u/KipOnTheGround

There are still ZERO official servers that have Secure Mode enabled, over 100 days after it became available (besides the FP-owned servers). It's clear that private server owners have no intention of limiting cheating on their servers, so I will.

The Couch is a dedicated, secure, weekly vanilla server with zero paid perks, prepaid for an entire year of hosting.

• TPM + Secure Boot required
• No VIP, No paid kits, no queue skip, no paid advantages of any kind
• Cheaters cannot send money via VIP

The server takes no money from players, which means there is no way to buy influence, favoritism, or special treatment. I pay for this dedicated server personally.

Server info:

• The Couch • No VIP • No Kits • Secure Boot ✓
• Secure Mode ON — TPM + Secure Boot
• US West dedicated server
• Weekly Vanilla
• No group limit
• Weekly map wipes Thursdays at 11:00 AM Pacific / 1800 UTC
• Player names hidden from BattleMetrics (to prevent metagaming)
• BattleMetrics: https://www.battlemetrics.com/servers/rust/39147477
• F1 console: connect thecouch.lol:28015

This server previously had PlaySafe ID enabled, but it's off now. I'm hoping enough people will first embrace playing on a Secure Mode server first, then I will either pay for a second server with PSID enabled, or re-enable PSID here if that is what the players want. The goal is to have cheater-free Rust on this server, and I'll continue to use all the options I have to make that happen.

Server will force-wipe immediately when the patch is available tomorrow around 11:00 AM Pacific / 1800 UTC.

There are still ZERO official servers that have Secure Mode enabled, over 100 days after it became available (besides the FP-owned servers). It's clear that private server owners have no intention of limiting cheating on their servers, so I will.

The Couch is a dedicated, secure, weekly vanilla server with zero paid perks, prepaid for an entire year of hosting.

• TPM + Secure Boot required
• No VIP, No paid kits, no queue skip, no paid advantages of any kind
• Cheaters cannot send money via VIP

The server takes no money from players, which means there is no way to buy influence, favoritism, or special treatment. I pay for this dedicated server personally.

Server info:

• The Couch • No VIP • No Kits • Secure Boot ✓
• Secure Mode ON — TPM + Secure Boot
• US West dedicated server
• Weekly Vanilla
• No group limit
• Weekly map wipes Thursdays at 11:00 AM Pacific / 1800 UTC
• Player names hidden from BattleMetrics (to prevent metagaming)
• BattleMetrics: https://www.battlemetrics.com/servers/rust/39147477
• F1 console: connect 15.204.105.172:28015

This server previously had PlaySafe ID enabled, but it's off now. I'm hoping enough people will first embrace playing on a Secure Mode server first, then I will either pay for a second server with PSID enabled, or re-enable PSID here if that is what the players want. The goal is to have cheater-free Rust on this server, and I'll continue to use all the options I have to make that happen.

Server will force-wipe immediately when the patch is available tomorrow around 11:00 AM Pacific / 1800 UTC.

Secure server mode was added over 100 days ago and we could have fewer cheaters right now if just one popular server owner would turn secure mode on.

So why aren't they? Is it because their regular cheaters wouldn't be able to play anymore? Because a minority of people with decade-old hardware might have to finally upgrade something? Because they'd get less money from cheaters who buy their VIP perks so they have a non-zero chance of biasing admins?

One secure server could easily be filled by the thousands of people who are on Rust at any moment, especially if the server owner ran a weekly wipe, since the FP secure servers are all monthly.

Facepunch should just require all official servers to have it enabled. What are we waiting for exactly?

These servers should be removed from the official list if they aren't willing to fight back against cheaters.

Battlefield's anti-cheat updates last year that required Secure Boot reduced cheaters being in a game from 7% to 2%. Adoption of Secure Boot went from 62% to 92%.

https://preview.redd.it/oizlgj6cyj8h1.png?width=975&format=png&auto=webp&s=5d77df88a499e3b8d97cc7481b6c9c60046450d1

For a game with so many players who have 10,000+ hours, many of them will easily have spent $100 or much, much more in the years they've played.

Add some more Premium tiers like $100 minimum, hell, even LoyalWhalePremium(TM) tier for $1000+ lifetime spenders. The veteran legit players can flock to these servers and it would be a major deterrent for the non-legit players. A $15 speedbump isn't helping very much.

Why not try it? The system is already made.

Interviews start at 01:06.

CORRECTION (can't edit title): The interviewer doesn't name TPM specifically, but he asks them about kernel-level anti-cheat. AFAIK, requiring TPM and Secure Boot brings EAC more towards Vanguard's level of anti-cheat capability. Since TPM/SB helps prevent root-level cheats from loading before Rust+EAC does, it's more of a clean-slate than without it.

The 3 cheat-makers interviewed say that TPM/secure mode kernel-level anti cheat would prevent most cheating.

Two of them estimate 30-35% of people are cheating in some form (scripts included). The other estimates "at least 10%".

