7/5 @ 5pm EST - It's a huge week for Rust - the XP system is launching along with a bunch of other changes. I'm working on a summary post and XP system guide at the moment - expect both to go live tomorrow.

Prerelease branch no longer being updated
In preparation for the Thursday update launch, the devs have merged prerelease into the staging branch and are now just pushing commits there. As such, to test the latest updates (and play on our 'prerelease' servers), you'll now need to opt into the staging branch.

Christmas in July
Given everything is starting fresh on Thursday, we're going out with a bang on our main server Wednesday night. Starting at 8pm EST, we will be spawning in items for everyone on the server. Starting small, then getting bigger as the night progresses. Join us on our main, 350 slot server!

1:00pm EST - We're doing a short stream to cover the new prerelease stuff.

12:40pm EST - The devblog is out! No patch today.

2:24am EST - It’s Thursday, and with the launch of the XP system only one week away, we’re not going to see an update hitting the main branch today. There has been a bunch of great progress on the prerelease branch this week, including the addition of item ownership.

This article summarizes how the new ownership system works. For more on other changes this week, check out my previous post. Also, we’ll do a brief stream starting at 1pm EST to go over everything. Follow @Rustafied for news through the day.

Keep in mind, this is still a first iteration, so everything is subject to change...

Ownership overview

Every object (resource, tool, clothing, etc.) now has an owner. If you craft it, you own it. You gain XP when people gather with a tool you make or eat food you cook. Not only adding a ton of interesting new dynamics to the game, it actually adds incentive for helping others!

Who owns what?

You craft it, you own it. It doesn’t matter where the resources come from, the person who crafts an item receives full ownership. When you use a tool you own, you earn 100% of the XP, and the resources you collect are owned by you. Now, if someone else uses your tool...

Tool sharing

When someone else harvests with a tool you own, you gain 20% of any XP that person earns (and can see it adding to your XP bar). You also own 50% of the resources they gather - even though resource ownership doesn’t seem to impact anything at the moment.

This not only provides incentive to craft tools for others, it creates some interesting new dynamics with groups (power leveling certain members and so on).

Feed the hungry

Another incentive for helping others: you gain XP when someone eats food you cooked. This also goes for any junk food you find around the map. Between crafting and cooking, being base bitch just became much more rewarding!

Resource ownership

In addition to items, every resource gathered in the game now has an owner. As mentioned before, owning a resource doesn’t have much impact - whoever crafts an item, owns the item, regardless of who's resources were used to make it. This could, however, provide some valuable insight when raiding, looting, or various other scenarios.

On a side note: stacks are a bit wonky when dealing with different owners. Long and short: the stack on the bottom takes ownership of what you put onto it (regardless of amounts).

What about offline?

All the XP earned from your various tools and food is added to you while you sleep - no need to be online!

Rustafied server wipes

All Rustafied servers (except low pop and prerelease) will wipe at 5pm EST today.

Note: There was a forced wipe on prerelease yesterday which is why it's not wiping today. All servers will wipe again next week with the monthly forced wipe.