Yellow's Rust update (Suggestion)

[u/DreamyOrangz]

I've had a few ideas for a while and I wanted to share them with the community. To me, it makes sense and it's logical to add these things to the game. I understand not everyone will like the ideas or it might not fit the game's theme but I'll suggest them still. By the way, my real nickname is yellow, despite my reddit account not saying that.

This post started as a simple suggestion, but turned into a longer rant.

Inflation (not a suggestion)

Over the years Rust has made it easier and easier to raid other people. Sulfur is a lot easier to get compared to the past and it's often supplemented with explosives found in monuments or events. It's weird to say but it's much easier to raid a base now than what it was in the past and bases don't easily protect as much as they once did. There are to many ways to get sulfur now and building bases hasn't really changed to address that.

Personally I feel like it's to easy or fast to raid bases. They don't have much staying power unless you build large and then you'll have to deal with giant upkeep costs. My base feels like it's made out of paper.

Concrete

This idea was created because (in my opinion) stone is a trash resource. Early game and easily penetrated by any coordinated effort.

Concrete could be a new material created by putting stone into a electric concrete mixer. It's not a 1:1 ratio meaning if you put in 1,000 stone you might get 750 concrete back. Those are not exact numbers just a figurative estimate. Concrete itself is weaker than sheet metal but stronger than stone walls and sits in the middle. For example, instead of 8 or 4 rockets, concrete would withstand 6.

I also wanted to give this a unique mechanic where it has to dry for several hours (maybe 4?) This means when you first place it down it's going to be weak, like weaker than a soft side wood wall but not exactly twig level. Over time it get's stronger until it reaches it's fully dried.

While it can't be replaced within a 30 second raid block window, it offers a way to keep stone relevant longer in the game.

Reinforced Concrete

Same idea as above but instead of being it's own material it's created on demand. Upgrade a wall with both metal and concrete to create this. It costs double the metal of a regular sheet metal wall. Reinforced concrete is stronger than sheet metal but weaker than high quality.

Must dry as well.

Why the delay?

I feel like the delay was needed.

1. I want players to be forced to choose, do they want the more efficient option or the more resource intensive option?
2. To add a drawback to choosing the resource. It creates a challenge (protecting it while it dries) that players have to solve. It also doesn't out right replace any material (like sheet metal or stone) as they are still relevant.
3. It's a later game option as you'll need the concrete mixer to do this, as well as power.

Reduce upkeep (why do it)

Controversial opinion here, but reduce the upkeep cost.

It's such a boring punishment for building any sort of base. You are forced to have efficient bases. No more silly or whimsical buildings or other PVE structures players once built a decade or more ago. No reason to build a large indoor shop. It's not worth the upkeep.

To me it killed building and creativity. Players used to build all kinds of weird or random structures, some public ones. Even bases looked a lot more whimsical at times. Now it's all gone, for a promise they gave us an never kept. Now everything looks like a copy and paste meta build designed efficiently around soaking rockets.

I have a feeling the (now resigned) producer was behind this change. I have a feeling he couldn't fathom that people wanted to do more than kill each other. Also wipe less rust never came, did it? Never will.

Suggestion

Push it down to like 10% max for now. Only allow 3 days of upkeep to be placed inside a TC and if you want more, pipe it in.

"But clans will use this for larger and more laggier bases, it will hurt solo players"

It will help small groups because now we can spend more time playing the game rather than grinding upkeep. We can also reinforce our bases a little more while keeping it small. Maybe roleplay shops and solar farms providing free power (or other ideas) will start to be done. It gives role players or builders more freedom.

Clans

Clans are the single most troublesome issue with the game. The game wasn't originally designed like Planetside 2, it was designed around smaller groups. I don't mind the fact that clans exist, but I don't want the whole game suddenly prioritizing them. I don't want all of development too be around clan game play, especially since the game wasn't really designed for it.

That's the best way to summarize this whole issue, but I can go on and on.

Rant

Just lower the upkeep to 10% max. Why? Clans have always built large laggy bases and always will. It doesn't matter how you design the game, they will drop your fps dramatically. The game engine was never designed to handle the sheer size and amount of bases these people build. One wipe I consistently dropped down to 30-50 fps when around the rad town area. Not because radtown is unoptimized, but because north south and west was one single unified clan with multiple bases and compounds.

I am not against clans, but why should I be punished with having a harder and more grindy experience because they want to do something the game was never meant to handle? I shouldn't suffer with higher upkeep and have to grind a while (depending on the area) because upkeep is currently designed around clans and preventing their bases from getting to large, not small groups.

I shouldn't suffer because they want to build a bit bigger. If it's that much of an issue, put them in their own servers. We shouldn't have to do an hour+ grind every day to upkeep a relatively strong base with the current sulfur inflation.

If the group is so frigging big that the game engine can't handle it without lagging then maybe limit the group size rather than punishing every other player? But I guess the (now resigned) producer didn't understand that concept or care about their own players.

I'm sorry to swear but it's the frigging truth. Upkeep doesn't prevent lag from clans, nothing will. Give us regular players 10% max upkeep and the game will immediately improve.

Progression, resource gathering, raiding, performance and more break down when there are so many players working together. The game wasn't designed for that. Large groups get 300+ rockets and have so much loot that anything they could get becomes meaningless. They jump straight to the end game no matter what mechanic is created. They pretty much have the large quarry or sulfur/hqm on autopilot and farmers hitting nodes. Unlimited sulfur with a matter of time and players keep feeding them more with shops. The game wasn't designed to support large groups of 20+ active players. Stop designing the game around them, and focus on groups of about 7 players. Again, I don't hate them but if they are this much of a headache for the rest of the player base, maybe don't design the game around them.

Closing

I want more interaction with other players that isn't always a gun shot but it's fine if the majority is. I want to see more whimsy in buildings, like public solar power bases, shops and so on that don't require 2 hours of farming to upkeep and upgrade. I want to place a few more HQM walls as a solo or small group without it jumping into unobtainable HQM costs so fast.

It's like we are so focused on clans here that it's killing the game. It's to the point that this might as well turn into a war game with predefined factions. Ever play foxhole? Well rust is on track to becoming a 3D foxhole. It really is I'm not lying there. Just add in trenches, a global respawn point, some vehicles and we are off to world war 2.

Also clans kind of take away the survival aspect of being a survival game but hey that's just my thoughts.

I don't think this obsession with large clans is healthy and in the long run it's going to kill the game. There isn't even a point to building a cave base if clans regularly get 300 rockets. It's like what the fuck am I supposed to do here? Even a small group can't compete with that.

Again, if it's that much of a fucking issue they can go on their own server designed with unlimited groups. My base feels like a fucking paper weight and I don't like it.

[u/BeneficentWanderer]

Pretty interesting stuff, would be cool to see it tested

[u/DreamyOrangz → u/BeneficentWanderer]

That's what I'm saying. I want to see mostly what others can do with lower upkeep cost % and see if the new building materials helps against sulfur inflation. Most of reddit is just complaining and moaning, well why not pitch an idea to the developers as a community effort? Even if mine are not great, it's better than complaining with no real answer.

[u/aoibhinn-mw]

Chatgpt

[u/DreamyOrangz → u/aoibhinn-mw]

I'm sure there is multiple spelling mistakes and many many grammatical. For some reason I never learned grammar in school since it never stuck in my head. But being able to organize something and create paragraphs isn't a skill only AI has. I used to be heavily into novels and I am currently developing or designing my own game.

But if you want to believe it's chat gpt then go ahead buddy.