Hi All,
Long time lurker, first time poster. I don't want to come across as a 12 year old who doesn't think things are fair, but there is a major issue with this game. Let me start by saying I have been gaming from 15+ years. I consider myself a mature gamer and have played everything from C&C to all the Warcraft games (including WoW), COD, BF, Minecraft, etc.
To give you some background, I've researched Rust for a while before paying for it. I loved the open world of Minecraft and the survival aspect of this was awesome. Now, according to Steam, I have 35 hours played in this game (in 8 days) and have absolutely nothing to show for it. I've played on official and community servers, PvP and PvE. PvE was enjoyable, but because of limited content, it gets stale. So, I tried PvP.
The problem is that everyone wants to kill everyone. And spawn ganking seems to be the norm. For me, I knew to expect this, and wasn't deterred. However, I think I'm going to hang up the towel. It is beyond frustrating to spend time starting out with nothing, gathering materials (which is hard to do on populated servers), only to be ganked by the "server raid crew". What I have seen on every server is that there are bands of people who have EVERYTHING, just running around and killing people.
Don't misunderstand me - I am fully aware of the PvP & survival nature of this game. The fact that you lose everything is an added incentive to not do stupid shit. But I'm tired of finally having enough wood to build a shack and getting ganked, being looted, and having to respawn.
The ganking isn't the issue - the issue is all these people who have geared up and feel empowered to just kill people. I understand that is the point of the game, but there is a huge fairness issue when someone has every weapon and 100+ rounds for each and just team up and kill spawns.
/rant off
Solutions
Implement "neutral zones" where PvP is disabled. Similar to the towns in WoW, where fighting cannot occur (obv you can't build a shelter in a safe zone)
Implement a player level system, so as a level 25 player cannot just run around ganking level 1s and 2s.
Final Thoughts
I love this game - it is so addictive that I keep starting over and I can't answer why, with how frustrated I am. Make it so that spawns have a fair shot of getting supplies, weapons, and some armor within the first 1-2 days.
ABSOLUTELY NOT and SHAME on you for even suggesting this! if you want this kind of play mod your server to do so, but stop crying to the devs to put something into the game the effects EVERYONE instead of dealing with the the way it was meant to be played. The dev's have given us something truly unique and has been a long time missing in the industry, a free open world sandbox game where players get to make the decision on how it is played with no hard coded rules/areas. The hand holding in games has gone on LONG enough and if you want this feature I suggest you look into modding a server to fit your needs.
However with that said I can offer you some constructive idea's on how you could enjoy the game a little bit more in your play style:
I would suggests looking for a server with the following:
- Frequent Wipes, so you are on a even playing field with everyone else
- Lower population so you are not getting ganked all the time
- Low tech servers or uncraftable C4 servers so your base is much more secure
Also if playing on higher population server is an issue and your getting shot down all the time before you can get established you are not in an isolated enough spot. The first server I tried was 50-100 pop on main stream hours, it took me 5 attempts just to get a foundation, 4 walls, ceiling, sleeping bag, and a metal door up, but I did it, and it is part of the fun / excitement on the game. On higher populated servers you have to play different. You don't have the luxury of just running around willy nilly without someone noticing you. Your best bet is to run somewhere far off the beaten path like a little ways past hacker valley, or some isolated spot but close enough to resource until your established. Also another way to survive in this game is numbers, if your playing solo on a highly populated server you are going to have a really hard time! Try to find a small group of people that will band up with you and you will see a huge difference. Another good thing to note is when building a base in most cases if someone wants to raid it they will and can. The goal when building your base is to make it as irritating as possible for someone to raid it, that its just not worth their time or resources. Last but not least in a higher populated server, a silencer mod is your best friend!
In conclusion:
- Don't beg or cry to the dev's to change the game to how you would like it, its an open world with the freedom to play however you like, lets hope it stays that way
- Higher Populated servers you need numbers, more silencers, and need to be further out in the map till you are situated
I hope this helps!