raidable bases spawning in on all servers. There are 5 different difficulty levels of bases with 10 bases of each level (for now).  You can recognise them from a distance as they have a shaded dome over them. If you’ve played on the PvE server you’ll know what I mean as the PvP zones on there look exactly the same.

The difficulty levels are, easy, medium, hard, expert, and nightmare. There is correspondingly better loot in each base.

Please remember that this is a beta and you may find that the loot needs tweaking. With that in mind, treat these popup bases as “just for fun” at this point, and you may not make any profit by the time you’ve finished a raid. Until I get some feedback about the bases and loot, then I can’t adjust them.

You may feel you can jump straight into a nightmare base, but can I suggest that even if you’re an experienced raider that you build up to nightmare. I don’t want anyone to be put off by being frustrated at a nightmare level base. Of course I could be wrong and a nightmare base is no problem to you, in which case, get stuck in. 😉

Remember these are automated bases controlled by a plugin, so you may find some anomalies like some small parts of the bases self-destructing as you approach them. Once you get into the raid, this will stop. You’ll also see that the bases are decaying. Don’t worry, they’re not as base decay is contolled by the plugin.

Have fun. 🙂

Posted by PPlank in General, Rust Servers, Server Updates
11
Apr
2021

ServerInfo Amended

The ServerInfo for all servers should now be up to date. If you spot anything that seems wrong to you, please report it in #general on Discord and we’ll correct it (if we agree).  🙂

In case you don’t know what I’m talking about, you’ll see the ServerInfo every time you join. It has lists of commands, rules etc. After closing it, the command to call it up again is /info.

Posted by PPlank in General, Rust Servers, Server Updates
08
Apr
2021

Easy to Upgrade Buildings

Everybody on all servers now has the ability to upgrade their bases with a single command. You don’t have the ability (yet) to downgrade, but I may add this at a later date with a 60 second cooldown to prevent upgrade-downgrade spam which may affect the servers. I’ll ban anyone abusing this.

It all plays nicely with raid and combat blocks, so there’s no upgrading your building while being raided.

It’s easy to upgrade, just make sure you have the relevant building materials in your inventory then look at a building entity (wall, floor, etc) and type one of the following example commands:-

/up ~ upgrades ALL your building entities by one level. Wood upgrades to stone, metal upgrades to HQM.

/up metal or /up 3 ~ upgrades ALL your entities whatever the current grade is to metal.

You can also limit what entities are upgraded if you don’t want all of them upgraded by adding a filter:-

/up 4 foundation ~ this will make only your foundations upgrade to HQM (armoured).

The grades are:-

Twigs or 0
Wood or 1
Stone or 2
Metal or 3
TopTier or 4

The filters are:-

foundation
wall
floor
stair
roof
ramp

Posted by PPlank in General, Rust Servers, Server Updates
04
Apr
2021

Resource Mining (QoL)

Another QoL (Quality of Life) change. You can now mine resources from lots of previously un-mineable containers. To discover them all, you’re just going to have to hit things with an axe or pickaxe and see what you get. 😉

Here’s a bit of a starter though. You can now mine:-

o Rocks and cliff faces for stone and sometimes metal.

o Small powerline poles along roads for wood.

o Electrical boxes along the road for metal.

o Some other things. 🙂

Your Zlevels will increase (nice), but the amount of items from these “extra” containers won’t – you always get the same amount. Incredibly useful though if you’re running low on resources around you. At each sunrise, the containers you’ve mined (completely dry or not) will be partially refilled.

This won’t make a massive change to the game other than you can now mine for stone deep down in the caves.

Posted by PPlank in General, Rust Servers, Server Updates