Ash & Rust cover
Ash & Rust screenshot
PC Steam
Genre: Role-playing (RPG), Hack and slash/Beat 'em up, Indie

Ash & Rust

Development Update
[p]Hey everyone! [/p][p]Three years ago I released into Early Access. Looking back, holy moly the game has evolved so much! I am not a game developer by trade and this was my first endeavor. I was only armed with a very specific vision and feeling that I was trying to experience but couldn't quite find in other games. Fortunately I was not alone: after a year or two of development, other studios announced games that were closer to what I was craving, such as Last Epoch, Path of Exile 2, and more. I was highly encouraged, knowing that there were many other gamers craving an updated take on the beloved top-down ARPG genre. [/p][p]In my case, my core pillars are: [/p][p]1) A completely modular and powerful build-your-own skill/class system [/p][p][dynamiclink href="https://youtube.com/shorts/VYTFeYh26Z0"][TAG-10][/p][p][dynamiclink href="https://youtube.com/shorts/nKoMPG9f_8M"][/p][p]2) Strategic, mechanical, rotational, combo-based combat and gameplay. [/p][p][img src="https://clan.akamai.steamstatic.com/images/41865713/0b9188846d97423dcb950c51fd5966072b6b6b62.gif"][TAG-20][/p][p]3) ROLE-based playstyles (as opposed to CLASS-based playstyles) E.g. instead of deciding you want to play a "Wizard" and then experiencing the playstyle that I designed, you'd decide you want to play a "ranged high damage" character and then use all the systems of the game to achieve that. [img src="https://clan.akamai.steamstatic.com/images/41865713/a64955cb0470ff1967880d4950cafe25851af2a9.gif"][/p][p]Originally I planned to be in Early Access for 1 to 2 years, but we've now hit 3 and though the game is feeling close, there are still some hurdles. The first major delay was the unforeseen requests from the community, such as Gamepad/Controller support, WASD movement, and other QoL features that were important to you guys. Secondly and somewhat related, due to the release of the aforementioned other titles, the genre is evolving extremely quickly and so too have gamers' (and my own) feature requests, thresholds, etc, so I've had to go back and update or reimagine my systems and designs. [/p][p]Finally, since the start of this year, progress has been very slow due to personal reasons. I'll spare you the details but I'm sure you can imagine the sorts of common upheavals that can cause solo projects such as this to slow. The good news is that my passion and energy burn ever as bright, I just have not had many spare moments due to the turmoil. As I settle into my new stride I'll resume full-time development and continue to provide updates. The obvious unfortunate news is that is that 1.0 Launch is delayed to late this year. The good news is that this personal turmoil is temporary, and coming out the other side I have reinvigorated spirit, and reinvigorated funds (lol). I've also dreamt up some potentially really cool new systems and designs that I'm eager to try out! As always a huge thanks to the community who continue to provide great feedback and to all supporters of the project![/p]

Controller/WASD support!!!

Update v0.9200


Controller/Gamepad/WASD support and Directional Aim Strafing implemented

Native controller support implemented for Xbox, Playstation, and Switch Controllers, as well as Steamdeck! If you have a different brand controller or the game simply doesn't recognize its type, just manually select the closest controller scheme in Settings -> Inputs. There you can also switch to WASD movement scheme if you're using Mouse and Keyboard.

I could not get my hands on a Steamdeck right now so if you have one please let me know if the native support works right out of the box! (In other words, see if the game automatically changes to Steamdeck control scheme and if all the buttons work as expected. If it doesn't automatically change try going to Settings -> Inputs and change to Steamdeck manually.)
While I went out and purchased many different controllers, there will almost certainly be ones that aren't properly receiving inputs or have some issues. Please let me know on Discord or in the Forums what controller you have and what issues the game has with it and I will implement fixes as fast as I can!

Due to the implementation of these alternate control schemes, I changed combat and movement such that you can now move while casting most abilities by default. (Previously this was only possible if you had the "Agile" Augment on your ability). This includes your ranged weapon Strikes (melee weapon Strikes already include a good bit of movement), which previously couldn't use that Augment. Agile is still relevant in that it lets you move at full speed instead of a reduced speed, and still applies the Positional tag which is needed for certain build synergies.

