Showing posts with label Let's Play. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Let's Play. Show all posts

Saturday, March 29, 2014

PlayRust Guide - Game Crashes and Fixes

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Game Crashes and Fixes

Unfortunately, in it’s current state Rust is far from perfect. It has a few issues, and occasionally some conflicts will cause the game to crash or freeze. At this point in time there isn’t that much available information on why certain crashes may happen, and because of this it’s down to you to figure out what exactly is causing your crashes.

My Game Didn’t Use to Have Issues, But Now it Does

If your Rust has suddenly started playing up, it’s likely a change to your system or your hardware that has caused the problems. To identify what has caused your game to crash, you’ll need to think about what changes you have made to your PC since the crashes have started happening.

It could be something as simple as a new issue with the latest patch, or it could be something to do with something on your end. If you’ve recently downloaded a new patch for Rust, check the FacePunch forums and other websites to see if other people have had similar problems.

If nobody else has had problems, or there hasn’t been a patch, it’s most likely to be due to some kind of hardware or software change. If you updated your hardware, make sure that you’ve downloaded all the latest drivers, and check online to see if there’s any conflicts between Rust and the new hardware.

If you haven’t changed hardware, it’s likely to be down to software changes. Make sure your firewall or antivirus isn’t having any problems with Rust, and also make sure that you are online on Steam and you have proper access to other online games.

My Game Has Always Had Issues

If your game has had issues ever since you bought it, it’s probably down to a lack of capable software or hardware. Rust uses Unity, which is a pretty robust 3D game engine. Because of this, it’s rare that your hardware will have problems with it, unless it’s faulty or extremely old. As long as you’re running Windows XP or higher, and have a GPU better than integrated graphics you should be fine.



Dual Video Card Laptops

Some laptops, such as the Lenovo Y580 have dual drivers for the integrated graphics card. In the case of the Y580, the graphics drivers are GTX 660M and Intel HD graphics 4000.  Sometimes the laptop will not use the GTX drivers properly, and instead revert to the Intel Graphics drivers.  There are a a few causes for this. 


1. In your NVIDIA Control Panel, under Manage 3D settings, the game rust or the default may be set to the Intel Graphics drivers.  Changing this setting and restarting your computer should fix the problem.

2. The Graphics card requires more power than your laptop battery can provide on it's own, and will revert to the Intel Graphics Drivers when battery power is the only power available.  It will not automatically revert back after plugging into the wall. In order to fix this, you have to plug in the power and restart your laptop. Removing the power cable at any time during gaming will instantly cause the computer to downgrade the drivers to the Intel drivers until plugged in and restarted again.


FPS Boosts

If you’re simply having issues with frame rate in Rust, there are a few tweaks that can be applied. To do these tweaks, you’ll need to enter the game and then press F1 once in-game. Pressing F1 will open up the debug console, and with this you’ll be able to turn off things that you can’t from the main menu. First, if you’d like to monitor your FPS, enter ‘global.fpslog 5’ - this will make your FPS appear on screen every 5 seconds. The rate that the FPS is shown can be adjusted by changing the number 5 to whatever number you’d like.

Here are a few useful commands that players have reported to improve Frame rate on older builds-

‘render.level 0’ - this reduces the render level.
‘render.distance 0.1’ - this reduces render distance by half. (default is 0.2)
‘gfx.ssaa false’ - this disables super sampling anti aliasing.
‘gfx.shafts false’ - this gets rid of sun rays.
‘grass.on false’ - this gets rid of grass, this is probably the biggest FPS booster.


Can your computer run Rust?

For an answer to this question, you can either post your specs here in a comment, or visit the Rust forum topic on this question at "Will it run?"

Over time Rust will improve, so if you are still having problems, unfortunately the best thing you can do is sit tight and wait for a fix to be patched to the game. You can read more about making the most out of Rust in our guide here.










Thursday, March 27, 2014

PlayRust Guide - Exploits

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Exploits: How to  Patch or Avoid Being the Victim of Exploits

Every game has it’s issues, and many players attempt to find small bugs and problems with games and use them to get an advantage over other players. This can prove to be a big problem, especially for games that are still deep in development. Rust is an example of this, and even though it runs fairly smooth at it’s current state, as development progresses, the game will come prone to exploits and game breaking bugs.

There are a few exploits and issues you’ll want to be aware of to avoid getting caught off guard.

Base Raiding Exploits

No base is unraidable, and if you do happen to make a base that manages to stop any legitimate attack, players may end up looking for other means to get into your loot room. There are always going to be exploits that help players get around certain building designs, and as more building equipment is added, more chances for exploits will appear.

