Anyone Playing Rust?

[Rinaun]

Sounds awful, I'll be saving my money.



This might sound harsh but I hope this genre isn't born, and then killed, by these bug ridden low budget, Early Access indie games. Somebody needs to come along and put together a real team with a real budget and make a really good example of a DayZ style game. Between DayZ itself, Rust, State of Decay and whatever the other ones are, this genre is really disappointing me because these games on paper sound like exactly the game I want, but unfortunately only low-budget small-fry indie teams are making them, and it's not turning out well for us IMO.

The problem isn't the genre or even the developers, it's mainly hacking that kills these newer games. Even successful FPS games like CS:GO have issues with this. Bottom line is there will be people ruining every multiplayer game because there are people smart enough to be able to hack it. People don't mind the bugs but I think most people including me cannot handle losing invested time to some script kiddie.

On another note, you can say games like DayZ and Rust are killing the genre by doing it wrong, but people apparently are more than willing to pay for 10% finished work. This trend is great for me as a dev but it's pretty bad for the industry as a whole. Minecraft started this wave of releasing alpha games, and now even larger studios find it acceptable to take in donations/money before the product is finished. Original idea + artist + "alpha period buy now socheap" = easy money.

 

[Fire&Blood]

Sounds awful, I'll be saving my money.



This might sound harsh but I hope this genre isn't born, and then killed, by these bug ridden low budget, Early Access indie games. Somebody needs to come along and put together a real team with a real budget and make a really good example of a DayZ style game. Between DayZ itself, Rust, State of Decay and whatever the other ones are, this genre is really disappointing me because these games on paper sound like exactly the game I want, but unfortunately only low-budget small-fry indie teams are making them, and it's not turning out well for us IMO.

I know exactly what you mean. This genre can be really addictive and it has so much potential. I think it's just a matter of time until a bigger studio nails it. Hopefully the genre leader won't be a P2W heavy MMO because survival games really open up space for micro transactions.


Rust appealed to me and it still does. My issue with it was that despite being given the runaround to be able to secure your items, 1st you need a metal door for your shelter and gathering resources and staying alive just to build a furnace was a PITA, not to mention gathering enough fragments to build the damn metal door as the wooden one can be broken within minutes while you are away/offline, then you need a storage box to keep the bulk of your valuables...
The island map is huge, you have no means of navigation other than trying to memorize landmarks or using s breadcrumbs method with camp fires. It's a small miracle if you go out to gather resources and actually make it back alive to "deposit" the stuff you got. It's really brutal, people will try to kill you even if they know that killing you wil cost them more than they will loot your corpse. To overcome the odds and make it back home only to find that all your stuff is gone just kills your drive to play. I really don't know whether a hacker just walked through my walls or if there was a bug with storage but it doesn't matter, the outcome is the same.

 

[imaheadcase]

No, the term 'alpha build' litterally means that it is not ready for release, and that this is a first pass playable version of the game, expect lots of game ending bugs.

'Beta build' means that the game is much closer to complete and that you might find some game ending bugs, and probably more then a few minor bugs.

'Release Candidate' means that they think the game is ready for commercial release, but would like a final pass by QA (which in many cases is the public.)

You obviously never played games lately, that is not really the case anymore. People can play alpha/beta for over a year now without any major problems. With smaller dev teams, things just take longer.

 

[DaveSimmons]

Wasteland 2 has taken on Deep Silver as their publisher.

Yes, but DS has no control over the project, they are just doing distribution.

The film analogy would be selling an already-filmed indie at Sundance, vs. having a Hollywood studio fund and control your film from the start.

 

[Keeper]

I answered the specific question the OP asked. It is an Alpha. That means that most people should wait. This is not semantics or dick swinging. It is precisely what 'alpha build' means.

With the merger of the thread and this app. I can't see the original post. I am VERY sure he asked how is it. Not what is it.

OP was asking about game play and fun. Not your definition of playability based upon its present state of development.

Enjoy your time at bat.

 

[JumBie]

Honestly...I don't like this game. I mean kudos to the team for making it, and they really added a ton of great features that are amazing in a online survival game. However, I would rather see those elements implemented in another game and not this. Its just not fun, Its not atmospheric, its bland....I don't know, I know its alpha, but this game doesn't capture me like DayZ does.

 

[CurseTheSky]

I was hoping that Rust was going to be more about wilderness survival - battling the elements, wild animals, finding food, staying warm, etc. - and less about combat.

Instead, it seems to be DayZ with some resource gathering and crafting instead of finding all of your weapons. I was really disappointed in the fact that I could make a pistol and ammunition, or an entire house / tower / mansion with only a few hours of playing. IMO, the crafting "tree," especially to get up to something as exotic as a firearm when you're starting with just a rock, needs to be MUCH steeper.

Still, the game shows promise. I just hope they take it into more of a survival direction rather than "find / build guns, shoot zombies and everyone else" directions that DayZ and numerous clones have gone in. That's not to say DayZ is a bad game - I really enjoy it - I just think something different would be refreshing.

