Gaming news from Steam - steampowered.com:
CARGO SHIP DOCKING
We’ve given both Harbors a fresh coat of paint this month, with a significant amount of visual and gameplay changes. These changes support the new Cargo Ship docking process, which allows the ship to adjust it's course and dock with the harbor.
Each harbor has a new island that can be reached by crossing a rotating bridge, floating containers or a daring set of jumps across cranes. This island becomes a stronghold once the Cargo Ship docks as it becomes sheltered from the rest of the harbor.
The ship will pick the first harbor it passes to dock and will only dock once. Once docked, the cranes in the Harbor will spring into life and move several containers from the docks onto the deck of the ship. These containers have openable doors and can be hidden in, so they present a new way to smuggle aboard the ship and another threat for players already on the ship to contend with. These containers will be deposited in locations that are generally above the deck, in some cases by several meters. This should present an interesting tactical situation when attacking the ship as well as defending it.
We’ve also added two ship doors above the water line that allow access to the lower interior level of the ship and provide additional ways to board or traverse the monument while the ship is docked.
By default the Cargo Ship replenishes it's loot every 10 minutes - up to 3 times. When the ship docks at the harbor it will attempt to trigger one of those loot refreshes, although if all three have already happened it will be unable to spawn any more loot.
The Cargo Ship horn will sound 60 seconds prior to it's departure - once you hear that horn it's time to get moving or you might end up back out at sea.
We think these changes combined will lead to Cargo Ship being a much more contested PvP environment for groups of all sizes. We're also interested to see how a traditionally lower intensity monument like the Harbors adjust to periodic bouts of high intensity action.
OILRIGS
The Oilrigs receive an upgrade this month, with an underwater access. This new way to get onto the Oilrig will add a path into both structures Level 3 floors.
This provides a different, and possibly safer way into the monument. It is also a way to counter the players on board by short circuiting the docks at the rigs water line.
The extra rooms inside see the addition of a CCTV desk that allows you to observe in place the camera feeds of the monument.
MINIGUN
The iconic minigun has been added to the game which is used by the Heavy Scientists. It takes a moment to spin up, but when it does, it unleashes a massive amount of ammunition, making targets much easier to hit.
It's a rare drop useable by players and you must be at a workbench level 2 to add ammunition to it as it cannot be reloaded in the field. It also takes 1.5 seconds to spin up and lowers your movement speed while the spin is engaged.
RETRO TOOL CUPBOARD
We're thrilled to announce Rust's first-ever tool cupboard DLC skin! The Retro Tool Cupboard can be crafted as usual using the skin picker or applied to an existing Tool Cupboard using the Spray can item.
The Retro Tool Cupboard monitors display live information such as upkeep time, resources, and the number of blocks used to calculate upkeep costs. However, the data is only visible on the monitors when authorized.
The Retro Tool cupboard doesn't require power, the lower half of the Retro Tool Cupboard behind the glass panel displays current inventory upkeep amounts and tools.
When approaching the Retro Tool cupboard design, we felt aesthetics were critical. The tool cupboard is the heart of any base and should be instantly recognizable.
You can purchase Retro Tool cupboard skin in-game or at Steam's item store.
MILITARY FLAMETHROWER
In addition to the minigun, the Heavy Scientists have had their arsenal upgraded with a new, military tier flamethrower. This weapon deals massive damage to targets up to 12 meters away and creates walls of fire - which can be used for area denial.
I've also modified how flamethrowers deal damage to players making them an extremely effective PvP weapon.
PATROL HELICOPTER IMPROVEMENTS
The patrol helicopter was one of the largest banks of 'older' code still in the game. It's stood up well, but there were a bunch of fixes and improvements that needed to happen. Let's start with the improvements.
Orbital Strafing/Strafing Changes
The regular helicopter attack strafe was getting pretty old. It followed a regular pattern and most of our values were fixed internally. This has been changed. During an attack run the helicopter will randomise a bunch of values, including: rocket amount, drop off distance, turn speed etc. These are relatively minor adjustments, but they should help make each new fight with the helicopter feel a little more fresh.