It’s always best to keep on guard, because you can never know when a new exploit may be discovered. As it stands at the time of writing, there aren’t that many known base raiding exploits, but there are a few that stand out.

One involves barricades and pillars. This particular exploit will allow players to climb up to the top of a building regardless of what building materials are blocking the way. Because of this, it’s always best to assume that players will be able to reach your top floor.

Cheaters and Hackers

I can’t express my frustration with cheaters and hackers in multiplayer games enough. In games like Rust or DayZ, where players can steal everything another player owns, cheaters have all the more reason to cheat, and innocent players have so much more to lose because of it. Rust does have a problem with cheating, and even with VAC working in the background, there are still problems with cheaters and hackers.

Players who use hacks have tools to help them fire their weapons at ridiculous speeds, fly across the map, and run at intense speeds. Although not impossible, it’s incredibly difficult to kill hackers in a firefight, so if anybody states in chat that there are hackers in a particular area, stay clear until a server admin can deal with him.


Duplication Glitches

Another very frustrating exploit involves the duplication of items. Duplication, or duping methods usually allow players to essentially create an unlimited supply of items by tricking the server into believing the item should be in two places at once. Duplication glitches are always going to be patched, but players will strive to find new methods.

So far, I haven’t personally come across anybody that is clearly using duplication exploits to get an advantage, but I have heard stories about how players seem to have endless supplies of weapons, armor, and most scary of all, C4.

Luckily, duplication exploits aren’t easy to come by, so it’s usually not something you’ll have to deal with.

Other Bugs

Rust is in alpha, and this should be taken into consideration before even buying the game. We are going to have to deal with bugs, exploits and cheaters because the game is still in development. The good thing about this though is that any really big bugs will be worked on, and with the player’s help, the guys working on Rust can iron out any kinks and turn it into a game fueled by the players’ interests.

Learn more about Rust in the rest of our guide here.




Monday, March 24, 2014

PlayRust Guide: Known Bugs

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Known Bugs: Bugs That are Known and Being Fixed or in the Works

Rust is still in alpha stage, so it’s not uncommon to come across various bugs and glitches within the game. At the time of writing, the game actually runs surprisingly smoothly, but there are still various issues that players are aware of in Rust. Whilst some of them are inevitable, a lot of them can be avoided until they have been fixed.

Issues with Animals

Animals play an important role in Rust, and without them the game’s world would certainly feel a lot more empty. However, they aren’t exactly perfectly coded at this point in time, and you may come across a few issues with them whilst playing.

It’s quite common to see animals clipping into the ground, but besides from being an annoying graphical bug, this glitch can end up causing problems whilst playing later on. It’s completely possible that animals can clip so far into the ground that their models can no longer be seen, and despite being two foot underground, the animals can still attack you.

If you hear a bear or a wolf but can’t actually see it, the best thing to do is to keep running until it loses track of you. Climbing over rocks and across hard to access places usually gets the animals off of your tail pretty quickly.

Occasionally, animals will also float high into the sky - if you kill them, their bodies will remain floating in the air, so if you see a floating animal and you’re low on ammo, you’d be better killing animals you can actually reach after killing.

Just like with the underground animals, floating animals can still attack you, despite being so far away from the ground.

Third Person Weapon Models

In Rust, all guns will appear to be an M4 from a third person perspective, and all melee tools will look like the hatchet, apart from the rock.

This isn’t as much a glitch as it is simply the fact that there are a lack of 3D models in the game, so most equipment simply holds placeholder values. It’s important to understand that even though a player may appear to be holding an M4, he could be holding a pistol, a shotgun, or even a bolt action rifle.
The bow does have it’s own 3D model, but all other projectile weapons appear as M4s. To make sure you don’t enter combat unprepared, you should try to learn the sounds each gun makes when shot. This way, you can get a better idea about what gear any players in the area are using.

Glitches with Doors and Other Building Items

Currently, there are quite a lot of glitches with building items in the game. It is possible that some building items such as the furnace or the workbench can fling you into the air if you walk into these objects - this can kill you if you don’t have a roof over your head to prevent you from being flinged into the sky.

Another frustrating bug that I’ve personally noticed is that doors have the potential to kick you from the game if the door gets pushed shut at the same time you try to enter it. If you have a building with a lot of doors inside, this can get incredibly annoying. It’s best to be patient when dealing with doors to avoid being kicked from the server constantly.

Exploits and Hacks

Unfortunately, there are various exploits and hacks that are used by some bad eggs in the Rust community - we have covered these in the exploits section in our Rust guide. You can check the full guide here.


