Hey Bumfuzzlers! This week’s installment brings Earl improvements, flight superiority balancing, skull-crushing goodness, changes to Zombie AI, wounded SuperHeli loot, the in-game store SuperHeli kill changes, electricity generation increases, Tesla coil traps, wiring improvements, crafting menu upgrades, and an upcoming wipe! Read on!
Flight Superiority
The mini-copters are fairly powerful. For the most part, they allow for complete dominance over all aspects of the world.
IMO, this is a major issue with game balance and that became worse after SAM Sites started requiring electricity.
The last update, I made SAM Sites and its ammo available in loot and I also lowered the rarity so it’s more available. This time around I’m making a few other tweaks to help makes sure, not al
SAM Loot
- You’ll now find SAM Sites one at a time, instead of in bunches of 1 to 3.
- You’ll now find SAM Site rockets in bunches of 1 to 15 instead of 1 to 5.
This should make the amount of SAM Sites a bit more reasonable while ensuring they won’t run out of ammo too quick.
Monuments
I added SAM Sites to the following monuments to ensure mini-copter pilots aren’t flying their way around certain challenges – like climbing the Dome.
- Dome
- Large Oil Rig
- Small Oil Rig
- Powerplant
- Trainyard
- Water Treatment
Cupboard Protection
Facepunch is sometimes strange. They think it’s ok for you to get shot down by your own SAM Site. I don’t. Now, if you’re authorized on the building where the SAM Site is kept, you will no longer get shot down by your own defense systems.
The balance of land vs. air will be something that goes on for a while, but hopefully, this brings things more in line.
Prestige Howling
Well, I thought it was cool, but people seemed to complain about it. Especially new players who believe they’re getting attacked by a wolf.
I’ve disabled the howling sound effect when earning new levels of Prestige (/loyalty)
Earl Talks
As we’ll see in the coming years, bots are not always perfect lol
Sometimes Earl says the unexpected or doesn’t respond when you need him.
I’ve tinkered with his floseywhatsis and his jinkerboard so I think he’ll be better behaved now, but I can’t promise anything. He think he’s a real person sometimes.
I’ve added some general responses to help point vague questioners into the right direction and hopefully the odd unexpected and unrelated responses are reduced.
For instance, type !raid and it will help you find a more specific topic. As you ask questions, he’ll improve.
Electric Boogaloo
It’s about time I started fiddling with electricity – now that you need it for so many things, especially base defenses.
I’ve made a couple of changes:
- I’ve upped the Max Output for Solar Panels, Batteries, Small Generator and Windmill by 50%.
- I’ve upped the Max Capacity for Batteries by 50%
This should give you a lot more bang for your buck when it comes to pimping out your base and it’ll set you up for what’s to come in upcoming updates.
Skull ‘Modification’
Crushing the occasional skull is a cartload of humiliating fun, but can we improve the experience? I think so.
Now, you should see random messages when crushing other players skulls which should make the ritual a bit more satisfying! It may also draw out the process where crushers don’t just run through all their skulls in one mega-click. Now, the process will be savored like a fine wine.
Thanks to Matt and Doge for pointing out the uncrushable skull issue.
Scarecrow Zambies
Facepunch uses two different types of NPC AI – the Murderer and the Scarecrow.
The Scarecrow is the one they rolled out last for Halloween that threw grenades and sometimes wielded a chainsaw. It had much better navigation in the world, could follow players better and was a bit scarier to deal with.
I’ve switched the zambies over to Scarecrow AI from Murderer in hopes they’ll be more formidable. This only affects the way they move so they should mostly act the same. I’m hoping in the future to mix and match zambies so that some do toss grenades and wield chainsaws while others simply roam.
Thanks Matt for the feedback on the zambies walking backward.
Wounded SuperHeli
Every once in a while, the SuperHeli blows a gasket and crashes into the ground like a sack of potatoes to leave behind its faithful pilot lying in agony awaiting some valiant player to take his belongings.
After a review, I noticed the pilot’s loot, for some odd reason, included both an LR-300 Assault Rifle and an MP5A4. This was not expected!
I’ve now reduced the loot, but that doesn’t mean he won’t use an LR to greet you 🙂
SuperHeli Kill
If the SuperHeli is annoying and you have the cash, you can summon the Rust gods to strike the chopper out of the sky.
Thing is, it appears that doing this simply despawned the SuperHeli which feels weird and isn’t quite as satisfying.
Now the SuperHheli should actually crash.
Thanks Matt, Howdy, and Kate for the feedback.
New Light
There’s a light, called the simple light, that surprisingly never made it into the loot for some reason.
I’ve now added it into the general loot and also added several into the Electricity Dream Package you can purchase in the Shop to support the server.
You can find them in the same places as Ceiling Lights and they’re just as common.
Go forth and decorate your base with soft lighting and soothing colors!
Thanks for the feedback Country Chawbacon and Doc
Rust Impending
There are a few items coming to Rust, potentially in the next patch on October 3rd that you may want to know about. We’ll be getting Tesla coil traps, lots of upgrades to electrical wires, crafting menu quality of life improvements, stack split upgrades, and more!
Check out the video to learn more.
Wipe Cometh
Thursday, September 19th is the next wipe. As usual, the second wipe of the month will be the map only so blueprints and the economy will stay. Due to it not relating to a Facepunch patch, I can be more flexible in when it happens. I would expect we’ll wipe between 3 PM and 5 PM EST. It really depends on how the day shapes up for me.
As always thanks to all you Bumfuzzlers for the feedback. Keep it coming and have fun out there!
