An update to Rust introduced the clan table that increased the team size to 32, which some Government members assumed would solve the issue of friendly fire, so they agreed that jump checks would be abandoned for their Sept 2023 wipe on US Rustinity 2x monthly large, but did not inform every member about the agreement. Unfortunately, many members still used the team system (partly because the clan table was chronically full). Members split into different voice channels and sometimes had no interest in cross-communication. For these reasons, rates of friendly-fire had increased. The culture of the server was chaotic, which compounded the sense of confusion, as it was a 2x server with 520 players on wipe day with frequent crashes that led to rollbacks.

On 8th Sept, a Government team started fighting the Government clan (or a second team), which were unable (or not interested) to identify eachother as teammates. There was an unwritten rule that members were only allowed to open fire when on "the" team system, so members returning fire wouldn't have assumed they were engaged against friendlies. The battle started at the nearby excavator landmark where both sides met in battle-ready fashion, with fighting also taking place in the village. There were losses on both sides, with periods of peace during times when both sides were confident that their opposition were fellow Government members, but the peace descended back into chaotic fighting because nobody seemed interested in improving communication (still relying heavily on the clan system). Uniforms had rarely been used, and overlapping communication was not practiced.

One factor that may have inflamed the conflict was that it was happening during the War of the Four Towers where the Government villagers were fighting everyday against convicted cheaters that were invading the village, so (with little time to check targets) the villagers were firing on pretty much everything that moved (although many teamkills were simply down to pure bloodthirst). An enemy van and some choppers were destroyed in this period, along with countless bandits being killed both in the village and the excavator; villagers were quick to capture guns from any potential fallen opponent. The Government president stepped in and talked about the issue of friendly fire after trying to return downed weaponry to its rightful owners following the infighting.

A negative result of the civil war was that some villagers were demotivated by the friendly fire; atleast one Government chopper had been mistakenly shot down, which was said to have had the president onboard at the time. A positive impact of the civil war was that some villagers that had entered the fighting from a primitive position may have ended up with better weaponry after the president redistributed the guns - it was impractical to figure out exactly which guns should be given back to which players. The benefit of the guns being shuffled between villagers was that the most primitive members (the members furthest back in the arms race) ended up with better weapons, placing them in a better position to help defend against the invading bandits as the War of the Four Towers continued.

Civil wars

Main index
- Groups index
-- The Government
--- Government index
---- Government civil wars