PlayRust - Raiding

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Raiding: What you Should Know About Raiding Player Homes

Sometimes, the best things in life are stolen from others. This is certainly the case in Rust, at least. However, before you go running out and embarrassing yourself, there are a few things you should take into consideration before raiding another player’s home. Planning a raid takes time, and it’s important to plan things out properly, because making a wrong move and getting caught in the act can have catastrophic results.

Gathering Explosives

If you really want to raid a player’s base, you are going to need explosives. These take a lot of materials, and you’ll also need to know how to actually make one. You’ll have two routes to go down - you can either use grenades, which bounce around and can get a bit messy, or you can go for C4, the clean, easy way to break down doors and walls.

C4 explosives are definitely the way to go, however, unlike grenades, they are pretty hard to come by. You’ll need to use a recipe on both the explosive charge, and explosives, and this can be quite difficult because of their rarity. Grenades on the other hand have recipes which can be found from mutated animals and in radiation zones. If you can get your hands on C4, definitely go down that route, but if not, you could always go for grenades. Below is a breakdown of the materials you’ll need to make each item.

To blow down a metal door, you will need 12 grenades. Each grenade takes 40 metal fragments, and 80 gunpowder. However, grenades can be hard to use, so you may end up using more than planned. Grenades bounce and roll around, and for this reason they can miss completely, and they may not do damage to the thing you’re aiming for.

To properly use a grenade, crouch right up next to the door or wall and throw the grenade at your feet. It will wedge in between the door and your body, which will stop it from bouncing away. As soon as you’ve done this, peg it for cover.

For each metal door, you will need 480 metal fragments and 960 gunpowder if you choose to use grenades.

C4 on the other hand is so much easier to use. You can plant them on walls or doors, and they stay there quietly until they explode. Metal doors only take two C4 to use. For each C4 you need 15 explosives, 1 flare and 5 leather. Explosives require 20 gunpowder, 2 low grade fuel, 5 sulfur and 10 metal fragments to craft.

For each metal door, you will need 600 gunpowder, 300 metal fragments, 60 low grade fuel, 150 sulfur, 2 flares, and 10 leather if you choose to use C4.

Choosing the Time to Strike

As you can tell, it’s not going to be easy to gather the supplies you’ll need to successfully raid a base. Because of this, it’s very important that you learn how to choose the right time to strike.

If you’ve found a target, you’ll want to go scout out their base, and work out a plan of action first. Try and peek through their wood walls to learn where the most amount of wooden boxes are, and use this as a good first point to break into. Make sure to check to see if there are any easy ways in, too. If they only have one metal door at the front entrance, you could break through right at the top, and save a lot of explosives.

If there are any open windows, you could build stairs up alongside the base walls and then jump through the window to once again save on explosives. Once you’ve worked out a good plan of action, you then want to figure out the best time to strike. Learn the hours the owners of this base are online, and then strike in their sleep. Or, if you’re up for the challenge, try breaking into their base whilst they are online and they are all out on a looting trip.

Tactical Renovation


Sometimes, raiding isn’t just about the explosives. At times, you’ll have the opportunity to use stairs, pillars, and foundations to get yourself into their base without using brute force. It’s always best to come loaded with a decent supply of wood to create any items you may need. If you planned ahead, you should already know all of the supplies you’ll need.

If you really want to be sneaky, every time you blow out a metal door, replace it with one of your own. This way, you can come back at a later time and continue raiding. You’ll essentially be kicking players out of their own home, and without access to their gear, they won’t even be able to get their own explosives to get back in.

Don’t be too tight, though, if they plead for you to remove the doors, you should probably listen - take their gear, and then let them have their base back later. At the end of the day, Rust is a game and is meant to be enjoyed, and besides, you won’t want to have any problems with angry admins at any point.

Learn to Quit Whilst You're Still Ahead

If you’ve done a good raid and you’ve got a lot of gear, you should head back and store it all - don’t stick around too long because you may end up getting caught by the base owners. As soon as the owners see you, not only do you have a chance to lose all of the gear you just stole, but they will have your name, and their new mission will be to hunt you down and kill you in your sleep.

For this reason, make sure to not get too greedy, and learn to quit whilst you’re still ahead.

If you want to learn more about Rust, Check out the rest of our guide here.




Monday, March 17, 2014

PlayRust - Banditry

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Banditry: How to Be the Survivor and Not the Victim

In Rust, one of the biggest threats you can ever come across are other players - they are unpredictable, dangerous, and hard to trust. One player has the potential to ruin everything you’ve been working on in the game, and in the world of Rust, it really is survival of the fittest.

There are certain strategies and tips to take into consideration to ensure that you’re not left standing outside of your own house naked, whilst threatening players blow down your precious house.

