This was asked many times since the Tunnels came out last season… and now, Rust has underwater world… HOW CAN THIS BE ???

At first, no, the floor of the map is not at pixel 1… Actually, map makers know it well but never tell… all maps’ « Sea Level » start at 500 meters high, and the highest position possible is at 1000 meters high.

So basically we can go 500 meters below sea level, like you can feel by going down the 20 floors of the staircase that leads to the tunnels… We also can go 500 meters above floor level with your heli or balloon.

So the sea level exists, and when we install a monument that is forced to go lower than that level, we need to apply a « trigger« , and an « alpha mask » that will make the water invisible and no feeling it.  If we forget this, you will see water in a tunnel and you will suffer drowning if you go in.

There is no magical effect.. this is a well known feature from the Engine that drive the graphics in Rust… So if a map maker tells you that your underwater or underground feature can not be done, just go somewhere else…

As an additional detail: The Map is a proportional size that is 10x smaller than reality. So, if you have a 3000 meters large map, you will walk 300 meters to cross it.  You character can run at 1 meter per hit. It is proportional also like if you have a 3000x large map, it will be a 9 000 000 meters area.  That’s why you will not often see a 6000x map… because they are too big and will take more time to load.

*(we don’t care, big maps are amazing as well)

It is known to all youtube fans that your prefered Content Creator usually film his most important events during « Wipe Day »… This is supposed to be THE DAY where everything happens, everything is hard, harsh, complicated and exceptional… It is basically refered to the Monthly First Thursday Wipe when forced…

What if i tell you that most of these content creators have their own custom servers and can have a wipe day anytime in the year?  Like Blooprint, Stevie, CNDBlood… they all have servers that wipe once a week, and even more often for some.  And they all have custom configurations, like extra loot, 2X, etc… Some content creators even invite people to play with them and they can even wipe two or three times a day just to have a perfect match.

It’s so easy to have content when you control your environment. So don’t focus on the « Wipe Day » thing when you watch a video of your prefered streamer. Focus on what he has to offer as level of content.

Content Creators are numerous… there is actually too much of them. 90% of the Rust Streamers have nothing to offer… just their regular gameplay streamed while they have no life whatsoever.

Story Tellers like Frost, Blooprint, Welyn, on the other side, are fluent in creating a mood for their content… Story Telling, even when scripted, is cool for one reason: it tells you that there is more to Rust than just PVP and KOS.

Yes we promote story-tellers, because they have a link with our own activities… Our themed maps/servers are for stories, scenarios, events… Their job is to make it big.

For the August forced Wipe – because of underwater world – I upped a default vanilla map on one of our US servers so our gamers can play a lot with Tunnels and Underwater Labs… no it is not procedural… we never do procgen!

The map is well spread, with absolutely all the monuments in the game… As you can see from the top tier of the map, the monuments are all around, each or about each on its own peninsula… roads are everywhere, even if crap in some locations, so you can loot thousands of roadside loots and be rich without having to raid the large monuments.

A lot of tunnels.. I’ve put more tunnel entrances than by default, so the tunnels structure is mega loaded with directions. And with the new updated tunnels with docking stations, there is way more locations for PVP.

As you can also see above, the Maps display also seperate now what is where… First button is the ground level map, then the tunnels, then the 4 levels of underwater labs.  In the near future, links will be made between the tunnels and the labs, so we can visit everything without changing the environment. Tunnels will also be updated with levels sooner than later.

There is nothing more specific on this map, because it’s pure vanilla… no custom monument or prefab, no specific construction or mix of terrains…. just no arctic biome… because it’s easier to test features without it.

Good vides, guys

I’ve put myself into a great challenge today… For a new friend in Rust, I decided to use the Locations challenge and make his birth location a new map… Little did i knew what country he was originate from… damn, the worst of them… Netherlands… Yeap… the flattest country on the planet… and under the sea level for most of it.

So instead of making it the boring place it is actually – as stated by that friend – we use the Rust scenario to make it better… here it goes with the storyline:

The Post-Hapis incidents of the 1980s brought us nuclear fallout preventing any repopulation of the region.

