This was a Rust News article published 26th Sep 2024 in the Satire category.

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Former US president Donald J. Trump generously took time out of his busy election campaign schedule to write an endorsement of The Rust Government:

"Let me tell you, folks, The Rust Government is something special. Founded by a visionary named Jeff, this incredible clan has evolved into a strong, democratic powerhouse in the gaming world. They've got a system that truly recognizes talent—real competition, no cheating—believe me!

They've got a system, a democratic system, that's just fantastic. Members vote for their president, for their server each month – true democracy in action! And let me tell you, their leadership structure, it's incredible. Generals, officers, grunts – they've got it all.

And their village, it's a sight to behold. They've got clan bases, farms, businesses, it's like a mini-city. And the defense system, wow, it's like Fort Knox. They've got a strong community base, they’ve got outer walls, and it's always active – they don't sleep, they don't rest until the job is done.

Now, I know what you're thinking, "Donald, what about the foreign relations?" Well, let me tell you, they know how to make deals and make alliances. But foremost, they do what's best for their clan. And that's what I love about them, they’re not afraid to put America first, I mean, The Rust Government first.

And the raids, oh boy. People say they've got over a thousand rockets, and they hit anyone that tries to threaten them. And the loot system, it's fair, it's just. They divide it up, they make sure everyone gets a piece of the action.

So if you're looking for a group that's got it all, camaraderie, the best system, the best everything, then look no further than The Rust Government. Believe me, it's going to be huge, it's going to be tremendous. You won't regret it, folks, I promise you that."

The Government

Main index
- Rust News
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SMG is a clan known in the United States Rust scene from their theatrical streams and YouTube videos showing aggressive raids where they make wild assumptions about their opponents.

Their leader has been publishing videos of Rust since August 2014, and the "SMG clan" itself has existed since atleast June 2022, which is organized in a Discord server, and filters applicants on a competitive basis.

They play on servers such as Rusticated US Main and Rustafied US Long III, and have been documented launching savage attacks against the Government in Jan 2024 and Feb 2025.

https://web.archive.org/web/20250105012909/https://www.youtube.com/@VincentSMG/videos

Main index
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This is an article for planning maps during the Government's May 2023 wipe.

Government planning map dated 2nd May 2023, described "area 1 build spot":
https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3426470717

Government planning map 2nd May 2023:
https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3429312918

Government "map projection" dated 4th May 2023:
https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3429314234

The Government ultimately built in H4, because a zerg was already established in their original planning spot (somewhere around F15).

Gov May 2023 map

Main index
- Groups index
-- The Government
--- Government index
---- Government wipe history
----- Government May 2023 wipe

SMG had launched an impressive assault on 15th Feb 2025 - with practically no preparation or supplies, they had joined a server that had a queue, and without stopping to even organise their team, they had the determination to storm a village, and managed to co-ordinate their efforts while under fire from end-game weapons. They showed skill with primitive weapons, and did have some moments of success. At one point they had captured a rifle, and wanted to move it to an improvised raid base, planning to use it to suppress Government snipers, but they only had a few bullets. While only around 13 raiders were seen together, I imagine that their numbers were closer to 30, partially comprised of stream fans. One Gov member suggested that "SMG had bagged 40 people".

The Government had a decentralized culture, and their defense was spread thin across their village - they were competent enough with their designs to prevent the raiders from snowballing, but I wonder if they could have done a little better considering that the attackers managed to eco raid into one of the buildings. The attackers gained no items from breaking in (to the wooden section of Blockhouse 61) though, so it might not be surprising that the Government didn't rush to protect it. SMG's statement that there were 20 Government defenders could have been an exaggeration, as they might not all have been in the village (or even in the server), but there were certainly times when the Gov had over 20 members online. Towards the end of the battle, the number could easily have been higher, as members would have wanted to join the action.

The Government barely commented in their Discord server about SMG's revenge attack. At the time, relations between the two groups were poor, and Gov members seemed distracted by internal conflict.

The owner of Blockhouse 61 came online afterwards and noticed a hole in the garage wall, damage to the car, and also noticed that the repair bench was missing, and wondered "what kind of maniac would break into a base just to destroy a repair bench" but wasn't aware that SMG had caused the damage, until later noticing a video of the raid. A donation of stone was offered to reinforce Blockhouse 61. To help prevent the car being vandalized again, the power supply for the car ramp in the building was now left switched off, with the switch being protected in a secure room, until it was realized that the car ramp had to be left powered on to stop the car from decaying, so the engine parts and fuel were removed instead.

