OK - so 1st, some general impressions.  It's in alpha (some stuff is buggy).  It's fully playable.  The servers get wiped on a regular basis.  Based on server, this means you lose your level up progression, a new map is generated, you lose all the stuff you built, etc.  Some folks described it as minecraft for adults.  IDK about that.  

You start out as a naked person with a rock and a torch and no idea where you are.  From there, the game plays out however you choose to.  You can farm to try to build items and a place to stay.  People might find you and try to kill you for whatever you farmed, so maybe you decide to rush and build something quickly.  You start out fairly defenseless.  You build to have some security or just for fun.  As you tech up, you build better things and can become more aggressive.  Now you can raid bases.  Dislike someone enough, you can raze them and destroy everything they own.  

You can play it how you like, but it seems as though a few things are static.  There will be aggressors.  There will be raids.  If someone is decimated enough, they might very well quit playing RUST until the next server wipe (bi-weekly).  So, essentially you can consider most "games" of rust a 2 week adventure in which you might be a winner or a loser.  I'm treating it as a 2 week campaign where I have very specific goals.

Feel like I have a bunch of crap to discuss here and there, but I'll just recap the last couple days on my server.  Holy shite did crap hit the fan.  

So, I have 2 bases.  1 base that's got some ok fortification and another that is an absolute beastly nightmare.  My OK base got raided and I actually lost quite a bit of stuff... but only because I'm a dumbass and didn't move it to my new base.  Anyway, when you get raided, it actually feels like a home invasion to some degree.  Often, the raids happen when you are offline (on this server, every raid I've seen or been a part of happen when folks are offline).  You just log in and see you've been wrecked.  At which point, you either plot revenge, work on a better way to secure your base, scrap your base, or if you are so wrecked, you just say fug it and wait for the next server wipe (essentially deciding you are out of the game).  Anyway, my mentality for all the stuff that follows was that I was raided and folks got some pretty good stuff from me.

So, 2 days ago, I'm doing a run to get some XP and resources when I come across a lighthouse I know about that someone has a house behind (I also knew about that).  I creep up on the house to see if there's anything exposed to loot and find nothing on the outside.  Then, I notice that someone blew the door in (folks have had c4/rockets for I'm guessing the past 3-4 days now - didn't have the tech prior to that).  Inside, I see someone sleeping with tons of loot around.  The folks that blew in the door, left a note for the guy telling him to F himself.  They took a few things, but left quite a bit, and left the guy alive.  I, went full dick mode at this point.  I completely annihilate him. I kill the guy (note - if you kill a person, they will see exactly who did it when they respawn (ex you were killed by pacov)).  That's also why some folks will loot someone and not kill them - that way you can do it anonymously.  Anyway, I go scorched fugging earth on this guy.  I kill him, I take everything that was left, I destroy his base to the point that he decided he was done playing and will come back after that wipe.  It was pretty freaking brutal.  But then I do one better.  I make sure that everyone on the server knows that while I killed this guy, I tell everyone that I don't even have explosives (eg I couldn't get in) and that all I did was shoot the guy and loot his body, saying there was really nothing left when I got there.  

I get worse.  So, now I'm on the actual hunt for the people that raided me.  There's a group of 3-4 people on the server that are wreaking havok on folks.  They have a very secure base and abuse their numbers to crush smaller folks.  Those guys have raided me 3 times (only 1 to any real effect).  Anyway, I scout the entire map.  I notice a new base VERY close to where my raided bases location.  I assume its the folks that raided me (eg maybe it wasn't those folks I suspected or maybe they made an expansion base to hold my loot).  Anyway, I go on a raid.  I bring rockets and c4. I light that place up and make my way inside after defeating their defenses.  I see 4 people sleeping in a room, a picture on the wall that says "N**GERS."   I then kill and loot all of them.  After I do this, I search their place.  Its the motherload of loot.  I'm talking I got a RIDICULOUS amount of stuff.  I also learn, however, that these guys didn't have my stuff.  In fact, it was actually the other group that raided me.  

So, now I've completely wiped 5 guys out of the game.  That leaves me to try to deal with the 3-4 people that remain.  The 3-4 organized folks.  My newly acquired loot helps, but I need a substantial amount more of materials to be able to take on their heavily fortified base alone... and I need to find their loot room as well... and then crush them before they crush me.  It's actually quite probable that they descended on me while I've been offline and my ridiculously fortified base has been razed.  4 people with a lot of c4 and rockets could do that.  

Anyway, things actually don't look too good for me.  I would have been much better off trying to form an alliance with the folks that I thought had raided me as I needed their numbers to take on the others.  IF they actually had a bunch of c4, I maybe could have hidden out and taken on the enemy base, but they did not.  Now, I'd have to farm a bunch of c4 up and then plan an attack.  And I don't think I have the time as I expect I'll be raided within the next 48 hours.  

Rust has a few pretty good resources out there as well.  There's a map generator (doesn't show you where the enemies are, mind you, but does cover all the land marks. Here's my current with some info tracking back to my story.

So, I made things even more interesting tonight.  I got on and saw that my base wasn't raided.  I intentionally left some things be at the base I raided last night and the told the enemy alliance about it (they don't consider me their enemy yet).  So, they went after that and left me be.

