SURVIVING A DECADE

10 YEARS OF RUST

Servers are now wiped and Santa is packing up and clearing out the bodies, but we hope you enjoyed the Holiday Season. We're getting back to work after a couple of weeks off, which is why this blog is lighter than usual, but we're looking forward to the journey ahead in 2024!

This year, we celebrated Rust's 10th Birthday, which has been an incredible journey. Rust is continuing to see year-on-year growth and for a 10 year old game, that's a rather impressive feat.

At a glance, here are some key gameplay features we added in 2023:

• Industrial system

• Drones

• RF Detonated C4

• Security Camera

• Player controlled turrets

• Pings

• Double horse saddle

• Missile silo monument

• Wipe event

• Building skins

• Sleeping bag limits

• Building upgrade effects

• Water refresh

• Tugboat

• Ferry Terminal monument

• Wounded info

• Chat emoji

• Attack helicopter

• Homing missile launcher

• Parachutes

• Armored hot-air balloon

• Above and below rail linking

• Underground train signals

• M4 shotgun

Alongside a metric ton of improvements.

Rust continues to be a labour of love from all of us at Facepunch, and we couldn't have done it without your passion and feedback. Rust has evolved around player feedback. It's not the game we initially set out to develop, but it's a game we're incredibly proud and passionate about to keep developing.

Thank you for being an integral part of this incredible journey, we look forward to delivering updates for the years to come.

If you're interested in learning more about Rust's history or a further look back at 2023, you can view the timeline here: https://rust.facepunch.com/rust10

MOVING FORWARD

What can you expect from us in 2024? More of the same! Guaranteed monthly updates every first Thursday of the month, along with frequent fixes, quality of life changes, improvements and holiday events.

Next Month

On February 1st, we'll release the backpack update. Backpacks will be a new craftable attire, allowing the player to carry more items.

Can't wait till February? Backpacks will be publicly playable on Staging next week, allowing everyone to test and give feedback.

Next month we'll also limit the number of shelters players can have placed at any one time.

Forwards

We have a ton of content currently in development, and if you're keeping an eye on our commits page, you'll already know some of them. This year, you can expect to see new and revamped monuments such as the compound, a tutorial system for new players, motorcycles, revamped server listings UI, new weapons.

A hot topic we see is improving the world and the environment. We have multiple patches lined up in 2024 to improve the world, creating unique buildable areas such as canyons and lakes and improving rivers. Procedurally generated caves, additionally, we'll be exploring and improving cliffs and rock formations.

We also plan to address the defender's advantage of sea-based monuments and events like the cargo ship. We are to rework the harbours, and the cargoship will soon dock with the harbours.

Outlined above is skimming the surface of only a few key features. We have a lot more planned.

But what about?

Performance?

Performance is always an ongoing process. We're constantly adding and improving new features monthly, often hidden in changelogs. There is no magic button to increase performance. Instead, it is a slow process of small gains.

Our immediate attention is on bringing memory usage down, which can provide a more stable and consistent