 

[ImpulsE69]

Considering AAA "finished" titles are essentially betas these days, alpha doesn't mean much. My problem with a lot of these type of games is the awful UI or short sited scope/depth.

 

[Fanatical Meat]

Am I the only one who can't stand the idea of being nude in the game? Mortal Online tried it and I see no point in having a bunch of wieners hanging out and making it pretty awkward explaining to people why you're playing a game with naked men running around in the forest tea bagging each other

 

[UnicrnDroppings]

awkward explaining to people why you're playing a game with naked men running around in the forrest tea bagging each other

lol. playing tthat at work when Mr. Boss comes around would be amazing

I know its alpha, but this game doesn't capture me like DayZ does.

I was debating between trying Rust or DayZ first, but I caved and got DayZ. I hope it lives up to the hype. I heard from several people taht they do enjoy rust more.



Do not circumvent the signature rules by spamming in every thread you post.

Anandtech Moderator
KeithTalent

 

[HardcoreRobot]

im very interested in the genre but i have 0 patience for hackers in a game like that. In an FPS, whatever. But in a game where the object is to build up, having it taken away in the blink of an eye from a cheater is very not appealing.

 

[darkewaffle]

One of my friends has been playing it nonstop recently, he seems to enjoy it a lot but says it's not very solo friendly as accomplishing some of the 'grander' projects (building a house for instance) is much more easily undertaken with a team. Plus it's safer that way.

 

[PingSpike]

So this is what I've been playing lately. Its had a rocky launch since I bought it. First I had serious problems connecting to servers, the game would just hang 3/4 of the time on connect and required me to kill it and restart to get in. Extremely frustrating. Then, they were suffering constant DDoS attacks on an authentication server or something that kept almost everyone from playing. Those two things were patched up and then apparently hacking was a problem. Some one did no clip and steal a small cache of resources from one of my shacks during that.

The latest patch (last Thursday?) has supposedly implemented fixes for through the wall box looting and door open and no clip hacks. I can't say if its perfect now, but I have not been looted through the walls since. I play on lower population servers though.

Anyway, the game is weird and there certainly seems to be plenty of areas where its quirky and could be improved...yes, there's a spark there that to me keeps me coming back. There's an adrenaline rush when you encounter others that just isn't in most games.

First off, skip the official servers. In addition to being wildly overpopulated and filled with players further along than you are, they are obviously hacker target number one. You'll hardly get into them anyway and IMO the map is not large enough to support the number of players those servers are set up for. If you join the PVP servers you will be slaughtered nonstop while naked. If you join the PVE you'll run around unable to find any animals or rocks because there's so much competition for them. Just get off those servers. I play on servers with like only 20 people on them and I actually see other players all the time.

Start playing on a lower population server. I play on ones that max at like 20 players. The map seems huge and impossible to navigate at first, but its actually not as big as it seems. There are precious few landmarks, but you'll start to recognize the different bland rock formations and can navigate using the sun and the large mountain and/or ocean as reference points. The road is a circle and when running flat out does not take that long to full traverse. Using those facts and a reference map its a lot easier to avoid getting lost.

I haven't been playing that long, but here are my survival strategies. You'll start starving pretty quick so find some stone to make a stone hatchet and kill a pig. The other animals are to fast or to dangerous to kill with the hatchet.

After that Priority number one is to get a small base so that when you die you don't lose everything. I don't mean a shelter. I mean a 1x1 foundation base with a metal door. You'll need like 450-500 wood (or more) and around 40 metal ore, plus some stone and 20 animal fat for a furnace. Its a decent undertaking to craft that all together but if you hide the base where it can't be easily seen from the road it is cheap and pretty secure. Then craft a sleeping bag and storage box and throw it inside.

Its here I should mention a couple things that weren't obvious at first. When you're cold at night you think "I should start a campfire" to keep warm. Wrong. Crouch in your pitch black base and craft while freezing or failing that sit in the dark in a rock crack and freeze. All you have to do is eat extra meat to compensate. The campfire is a beacon that screams "come fuck with me" to other players at night. Cook and smelt during the DAY as its less noticeable. I've had bandits surround my base at night and harass me because my campfire led them to my hidden base.

For most of the night you can actually see...poorly. This is an important time of the night that your helpless character can use to get resources and raid rad towns with less risk. All the NPCs are incapable to catching you if you sprint, although wolves and fast zombies cannot be easily escaped. Use the bow and arrow because it costs almost nothing, is pretty powerful against NPCs.

Keep dropping off the resources at the base so that if you are killed by a player or NPC you lose very little. If a player engages you, just run away. Run into the woods and the mountains, double back around corners, go through rock formations and then double back and triple back and try to lose them. Worst case scenario they kill you and you're out the small amount of resources you gathered. Once you have a base with a few resources in it all you have to do is craft a new hatchet and bow and arrows and you're ready to gather again. Losing those means essentially nothing. That, food, bandages and sometimes rad pills are about all I carry most of the time. Once you have enough resources, build another 1x1 dump away from the first and continue doing this until you have a few to spread your resources and thereby reduce any loses when a raid occurs.