Today, my base is unattacked.  I start making alliances.  I'll add some details later, but I'm now into a 4 person alliance that I created - all with the goal of stopping the "evil" alliance from killing everyone.  Meanwhile, I think I'm probably the real evil alliance. We added more fortifications to my base and started mass producing c4 and rockets.  This means we could form a major raid as soon as tomorrow. If my base makes it through the night, we could stir some shite up.  

So - slightly more in depth recap of yesterday.  I'm still expecting today to get crazy if it hasn't already.  

Yesterday I saw my base was in good shape and unattacked.  There's a decay factor on my outer walls, so I had to repair them (pretty quick and easy to do with stone - about 5 min of work).  I scout around my base quickly and notice a small base on the top of a mountain that overlooks my base.  Thinking it might be a staging base for the main alliance, I plan to destroy it with some c4 and a flame thrower asap.  But I need to craft more c4, so I go on some farming runs.  

I head back to my raided base and get it into ok shape and use it as a farming base.  its far enough away from everyone that I can safely farm.  I also check out the base I destroyed the previous night to see if its been fully looted.  Sure enough, the enemy alliance spent a bunch of time there exploring and looting.  Which is kind of exactly what I wanted.  I had acquired all the good stuff from that base the night before.  

The enemy alliance putzs about as far as I can tell.  I believe they should have a pretty decent stockpile of c4 and rockets.  My hope is to siege and loot them today if I have enough resources put together.  Anyway, one of the fellas that was on (not in the enemy alliance) asks if anyone has a 4x scope. I discuss this with him privately and request a bunch of things to help me expedite the c4 creation.  He accepts, we make the trade, and then later I decide that I should make an alliance to increase my odds of surviving/winning.  I do it all on the down low, contacting folks directly, warning them of the threat caused by enemy alliance, and making a convincing offer to support me. I kit out the folks and am friendly.  I contact several people and key them into the plan. We mass produce all of the components we need for rockets/c4.  I build them.  We go and raid tomorrow if possible when the enemy alliance isn't online.  

So, the thing with raids - you want to make sure you have enough ammunition, etc, to siege the enemy out.  You go half assed, you use up all your resources and barely make a dent.  The enemy repairs the damage you've done very cheaply, and you've wasted a bunch of time and resources that take a bit to farm back up.  I'm thinking I want a min of 30 rockets and around 50 c4 before we raid - which is quite a bit, but they have a very strong base.  If I think of it, I'll take some screen shots of my base and the enemy alliance base at some point today.

Anyway, I'm hoping that my base hasn't been raided.  That could end all the plans for today.  If its not, then when I get done with work etc, I'll see how the farming has gone and mass produce the items and then go to war.  

Well... we raided yesterday and it was a huge let down.  My alliance fellas did some crafting over night.  I farmed/crafted for an hour or so to get plenty of rockets/c4 and off we went.  One fella in my alliance scouted and decided that a base was one that was in use and occupied, so we targeted that.  Not a main base.  Actually, just a crapper or one the enemy alliance abandoned.  We busted in, took what was there (not a huge amount, but some) and then torched the place.  The bad news is now they will see that they've been raided and either step up defense or go all out.  Anyway, if I have time today, I'm going to scout and try to spec out their main base (I have an idea where it is) and then go ham if I locate it.  Back to playing LoL a bit last night.  

Well, my rust excitement is dying out quite a bit.  I went ham on 7/28 and took out a bunch of bases after crafting stuff for an hour or so.  Then I decided this was lame.  Not enough people around - no real engagement imo.  In short - got bored.

So, I decided to rotate to a high population server - like 200-250 on at any given time. That's a wildly different experience.  You encounter people almost CONSTANTLY.  That could be bastards just killing nakeds left and right just because.  That's nakeds trying to kill you, etc.  Huge clan presence on this bigger servers.  

The game play experience is much more varied.  1st - you play like you expect to die a ton.  I was able to secure a small place, but then I'd only venture out when it was silent around me.  And then I'd only venture out completely naked, keeping as low a profile as possible, and with only an axe or hatchet depending on what I was farming.  My farming trips would often be just to get 1 or 2 stones cleared then immediately head back to base, wait for an opening to leave, etc.  It's best to be near a place where there are barrel spawns so you can level up.  

Anyway, I play for a bit, logging off if there's a huge amount of activity near me (at most I'd go 2 minutes without seeing or hearing someone near me on this server... was kind of nuts) then logging back in later.  I manged to get a decent base, but I intentionally kept it on the small side and tried to have every exterior be in stone so it would not appear like a decent base in case any clan appeared.  

About that time, facepunch (the devs of the game) tweet out that they believe their xp system is crap.  So, they are likely going to scrap that  to some degree.  All of this left, and a wipe occurring this Thursday, made me feel like there's no point in continuing to play.  I'll prob hop on again after the wipe, but all I've pretty much done is level some on the new server and secure a base that will be completely deleted soon.  bleh

Rust is currently part of the humble bundle.  Which means you can score yourself a copy for $5.39 or more if you want to pay more.  Good time to pick up a copy if you are interested.  The deal should last the next week or 2

https://www.humblebundle.com/survive-this-bundle

And I'm back playing rust.  Playing on the chopping pancakes server that limits clans to 5-6 people max.  The server has 3x XP gain, so leveling is actually pretty easy.  Give it a try if you are interested.

So, stuff I love about Rust

1 - devs are involved pretty heavily with the community (reddit boards see quite a bit of the stuff they talk about addressed by the devs and even added to the game

2 - the game seems a nice influx of cash/people with steam sales and so on.