Rust Custom Maps Are Changing Forever, And More

WheatleyMF · April 25, 2021

Rust Custom Maps Are Changing Forever, and more

By WheatleyMF News custom maps, gruber, interview, lone.design, news, plugins, rust, rust gruber, rust news 1 Comment

Lets review what happened around the Rust community recently – massive Rust graphics overhaul, new releases on a website and… an interview?..

HDRP Backport

HDRP backport has become available for public testing on a separate branch called “aux01”. It’s a massive graphics overhaul, giving a new life to procedural maps – new forests, much more detailed deserts, significantly more realistic cliffs and many other small improvements, bringing a whole new feeling to Rust.

It is an amazing update made by Facepunch team, and it was definitely worth the wait. It is expected to release on a main version of Rust at May 6th, 19:00 BST (18:00 UTC). Get ready to update your custom maps to the latest version to avoid any bugs and missing stuff!

If you are interested to test the HDRP backport update yourself, this article has all information you need to know.

Custom Map Changes

It was quite obvious that so many additions and changes cannot happen without affecting existing custom maps. Some prefabs in your projects will be removed. Here’s a short list of what exactly:

Trees will disappear
Compound buildings (rowhouses, outbuildings)
Ice sheets and icebergs
Rocks and Cliffs
Oil Rig prefabs
Junkyard Mounds

Everything in bold means that they are not removed entirely – but their prefab IDs has changed. Latest RustEdit (Rust map editor) version, 1.1.37b2, is already available for everyone and you can use it to automatically fix some issues.

There is much more to cover, but it’s already done in a separate article that you can check out here.

New Releases

A quick review of new arrivals on Lone.Design!

Boogie Bomb

Honestly, I had a good laugh while watching the demonstration video. This is a very fun plugin that is surely worth adding to your server – you throw a boogie bomb, and once it explodes everyone around it start dancing. It’s silly, and this is exactly why I think it’s amazing. Take a look on this video!

Firework Gun

Small but really fun free plugin made by Kusha, that some of you may also know as a map maker. All it does is… welp, it just shoots fireworks! Bring some chaos on your server by spamming tons of these fireworks just for fun, or make a beautiful show for everyone at the end of another wipe. It’s up to you, and I feel like it’ll be a good addition for everyone who’s just seeking some fun on modded servers.

Abandoned Bases

A really good plugin that turns inactive bases into small PVP areas for raiding. This adds a whole new experience for PVE servers and honestly I really like this gameplay idea, always giving a reason to remain active on a server and constantly have some kind of interaction with other players. Definitely worth checking out!

RUST No Recoil plugin

After quickly checking out the products page, I’ve noticed something really interesting – it is a Rust plugin that completely gets rid of recoil on weapons. Honestly, I’ve never knew you can control even this using plugins, and this is kind of amazing. Personally I don’t know where would I use the no recoil feature, but it may be helpful if you are creating cinematics or just testing something. If you are a server owner, why not check it out?

RUST AntiMacros plugin

Since I’ve mentioned No Recoil plugin, just for balance I’ll also highlight a plugin does an opposite thing: it, actually, gets rid of macros! It slightly alters the trajectory of bullets, spread, and distance between bullets (depending on mode), making it impossible to achieve a perfect beam while shooting.

Where are new custom maps and monuments?

As you have probably noticed, in today’s blogpost I was able to highlight only three plugins. Due to HDRP backport coming soon and tons of content breaking because of that, we’ve felt like it will be a right decision to put new releases on hold to ensure their quality & visuals will meet new standards brought by a graphics overhaul. This way we will be sure that all new releases (and existing ones too!) will be fully compatible and working after the upcoming big RUST update. There will be much more to cover in coming weeks, don’t worry!

Interview with Gruber

Lets have a small talk with a map maker from Russia, Evgeniy “Gruber” Kislov.

Gruber has been actively creating countless amount of amazing custom maps and monuments since Summer 2018, and even nowadays he keeps reminding us that he will never stop surprising us with new ideas. His works like Hot Mountain and Last Train were highlighted by SHADOWFRAX, and I feel like it was well deserved! With so much attention around him for last 2 months I think it’d be a right decision to ask him a couple of questions…

WheatleyMF: I’ll start with a simple question – how did you start working as a map maker? What became a reason for you to try creating your first custom map?