A meme about the battle:
https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3428964407

Little damage had been done to the bases of the village, taking a few minutes to repair. SMG referenced placing grief TCs, but I didn't notice or hear of any that were actually built, and I doubt that the Government had plans to expand the village this late into the wipe anyway. One villager later went around chopping up sleeping bags that probably belonged to the raiders, and had a friendly fire incident while doing it.

In the balance of items, I doubt that the Gov had gained anything, as captured weaponry would have been overshadowed by the countless bullets they had spent during the battle - they probably had to repair many of their guns and replace thousands of bullets.

I imagine that the Government members were picking their targets carefully, not wanting to waste bullets on raid spectators or stream snipers, and they had been struggling to manage a team system in the days leading up to the battle, so they might have also struggled with friendly fire - the battle may have refreshed a sense of value for the team system, and motivated the crafting of more ammunition, which would have been difficult at the time because most of the local mining nodes were not respawning (I think due to stone nodes not being mined, as there was a massive surplus of stone in the village economy).

The deployment of so many turrets had resulted in villagers getting teamkilled by turrets more frequently; there was a "right not to get shot by turrets in the village" but some players didn't seem to feel that the Government's collection of bases during this wipe were a "village". Extra turrets were said to have been deployed especially to protect against SMG, and it sounded like the turrets had caused more trouble for the villagers than SMG did.

Main index
- Groups index
-- The Government
--- Government index
---- Government wipe history
----- Government Feb 2025 wipe
------ SMG's revenge against the Government

SMG had attacked the Government village during their Jan 2024 wipe, which was documented in a Rust News article. In February 2025, it was said that SMG "have spies in [The Government's] Discord", and that they had seen the Gov's village on Rustafied US Long III before planning a new attack, set for Saturday 15th Feb. Knowing about the upcoming attack, the Government set up a series of turrets.

SMG warmed up on UKN before launching their attack, which they streamed as expected on 15th Feb, gaining over 1,000 views; they would call for support both on their stream and on the in-game chat. With many players ready in their Discord server, their leader stated "the army has formed", and explained the vengeful justification for the raid "there's a village - they stream snipe me - we're gonna **** with them so hard". Another SMG member said of the Government that "they're not very nice people".

https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3426433414


The server had a small queue, and any sleeping bags that SMG had placed in the area beforehand were gone, but they weren't deterred by these constraints. They spawned on the north coast and ran down to approach the village from the south-west. When they arrived, they set up shacks, deployed sleeping bags, and found the location of the Government's turrets. They were under fire from Government villagers, with shots often flying over them, but they managed to scrounge some weapons from barrels, and then swarm the villagers one by one in hit-and-run attacks. If an SMG member with a gun got killed, then one who was following picked up the gun and continued fighting.

SMG's rabble had around a dozen or more members; they had no uniform, and only a few ever got on a team system or had the SMG clantag. Inevitably there were some moments of friendly fire among the raiders. It looked like they were having to fight random players when flanking towards the village, which cost them some weapons. They noted that there were 20 Government members online.

They were down to crossbows when they came across a creative base constructed by a Government general at AB8, which they vandalised until coming under fire again, and almost won the firefight using their crossbows.

https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3428902496

I imagine that the Government's focus was distracted by these encounters, and took a minute to react after SMG (now numbering atleast 13 players) picked a new target - on the north-west edge of the village there stood Blockhouse 61 which sported a Rust News sign, which SMG did not seem aware of previously, but immediately recognized the sign when they saw it, and, remembering the Rust News article written about them, they attacked it, hacking at the wooden walls on the southern side of the building's garage section with primitive weapons and tools.

https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3428888846

Government fire forced the vandals to move over to the western side of the base, which they continued hitting until the villagers moved up and fired at close range, downing several of the raiders.

https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3428889994

Some raiders escaped, and then regrouped, before rushing through an external gate that had been left open. The compound they entered belonged to bandits that had been eliminated by the Government, so SMG were vandalising a "ghost town". SMG's leader was accidentally teamkilled by a player with a rock in their frenzy to destroy the remains of the bandit's compound.