This is why we legit players should be swarming the secure servers and refusing to play on the non-secure servers. The only official servers with it enabled are the ones owned by Facepunch.

The other server owners are probably leaving it off because they'd lose 10-30%+ of their population (mostly cheaters, but some with decade-old hardware). And these servers also offer ways that cheaters could end up sending them money, like VIP, to try to gain favor with the admins on those servers ("well they bought VIP, so maybe they aren't cheating!").

Why play on servers that refuse to use secure mode to stop cheaters, and that offer things like VIP that could lead to favors being given to cheaters who pay?

Video is by "toofreezy"

It'd be cool if you could upgrade the Computer Station with a recording/DVR system where you can review what activity happened on your cameras.

It'd be awesome if Rust had new electrical multi-branch items that were like the current Electrical Branch, but had multiple branch outputs. It'd have to cost more to make than a regular electric branch (and be lower down on the Eng Workbench tree), but it could have:

• 1 input
• 2+ branch outputs (maybe even like 10 for the largest variant?)
• 1 power output (for the remainder power)

When you enter the config menu for it, instead of 1 branch power setting, you'd have a setting per branch output. Like Branch A, B, C, D, etc.

This would let us avoid having to make and place tons of branches that are daisy-chained.

There could even be multiple variants like the regular Electrical Branch (1 out), Electrical Double Branch (2 branches out), Triple Branch (3), Electrical Mega Branch (5), etc.

What if Facepunch added upgrades for the TC like there are now for the Workbench?

We all know that it's so easy for people (especially groups) to raid and TC grief everyone, ultimately making people leave the wipe, and killing server populations.

So what if TCs also had upgrades that you could find and install?

They could do things like increasing the raid cost of the TC itself (similar to the "Reinforced" workbench upgrade), so it's more expensive to grief. Or, giving the TC the softcore mode buff that gives it a lingering building privilege if the TC is destroyed, so the base owner a chance to rebuild after the raid.

I'm sure we can come up with other upgrades, like upkeep related buffs or other anti-griefing things.

The boom/raid progression has to be massively slowed down somehow.

After being raided, most people will server hop or quit until next wipe instead of rebuilding. Vanilla server populations die after just 1-2 days and don't recover until the next wipe. It happens so regularly and often that there are Monday-wipe servers for people to go to once their couple days on the Thursday servers are done and the population is gone.

For the raiders, the server is dead because every other base has been raided on the first day, stopping all progression, destroying the pop. Yay.

Raiding should be special and calculated. Getting all the way to the TC and griefing the base shouldn't be the expectation or the norm. Instead, breaking into certain parts of the base with limited boom to try to get some of the loot would be way more interesting and strategic. And if someone happens to get enough boom to actually grief a base, they'll have to choose their target more wisely with their limited boom.

Not being able to afford shooting 50 rockets and griefing the TC nearly every time would allow the base owner to rebuild and continue the wipe, making the server population last longer. It could also make eco-raiding more popular, using siege weapons, battering rams, etc.

Waking up to being offline raided today usually means you've lost everything and are TC griefed. It should instead mean that you check where the people who raided you broke in, and what amount of your stuff they were able to steal by committing their boom to raid, rebuild and plan your revenge or new defenses. But none of that happens, they just quit and wait for the next Mon or Thu server wipe.

A few groups shouldn't be able to get so much boom so easily that they can effectively destroy the entire server's population. It's boring. Extending the experience people get on wipe day, when everyone is trying to progress, is the exciting part of the game. If they progress in a few hours to AKs, it's no longer exciting.

The progression needs to take longer, and the raiding needs to become more rare. Maybe just nerfing boom a little is an option for making wipes last longer.

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Edit (after learning more about Softcore from the comments)

In softcore, if a TC is destroyed, the building privileges linger for 48 hours. This encourages base owners to repair and continue playing after a raid, rather than leaving the server/wipe after being TC griefed.

Regular vanilla servers could try a shorter version of this to prevent raiders from being able to instant-grief. This, paired with a reduction in how fast you can farm sulfur, could do a lot to help the health of a wipe and keep population.

It also makes raiding more interesting. If things changed so most base owners placed a new TC and repaired the base after the raid, they likely also would work to improve their defenses to try to counter the next raid (possibly even from the same group). They're able to learn and try something new with the same exact base, not having to wait for a new wipe. And if they decide they don't want to repair the base, and leave, then the raiders or someone else can later place their own TC after the timer expires, and take it over if that was their goal.

The timer could be shorter on the non-softcore server, maybe something like 8-12 hours instead of 48. You might wake up with your base raided, but at least you can place a new TC, some new walls and/or doors, and get back to the grind without having to find a new server or start back on the beach.

The reality is that servers die within a couple of days of wipe, and the reason might simply be because of the instant TC griefing. Servers losing pop isn't only bad for the people getting raided, but also for the people doing the raiding -- because there's quickly nobody left to raid, and they are then done with the wipe almost just as fast, looking for another server or waiting for another wipe day.