There's a lot of talk right now about the current state of @playrust but I feel like most don't focus on the actual important topics. For me, it's progression. Interaction between players. Cheaters. Oct 2014: Early Experimental, the game became Rust as we know it, and starts with the old BP system with fragments and random researches. July 2016: XP system with linear progression, forced everyone to be in the same tier at the same time. November 2016: Component system, no blueprints - you can craft anything as long as you had the stuff for it October 2017: Introduction of workbenches, scrap and blueprints. May 2018: Safezones, outpost introduced. For 5 years now, there have been no fundamental changes to the progression in @playrust. The meta is very solved now and abused by everyone, you never have to leave your base or walk, no incentive to explore and interact, scrap buys everything in safe zone, farming is faster than ever, and there is no risk even in raids with the siege MLRS meta. More and more cool updates get added that us youtubers can clickbait and play around for a bit which I appreciate, but it never changes how people play and experience the game. New monuments, even when OP will never incentivize people to explore or innovate when a road or warehouse in high pop is all you need for thousands of scrap per hour. New cool end-game toys that you get AFTER you're already rich will never change the way players progress or change their goals for the wipe. Changes to recoil won't make new players roam more, nor make the game feel refreshing, nor make returning players keep playing when you no longer need to engage with other players. What we need is another drastic change to the progression system. Something that forces all players, new or old to feel like they need to figure stuff out on their own again. Playing Rust now no longer feels like an unpredictable adventure, but rather being on auto pilot while following a guide. A hard reset, to make the playing field even, so even the new player can figure out a unique way to progress by exploring. Making the game fresh for old players that are burnt out. Bringing players out of their base to experiment for themselves. To bring back the fear, competition, risk, exploration and hardcore elements of Rust that we fell in love with. To create a unique story about your character every time you wake up on the beach. Ironically, I remember I was so mad when Rust changed to the XP system, I even made an angry reddit post talking about how Rust is going to lose it's identity, it's gonna kill the game, blah blah. Little did I know back then, we were lucky. It's what kept the game fresh. I had no idea not having ANY changes to progression for years and years would be even worse than having to relearn everything. It's not a coincidence that right after such big changes occur, that's when I experienced my most fondest memories in Rust. And I get it, the game is fully released now, and it's a big risk to change something that works and to take away something that players are used to. But players won't take risks, if the game developer doesn't. Don't get me wrong, I still wake up wanting to play Rust every day regardless, even with 20000 hours played. It will forever be my favourite game, and the greatest game ever created. When there are interactions, in the right server, with the right people, I always have fun no matter what the progression system is, or how I shoot my gun. But it's a gamble to have fun, a gamble that takes a lot of time. When 1000 pop servers feel dead, and everyone abuses every mechanic simply to not lose, when you run into 5 cheaters every time you play (blatant, no idea about closet ones), individual servers banning thousands of cheaters a month, every base is the same meta design, every interaction is the same or non existent, that's when the game becomes unfun for most. Just like many others, I understand I may have a bias due to nostalgia, burnout, or maybe even selfishness to cater to my playstyle. I also believe we have the greatest dev team in gaming, and they work so hard trying to improve this game every single day. So I try to be positive, unbiased and constructive when I criticize the game or an update unlike when I was a kid. But right now, I genuinely think the state of progression, interactions, and the cheating issue is objectively in an unprecedented terrible spot. And something needs to change, fast.