Rust

I'm sure I'm not only CAG playing this.  It has some issues (expected since it's technically in alpha, but very playable) but overall is a fantastic survival game.  If you haven't seen it, it's best described as Minecraft meets Dayz or an adult, survival focused Minecraft.  It's pretty brutal, especially starting off but once you learn, it gets easier and grouping makes a huge difference.
 
You start naked (literally) with a rock, limited use torch and 2 bandages, then have to kill animals for food and gather resources to craft clothing, weapons and shelter.
 
Here's the official intro video which is pretty well done:
 
http://playrust.com/intro-video/
 
Early access is $20 but gets you into the game now while the game is still being developed (again very playable), however, even if they raise the price to $60 you always own it (there's your CAG factor).
 
The server you are on plays a huge part in your experience.  Some admins are unfair or actually cheat.  Because of this I created my own server I'd love for any CAGs playing to join me on.  Here's the info:
 
23.106.43.234:28065
200 slots, PvP, Sleepers
Airdrops: @ 30+ players (might adjust up/down depending how quickly we grow)
Craft time: 1/4
C4 and military/modern weapons are currently uncraftable but lootable (9mm, P250, Shotgun, MP54A, M4).  
 
Small group of adult, fair admins who like the survival and pvp aspects of the game and are looking for some friendly, fair competition.  We are open to suggestions and discussion around the ruleset.
 
Oxide plug-ins include: Owner Remove (remove walls/pillars/ceilings on foundations you own), death messages, airdrop controller, groups, list, share.

Thanks Drama. I'm debating between this or 7 days to die. You on East or West coast time?  I'm on West so time for me is rather limited.

Psykodelik said:

Thanks Drama. I'm debating between this or 7 days to die. You on East or West coast time? I'm on West so time for me is rather limited.

Click to expand...

I looked heavily into DayZ Standalone, Rust, and 7 Days to Die. There's actually a PCGamer article somewhere that compares all three. Between that, other articles I've read and many discussion boards, most people didn't like 7 Days, think DayZ SA has a very bright future but not enough to do in alpha and that Rust was the most playable right now.

I'm actually on Central time. Between my friends and people that have joined so far, (population been between 5-15, averaging about 8) we got a good community going. Just hoping to grow to at least 30 average players here quick.

Thanks again Drama. I actually have Dayz standalone and it is fun but I'm mainly trying to know the areas so I'm "soloing" it before I get into bigger servers.  I am torn between Rust and 7 days but I might end up with Rust just because it is cheaper to purchase. I'll let you know if I do get it.  Hehe, then again I may get it this weekend just because I wouldn't mind playing with other people for that. 

I actually already purchased the game on Steam on the laptop I have. It's a good laptop, but definitely not up for any gaming. I'm currently doing research on Gaming PC's. I've been checking Craigslist for a deal on an already built one, and I'm also researching building my own. At the moment, I'm also looking at buying a house so don't really have the funds to drop on a PC. Hoping to get a decent one for around 400-500. I'll definitely be up for some Rust and DayZ when I do get a PC tho. 

If you go AMD you should be able to make this happen. Especially if you watch for a sale on a 7750 gpu. Just got my son one for $80. Really good bang for buck.

However sometimes you can get a steal on craigslist after people upgrade. Just have to be really careful or you can get burned. Just because they advertise it as a gaming machine doesn't mean it is =)

Quick update:

After our numbers being pretty low we decided late Saturday night to wipe and adjust the craft/loot rules.  All weapons and c4 are now craftable but we limited c4 by making flares uncraftable and reducing the drop rate on them.  Also, airdrops can happen with 15+ players now.  Otherwise the settings above are the same.

Numbers are looking a lot better.  Averaging between 12-15 people.  I've seen a lot of new faces in last 24 hours, guessing we'll be averaging 20 soon.

My new gaming PC arrives tomorrow. I've been exclusively a console gamer to this point, but there is no denying that PC has had some phenomenal releases lately, so I felt it was time to diversify. I already bought the game in anticipation of it getting here. Once I get it all hooked up, I'll jump in. Thanks for setting up a server.

After the last wipe population is way down.  We are going to do another wipe tonight/tomorrow to hopefully pickup some weekend traffic of people wanting to start fresh.

I might get my friends to switch to this server. I've been enjoying the game.

Unfortunately the server has been completely dead.  I haven't even been playing there...no fun to run around alone.

So I've been playing a ton and this game is pretty awesome. I might be addicted.

Anyway here is a good server that I've been playing most of the time. This is the only server I can actually play on and not get any lag. Every other server I've tried lags really bad(playing on a non-gaming laptop). The admin is always around and he has a good group of friends who frequent the server. There was a group of bandits but we managed to get them in check. I have a pretty big base with a ton of supplies(weapons, armor, wood, blueprints) so if you join up and tell me your from CAG I'll hook you up! 

Don't know the exact server's name but it starts with "Extinction Theory".

Here is the IP, 108.61.17.170:28075.

If you go the Rust main menu(server list) and hit F1, you can type the following:

net.connect 108.61.17.170:28075

And that'll get you right on the server. Add me on Steam and we'll meet up: specbob7. Send me a Steam message, or a PM here if you're going to join the server. 

Good looking out. My server has died out due to lag and poor admins. Was going to look for a new one tomorrow anyway. I'll look you up. Steam ID is also whizzups.

Feel free to add me. Steam ID: Neon Avalanche

I was mainly an Xbox 360 gamer until this past year. Since upgrading my GPU, I've been gravitating more toward PC games. Some friends and I have been playing Rust for about a month and we've been enjoying it. Another guy we know ended up starting his own server...and it usually has 5-15 people on it at any given time.