Making Friends

Playing safe in Rust requires a few things; firstly, you’re going to need to understand how good base building works, and also how to hide a decent base from plain sight. Secondly, you need to get to grips with the guns in the game, and learn how to keep calm in combat, and thirdly, you need to become a politician.

I’m really not kidding when I say this - in my hours of playing, I’ve learned one very important thing. If you learn to make friends on a server, you can build alliances, track down bandits together, and threaten any hooligans that plan to smash your house down.

Making friends in Rust can be a tricky thing to do, because you can never truly know if other players want to befriend you too, or if they just want to get on your good side to get a good look at your base and home location. The best thing to take into consideration when interacting with other players is that you can never trust anybody. Never let players near your base, no matter how friendly they are, and you should be good.

From here, you can start building relationships with players that could potentially lead to lots of benefits. These benefits include trading opportunities, information related to a bandit’s whereabouts, and even protection and help in PVP situations. You’ll need to think tactically, and learn how much each player will expect from you before you can start seeing benefits in return - if you have to give up 1,000 wood to a player that could potentially be your biggest weapon against other players in the future, it may be worth giving it up.

Keeping Quiet
If you’re not the socialite then you could always keep your head low and not cause any commotion. It’s likely that the bandits on the server you’re playing on already have targets firmly on the heads of any loudmouths on the server, and you could potentially avoid all confrontations just by not mentioning that much to them. If you are hidden well, the only ways you could make your base a target for a raid is either by having a big base worth raiding, or by having enough to say in the chat that could cause people to want to attack you.

And if you are ever worried that someone may be planning to raid your base, you could always try and create a distraction.

Because of the vast open world of Rust, it’s quite easy to place bases in some really interesting places, so if someone is starting to snoop around your base, simply build a new decoy base nearby, and whenever any players are in the area, just drop by your decoy base until they move on. This way, if they do decide to raid you, they’ll most likely find your empty decoy base and will head off home without having any clue where your real base is.

Good Base Protection

If bandits do come across your base, then there is only one thing left between them and all of your loot, and that is good base protection. This is a whole subject on it’s own, and if you want to learn more about base building techniques in Rust, then check out our house design section for this guide.

Good base protection is largely about putting as many doors between raiders and your most valuable loot. A good design would make sure that there aren’t any cheap ways into your base, for example, through a wall on the side of a house, or through an open window. Once this is sorted, you simply need to make as many metal doors as possible, and put your most valuable loot in the hardest spot to get to. You can always risk spreading out your loot - that way raiders will only get a chunk of your loot after each door break, instead of all of it if they manage to slip into your loot room.

Understanding PVP Combat

Bandits won’t just be looking to raid bases, they’ll also be out in the field, ready to shoot down any full looted players that may be unaware of their presence. In Rust, there’s always a chance that you’ll get attacked whilst looting, so let’s first talk about the kind of gear that should be used whilst you are collecting resources.

You want to make sure that you aren’t taking anything you aren’t comfortable to lose, because even if you are wearing full kevlar, it’s very possible that a bandit could sneak up behind you with a shotgun whilst you’re focusing on getting wood or other resources. For this reason, it’s best to only take cloth or leather armor, and a few small medkits or bandages.

If you plan on taking a weapon to kill animals, I’d advise learning how to use a bow - they are cheap to make, the ammo is easy to create, and they can kill animals in fewer shots than an M4.

If you plan to go out and actively fight against another player, the tables will turn. You’ll be more on guard, and you’ll need to rely on better gear to stand a good chance at beating other players in PVP combat. This is where full kevlar could be useful, and an M4 or shotgun can be your best friend. Let’s take a look at the kind of gear that will be best for PVP situations.

The hotbar

Just like Minecraft, Rust has a hotbar system that allows players to quickly access a limited amount of items via the hotbar. If you’re in the middle of a fight, you will not have a chance to fumble around in your inventory for gear, so it’s important to get the right items ready in your hotbar.

Firstly, you’ll want the first slot to be a weapon of some kind - this should be your main weapon, so most likely an M4 or a shotgun. Make sure to store your ammo in your inventory to save hotbar space.

The second hotbar slot should be saved for a secondary weapon - if you run out of ammo, or don’t have the time to reload, you’ll need to rely on this weapon. A shotgun can work quite well, as well as a 9MM pistol or a P250.

This will leave four slots left, and it’s completely up to you how you use these. However, there are a few things that are very important to use. This includes either a small or large medkit, so that you can heal in the middle of combat, and a couple of other things.

