Rust players who are regulars in the community will be extremely familiar at this point with the upcoming addition of the Ferry Terminal as well as all the cross-server implications this will be including: Clans, Clan Scores, Server Transfers, Inter-server Economies, and so much more. After the Facepunch team's regularly scheduled "Hackweek" of November 10th, players were shown not only a swathe of potentially new content coming into Rust, but updates on much of the content players were already aware of...and all of it will change the future of Rust online.
"Hackweek" at Facepunch is a regular event where developers are unshackled from their usual developmental duties and are allowed to work on anything they desire pertaining to the game, inspiring everything from the creation of an in-game Tomodachi to the now-implemented emoji system used in chat. Some developers choose to work on something they were already working on a previous hackweek, but others may choose to continue working on other usual development work.
Rust Update - Ferry Terminal
Players new to Rust may not fully understand the full gravity of the situation involved with the Ferry Terminal's implementation into the game, but depending on how the Ferry Terminal functions within Rust, players who originally would have had to start from scratch on one server will instead be bringing their week-long haul of loot and deadly weaponry into an early-wipe server under the currently understood ruleset. As Facepunch has currently shown it to function, the Ferry Terminal will transfer a player and their items between servers. Period.
The potential balancing issues with this can not be understated, as many players in Rust already have mixed feelings about current progression throughout the game. The structure of the game allowing for big clans to wipe away all the progress of a new player already turns away a large portion of the potential player base and leaning further into that may cause even more players to walk away. The Ferry Terminal saw even further additions this Rust update with direct inclusions to the clan system.
Rust Update - Clans
Clans are both one of the biggest draws to Rust and it's utmost biggest flaw. In essence, any Rust player has experienced it with their group of friends, and this parable explains it clearly: "There's always a bigger fish." No matter if you're a solo, or you're playing with two, three, or even four of your friends, you will always run into a group of 10 people who don't speak your language yelling over the in-game microphone who kill you in a way that you could have never prepared for. This is Rust. Even Clans with double-digits in number find themselves outnumbered every-so-often and balancing this part of the game is hard.
Rust Updates generally don't address this issue well and Rust servers are required to define themselves as "group-capped" as to keep players from teaming with far too many players at once. This however can be difficult to manage in essence and Facepunch looks to finally punish Clans for behaving unjustly by adding a new in-game score called "Clan Score Events". When Clans perform something valiant, such as board the Cargo Ship or Destroy an opposing-clan TC, they will be awarded "Clan Points." On the contrary, if a clan kills an unarmed player, they are deducted points.
Rust Update - Hardcore Mode Flopped
One of Rust's only unique game modes that was released to live servers was entitled "Hardcore Mode", wiping safe zones from the map, preventing players from communicating map-wide, and removing both the team-system and MLRs from access. While we released a run down on how to make your Shockbyte Rust server hardcore here, Rust is soon to discontinue the game mode due to it's widespread distaste with the community.
The Facepunch team's language appears both noncommittal and intentionally dismissive as Alistair McFarlane, Producer at Facepunch, said goodbye to the game mode on Twitter. This may leave a lasting impression on the Facepunch development team and the community may no longer see experimental game modes released to live servers anytime soon. It's an absolute tragedy as Rust's community regularly creates enticing in-game content outside of the game's normal bounds and may be interested in more official implementation.
We'll be retiring the remaining official hardcore servers on December 7th.
— Alistair McFarlane (@Alistair_McF) November 9, 2023
It was an interesting game mode to try out, but we missed the mark on its implementation.
We have collected a lot of community feedback for if and when we choose to revamp this gamemode. pic.twitter.com/uh60dg5o3t
Rust Update - Programmable Chips
Last, but potentially the most important is the community's first look into implementation of Rust Programmable Chips. These Programmable Chips will function in-tandem with Rust's emerging electrical systems as a sort of "Minecraft Command Block" allowing fully programmable script to be written along with detailed and complex Rust creations to be made. This could be not only one of the biggest changes coming to Rust base building, but to Rust multiplayer forever.
Since Minecraft's addition of Command blocks, players have created Redstone contraptions beyond player's wildest creations using absolutely nothing besides Redstone logic and a Command blocks. Entire unique monuments could be created by players with programmable chips, triggered events, and fully automated bases that require zero human interaction for a fully-sustainable defense, food, and crafting systems. Programmable Chips, Clans getting massive changes, and the world getting a whole lot closer with the usage of Ferries...Rust is changing in big ways, and we're already beyond the point of return.
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