We also added a new attack phase in the strafing run. The helicopter will turn, begin orbiting your position and pummel you with rockets from all directions. This will randomly happen after each strafe. It's super fun to play, and helps bring back the excitement and danger of taking heli.
Aggro Improvements
A new 'zones' feature has been introduced. These are invisible to the player. When a player damages heli a zone is updated/created and the zone is assigned a score. This score is based on how much damage heli has taken from that specific zone.
Heli will now seek out targets based on zones and damage scores rather than the perceived randomness of before. When there are minimal players and by extension - minimal zones. Heli will work similarly to before, but when more zones are introduced heli will prioritise attacking the people that are attacking it, in a more controlled and deliberate manner.
You are still free pickings to the side gunners, but your house shouldn't be blasted anymore in the confusion.
No-Go Zones
When taking heli, the basic principle is to get, and keep aggro. No-Go zones make this a little more difficult, and now encourage some movement when taking heli. When a zone performs enough damage to heli too quickly, then that zone is marked as a no-go zone. Heli will flee the area, and attempt to avoid it as best as it can. This is to encourage heli to get out of areas that are going to kill it too quickly. Encouraging bigger groups to chase, build defenses as they go and bring more PVP to the whole map.
Bug Fixes/Changes
A bunch of legacy bugs that existed with heli are now patched. These include being stuck on targets, disappearing mid-fight, not exploding in the ocean, as well as a bunch of proxy issues that were fixed by the aggro adjustments. Other adjustments have also been made to how heli patrols work, and you should see it moving around a bit more now, rather than just sticking to the monuments.
Server Convars
It will no doubt need some further revisions and changes after this release. Keep us updated on how your heli takes go. Have fun!
ELECTRICITY
This month we are taking care of our fellow electricians! Bug fixes, quality of life improvements, and major changes are coming to electricity.
CHANGES
First of all, we removed any power requirements from all logic gates.
Being creative and adding logic to your circuits won't be at the expense of acquiring a linear or exponential amount of power any more. While being a great quality of life for master electricians, we also believe that removing this pain point will increase the use of electricity in general.
Therefore, the following components won't require power or drain batteries anymore:
Any other active components like turrets, sensors, lights, etc.. remain unchanged and will still need power to function.
BUG FIXES
These power limitations were also overly amplified by a multitude of power drain bugs and unintended behaviors that we worked on fixing.
Here are the most important ones:
QUALITY OF LIFE
Along these changes, we worked on improving how you deploy electrical components:
Fixed the differences between the deploy guide and the actual position where your component is placed
Components are now aligned to walls and won't rotate based on your view angle
You can now align your components together when deploying them on walls by holding left shift
This applies to all electricity, industrial and fluid items. We're planning on extending it to any type of deployable in the future.
NEXT STEPS
There as more fixes and improvements that didn't make it into this patch. Expect more in the coming months, including plans to rework some components and extending their functionalities.
Many thanks to our electricians community for pointing out bugs and suggesting ideas.
FULL CHANGELOG
Splitter
Power Consumption: 1 -> 0
Active Usage: 1 -> 0
Power Consumption: 1 -> 0
Active Usage: 1 -> 0
Power Consumption: 1 -> 0
Active Usage: 1 -> 0
Root Combiner
Power Consumption: 1 -> 0
Active Usage: 1 -> 0
Memory Cell
Power Consumption: 1 -> 0
Active Usage: 1 -> 0
Power Consumption: 1 -> 0
Active Usage: 1 -> 0
Power Consumption: 1 -> 0
Active Usage: 1 -> 0
AND Switch
Power Consumption: 1 -> 0
Active Usage: 1 -> 0
Power Consumption: 1 -> 0
Active Usage: 1 -> 0
Power Consumption: 1 -> 0
Active Usage: 1 -> 0
Power Consumption: 1 -> 0
Active Usage: 1 -> 0
Power Consumption: 1 -> 0
Active Usage: 1 -> 0
Max target number: 100 -> 999
Power Consumption: 1 -> 0
Active Usage: 1 -> 0
Power Consumption: 1 -> 0
Active Usage: 1 -> 0
Laser Detector
ANTI-CHEAT UPDATE
At the beginning of the year, In the development blog Surviving a Decade, I mentioned, "This year we're dedicating more resources into anti-cheat than ever", this is a commitment we're dedicated to, and I want to share more information about what we've been up too.