Below, you can see the loadout I typically use when going out for PVP reasons-

  • Slot 1 - M4, or Shotgun (If I’m going to be in confined spaces, ie. another player’s base, I typically choose the shotgun for a primary.)
  • Slot 2 - P250 - the P250 has pretty high damage, so it works great as a backup weapon.
  • Slot 3 - Wood barricade - This item is a gift from god. If you’re getting attacked, simply press the hotbar slot, turn to the direction you’re taking damage from, and plonk it down. This provides instant cover. From here, you can heal, reload your weapons, and figure out where you just got shot from.
  • Slot 4 - Small Medkit - I always have 5 small medkits lined up in slot 4 - they will get used pretty quickly, and they are mainly there to quickly use when you get shot at.
  • Slot 5 - Large Medkit - Large medkits can fill a lot of health, so these are best used sparingly. I have these in the fifth slot so that i’m not tempted to use them sooner.
  • Slot 6 - Wood Shelter - PVP can get pretty intense, and wood shelters are great ways to take a breather. I usually place these down, along with a wood door so that I can re-organise my inventory and create more wood barricades or med supplies.

Hopefully these tips will help you to avoid getting caught up with bandits, the best thing I’ve learned is, if you can’t beat them, join them. Check out the rest of our guide here.


Tuesday, March 11, 2014

Playrust - Items: A simple explanation to the items in the game Rust.



Items in the Game

Whilst building your base requires you to gather wood and metal, there are many other items to collect in Rust, and there are various methods available for you to collect them. Nearly everything you can use in Rust is craft-able, but a lot of good gear must be found before you can learn how to craft it, and this includes better armor, improved weapons, and various types of ammo and explosives. Below we’ve listed the most important methods items can be found in-game.

Main Resources


In Rust, the main items you’ll be out farming for are metal and wood. We’ll be looking at the various ways both of these materials can be collected.

Wood


Wood can be collected by hitting trees with a rock, a stone hatchet, a regular hatchet and a pickaxe. The quality of these tools, as well as the quantity of resources they can collect from each hit is shown in order below.

     Rock
     Stone Hatchet
     Hatchet
     Pickaxe

Whilst wood can be collected from trees, there is a much more effective way to collect wood. Log piles are scattered around the world of Rust, and these allow you to collect wood much faster than you can from trees. For example, each time you hit a log pile with a pickaxe, you’ll gain 20 wood, as opposed to 1-2 wood.

Wood is needed for every wood building material, and this is what you’ll be building most of your base on, so you are going to be needing a lot of wood.

Rocks


Just like with wood, there are various nodes spread around the world that players can collect stone-based resources from. There are two types of rock nodes in Rust; the large mineral rock, and the small mineral rock. Both rocks give players the same resources, however their quantity given before being depleted is slightly different.

Mineral rocks will give players stones, sulfur ore and metal ore - these materials are needed for making metal building materials, some equipment, weapons, ammo and explosives.

Loot Crates


Simply hunting down log piles and mineral rocks would make Rust get boring quick. Luckily, there are other items out there that can be collected, and some of these can be found in loot crates. Loot crates spawn in various pre-generated structures around the world, and have a random chance to spawn certain gear.

You’ll need to collect the loot crates to stand a chance of finding various types of clothing, weapons, food, and ammunition. Loot crates also have a chance of containing research kits and blueprints - these can be used to teach your player how to craft new items.

Each spawn location for a loot crate will have a chance to spawn a different type of crate. Each crate has various qualities, and different gear inside. Below the loot crates are listed with the loot that can be found inside of them.

The following information may be outdated by the time you read this, as the loot tables are always changing, but it’s likely the majority of items inside loot crates will always be similar to what is shown below.

Wood Box

The least useful and most common loot crate is a wood box. Wood boxes have a chance to spawn with these items:

     5.56 Ammo

     9MM Ammo

     Anti-Radiation Pills

     Cloth

     Metal Fragments

     Shotgun Shells

Green Crate

Green crates are a step up from wood boxes, and they can contain a variety of different gear. Green crates have a chance to contain the following items.

     Ammunition

     Research Kits

     Weapon Attachments

     Weapons


Yellow Crate

Yellow crates share the same value and rarity of a green crate. The gear found inside yellow crates can be seen below.

     Ammunition

     Blueprints

     Weapon Attachments

     Weapons

Red Crate

Finally, the rarest and most valuable crates are red crates. They can contain the following items.

