1:00pm EST - Our update preview stream is live! twitch.tv/rustafied

12:00am EST - We’re at the halfway point in the month for Rust development and the team is trucking on new features and fixes.

Our update preview stream goes live at 1pm EST. Follow @Rustafied for news throughout the day.

Backpacks

Get ready to pack more into your roaming and raiding because backpacks have hit the staging servers and they're pretty awesome! Set to roll out with the February 1st update (with the next forced wipe), these backpacks are about to change how players haul loot around the island.

There are two types of backpacks coming our way: a small one and a big one. The small backpack is your go-to for those quick loot runs. It's got 12 slots, and it's a snazzy blue color, so you'll look cool carrying it around. Crafting it is a breeze – default blueprint, you just need 5 sewing kits and 50 cloth.

Now, the big guy, the large backpack, is a whole different beast. This one's got a massive 30 slots, perfect for those long scavenging trips. But here's the catch – you can't craft it. As of now, how you'll get your hands on one of these is still a mystery and its current model is just a placeholder.

Players can only use one backpack at a time and backpack inventory is separate from player inventory. If a player with a backpack dies, you’ll need to loot the player inventory and backpack individually. Also, you can only pick up a backpack on the ground by holding E.

Remember, all this is still in the testing phase, so things might change. Jump onto the staging servers, give these backpacks a try, and let the devs know what you think.

Metal detector

Commits continue related to the upcoming metal detector. Still on a separate branch, it’s a bit of a mystery exactly how these detectors will be implemented in the game. Based on commits, there does appear to be some shovel element to metal detectors. So will this before digging up new loot? Existing stashes? We’ll have to wait to see. Nevertheless, the activity on this project makes me think we may soon see the detectors on staging.

Shelter limit of 1

As mentioned in the devblog earlier this month, players will soon have a limit on the number of shelters they can place in the wild. As it stands, this work was just merged into staging and the limit is set to 1 by default.

Compound redesign

Work on updating monuments is underway with the Compound taking center stage. Based on commits, it looks like a new City Hall building and helipad will be included in this redesign. No visuals yet, but we’ll keep you posted.

Other stuff

More experimental industrial changes - added the ability for an industrial transfer to pause a transfer mid-way through and resume on the next tick
Speargun entity offset fix
More work on updating the vendor UI on maps
Player clothing is now rechecked for changes when a demo is scrubbed, fixes cases where scrubbing past clothing changes would result in the player not having the correct clothing equipped visually
More work on tutorial island
Let blackjack dealer hit on a soft 17
More work on new explosions