Over the past couple of months, we have slowly eliminated or limiting information leaks which cheaters abuse to aid them in several ways. For example, players health, Tool Cupboards and turret authorization lists could be read in the network data, allowing cheaters to use and gain a further unfair advantage. These are now fixed.
In continuing efforts to battle cheaters and clean up many long-standing issues, especially around information leaks, buried stashes are no longer networked, meaning cheaters will no longer know where stashes are buried.
There is much more to be done in this area, and we are working on it.
Expanding the support team size over the past year has allowed us to get more support staff focusing on anti-cheat, which includes going in-game and dealing with and disrupting cheaters directly based on player reports. Some staff over the coming months will be dedicated solely to anti-cheat measures full-time. This isn't limited to Facepunch servers, but across the board.
In addition to the above, we've deployed some stricter measures surrounding anti-cheating, eliminated several priority exploits, and will deploy further measures soon.
In the last month:
BRADLEY SCIENTISTS
The Bradley has some new passengers this month!
Scientists can now deploy from the Bradley to help defend it with some extra firepower.
This applies to both the Launch Site Bradley and the Bradley that spawns along roads at the end of the month.
IMPROVEMENTS & FIXES HIGHLIGHTS
Seed Sack World Model
Added new seed world model
Mushroom World Model
Added mushroom world model
Monument CCTV Station
New dedicated CCTV station within monuments
SRV DNS SUPPORT
I added support for SRV DNS record to Rust. This means you can now create nice domain names for your servers without needing to specify the port (or be forced into the default port).
I also used this added information to improve the favorites list. Servers that have a working DNS record set up would save the domain name when favoriting so that favorites should never break as long as the domain name is pointing to the right place.
More information on how to set this up is on the wiki.
PING ESTIMATION
If you have searched for new servers in the browser you probably noticed the large amount of fake ping: it's impossible to have 30ms ping to both a US and EU server. This is a side effect of certain forms of DDOS protection and has forced us to create a custom system to estimate ping rather than use steam's ping value.
There is a new checkbox below "Use Cache" called "Estimate Ping". We will enable this by default in the future once we confirm the estimated values are more accurate than the existing ones.
FULL BLOG POST
To view the source [steampowered.com] of this article and to read more, click here.
CARGO SHIP DOCKING
We’ve given both Harbors a fresh coat of paint this month, with a significant amount of visual and gameplay changes. These changes support the new Cargo Ship docking process, which allows the ship to adjust it's course and dock with the harbor.
Each harbor has a new island that can be reached by crossing a rotating bridge, floating containers or a daring set of jumps across cranes. This island becomes a stronghold once the Cargo Ship docks as it becomes sheltered from the rest of the harbor.
The ship will pick the first harbor it passes to dock and will only dock once. Once docked, the cranes in the Harbor will spring into life and move several containers from the docks onto the deck of the ship. These containers have openable doors and can be hidden in, so they present a new way to smuggle aboard the ship and another threat for players already on the ship to contend with. These containers will be deposited in locations that are generally above the deck, in some cases by several meters. This should present an interesting tactical situation when attacking the ship as well as defending it.
We’ve also added two ship doors above the water line that allow access to the lower interior level of the ship and provide additional ways to board or traverse the monument while the ship is docked.
By default the Cargo Ship replenishes it's loot every 10 minutes - up to 3 times. When the ship docks at the harbor it will attempt to trigger one of those loot refreshes, although if all three have already happened it will be unable to spawn any more loot.
The Cargo Ship horn will sound 60 seconds prior to it's departure - once you hear that horn it's time to get moving or you might end up back out at sea.
We think these changes combined will lead to Cargo Ship being a much more contested PvP environment for groups of all sizes. We're also interested to see how a traditionally lower intensity monument like the Harbors adjust to periodic bouts of high intensity action.