     Ammunition

     Anti-Radiation Pills

     Flares

     Loot Stashes

     Medkits and other Medical Equipment

     Research Kits

The details on drop rates for all of these items have not yet been worked out, but it seems as if all types of crates have a shared pool of items. These items usually include random gear like animal fat, cloth, leather, metal fragments, gunpowder, storage boxes and loot stashes. Unless you’re particularly looking for one of these items, it’s best to not take these items with you, because your inventory will end up filling up very quickly, and you may have to head back to base earlier than expected.

Loot from Mutated Animals


Mutated animals are red variants of standard animals that can usually be found in packs alongside roads and pre-generated structures. They are aggressive and will attack players if a player steps too close. Despite being a pain in the ass to deal with at times, killing mutated animals is a great way to get gear and supplies.

Every time a mutated animal is killed, it drops a loot sack that looks like a briefcase. Inside the loot sack will be a randomly selected item, or group of items. Both mutated bears and mutated wolves drop loot crates, and they have a chance to drop very rare items, such as kevlar armor and metal building items.

Mutated animals can also drop food, medical supplies, research kits, blueprints, attachments and other types of armor.

Airdrops


The final, and probably most exciting part of this section is about airdrops. Airdrops occur randomly on most servers, and players will be able to see and hear a plane flying by if an airdrop happens within the area. Planes will drop a group of crates which can be opened and will contain various types of gear inside.

The gear inside the airdrops will depend on the server settings, however it is common to find weapons, ammo, and most importantly, explosives, grenades and C4 - these last three items are needed to raid enemy bases as they are the only items in the game that can break through wood walls and metal doors.

When an airdrop happens, expect a lot of other players to be at the drop location. Players will fight it out for the loot inside, and those you thought you could trust before, may shoot you in the back for the chance to get their hands on C4 and other equipment.

You can learn more about Rust, and how to use all of these items in the rest of our guide.


Thursday, March 6, 2014

Rust, Survival game - Survival guide. Play Rust, Stay alive!


Rust, also known as PlayRust, is a 3D Survival open world game by Facepunch Studios, the creator of Garry's Mod on Steam.  It is described as an MMO, adventure, simulation by Steam. The game is currently Alpha, but open for early access purchase on Steam.

The game is a lot of fun, once you get the hang of it and your own style of gameplay.  But for the beginner, newbie, naked flopper, starting out with a couple bandaids, a torch and a rock - running your junk all over a server full of players who want nothing more than to kill you and take your rock - this game sports a steep learning curve.  The game mechanics are simple, but learning how the game is played by others and what to expect is widely variable. 

Here, I present to you the Basics of Rust gameplay. The idiot's guide to keeping your rock. How to play Rust for the newbie Naked.  Your most valuable questions about the Rust game will be answered here!  So, gather your rocks and wood, it's time to man up and survive!

This guide is just starting, but will include all the basics of playing, getting started, bugfixes, and tips, plus a video guide and tips in the future.  Book Mark us and add your input into the comments to help this guide grow.

1. Extreme Basics:

Servers: What you need to know to find a good server, connect, and tips to make your choice the best choice for you.

Keys and settings: All the key binds and settings you should know about, use, change, or avoid.


2. Basics:

The Map of Rust Island: The map and what you should know about each area. 

Getting Started: Your first actions, what to look for, what to build, and how to survive your first night.

Items in the game: All the items and things you can find in the game, plus tips on how to collect, drop rates, and what to keep and what to throw away.


3. Advanced Survival:

House design: What you should be aware of when building your home.

Banditry: How to be the survivor and not the victim.

Raiding: What you should know about raiding player homes.


4. bugs, fixes, workarounds and more:

known bugs: Bugs that are known and being fixed or in the works.

NEW! 03/27/2014 Exploits: how to patch or avoid being the victim of exploits.

NEW! 03/29/2014 Game crashes and fixes: If your game is crashing check here for possible fixes or workarounds for your crash.

5. The Rusted Development Comic:

04/01/2014 -
New episode.


PlayRust - Rust Extreme Basics: Servers, which ones are best for you.



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Connecting to servers.

There are a few options for servers to play on.  Official servers, Community servers, and Modded servers. Your play style may differ, so read here for help on choosing the server that is right for you.

Official Servers:

Official Rust Servers are hosted by Facepunch studios specifically for Facepunch.  They often use these servers for testing loads, server configurations and updates. 

Official servers are often full or at high capacity.  Most people just starting out try to play on official servers and this may lead to frustration. There are so many people playing on these servers, including hard core gamers and hackers, your survival chance as a newbie naked is ridiculously small. You will be killed on sight, the map is too small to hide, there is nowhere you can safely go from other players.