A repair bench near the swamp was destroyed by SMG, and they set to work attempting to TC grief the village. Another attempt to break into Blockhouse 61 was repelled by the threat of grenades and sniper fire, but they soon returned when night fell, resulting in chaotic fighting in the darkness, perhaps complicated by stream snipers. At sunrise, the raiders continued to hack away on the western wall despite now being under fire from a nearby base, impressively managing to break into it.

https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3428891374

Storming in, the vandals wanted to damage the base from the inside "like termites", using the car lift to remove the car's codelock, and climbing the ladder into the window room to destroy a repair bench and damage a window campfire, before soft-siding the wooden walls.

https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3428892704

They were under fire from outside the base, as a Government member was firing into the base through the windows at long range. A player inside the base swung a melee weapon at the raiders, and they swarmed to kill him. The owner of the base was offline. For a moment, the raiding party were hanging out in the base enjoying their success, and a Government member ran in and killed the SMG leader.

https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3428893474

The termites then targeted the wall holding the Rust News sign. The base was littered with dozens of bodies both inside and out, as they seemed to be attacked by villagers and stream snipers. It sounded like thousands of shots had been fired. Nearly all the players (on both sides) were using melee weapons. SMG were trying to keep track of which nicknames were opponents, which they referred to as "randoms" that enjoyed Rambo's advantage - it was hard to tell who was on what side.

After they had "successfully ****ed with that base", they had an improvised rave inside the damaged base, until the player blasting music was murdered. They then moved their attention to the nearby base that they had been getting shot from, attempting to build a pair of jump-over towers to get over the external stone wall, but the defender shot them before the towers were high enough to be useful.

https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3428894485

SMG abandoned the jump towers when a dramatic twist happened - a player gave SMG the code to a clan base in the lake at X5, which contained some loot including guns, armor, and rocket launchers.

https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3428901450

The code to the clan base was then supposedly leaked, and SMG had several firefights trying to keep control of it while kitting up. Once they'd grabbed the loot, they abandoned the clan base, heading back out to attack the Government village again.

I imagine that some more Government members had come online, as they now seemed to have a good volume of fire again, slowing this new SMG offensive approaching the village from the north-west. SMG themselves had little ammunition and few rockets. Both sides were aggressive; some Government pushed up towards the lake, and both sides quickly took losses.

The Government villagers may have pushed up too far - SMG managed to flank around the battle to reach village again on multiple occasions, but were halted by the turrets. In a funny moment, the SMG leader got a kill using a rocket, and blew himself up in the explosion. The Government on the ground were now supported by an attack chopper.

https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3428900362

A stream of the battle ended quite abruptly after 2 hours of fighting. I'm not sure if the battle ended there, but there were no further references of it. I noticed no further damage to the village when I checked it on 16th Feb, and SMG appeared to have left the server.

The battle starts at around 1 hour 13 minutes:
https://www.youtube.com/live/w8L-xAME7Tw

Aftermath of SMG's revenge attack

Attacks against roleplayers
Battles

Main index
- Groups index
-- The Government
--- Government index
---- Government wipe history
----- Government Feb 2025 wipe

< Previous wipe (Jan 2025) | Feb 2025 | Next wipe (Mar 2025) >

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The Government played on ? for February 2025.

SMG's revenge against the Government

This article is partially a stub.

Main index
- Groups index
-- The Government
--- Government index
---- Government wipe history

I don't think that the majority of the Government realised that a coup was attempted in October 2022, which was a particularly busy wipe.

Part of a message explaining the attempt on 16th October (or earlier) read:

if that's your current intent my plan might be a bad one. While talking to everyone tonight about advancing things is my realization that we have a lot of really not great leaders, because generals are decided based on time in VC and not leadership skill.

I consider myself a decent leader, I see you're a good leader, [a member] is solid and I haven't had time to get to know your VP yet but everything I've heard is good. We also have some okay leaders on the officer level that are just shut out because they haven't grinded VC while people like [a member] are straight at the top from afk grinding VC.

A super easy problem I see to solve is getting these good leaders in one place secretly, hence using [a member's] discord as an underground, but collaborating with him to go one level deeper. A channel where you and the other half decent leaders can communicate freely with the active intent to deceieve [the founder] on how organized it is.

This is evolving from my solo basic plan with [a player] to teach basic standards to new players as I talk to more people and realize how receptive people MIGHT be to this. I also got general chat leaks where you guys were talking about creating what Welcoming Committee will be which gave me the idea of going a level deeper.

I respect you have way more insight on how this can backfire, and I'm more than willing to drop it if you think it's a bad idea, or suspect the others may call it out as illigitimate

I assume that "VC" meant voice channel. The leader of the coup was described as being unhappy with the casual attitude that some members had towards competitive gameplay, essentially wanting the leadership to enforce a more competitive culture. From what I understood of further details about this planned "military dictatorship", there was a Google document that would have acted as a guide to indoctrinate new members, and a poor quality fake version of the document would be leaked the throw off any concern about the real one.

The coup leader had experience in "politicized milsim" and felt that the generals were "fractured". He had an "internal list" of members that were "trusted", and mentioned that "I'm well versed in politics, and I hope you can tell by now I'm pretty straight up when it comes to getting what I want done. I'd like to get the framework of our program down as a base infrastructure before we start working on the political angles." There was also mention of promotions potentially being based on politics.