The frustration of dying seems a lot less once you've established yourself. From there I've been raiding rad towns for blueprints and trying to decide if building a big base is even worth it.

 

[ThinClient]

It's now $20 for an alpha build. My crew and I had a great time playing this and even bought our own server. I have more than a hundred hours into this game. That being said, I won't play it again until well into beta, whenever that is.

There are so many bugs in this game, it's ridiculous. There are so many client-side cheats, it's just fucking stupid.

This will be a very good game when completed.

 

[Rinaun]

Penny arcade bump incoming. If you were thinking about buying the game I'd buy it now before it rises in price. Penny Arcade made a comic on Rust so I'd bet sales will skyrocket.

 

[SMOGZINN]

With the merger of the thread and this app. I can't see the original post. I am VERY sure he asked how is it. Not what is it.

OP was asking about game play and fun. Not your definition of playability based upon its present state of development.

Enjoy your time at bat.

The specific question the OP asked is:

Is it worth the $20 for alpha atm or should most people wait?

The answer to that I gave. (As can be seen by almost everyones answer to how the game currently plays)

 

[Keeper]

Op.. I cannoy answer your question about RUST. I bought 7day to Die this week, and LET me tell you...IT ROCKS.
Its Alpha 5... And its FUN as a SP game... MORE fun on a private server (Easy to run on home PC) with friends.

We have made a fortress and each of us have a area to explore.
In my opinion...... Zombies at nite.... WAY over powered. but....... We got this now.
We are hoping Alpha 6 (Due soon) raises the challenge a bit. We had 2 people log on....... And they did EXACTLY what people are doing in RUST. Waited for us to die...... Looted ALL our stuff. On my sons server FF turned off.
Now I cannot say what happens then. All I have a a SP game going on and my MP game with my son, his friend and my sond GF.
If these "Bandits" get the loot they harvested from us to use in other games.... Well shucks on me. Friendly Fire cannot be turn on "On A whim" in 7DTD so his server is now PW protected.
We want a coop group, trying to survive the horrors of the world around.
Its funny, one guy found a "bug" he exploited in his name...... the way he crafted his name, my son (Admin) could not boot him. So we had to log off restart and do the PW protect thing.

SUNOFABEECH LOL. Any ATOTers playing 7DTD.... Send me a message. I could EASILY play more often with a group of like minded people.

Smoz... You're up at bat... Cause YEAH... this answer speaks to gameplay.... You go boy:

Alpha means that the game is not ready for release. So, by definition most people should wait and not play an alpha.

 

[PingSpike]

I've really been thinking of snagging 7DTD because I like the sound of it, but at $35 for an Alpha I kind of balked. I wish I'd bought it instead of DayZ standalone though. I'll probably snag it when I get tired of Rust.

 

[Red Storm]

Honestly there's too many of these games, and they're all in Alpha. I am waiting it out to see which gets polished up the best.

There was another game that wasn't zombie focused, it was just about survival in the wilderness. It looked similar to Rust but I'm pretty sure that wasn't it. Trying to remember the preview I read about it...

 

[Fanatical Meat]

The Forrest?

 

[Annon2255]

I kind of like this method of game development. Developers offer alpha access at a cheaper price than what the final version of the game will be, they get more cash up front to develop the game and get more people to test the game for them so they can have a more polished final product. At the same time people will get to play the game at a discounted price and see how the game develops over time, which I personally think is very interesting.

I see this as win-win for developers and consumers. There are enough people interested in playing these games at earlier stages for this strategy to work, and if you're not into this style of release then you don't have to buy it until it's finished.

 

[Rinaun]

I kind of like this method of game development. Developers offer alpha access at a cheaper price than what the final version of the game will be, they get more cash up front to develop the game and get more people to test the game for them so they can have a more polished final product. At the same time people will get to play the game at a discounted price and see how the game develops over time, which I personally think is very interesting.

I see this as win-win for developers and consumers. There are enough people interested in playing these games at earlier stages for this strategy to work, and if you're not into this style of release then you don't have to buy it until it's finished.

Except that most of these games have terms of agreements that mean if the developer never finishes it, it's on your end. That's why these buy it in alpha games suck: its people just trying to cash grab on stuff already done as fast as possible.

 

[darkswordsman17]

I'm gonna be honest, actually playing these multitude of survival (especially the countless horde of zombie based ones) games that have cropped up doesn't appeal to me. However, this game for some reason actually kinda appeals to me to watch. Not entirely sure why yet though.

 

[Dannydbloody]

I bought this yesterday. I agree with one of the earlier posts that if you want to learn join a small server. There are empty ones that you can even get on to learn the ropes. I joined one and the few people online gave me clothes and weapons and resources to get started. Pretty fun but it is alpha. Not a ton to do besides build your home and kill animals and zombies. Although they say zombies are going away for something else.

 

[futurefields]

Except that most of these games have terms of agreements that mean if the developer never finishes it, it's on your end. That's why these buy it in alpha games suck: its people just trying to cash grab on stuff already done as fast as possible.

Clearly Rust, DayZ, Assetto Corsa, Next Car Game are nothing but cash grabs....