Rust monster spawn animations

[LuisEdGm]

It always bothered me how sudden the spawning of monsters is, while animals feel like they actually exist in the world, monsters just "pop" up, it feels way too gamey. Also would be nice to have a heads up with visual/audio to know when you have to stop building and pick up a weapon because the rift activity suddenly switched from calm to high without notice.

Drifters: They would slowly rise from the ground from a small rift in their "dead" pose, then wake up, do a louder, slightly different moan so the player can notice it as a new spawn and start moving.

Crawling Drifters: The animation would differ slightly, midway through their rise the rift would suddently close and crush their legs, the drifter would "wake up" with a painful moan and a crack sound can be heard by the player, the drifter would drag themselves from the closing rift and start attacking the player.

Bowtorn: These annoying freaks would get the slowest spawn, they would fall from a horizontal rift opening about 3~4 blocks above ground, the animation would be very notiable, so the player has a chance to close the distance or run away before the pests start shooting.

Shiver: They would have the fastest, but loudest animation, it begins with a small vertical rift opening above the ground, the shiver quickly shoves its head and front limbs out of rift as it begins to close, the animation is frantic, filled with desperation, the shiver scratches the ground several times until it manages to grip it and pull its body out of the rift while shrieking loudly, after finally pulling itself out of the rift it looks back into it with relief as if it had escaped from something much more terrifying than itself.

Bell: The spawn is similar to Drifters, slowly rising from a horizontal rift in the ground, it rings the bell once with a soft unassuming "ding" that can be heard echoing really far away.

Chainsaw Locust: The locust needs no rift, it opens one itself using the sawblade, then it slowly crawls out of the rift it opened like a scorpion menacingly moving out of its burrow to hunt.

Edited June 5, 2025 by LuisEdGm
typo again

[Maelstrom]

I like them just blinking into existence.   It's much Lovecraftian love there, imo.  Lovecraft's characters had to be alert, perceptive and have their head on a swivel to survive.

[lying_dice]

definitely a good idea imo. I feel that in general there is not enough audible warning about danger in this game. The rust monsters never seem to make any noise before they start hitting me. Wolves are even worse imo, they only seem to growl after their first lunge or after you've already run past them and seemingly never before they're a threat.

[Maelstrom]

Haven't heard that complaint about wolves.  I usually hear them growl plenty long before I encounter them.  Bears on the other hand.  Usually the only time I know they're there is when I spot them.  Only audio I hear is after I already know they've agro'd on me.

[Shadelight]

Seconded. Them just popping in feels... unfinished.

[LadyWYT]

I agree with @Maelstrom on this; the monsters are from a separate dimension entirely, and either spawn from rifts, in temporal storms(which are essentially giant rifts), or places deep underground/other select areas where the Rust world is bleeding through into reality.

I can't say that I've read Lovecraft, but the general vibe I get from Lovecraftian themes when I encounter them is that...the stuff's not really meant to be explainable or understandable. That's what makes it so unnerving when done well, is that the stuff will exist despite defying all known logic, and the heroes(victims?) in question have to figure out how to deal with something they really can't comprehend.

[Shadelight]

1 hour ago, LadyWYT said:

I agree with @Maelstrom on this; the monsters are from a separate dimension entirely, and either spawn from rifts, in temporal storms(which are essentially giant rifts), or places deep underground/other select areas where the Rust world is bleeding through into reality.

I can't say that I've read Lovecraft, but the general vibe I get from Lovecraftian themes when I encounter them is that...the stuff's not really meant to be explainable or understandable. That's what makes it so unnerving when done well, is that the stuff will exist despite defying all known logic, and the heroes(victims?) in question have to figure out how to deal with something they really can't comprehend.

But why not at least add a minor blur effect to when they spawn in? Or something similar? It would still be eldritch in vibes, but not jarring in a way that makes one think the game is still unfinished.

[Maelstrom]

A blur effect could be cool.  If done right.  Maybe like an out of focus camera taking a couple seconds to focus.

[LadyWYT]

20 minutes ago, Shadelight said:

But why not at least add a minor blur effect to when they spawn in? Or something similar? It would still be eldritch in vibes, but not jarring in a way that makes one think the game is still unfinished.

Oh, yeah, a blur effect would be a bit more immersive, as well as fit the overall effects that are already present in the game.

[Shadelight]

2 hours ago, Maelstrom said:

Maybe like an out of focus camera taking a couple seconds to focus.

Oh, I like that. Gives a feeling of 'they were already here' with a dash of 'your awareness hadn't picked up on them immediately - how strange...'

However the taking-some-time-to-focus thing should be dependent on how close these rust monsters are to you, for balance reasons - nobody wants to fight a barely-discernable blob while it's charging at you at full speed. Monsters within, say, 5 blocks of your location should take less than a second to fully lose their blur. Monsters that are farther than that, though, can take longer, as it adds to the atmosphere.

Edited July 5, 2025 by Shadelight