Rust is one of the extremely popular games nowadays. It has got a lot of traction since the covid-19 pandemic because of its amazing gaming experience and graphics. Playing this survival game with a friend or a big group of people brings a newer and amazing experience to gamers but that is nearly impossible to achieve at public servers.
Therefore, a vast majority of people go for setting up personal servers for eliminating troubles, like lagging, unwanted interruption, and security issues.
There are multiple ways of achieving the same, but the blog only covers the process that requires no fees or charges, instead just a little bit of work. Therefore, the blog is a step-by-step descriptive guide for users to set up their own Rust server on the Windows operating system. But before that, let’s learn about Rust in detail.
What is Rust?
It is a multiplayer-only survival game that was first launched in 2013, but it was fully released in 2018 by Facepunch Studios. Currently available on desktops only, the game puts various players on a map where they have to do everything for their survival and winning. This ranges from scavenging and crafting weapons to knock down others and get supplies for survival.
Rust ranks among the best survival games because it is very dynamic and enables players to do farming, crafting, and defending their bases in a highly vicious and brutal environment.
The game begins with players having only 2 types of equipment, i.e. rock and torch. An individual has to utilize these tactically and first emphasize acquiring other essential materials and later build powerful and sophisticated weapons, like guns and unique ammo.
Rust is available on some of the most popular websites, like Twitch and Steam, and not only this, it is enjoying a good position in the top 5 survival games on these platforms.
Steps to Host Your Own Rust Server
For creating a server and hosting the Rust game privately, an individual is required to have a computer or laptop that meets all the following basic requirements:
- The system should have 64-bit Windows (7 or above).
- There should be at least 4 GB of RAM installed in the system. However, it is suggested to have 8 GB RAM on standalone server devices.
- The suggested disk space is 6 GB.
1. Install SteamCMD
SteamCMD is the command-line tool utilized for installing files related to Steam. It will be utilized every time the user wants to install or update the Rust server:
- Build a folder dedicatedly for SteamCMD.
- Now create a folder for the server.
- Download SteamCMD for Windows from their official website.
- Now you’ll get the zip file. Extract all the contents to the folder created for SteamCMD.
- Finally, run the steamcmd.exe program.
Right after the execution, the downloading, installing, and updating of all the latest versions of SteamCMD will be performed.
2. Installing Rust Dedicated Server
For downloading the server on your PC, users have to run the following command in the SteamCMD:
login anonymous force_install_dir "c:\rustserver\" app_update 258550 quit
3. Switching to a Different Branch
For downloading the staging branch of Rust that receives all the frequent updates, change your app_update command as mentioned below:
app_update 258550 -beta staging
Instead, if someone wants to download the pre-release branch of Rust that has all of the future or ongoing updates, then change the app_update command as:
app_update 258550 -beta prerelease
4. Configure and Run the Server
For letting your server run and configure, users have to create a minimum of 1 batch script file. Basically, the batch script file is a document containing the list of commands in the form of text to get executed in the required series. It is primarily used for enabling server owners to ensure that their server is keeping up with the latest versions and prevent any sort of server crashes.
The majority of the people utilize the simplest way of doing it by using GOTO statements. It allows them to hop from one section of the batch script to any other section quickly.
But often it happens that Rust freezes in between the game and doesn’t close completely. In this situation, restarting will not occur because the server will not receive the information regarding stopping. Therefore, users have to configure the server settings manually in the batch script and have to explicitly define the related settings in the same.
5. Connect to a Server
Run the Rust client. You may notice here that the server will not display in the “Local Network” tab. Now, enter the following command for connecting with the server if the default port of 28015 is pushed forward:
client.connect localhost:28015
However, change the aforementioned code if any other port is used.
6. Owners and Moderators
Right after setting up the server and ensuring that it is running properly, you may choose to assign yourself with the ownership of the server. You can achieve this with the help of the ownerid command and a 17 digits SteamID number. To get this number, you can first log in and then run the user’s command in the command line. Now execute the following command:
ownerid 12345678901234567 AdminName
Similarly, run the following moderator command for setting the moderators for your server:
moderatorid 12345678901234567 "Admin Name"
Ensure to execute the writecfg command after running any of the aforementioned commands. After that, the user should log out and then log in again for receiving all the permissions. The owners will have the liberty to create, kick and ban any of the moderators playing in the server if needed, but moderators don’t have the power to do the same to the owners.
7. Connecting Server Globally
To allow other players to enter and play on the private server, an individual has to connect it with the outside world by setting up and forwarding the ports. It is recommended for users to go through the Steam Server Guide for any confusion. Typically, users have to push their “server.port” along with “rcon.port”.
However, if your server didn’t appear on the server list, other players can still join with the help of the client.connect command and using the public IP address of the host. Also, make sure to remove local firewall programs if they’re affecting the connectivity of your server from the outside world.
Conclusion
Emerging as one of the most popular online survival games, Rust offers an amazing gameplay experience and a unique experience of survival in a dog-eating-dog environment. Available only for desktop, this game offers an extremely dynamic experience by allowing users to do farming, build bases, scavenging, etc. to win the game.
This game is majorly played in big teams and playing on public servers often results in performance lags and thus, an unpleasant gaming experience. Therefore, players prefer to deploy the use of personal servers for removing such issues.
For creating a Rust server, follow the descriptive 7-step guide mentioned in the blog. It covers all the steps right from installing SteamCMD to connecting the server globally for allowing anyone to enter and play.
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