• Beautiful new PVE server & thoughts on PVP, PVE, and the playerbase at large.
    7 replies, posted
It's kind of a harsh truth to see multiple instances where Facepunch have openly stated that the community is by and large very hostile and toxic, most notably when they stopped development of Ruin and in the Compound update post. It has been this way pretty much ever since Rust got out of its legacy stage and really skyrocketed in popularity. Back in the legacy days, it seemed that while the main rule was still "don't trust anybody" you actually stood a decent chance of seeing player-built towns and encountering people that were likely to just goof off if they didnt have anything valuable on them and they saw a funny opportunity. Maybe back then, the smaller playerbase meant that people actually sort of gave a shit whether or not the newbloods were having any fun. Nowadays, you have two communities that are incomprehensibly large for almost no reason at all: Rustralasia and Rustopia, which I honestly see as the prime benefactors of the current hostility. By and large, no one player really cares about any other beyond their own clans or rivals, and the admins of those servers can't be expected to dampen it in any way because: A) It pays the bills; Being able to do almost whatever, whenever, for any or no reason at all is part of what draws the streamers and other content creators in, and their followers along with them. B) There are so many dedicated players they really don't have to worry too much about the new guys anyway. C) They have no real competition other than eachother. Speaking of the compound update, my observation as been that for the most part, players do not bother making "safe" towns and such outside of servers where such behaviour is safeguarded in some way (such as the Roleplaying server) can be narrowed down to three points: A) Solo players and small groups either religiously hold to the "dont trust anyone" rule at any cost and/or do not believe it is worth the effort when you consider that, to them, it might well look as if the majority of outsiders would do everything in their power to ruin their hard work. What's sad is that they are probably right. B) The big clans that probably could make it happen are too busy contending with rival clans and their own bases. They might not really be able to defend both a town and their base, and having to constantly divert resources between both is just not a risk they would find to be worth taking. Think about it: if [DMG] built a big town, how many other rival clans and groups would be just itching to wipe it off the island? C) The playerbase in general is way too focused on PVP to really strive for more than sheer utilitarian ugliness. You either build only what you need to survive or you get stomped on and fall behind in progression. Trying to build something pretty is almost suicidal on the typical server, and it's a damned shame. Either it costs too much time and materials to build it to be defendable, or it gets targeted as an easy raid. On the other side of the coin, while FP has been steadily adding more things to do than just run around and shoot your fellow players in the face, it's largely been up to modders to make up for the shortcomings in PVE content. It has also been up to less popular servers to give newer players a good place to learn the game, with a potentially friendlier community. I've seen a lot of players who are either new to the game and want to figure things out in peace, or are over the age of 20 seeking out PVE-focused servers so that they can use Rust as a place to relax after work and not have to worry about getting raided and attacked constantly by edgy, unfunny teens and pre-teens who get their jollies by pissing off everyone else, or at least trying to. Currently, trying to enjoy the game in that environment within Vanilla Rust is incredibly goddamn boring and grindy, leaving it up to modded servers to provide a fun PVE environment. My server of choice is Bella Nova, especially when I can manage to gather enough of the other players together to build towns. It doesnt take forever to progress, the admin is steadily adding more features and PVE events, and the majority of the active players are pretty cool to hang around with. The admin of the server, a guy by the username of MalS, helped me to create what I believe to be just about the coziest cave base in all of rust, all because of a plugin called Ubertools and a bit of patient generosity. Here are a few screenshots, starting with MalS' perspective and ending with mine. Yeah, the interface is visible, but that's a good way to remind people that the server is in-fact heavily modded. https://files.facepunch.com/forum/upload/271117/0a8fcb00-b4ba-4dfc-a153-647d649703a6/exterior.png The exterior of my little slice of heaven, viewed from the front. The windmill is just there because it's "proppa flash" and looks really good as a centerpiece. https://files.facepunch.com/forum/upload/271117/aae0ade5-bee8-4499-80c1-fae7dbd27fe7/terraces.png Terraces, where there will eventually be farm plots, and a stone drawbridge serving as a go-between from the fort to the storage silo. https://files.facepunch.com/forum/upload/271117/521964f0-bdce-4f8f-b5b8-4cc2d1897fe2/tunnelsnakesrule.png This chamber turned out really amazing without the shroud of anti-gamma darkness to blot it out. Come on guys, you aught to add some lamps in to show off how cool these caves can look. I'm the one standing over there by the furnace. I can safely navigate the tunnels without needing a light source on my person. I even have a small oil refinery, situated behind MalS when he took this screenshot. https://files.facepunch.com/forum/upload/271117/b4d1b5f5-316a-4425-a10d-51b7125dec94/work floor.jpg Here is what I've been building legitimately in the cave. Still got a bit of decorating to do but I think it's an alright-looking room. https://files.facepunch.com/forum/upload/271117/24fc5d69-00d5-46d3-8d73-47026fbb1f96/cozy.jpg This here is the actual living room upstairs, with a bedroom at the back. https://files.facepunch.com/forum/upload/271117/c834b1a7-ad44-4c18-b6e7-1faf213853cb/cozy2.jpg A view of the other half of the living room, almost full of festive spirit. I'll probably find a different spot for the boxes on the right so I can fit a few more chairs. Eventually I will make some artwork to hang on the walls. And that concludes the screenshots I have of my home.