OILRIGS
The Oilrigs receive an upgrade this month, with an underwater access. This new way to get onto the Oilrig will add a path into both structures Level 3 floors.
This provides a different, and possibly safer way into the monument. It is also a way to counter the players on board by short circuiting the docks at the rigs water line.
The extra rooms inside see the addition of a CCTV desk that allows you to observe in place the camera feeds of the monument.
MINIGUN
The iconic minigun has been added to the game which is used by the Heavy Scientists. It takes a moment to spin up, but when it does, it unleashes a massive amount of ammunition, making targets much easier to hit.
It's a rare drop useable by players and you must be at a workbench level 2 to add ammunition to it as it cannot be reloaded in the field. It also takes 1.5 seconds to spin up and lowers your movement speed while the spin is engaged.
RETRO TOOL CUPBOARD
We're thrilled to announce Rust's first-ever tool cupboard DLC skin! The Retro Tool Cupboard can be crafted as usual using the skin picker or applied to an existing Tool Cupboard using the Spray can item.
The Retro Tool Cupboard monitors display live information such as upkeep time, resources, and the number of blocks used to calculate upkeep costs. However, the data is only visible on the monitors when authorized.
The Retro Tool cupboard doesn't require power, the lower half of the Retro Tool Cupboard behind the glass panel displays current inventory upkeep amounts and tools.
When approaching the Retro Tool cupboard design, we felt aesthetics were critical. The tool cupboard is the heart of any base and should be instantly recognizable.
You can purchase Retro Tool cupboard skin in-game or at Steam's item store.
MILITARY FLAMETHROWER
In addition to the minigun, the Heavy Scientists have had their arsenal upgraded with a new, military tier flamethrower. This weapon deals massive damage to targets up to 12 meters away and creates walls of fire - which can be used for area denial.
I've also modified how flamethrowers deal damage to players making them an extremely effective PvP weapon.
PATROL HELICOPTER IMPROVEMENTS
The patrol helicopter was one of the largest banks of 'older' code still in the game. It's stood up well, but there were a bunch of fixes and improvements that needed to happen. Let's start with the improvements.
Orbital Strafing/Strafing Changes
The regular helicopter attack strafe was getting pretty old. It followed a regular pattern and most of our values were fixed internally. This has been changed. During an attack run the helicopter will randomise a bunch of values, including: rocket amount, drop off distance, turn speed etc. These are relatively minor adjustments, but they should help make each new fight with the helicopter feel a little more fresh.
We also added a new attack phase in the strafing run. The helicopter will turn, begin orbiting your position and pummel you with rockets from all directions. This will randomly happen after each strafe. It's super fun to play, and helps bring back the excitement and danger of taking heli.
Aggro Improvements
A new 'zones' feature has been introduced. These are invisible to the player. When a player damages heli a zone is updated/created and the zone is assigned a score. This score is based on how much damage heli has taken from that specific zone.
Heli will now seek out targets based on zones and damage scores rather than the perceived randomness of before. When there are minimal players and by extension - minimal zones. Heli will work similarly to before, but when more zones are introduced heli will prioritise attacking the people that are attacking it, in a more controlled and deliberate manner.
You are still free pickings to the side gunners, but your house shouldn't be blasted anymore in the confusion.
No-Go Zones
When taking heli, the basic principle is to get, and keep aggro. No-Go zones make this a little more difficult, and now encourage some movement when taking heli. When a zone performs enough damage to heli too quickly, then that zone is marked as a no-go zone. Heli will flee the area, and attempt to avoid it as best as it can. This is to encourage heli to get out of areas that are going to kill it too quickly. Encouraging bigger groups to chase, build defenses as they go and bring more PVP to the whole map.
Bug Fixes/Changes
A bunch of legacy bugs that existed with heli are now patched. These include being stuck on targets, disappearing mid-fight, not exploding in the ocean, as well as a bunch of proxy issues that were fixed by the aggro adjustments. Other adjustments have also been made to how heli patrols work, and you should see it moving around a bit more now, rather than just sticking to the monuments.
Server Convars
- patrolhelicopterai.use_danger_zones - this will enable/disable the no go and aggro zones. When turned off, the helicopter will largely behave the way it used to with target picking and aggression.