In recent years, the bandits regained control of some islands, and one of them bears a strange resemblance to a European country, the Netherlands, which has earned it the nickname of New Holland.

Some bandits of dutch origin have decided to take back the Island and give it some semblance of homecoming, with a Rust scent… because too much tulips, if you ask me!

This is post-apocalyptic era of Netherlands. Tourists mutated into survivors, and the locals are now bandits or scientists who wants your life to end.

You love beaches in Netherlands? passing by Noordwijk you can walk thru the Strands and take a sip in our bars.

Same if you are here to look for the windmills… come on, who is not lurking for these ?! So from Kinderdijk to Gelderland, we have some too…

And after the wind, our Holland also exploit Wood and Oil… Lumbermills and Oilrigs are also common in the decor.

And there is way more to discover in New Holland… visit!

First Vacation target of the world, the Grand Canyon is so popular, the tourism industry locked down certain regions of the place so tourists can not visit anymore… but we are.

You can now visit the Grand Canyon, Arizona, without boundaries, and with a Rust twist… vanilla!

This is the first map of the new « Location » project here on rust.exposed.

It’s quite simple, the original Grand Canyon Map was used to generate the heightmap for Rust, and the original features of Rust were applied one after the other, in the right order to make it look like in real life. So for real, the mountains and steeps are really similar to the real ones… we’re not playing with heightmap just for a contouring, but for the exact stuff you can expect when visiting the location.

That’s our goal on this project, to have locations that look like in real on Earth. It is so, that you can not really locate yourself on the Rust map display… because when you’re in the Grand Canyon, most of the decor is on the plateau, and the stratas are not mapped, even by Google.

Green part of the Colorado river, with steep.

Rust interpretation of the same river…

This map fills 95% of the map space, with no island or any fancy decor… it’s the absolute simplicity of the Grand Canyon… The Colorado River that flows across the map is drinkable.  The only detail we edited was the height of the canyon itself… we have put it to 50 meters instead of the 800 meters of elevation. It would’ve make the game unplayable with the real sizes.

Strange fact: randomly putting the Large Excavator… on the location of the actual Canyon Mine…

Though our Excavator is only mining Stones, Metal, Sulfur and HQM, the original Canyon Mine is a danger for the location, mining uranium… Conciously, you can read about the topic on this page: Grand Canyon Uranium Mining (grandcanyontrust.org)

One of the main advantage of this kind of « canyon » map is that clans and groups can build mega big bases on hidden locations… Imagine starting your base at the bottom of the river, and raising it until it fits the elevation of the strata!?

As you may have noticed if you were a regular here, the site was down for about a month… database problem we did not even notice.

But we’re back now, and in July 2021, we’ll be releasing at least 3 major maps that will be available for download, free of charge. The intention is to have new decors and moods for your own custom servers.

They will be released as a « Tourist Mode » version of custom maps… The names will give you a hint on what you will be able to see on them:

• Anticosti *(Island where deers reign supreme)
• Arizona Sky *(Highest steep Canyon)
• Due South *(South like in Amazonia)

after reconsideration, like « hey, let’s edit this post », I’ll add more maps to this theme:

• Death Valley *(California, Mojave desert)
• Black Forest *(large mountain range in south germany)
• Alaskian Husky *(snow, steep, and wolfey dogs)

Yeap, we’re known to use custom locations for our maps, so this serie will start BIG with various types of locations where every person wants to pass some great vacations… Rustly!

The announcement will be for soon

As you may have noticed, all our servers are still down, unreachable from any part of the planet.  No region was saved from the fire that destroyed the Shockbyte.com Datacenter in France.  Neighbors of the OVH Datacenter pack, the fire did not spare Shockbyte facilities which were in the same building.

You can read about the news here: https://blog.malwarebytes.com/malwarebytes-news/2021/03/ovh-cloud-datacenter-destroyed-by-fire/

We will continue customizing maps for Rust, but right now, we’re working to recovering our network of 18 custom servers and having a good time in family… we’ll keep you updated.