Official servers present the unique difficulty that is best mitigated by playing with friends in groups.  If you are a solo player, I suggest avoiding Official servers or any server with more than 20 people playing.  On the other hand, if you are a hard core gamer that revels in the unique masochistic challenge and onslaught of endless perilous dangers from other players, official servers are for you my Steely Balled friend. May your bloody path to success be carved out of the dead you leave naked behind you. 

Community Servers:

Community Rust Servers are hosted by Facepunch Studios' approved game server rental companies and run by the person who pays for the service.  These kinds of servers form the bulk of available servers in your list. They range from highly moderated multi-admin servers to empty and waiting for any kind of connection.  They can be small 50 connection servers or huge 300 connection servers.  The rules and game mechanics are the same as the official servers. 

On the Community Servers, you can find a decent place to play, with few players, that you can use to learn the mechanics of the game and ease yourself into the full onslaught of larger traffic servers. This is a good place to start if you are new to the game as there is a much greater chance that other players of the server will assist you in your learning curve. 

Modded Servers:

Modded Rust Servers are Community Servers with modified game rules.  Most commonly, the absence of sleepers, higher rates of supply drops, faster resource respawning, and faster crafting.

These servers are the best for people wanting to practice their building and strategies, as they provide the ability to progress faster than regular servers.  If you want to practice that perfect house/fortress build, find a server with high resources, low users, and instant crafting. You will have the materials needed to start practicing your builds in no time.

Tips for finding and connecting to servers:

1. Many community servers and descriptions of the servers can be found on the Steam Play Rust forum, and the Facepunch Studios Play Rust forum.

2. After starting the game, press F1 to bring up the console, then type "net.connect [00.00.00.00:0000]" where the zeros represent the server's address and port, then hit enter.  Then hit F1 again to remove the console.

3. If you find a server you want to play on in the game's server list, double click it to connect.  Sometimes this doesn't work as intended.  Just keep clicking quickly on the desired server's name and it will eventually connect.

4. Servers you have visited will be in your history.  Use the history to go back to servers you don't remember the connection details of. 

5. If you find a server you enjoy playing on, hit F1 after connecting and copy the address and port somewhere you won't lose it.  This way, if the server is removed from your history after a patch, you can just net.connect to it directly.



PlayRust - Rust Extreme Basics: Key bindings and settings - Frame Rate tips

If you are asking, "How do I..." then hopefully your answers are below.  This is a compilation of all the keybinds and settings I could find for Rust through the official forum, pages, steam forum and anywhere else. This should be a complete list, but feel free to let me know if I missed anything.

Back to the Guide Menu.


Rust Gameplay Keybinds:

F1 Open Console
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 Use items in inventory #
W Move Forward
A Strafe Left
S Move Backward
D Strafe Right
Left Click Hatchet/Fire/Light Flare
Right Click Aim on guns/Throw Flare
Left Shift Sprint/Run
Space Bar Jump
CRTL/C Crouch
F Flashlight
R Reload
E Action/Use
Tab/I Open Inventory
G Toggle Laser Sight on/off
V Voice - Turn Microphone On
Enter/T Open Chat / Send Chat Message
numpad / Decrease Graphics (quality)
numpad * Increase Graphics (quality)
PageUp Mute Ambient Music/Sound (Not Sound Effects)
Scroll Wheel/Right Click Rotate Building Part (ie. walls)


Rust Gameplay Settings:

Important Settings.

Resolution: When starting Rust from steam, consider using windowed mode and a resolution just smaller than your screen when you are new to the game.  You won't get as much immersion out of it, but it will make referencing the internet or this guide for help much easier.

Frame Rate Tips: To improve framerate, here are a few things you can try.

1. press F1 to open your console when connected to a server.  Type "grass.on false" without the quotation marks.

2. Change the video quality settings.  This must be done before you connect to a server.  Start the game, click Options, change the Graphics "Render Quality" to something lower, then click apply changes.  Then log into your favorite server.

3. Lower your Startup Resolution: If the first two options don't make the game playable, you probably need to play the game at a lower resolution.  Do this when you first start the game from steam, by changing the resolution in the resolution drop down menu before you press play.

4. Lower Anti-Aliasing: Turn down the Anti-Aliasing of your video card in the video card settings or game profile in your video card software to 2x.

Important Console Commands:

F1 console command result
gui.hide_branding removes the top right banner branding.
gui.show_branding Shows the top right banner branding.
gui.hide hide the graphical user interface.
gui.show Show the graphical user interface.
net.connect 0.0.0.0:0 Connect to server address.
net.disconnect disconnect from current server.
net.reconnect reconnect to current server.
suicide kills your character and respawns in random location
censor.nudity false let's you see everyone else's package.



The Map of Rust Island - Play Rust Map and analysis

The map of Rust Island from the game Rust and information about each area.