Additionally, the player character will now strafe so that you're always facing your aim/cast direction, no matter which way you are running.
NOTE: This feature is difficult and expensive to implement (it requires lots of custom animations and systems, and is the main reason why other similar games such as Last Epoch have not implemented it yet). Thus you will almost certainly experience some stank and jank animations in certain situations (but it shouldn't affect gameplay). I'm still ironing those out but I felt it's time to get this in the hands of the players.

Other New Features:
A Big Map! You can now open a map that shows all the points of interest in a region.
A Character Stuck button in the Options menu that tries to reset your character in-place in case you get stuck in an animation, etc (though hopefully I've found all those issues as I haven't had a report of one in quite a while).


What's next?
I'll address any bugs/concerns with the new Controller features as fast as I can over the next few weeks. In the mean time I'm also waiting on all the translations for Localization.
My goal from here until 1.0 launch is to finish Multiplayer, prepare a big content update (new augments, gear, etc), and tackle some important polish items, such as replacing all the placeholder Body Gear visuals.

Patch v0.9124 - Bug Fixes
Patch v0.9124 - Bug Fixes

  • Fixed WASD Issue where when the Camera was not set to default rotation, such as in some Freelance missions, WASD would not produce the correct directions.
  • Fixed new Bug created last patch where Unique Augments in the Strike Ability Inventory were having issues.
  • Fixed description of Proc Effectiveness.
  • Fixed Summon's Ritual Augment which was mistakenly increasing the Cooldown of the ability too much.

Update v0.9123 - Major Performance Improvements and WASD Improvements

Major Performance Improvement:


Pretty much all hardware should see a substantial gain in FPS, as much as 30 FPS on some of my test PCs.
For those interested in the technicals: On the CPU bottleneck, I found that the engine's "Event System" was monitoring raycasts and inputs at times where it absolutely wasn't needed, causing a big CPU overhead every frame. I implemented a solution that disables/enables it when needed. On the GPU side, I found that many shadows were rendering or trying to render in situations where they shouldn't. I cleaned up a lot of them and gained several FPS there, amongst some other small improvements I found. Overall between both CPU and GPU improvements, I saw significant FPS gains even on my best machine.

[Please let me know if you run into bugs regarding the new Event System solution, such as a certain UI not registering clicks, or certain Inputs not working, etc. TY!]

In addition, I added three more toggles to the Graphics Settings which addressed some of the more expensive visuals, with the biggest one by far being the option to completely disable all realtime shadows. While this will certainly make the game look old and uninspired, it should also gain substantial FPS depending on your PC's bottleneck. I'd prefer if this was only used as a last resort but until I implement more Shadow solutions, I'll leave this option available.

WASD
I've continued to test and iterate on WASD and implemented a few more targeting and movement improvements. I also fixed the bug where the mouse cursor would not properly warp to the auto-target when using Spell Indicators.

Other Fixes:

  1. Fixed a bug where after you maximize an item, the UI effects are not properly drawn until you drop/re-pickup the item.
  2. Improved the placement of Tooltips to be less obstructive, especially in the middle of the screen like when browsing through Craft Recipes.
  3. Fixed Orange Head Gear item The Devourer's Mouth which was granting an Effectiveness buff instead of a Haste buff as intended.
  4. Tons of other back-end and server improvements but not really relevant to list them out here.

Patch v0.9100 - WASD Movement Implemented! [AND EMERGENCY FEATURE!]

Patch v0.9100


New Feature: WASD Movement option implemented. (Not full gamepad/controller support yet, it's not ready. Lots of UI and Spell Indicator issues to work through.)

Go to Settings -> Input -> change movement type dropdown to WASD. Then you can rebind the keys if you want to.

Additionally, in Gameplay settings there is a new feature: "Enable Auto Target", which makes it so that a target is automatically chosen in the direction that the player is pointing. This feature is only intended to be used with a Gamepad/Controller/Steamdeck on PC. In Steam, you can set your Joystick to WASD, other joystick to the Mouse Cursor, and then enable this new Auto Target feature and you should be able to play decently. When the "Full" support comes out, this will all be done natively in the game as well as lots of shortcuts setup for the UI to make it easier than controlling the Cursor with a Joystick.