- patrolhelicopterai.flee_damage_percentage - this sets the required percentage of damage done to heli in order for it to flee and create a no-go zone. A value of 1 or over will effectively disable no go zones and stop the flee mechanic.
It will no doubt need some further revisions and changes after this release. Keep us updated on how your heli takes go. Have fun!
ELECTRICITY
This month we are taking care of our fellow electricians! Bug fixes, quality of life improvements, and major changes are coming to electricity.
CHANGES
First of all, we removed any power requirements from all logic gates.
Being creative and adding logic to your circuits won't be at the expense of acquiring a linear or exponential amount of power any more. While being a great quality of life for master electricians, we also believe that removing this pain point will increase the use of electricity in general.
Therefore, the following components won't require power or drain batteries anymore:
- Splitter
- Electrical Branch
- Blocker
- Root Combiner
- Memory Cell
- RAND Switch
- XOR Switch
- AND Switch
- OR Switch
- Timer
- Switch
- Smart Switch
- Counter
- Pressure Pad
- Button
Any other active components like turrets, sensors, lights, etc.. remain unchanged and will still need power to function.
BUG FIXES
These power limitations were also overly amplified by a multitude of power drain bugs and unintended behaviors that we worked on fixing.
Here are the most important ones:
- Fixed AND, & OR gates draining batteries on both sides instead of only the side with the highest power input
- Fixed auxiliary inputs/outputs draining power unnecessarily
- Fixed memory cell draining battery on both sides instead of from the active output
- Prevent electrical branch from draining power when nothing is connected to its branch out side
- Fixed unpowered components draining batteries, much more common now that branches do not waste power anymore
QUALITY OF LIFE
Along these changes, we worked on improving how you deploy electrical components:
Fixed the differences between the deploy guide and the actual position where your component is placed
Components are now aligned to walls and won't rotate based on your view angle
You can now align your components together when deploying them on walls by holding left shift
This applies to all electricity, industrial and fluid items. We're planning on extending it to any type of deployable in the future.
NEXT STEPS
There as more fixes and improvements that didn't make it into this patch. Expect more in the coming months, including plans to rework some components and extending their functionalities.
Many thanks to our electricians community for pointing out bugs and suggesting ideas.
FULL CHANGELOG
Splitter
Power Consumption: 1 -> 0
Active Usage: 1 -> 0
- Now distributes power evenly across all outputs and add any remaining power to the earliest outputs, ensuring no power loss
Power Consumption: 1 -> 0
Active Usage: 1 -> 0
- Won't drain any power when nothing is connected to its left side
Power Consumption: 1 -> 0
Active Usage: 1 -> 0
Root Combiner
Power Consumption: 1 -> 0
Active Usage: 1 -> 0
Memory Cell
Power Consumption: 1 -> 0
Active Usage: 1 -> 0
- Fixed draining battery on both sides instead of from the active output
- Fixed power passthrough being shown on both outputs instead of on the active one
- Side inputs won’t drain power any more
Power Consumption: 1 -> 0
Active Usage: 1 -> 0
- Now passes power when ON and blocks power when OFF
- Now resets to OFF
Power Consumption: 1 -> 0
Active Usage: 1 -> 0
AND Switch
Power Consumption: 1 -> 0
Active Usage: 1 -> 0
- Fixed batteries getting drained when only one side is powered
Power Consumption: 1 -> 0
Active Usage: 1 -> 0
- Fixed batteries getting drained on both sides instead of only the side with the highest power input (if both input have the same power, the first input is chosen by default)
Power Consumption: 1 -> 0
Active Usage: 1 -> 0
- Side inputs won’t drain power any more
- Now configurable when unpowered
Power Consumption: 1 -> 0
Active Usage: 1 -> 0
- Fixed aux inputs draining power
- Fixed aux inputs passing power through
- Fixed red LED not showing up when receiving power but toggled off
Power Consumption: 1 -> 0
Active Usage: 1 -> 0
Max target number: 100 -> 999
- Side inputs won’t drain power any more
- Fixed power passing power through when under their target value
Power Consumption: 1 -> 0
Active Usage: 1 -> 0
- Fixed blocking power passthrough for a bit when triggered
Power Consumption: 1 -> 0
Active Usage: 1 -> 0
Laser Detector
- Now deployable on any surface angle
- Tweaked handles position to make it easier to wire
- Fixed being powerable using only 1 power instead of 2
- Restored blue material emission when ON
- Tweaked handles position to make it easier to wire
- Now resets itself automatically only after being knocked down
- Won't generate and pulse 1 power when lowered manually
- When both lower and reset inputs are powered, the one with the highest power takes over
- Fixed aux output passing 1 power regardless of the current energy
- Now drains 1 power correctly when ON
- Aux inputs won’t drain any power any more
ANTI-CHEAT UPDATE
At the beginning of the year, In the development blog Surviving a Decade, I mentioned, "This year we're dedicating more resources into anti-cheat than ever", this is a commitment we're dedicated to, and I want to share more information about what we've been up too.