I imagine that the Government probably rejected this "insurrection" because such a "military style dictatorship" was predicted to cause a "catastrophic factional rift." The Government was practically the only group that wasn't run as a military dictatorship, so the members would have wanted to preserve their unique democratic culture. There's doubts about whether the coup would have worked at all, considering that the coup leader's authority "wasn't respected" because he had "berated" multiple members, and only held the rank of Captain. Perhaps in an attempt to better fit into the group, the coup leader became a follower of Eris, which was suggested to be "another possible route for his schemes".

The plan quickly started to unravel though, as the official idea for the Welcoming Committee had been scrapped by 17th October - there was no longer any potential to use the Committee for authoritarian "goals", and the generals increasingly discussed banning the coup leader.

On 19th October, the generals appeared to be in consensus to open a ban court case against the coup leader - one commented: "Players who want to make a difference need to spend the time here and earn their star by playing well with others" and drew up the initial description of charges, including:

• Attempting to undermine the stability of the government in it's current form.
  
• Attempting to start a secret cabal to enforce his own leadership style and rules.

Not all generals agreed on the specific charges, but they seemed to agree that a case should be opened. One general noted that it wasn't the ambition of the coup leader that was an issue, but only his conduct.

The ban court case had been opened by 20th October. The coup leader accused a Rust News writer of essentially having planned the coup, and tried to assert that he wouldn't have been interested in the plan himself if he better understood the culture of the Government. The generals were hesitant about the idea of adding evidence to the trial, which quite clearly showed that the defendant expressed ownership of the plan. I saw no evidence that the Rust News writer had interest in the planned coup.

The arguments made in the trial weren't fully documented, as the case-files channel didn't exist at the time. A veteran recalled that the defendant was "banned by a landslide", and the base of the defendant was noted as having changed hands twice by 22nd October.

Government civil wars
Government Oct 2022 wipe

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

On the morning of 11th Feb 2025, as many as eight Village ban court cases were said to have been opened, which were described as having been justified because the defendants were "Insiders from our first wipe back." The "defendants" were also accused of using alt accounts, though I wouldn't say that it was clear if the accounts were actually alts or not. The Government was having trouble with insiders at around the same time. Atleast one user couldn't be put on trial because they had not yet sent any messages or joined a voice channel.

Around 11 or 13 more Village member accounts were also accused of being alts in trials the next day.

Atleast 15 of the suspected accounts were each given 365 day bans. At the time, the Village had 415 members, so 3.6% of the userbase had been banned as a result of the trials.

There were 7 more cases by 15th Feb, all accused of being alt accounts, with atleast 6 cases each resulting in a ban of 365 days. This brought the total number of bans to atleast 22.

Main index
- Groups index
-- The Village index
--- The Village civil conflicts

This was a Rust News article published 12th Feb 2025 in the Satire category.

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U.S. special government employee Elon Musk has justified his offer to buy the Government:

"So, the, uh, what is the goal of the Government? If we want to make as many rockets as possible, then, we can't just be one clan base, or village. What we can do is, we can scale the Government up, and build an empire, build production lines, and so you'll see the increased rocket output, if you look at it one month after another.

With my investment, I can invest in advertising to bring people in, and get the scale up, and we can set the ban court threshold from 50+1, to 33%, to more easily remove the members that need to be, that need removing. That's not to say that there aren't some good – there are good people that are in the Government, but that’s the whole point of a democracy.

There are quite a few people, in the Government, that somehow accrue a lot of Yen, there seems to be mysteriously they get wealthy, why, where does it come from? We'll describe the payments in future, so we can reconcile the transactions, and we can always look at, moving it on blockchain technology.

The reality of Government intelligence is that, it's important, but it's inconsistent. We need to make information gathering, we'll make it crowd-sourced, to encourage every member to notice when they get useful information, and can pass it to Player Noticed Intelligence, or what I call the PNIT branch. And, I guess every group has a PNIT of some form, but, we'll make sure that ours is the biggest...

One thing, there's this file, if we just delete bad-words.js, then we can finally enjoy free speech in the Discord. What is my plan, to get a return on the investment? The important thing is, make the Government powerful, and then, who knows, maybe PayPal will make an offer to buy it."

The Government

Main index
- Rust News
-- Rust News articles

These graphs show Government Discord server voice channel usage stats. They were originally posted in a text channel of the Discord server.

https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3425303037
https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3425302011

Government graphs

Main index
- Groups index
-- The Government
--- Government index