I'm one of those 20+s who just wanna play a nice game where I can build and chill. Stepping in to confirm as someone who has played Rust since early days that it is indeed a damn shame that the community has gotten to this stage. I used to build "Churches" that were 100% just there to help newbies out and provide a good spawn area for newbies. Nothing on your incredible scale, but pretty, steepled building on-top of hills. They were enforced non-violence zones and they worked well. I tried to make something that wasn't a honeycombed cube recently and immediately got rolled by groups of three looking for jollies. Another smaller issue is that some of the more "fun" construction options (grilles, fences etc) are locked behind a couple of days scrap farming. One of my earliest memories of Rust is walking down a "main street" of a town past a KFC serving chicken, being stopped outside a house by a man who would try and feed you human meat, if you refused he'd shoot you. It was fucking hilarious. These days I'm lucky if I don't get rolled twice in one day.
One of my earliest memories of Rust is walking down a "main street" of a town past a KFC serving chicken, being stopped outside a house by a man who would try and feed you human meat, if you refused he'd shoot you.  It was fucking hilarious.  xDD
I love this, but I also hate not having PvP in a game where it's 50% of the content, if not more... Hence why I could never properly enjoy a PvE server or roleplay server.
I should point out that PvP as a core concept in games never bothered me, I play PUBG and I grew up on CS1.6. I struggle with the conflict between offering me a world where I can build something beautiful, interesting or just plain fun for myself or others, or interact with other people in silly ways without a weird "you're too into this dude" SecondLife vibe and the absolute, uncaring violence of sections of the community. It'll never been implemented but I almost feel like disabling PVP fully for a month, to drain the wound a little, would result in a better community. The forums would explode of course, but afterwards you'd have a core section of players more interested in playing Rust, rather than long form PUBG.
I totally agree. The real dangers on rust shouldn't have to be man made but things such as thirst , hunger and getting eaten. I want a Rust where anything I make looks like its been made from the contents of a skip bin. I want a Rust where I can't make a factory built AK47. I want a Rust where C4 is a thing of myth. I want a rust where I get excited to find a pumpkin. There are plenty of other PVP games on the market and players who just want to PVP should go there. I sometimes get the feeling that Rust PVP'ers tend to play on rust because its easier. Easier to kill nakeds, easier to destroy role-player builds, and of course I am going to say it, easier to cheat.
To be fair, the devs are adding more PvE content over time, and some enterprising folks are coding mods that do just that. The server I play on now has a PVP arena for those who are into that, and I will probably build an arena myself too. I am curious to see what the bandit town FP is working on will turn out to be. I feel like the problem lies in part with the administration of servers, and in part that the content creators such as Ser Winter and Vertiigo don't seem to really try to do anything bigger than PvP anymore. They have the following to make something amazing happen, but they don't try and it's kind of a shame. I'd like to see content creators try out some of the less popular community and modded servers, and mayhaps bring some attention to them as a result. I mean, while I find Ser Winter's videos incredibly entertaining, especially back when he used the bow all the time, I'm not a PvPer myself and prefer to avoid PvP-focused servers now that Bella Nova is a thing.
I got to thinking, I would want a server in which PvP should be very much alive, but only with people who want to. So? An option, a command so to speak, /activatepvp or something. Rules to do it: inside your base (Can only have one base and one TC or something), it'll take 1 minute to activate and a message should appear "Player activated PvP" so people know there's someone on the prowl, finally if you wanted to deactivate it, it would take maybe an hour, again only inside your base. Imagining you got raided and killed I have two ideas, either respawn with PvP protection and have to make another base (If needed to remove the original TC then just /removeoriginaltc to destroy it) or protect your original TC against destruction, basically being unraidable, BUT you have to make it inside a 1x1 and can't have chests inside this 1x1. PvP protected players would need a difference, I propose a name tag above them, well seen by other players but not disturbing. Clans and clan bases would also have a shared PvP status. If you'd go offline while still waiting for protection, this time would reset and quadruple or triple, so offline raiding is still a thing and if you're an active PvP player, a penalty should be given, for the fairness of it, however, if the TC would use all the resources and start to degrade, this base would no longer be protected, only the player IF he is sleeping in the "holy" 1x1 (Might be overkill on the protection thing). Protection would not include protection against open windows, ladders and etc... Pros: You could PvP in the world, not just an arena, with whoever else activated PvP. The bases of players who activated PvP would now be vulnerable to any raiders. Newbies and/or new players on the server would get a chance to set up a base chill. PvP'ers could still fight, almost as soon as they want (At least 1 minute of waiting inside their base, which only needs to be a 1x1 twig with a TC), while also avoiding shooting PvE'ers so they don't get spotted. If offline Cons: The fluidity of the game would be "severely" damaged. "Ghosting", let's say a protected player can help unprotected players with PvP elements like scouting (Even with clan restrictions, discord would still be available, so cutting all comms in game [Chat and voice] with PvP'ers and PvE'ers would prove a good counter measure, but not bullet proof, dedicated players could still make it work). Low pop servers using this mechanic would die quickly due to the lack of action. What do you think? BTW I'm thinking of joining this Bella Nova server.
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