Over the past couple of months, we have slowly eliminated or limiting information leaks which cheaters abuse to aid them in several ways. For example, players health, Tool Cupboards and turret authorization lists could be read in the network data, allowing cheaters to use and gain a further unfair advantage. These are now fixed.
In continuing efforts to battle cheaters and clean up many long-standing issues, especially around information leaks, buried stashes are no longer networked, meaning cheaters will no longer know where stashes are buried.
There is much more to be done in this area, and we are working on it.
Expanding the support team size over the past year has allowed us to get more support staff focusing on anti-cheat, which includes going in-game and dealing with and disrupting cheaters directly based on player reports. Some staff over the coming months will be dedicated solely to anti-cheat measures full-time. This isn't limited to Facepunch servers, but across the board.
In addition to the above, we've deployed some stricter measures surrounding anti-cheating, eliminated several priority exploits, and will deploy further measures soon.
In the last month:
- 26,954 bans have been applied
- 22,542 of which were permanent
- 4,412 of which were temporary
- 949,422 cheating reports received
- 90.8% of bans were applied automatically
- Since the 1st January 2024:
- 84,753 bans have been applied
- 71,371 of which were permanent
- 13,382 of which were temporary
- 3,116,133 cheating reports received
- 92.9% of bans were applied automatically
- 72,849 bans applied in 2023 Q1
- 65,608 bans applied in 2023 Q2
- 81,682 bans applied in 2023 Q3
- 55,672 bans applied in 2023 Q4
- 81,084 bans applied in 2024 Q1
- Bans are placed for multiple reasons, the numbers above do not strictly reflect only cheat-related bans, but cheat-related bans do make up the vast majority of bans.
- A single player can receive multiple bans, for example, if a user is temporarily banned and then later switched to a permanent ban, this is counted as 2 bans in the above metrics.
BRADLEY SCIENTISTS
The Bradley has some new passengers this month!
Scientists can now deploy from the Bradley to help defend it with some extra firepower.
This applies to both the Launch Site Bradley and the Bradley that spawns along roads at the end of the month.
IMPROVEMENTS & FIXES HIGHLIGHTS
Seed Sack World Model
Added new seed world model
Mushroom World Model
Added mushroom world model
Monument CCTV Station
New dedicated CCTV station within monuments
SRV DNS SUPPORT
I added support for SRV DNS record to Rust. This means you can now create nice domain names for your servers without needing to specify the port (or be forced into the default port).
I also used this added information to improve the favorites list. Servers that have a working DNS record set up would save the domain name when favoriting so that favorites should never break as long as the domain name is pointing to the right place.
More information on how to set this up is on the wiki.
PING ESTIMATION
If you have searched for new servers in the browser you probably noticed the large amount of fake ping: it's impossible to have 30ms ping to both a US and EU server. This is a side effect of certain forms of DDOS protection and has forced us to create a custom system to estimate ping rather than use steam's ping value.
There is a new checkbox below "Use Cache" called "Estimate Ping". We will enable this by default in the future once we confirm the estimated values are more accurate than the existing ones.
FULL BLOG POST
To view the source [steampowered.com] of this article and to read more, click here.