Gruber: My adventure as a map maker started back in July 2018 after watching the video by Never Lucky, where he has announced a map making competition for MAGIC RUST (note: Russian modded server). I’ve downloaded the editor, started randomly clicking on everything, understood how it works in 2-3 days, started creating a terrain, placing default monuments (back then there were no monument modifiers, so I had to edit the terrain for monuments manually), placing railroads and connecting monuments using them, placed the Launch Site on a separate island and added some bridges. Somewhere in early August I’ve finished the map and made a 40 minutes long video that I’ve sent to Never Lucky via e-mail, and after that I’ve been waiting for a livestream to know the competition results. I have ended up winning that event, earned my first money from it and I was offered to work for MAGIC RUST. Obviously my first map had tons of bugs and holes near rocks, but it was quickly fixed. After that I’ve immediatly started working on a new map…

WheatleyMF: So you was lucky enough to combine your map making talent and being able to financially support this? For how long you’ve worked with that project?

Gruber: Well, kind of, but for me it was nothing but just a slightly paid hobby. I’ve worked with that project for 1,5 years, and, actually, I am still working but conditions have changed.

WheatleyMF: I see. In SHADOWFRAX’ video I’ve learned that your main job is related with railways and this made me curious – is it easy to combine it with map making? Are there any difficulties?

Gruber: Yeah, I work on a railway, there are no problems with combining it with map making hobby, since my job mostly involves doing checks and maintaining report documentation. Since March 2020 we are working from home, so I have enough time to make maps. And no my job doesn’t involve walking around in a gas mask killing passengers as SHADOWFRAX assumed. (smiles)

WheatleyMF: Sounds like a really comfortable schedule. How does map creation session go usually? Do you have any sources of inspiration, maybe you have the final result imagined in your mind before starting the work?

Gruber: At first of all I create a terrain I need, since usually I can always imagine how it should look like while finishing an other map. Then I look at various concept arts in the internet and various art-related websites. Sometimes most of my inspiration comes from games that I’ve played before. I use any picture I liked as a foundation and then start building a new project based off it, and I always come up with something completely new that doesn’t look like that picture at all. Sometimes after finishing the terrain tons of ideas come up in my mind, like what and where would fit on a map. While working on any map I always get ideas for new ones, so that’s why I have a notepad where I write down all my ideas for future projects. Currently I have ideas for at least 7-10 maps.

WheatleyMF: That is great. Amount of products you have on lone.design can surprise people, especially when comparing to amount of my stuff. What’s your best work in your opinion?

Gruber: I like all my projects. Wasteland was my most time consuming project that I’ve been making while working on other maps in my free time. Most tasking part was placing a huge amount of rocks manually, and now I can’t imagine how much time will it take to update it for HDRP backport. I had an idea for Last Train map for a very long time but Rust didn’t support trains at that moment. It took around a week to test the above ground railroad system since RustEdit sockets didn’t want to loop the network properly, but I’ve managed to make it work, and I was satisfied with the result and thanks to SHADOWFRAX it got attention from many players.

WheatleyMF: That’s a really good answer. Lets talk a little about Russian community – do you know any Russian mapmakers you’d like to highlight?

Gruber: Jtedal, WheatleyMF, с0ini, Alex. These are the people I’ve worked with and I like their stuff.

WheatleyMF: Is there any difference between Russian and English speaking communities in your opinion? Do we have something that other communities don’t?

Gruber: Well, honestly, there are tons of thief and resell issues in our community, I didn’t notice anything like that in English speaking community.

WheatleyMF: Lets come back to your stuff again – do you have anything in development currently, and perhaps even a preview just for this interview?

Gruber: At this moment I have 2 maps ready, but I am not rushing to release them since they have to be overhauled for HDRP backport first. Also together with jtedal we’ve been working on a highly detailed map based on Metro Exodus. It was put on hold for a certain period of time when workcarts were introduced, and now we are slowly coming back at working on it.

And here is a preview. Can’t wait for a full release!

WheatleyMF: And the last question – do you have any advices for beginning map makers based on your own experience? Maybe, you’ve got something to say to all the readers?

Gruber: Most importantly don’t be afraid of anything and keep moving forward until the very end. I am not a big fan of epic speeches, I am not good at this.

This is the end of an interview! It was fun asking all of these questions and learning more about him, and I hope it was the same for you. To be honest, this is the first time I do anything like that, ever. If you like Gruber’s stuff, perhaps you also will be interested to check out his YouTube channel and Discord server.

And, actually, this is the end of today’s blogpost. Thanks to everyone who read it all, and see you in May with even more news to cover!