EMERGENCY FEATURE: Due to a recent update to the back-end code (for performance improvements), an unexpected consequence was that the Appdata folder structure changed on where Ash & Rust save data is stored. Thus, everyone's prior characters, shared stash, and settings are not being loaded. So now when you boot up the game, there is a new section with buttons that lets you restore these files and merge them into the new location so nothing should be lost. Sorry about that and please let me know if you still have any issues! The Buttons may not work in every scenario, but it can probably be done manually.

Bug Fixes:

  • Fixed a new bug caused by a recent patch change that was making the UI Jump indicator not go away.
  • Fixed a couple new bugs on Region 2 The Valley from a recent patch change. The walkable Ground area was messed up and the optional Shrine Quest was not progressing.

Patch v0.9015 - Improvements and Fixes

Patch v0.9015



  • Improved several tooltips and descriptions (all Minor Augments and some Gear).
  • Fixed some bugs around Crafting Items, such as Gear Maximizers not consuming Reforge Points.
  • Fixed some walkable areas in The Valley region.
  • Fixed a quest bug in The Valley (First quest: if you killed target from very far away it wouldn't proceed to the cinematic)
  • Fixed a bug created last patch from back-end changes I'm making for the new upcoming Controller/WASD support.
  • Fixed some other back-end inefficiencies and slightly improved cpu performance.

Patch v0.9014 - Bug fixes

Patch v0.9014



  • Fixed major Leap issue that would cause the player to get stuck in the jump animation and not able to move. (For those curious it was to do with the pathfinding system which if it didn't find a viable path to the destination, it would fallback to an alternate method, but I had inadvertently bricked the fallback method when I was working on another mechanic).
  • Large tooltips that were sometimes partly rendering off-screen should now be "smarter" and always render on-screen.
  • Fixed tooltips not showing details on Crafting Items at the Science Station.
  • Fixed Item Rerollers which were accidentally working on Gear as well but not supposed to.
  • Fixed Crown of Fortune Head Gear which had a problem on the 3d model that was causing other issues.

Patch v0.9013 - Bug Fixes

Patch v0.9013



  • Fixed bug on Head Gear, The Defiler's Helm, which made it unusable and caused a crash.
  • Temporarily adjusted the size of Gear Tooltips to be a bit smaller to not go off screen as much. A better implementation is in the works.
  • Adjusted some tooltip descriptions to explain themselves better.

Patch v0.9012 - Quest Fixes

Patch v0.9012



  • Fixed Corporation Guide not spawning one of the choices.
  • Fixed Hag quest not progressing through cinematic.

Patch v0.9010 - New Feature and lots of fixes and improvements

New Feature!


As requested by several players, all item tooltips now have a preview of the item shape! Especially useful for comparing items from the ground.

Improvements:



  • Assigning targets to your summons is easier now. Just press whatever hotkey you've set for "Minion Target" (default Left Shift), while hovering over a target and your summons will try to prioritize them if possible. I also added a tooltip to the hotkey settings panel explaining it.
  • Several UI fixes for non 16:9 resolutions.
  • Several enemy audio and vfx improvements.

Fixes:


Waves mode:



  • I do believe I've finally found and fixed the dreaded "wave 994" bug in The Waves mode where no new wave would spawn after defeating wave 994., thus ending your run before reaching the pinnacle wave and Achievement!!!
  • Reset health per wave perk was working but not updating the player's HUD UI.
  • Proper despawning of enemies in various situations to avoid random rare bugs.
  • Destroy Ground Loot button fixed.
  • Fixed some loot errors from trying to spawn older legacy items.

Other:



  • Strike was incorrectly allowing "Sacrifice cooldown for damage" minor aug to be equipped.
  • Fixed a bug where the tutorial starting potion wouldn't spawn.
  • Fixed some new pathing issues in the Hub from a previous update.
  • Fixed some environmental water issues in a few regions.
  • Escaping out of changing hotkeys will no longer close the entire settings menu.

Lots more small fixes but not too relevant to players.
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