Rust map terms: a glossary for mappers and server owners

Quick answer: the words you meet making a custom Rust map and running a server, one or two plain sentences each, in alphabetical order. Each one links to the page that goes deeper.

A

Alpha map

The layer of a map that hides terrain to make holes, for cave and tunnel entrances. Hidden ground still blocks players until a terrain trigger lets them through.

B

Biome

The climate of each part of the map: Arid, Temperate, Tundra, Arctic or Jungle. It changes the weather, the plants, the animals and how cold it gets. See Rust biomes and topology.

Blueprint wipe

Deleting every player’s learned blueprints, so everyone has to learn them again. Server owners choose it, and Facepunch forces one in some months. See the Rust force wipe schedule.

C

Carbon

A modding framework for Rust servers that loads plugins, and runs most Oxide plugins too. A server runs Carbon or Oxide, never both. See mods and plugins.

Conjure

Crucible Heightmap’s button (C) that rolls a brand new island. See generate your first island.

Convar

A console variable: a server setting such as server.maxplayers or decay.scale. Type it in the console, put it in server.cfg, or add it to the startup line with a + in front. Every one is on Rust server variables.

Creator

A map and prefab editor for Rust that opens and saves real .map files and shows them with the game’s own terrain, water and prefabs. It installs through the Crucible launcher. See what is Creator?

Custom map

A map built in an editor and loaded by a server from a link, instead of one Rust generates from a seed. See how to host a custom Rust map.

D

Decay

Damage over time to buildings and deployables nobody keeps up, which is what clears abandoned bases off the map. decay.scale sets how fast it runs. See turn off decay.

E

Entity

Anything the server keeps track of in the world: a building block, a deployable, a dropped item, an animal, a barrel. serverinfo shows how many a server has; see Rust server performance.

F

Force wipe

Facepunch’s monthly wipe: on the first Thursday of the month, around 7pm UK time, every Rust server starts a new map. See the Rust force wipe schedule.

Full wipe

Deleting everything in a server’s save folder: the world, the blueprints, the player data and the cfg folder with its admins and bans. See how to wipe a Rust server.

H

Heightmap

A square greyscale picture where each pixel’s brightness is the ground height at that spot. Rust heightmaps are 16-bit. See what is a Rust heightmap?

I

Identity

The name of a server’s save folder, set with server.identity. The world, the blueprints and the cfg folder all live in server/<identity>/, next to RustDedicated.exe. See the Rust server.cfg example.

L

Level URL

server.levelurl: the direct download link a server loads a custom map from. Every player downloads the map from the same link. See how to host a custom Rust map.

M

.map file

The file a Rust map is saved in. One .map holds the terrain, the ground textures, the biomes, the topology, the water, the prefabs and the paths. See export a Rust .map file.

Map wipe

Deleting a server’s world save so it starts a fresh world. Bases and items go; blueprints stay. See how to wipe a Rust server.

Monument

A large ready-made place on the map, such as Launch Site or the Harbor, with its own buildings and loot, and often NPCs. Rust places them on a procedural map; on a custom map the mapper does. See Rust monuments.

N

Navmesh

The map of walkable ground that NPCs and animals move on. Rust builds it when the server starts. See Rust server performance.

O

Oxide

The original modding framework for Rust servers, also called uMod, which loads plugins written in C#. See mods and plugins.

P

Plugin

A .cs file that adds to or changes a Rust server, loaded by Carbon or Oxide. See Rust plugins.

Prefab

A ready-made object from the game files that a map places: a rock, a cliff, a building, a prop or a whole monument. The lists are in the Rust game reference.

Procedural map

A map Rust generates itself from a seed and a world size, instead of loading one from a link. See the Rust server.cfg example.

R

.raw file

A bare 16-bit heightmap file: height only, with no textures or other layers. RustEdit can import one as the terrain of a new map. See export your Rust map.

RCON

Remote console: how admins and tools send console commands to a running server. Rust turns RCON off when the password is empty or too common. See console, RCON and admin tools.

RustDedicated

RustDedicated.exe, the Rust dedicated server program. SteamCMD installs it. See install the Rust server files.

RustEdit

A Rust map editor for placing monuments, roads, rail, prefabs and the rest on a map. It opens and saves .map files. See how to make a custom Rust map.

RustEdit extension

A server add-on, loaded by Carbon or Oxide, that runs the extras a RustEdit map carries, such as puzzles and spawners. See custom data maps and RustEdit.

S

Salt

In Crucible Heightmap, the number under the seed. Rerolling it keeps your coastline and rerolls the world on it. See what is the seed, and what is the salt?

.sav file

A server’s world save: every base, deployable and item. A map wipe deletes it. See how to wipe a Rust server.

Seed

The number that decides which map a generator makes: server.seed for Rust’s own procedural maps, and the seed box for Crucible Heightmap’s islands. See seed files.

server.cfg

A text file of console settings that a Rust server runs every time it starts. It goes in server/<identity>/cfg/. See the Rust server.cfg example.

Splat

The ground texture layer: how much grass, forest floor, dirt, sand, rock, gravel, stones and snow covers each spot. Spawns read it, so it decides what grows where as well as how the ground looks. See splat painting.

Staging branch

Rust’s test branch, where the next update lands first. A player joining a staging server needs the staging branch of Rust too. See run and join a staging server.

SteamCMD

Valve’s command-line tool that downloads and updates the Rust dedicated server. See install the Rust server files.

T

Topology

Rust’s terrain-type layer: 31 tags such as Beach, Cliff, Forest and Lake, and one spot can carry several at once. Rust reads them to decide what spawns where. See Rust biomes and topology.

W

Wipe

Resetting a Rust server: its map, its blueprints or everything in it. See force wipe, map wipe, blueprint wipe and full wipe above, and the Rust force wipe schedule.

World size

How wide the map is in metres, set with server.worldsize. Rust takes 1000 to 6000, and 4500 is its default. See Rust map sizes.

Worldgen

Building a Rust world on the terrain: the biomes, topology, ground textures, lakes and cliffs. In Crucible Heightmap it is the Worldgen panel. See worldgen.

Error messages and what they mean
Rust game reference, the commands, convars, items and prefab lists
How to make a custom Rust map