I didn't come in here with the intent of plugging the server, but if anyone is curious, I'll put the info in this spoiler tag
Anybody having issues with lag, I hope you're turning the grass off, because that helps tremendously. If you don't know how to turn the grass off, press F1 and type "grass.on false" (without quotation marks). The official servers are always horribly laggy for me though, and also look like shanty towns with shelters and buildings everywhere. To me, the official servers make the game not worth playing. Finding a good community server with good settings and a fair admin is crucial to your enjoyment of the game.

Looks fun

Yea it's a great game. The server I mentioned up above is kind of dead. There's a few regulars on it but usually only 2-3 people on at once so it can get pretty boring. I'll try that other server that was mentioned when I go on later today.

I think the servers are kind of fluctuating a bit because of all the updates. The game really seems to be trying to find its legs with the new durability system, shorter day/night cycles, finding good replacements for the zombies, etc. And any server with mods/plugins on it has to be updated and restarted when these things happen.

Then you've got people trying to find a good balance for the decay system or when to do server wipes. Just a lot of things to find the sweet spot for. Not to mention people intentionally trying to break the game by hacking or just killing on sight. The game is still in alpha, so they've got some things to figure out for sure.

I'm still waiting for at least a 50% off on this, hopefully during the summer sale, but I'm afraid they might do a weak 33% off.  

Garry (the lead dev) has said there wont be a sale anytime soon. They are fine with the amount of purchases so far with all the work they have left to do.

The dev servers latest build is basically a brand new game. New networking code, UI system, randomly generated landscape, new animation system, new item system...almost a complete rewrite. Should be interesting to see it in action.

I personally haven't played for a bit waiting for this patch and actually working on some game development of my own. Also, planning on checking out H1Z1 when it goes into Early Access in the next couple weeks.

I definitely got my $20 worth already and will probably log 100s of hours more. The price might actually go up before a sale happens.

Man, if the price went up that would just strengthen my resolve to wait for a sale.  I'll hold off still.  Even if it is a year, I don't lack in similar games to play.  I've heard some good things, but also enough bad things to know it is likely hit or miss and I have stuff like 7 Days to Die, Nether, Dead Linger, etc. to keep me busy in the meantime.  Not to mention stuff like Planet Explorers that might go on sale before Rust.  I commend them for having a relatively low intro price and if after the summer sale I still have some Steam wallet left then I might go ahead, but I think the pending Killing Floor 2 will get my money first.  Thanks for the info though!

I'm also really interested in H1Z1, is it going to be F2P or monthly subscription?  

H1Z1 will be F2P.

SEH said:

H1Z1 will be F2P.

Click to expand...

Awesome. Femur in the freezer.

Yeah, I haven't played in quite a while either. The game really stagnated after they took the zombies out and added the durability system. I realize part of that was by necessity (getting hacked and having to recode the game). But it definitely feels like the game lost any momentum it had going.

Not sure what it will look like when they "relaunch", but they'll be lucky if they can get back the audience they had before. I kind of regret not grabbing 7 Days To Die when it went on sale. If only I had known this one would have such a large gap between updates.

n8rockerasu said:

Yeah, I haven't played in quite a while either. The game really stagnated after they took the zombies out and added the durability system. I realize part of that was by necessity (getting hacked and having to recode the game). But it definitely feels like the game lost any momentum it had going.

Not sure what it will look like when they "relaunch", but they'll be lucky if they can get back the audience they had before. I kind of regret not grabbing 7 Days To Die when it went on sale. If only I had known this one would have such a large gap between updates.

Click to expand...

Yeah, the removal of zombies is honestly what made me second guess what was initially going to be a quick purchase. I mean I get trying to be different than all the other zombie games coming out, but you have to have some sort of constant enemy. 7 Days to Die is pretty good, one of the better type of games like it. I can't recommend Dead Linger in its current form. The one I am most looking forward to though is The Forest which is coming to Steam soon.

Cheaplikeafox 3.0 said:

Yeah, the removal of zombies is honestly what made me second guess what was initially going to be a quick purchase. I mean I get trying to be different than all the other zombie games coming out, but you have to have some sort of constant enemy. 7 Days to Die is pretty good, one of the better type of games like it. I can't recommend Dead Linger in its current form. The one I am most looking forward to though is The Forest which is coming to Steam soon.

Click to expand...

Yeah...well, Facepunch always said they never wanted it to be a "zombie game" and that they were placeholder enemies. But it did kind of reach a point where they were getting sales because of them. I think they just finally decided to take them out before more and more people bought the game expecting zombies to be there...and then, all the problems happened.

They've caught a lot of hell on the forums about being dishonest. I don't think it's as nefarious as a lot of people are accusing them of being. I just think the timing was very unfortunate. The game was moving in a good direction, and then the hacking and problems with updating (which was their own fault due to sloppy coding) just slowed things to a crawl.

But yeah, the "apocalypse survival" genre is definitely flooded right now. But for me, personally, I've gotten a little bored with ones that don't have base building and crafting. I was torn between 7 Days to Die and Rust...but at the time, 7 Days to Die was $35 and Rust was only $20...and I liked Rust being more of a caveman lifestyle too. But the other ones like Nether, Infestation, DayZ, etc....I just can't get into when it feels like constant scavenging with no real purpose.

I also brought up this point with friends this past weekend...if these games are striving for "realism" in making me monitor my hunger, thrist, warmth, etc...my character should also have some common sense and be able to use anything as a weapon too. If I'm in a real apocalypse, I'm not going to walk past tree branches or chairs or whatever and be like "damn...if only I could find a gun". I guess in that way, these games need a little more Dead Rising in their design.

Oh, and yeah...I'm really interested in The Forest too. I'm pretty sure it's supposed to have native Oculus Rift support. So, I'm pumped for that.