This map can be found at the playrustwiki, and I use it because it is the easiest for my explanation of the areas.  I did not make this map, I only use it in my commentary.  All credits are given to the creators and the wiki it is located on.
Play Rust Wiki Page: http://playrustwiki.com/wiki/File:LemusHD_Remade_Rust_Map.jpeg

Another map that should be noted, though I don't agree with the naming convention, is Rustmap.net.

Back to the Guide Menu.





Analysis:

When first logging into a server or when respawning without a sleeping bag or base, you will be placed at a random location on the map.  The spawn locations are restrained to areas where resources can be found.  For a first time player, you may be lost quickly.  Your best option is to log into an empty community server, get some food, and roam the land during the day using the map as a guide.  Find the road and coordinate the landmarks then explore. 

Most players take a few options as to where to plant their base, or initial base.  Here are some things to consider.

1. Box loot: Loot from boxes inside buildings.
The hanger area in the bottom left portion of the map is great for box loot.  Starting out, you can suicide until you respawn near this area and loot the boxes for possible food and weapons to get you started.  Also the Rad-Town is a slight risk but still pretty good.  Zombies don't spawn in the town, but can wander in from the two zombie fields along the road at either sides of the town.

2. Resources: Wood, Animals and rocks/metals.
Any of the marked areas can have resource spawns in or nearby, but the safest areas depend on your server.  Resource Valley North and South, tend to have low population on low to medium user servers, but they are a good hike from the nearest town for loots. Lesser Plains South is a great place to start out in a newly wiped server, but your home better be formidable if you are planning on staying there.

3. Mountain Ridges: Safety in the hills?
Mountain ridges prevent people from spotting your home from across the map, but can also be a place to hide your home.  At the top of West Coast Ridge South is a fairly flat area surrounded by mountain rock where you can build a starter home, close to box loot spawns, zombie fields and resources. It is possible to build a 3 x 3 possibly 4 x 4 building in this spot.  Not many people hike up that mountain because of the steepness of the climb.  Relative safety can be found with a good home build and lots of walls and doors.

4. Air Drops: The only way to get explosives.
Air Drops can land anywhere west of the two Resource Valleys, South of Northern Plains, and East of West Coast Plains.  But visibility will be a large point when hunting them down as they fall.  It is very difficult to judge distance for newer players, without a good view.  The best view is on a mountain and the best mountain to see the most is Middle Mountain Range East. Building a Base near this area, such as Lesser Plains North, will allow you to run up the mountain for a good view of the most drops. The larger percentage of drop locations appear to be in the Great Plains and Lesser Plains.

5. Badlands: Living the life of a hermit and staying as safe as possible.
The badlands are all the areas not labelled on this map, Including East Naked Man's Retreat.  In these areas, the only thing you will see is grass and trees.  No loot, resources or animals spawn in these areas, and very few people venture out that far besides naked newbies.  They can be perfect for making a main base in relative safety.  The distance from any loot really means that this should be a final base location.  Go get all your research, blueprints and uncraftable items first, then build a base out here.   


Thursday, October 17, 2013

Grinning Studios YouTube, website, and more update!

Hey everyone, Grin here.  So you may have noticed a long dead space in my post dates.  Sorry about that.  Grinning Studios is still here and I have a new website for my YouTube channel.
http://youtube.grinningstudios.com

So, if you have not watched any of my videos and are wondering where my gaming posts are, then here is a short explanation. 

I'm a father now! Here's my insanely photogenic baby Malukah Smiles!

Being a father now, means that my priorities kind of changed a bit.  I'm still doing videos and such, but my writing on all of my websites has gone down extensively.  I will be doing more writing soon and bringing some more interesting content as well in the next few weeks and I have a lot planned for the next few months.

First, I am going to be hosting some videos from friends, this includes Time Lapse Japan and a documentary by Linh Vien Thai about Mongolia! My video game series and Let's Plays will be available as well of course.

Soon I will be posting a lot of information about the Larian Studios game "Divinity: Dragon Commander." This will include tips, let's play video, and Strategy and Tips videos.  I sent an Email asking for permission to make the videos and Larion Studios accepted.  Not only do they make awesome games, but they are a team of equally awesome people who love their fans! 

If you don't own the game Divinity: Dragon Commander, I highly recommend adding it to your collections.  You can find it on Steam, Here.

Some other great "Living in Japan" videos are also coming and more.  I have over 1TB of video to edit and will get to it when my daughter isn't hogging all of my attention.  Seriously, check out that Malukah Smiles video, you'll totally love it!

Sincerely,
Grin

Stay Creative, It's Good For You.