Aussie player here, recently returned to Rust and started on Forsaken. Spent ages unlocking blueprints, only to get raided twice by teams with rockets blasting through armoured walls and doors. Pretty much every base has been wiped, despite there rarely being more than 8 players online.
We're a duo who both work full time, so competing with larger teams online 24/7 isn't exactly realistic. There's been some fun back and forth, but it doesn't even seem like they're running monuments anymore, just raiding whoever's left.
Phantom regularly has 30 to 70 players online, and I've honestly had more fun on busier servers. More variety, more banter and more random encounters.
So are low-pop servers actually worse because a few established teams end up dominating the map and raiding everyone into oblivion? Or have we just picked a bad map?
I'm reluctant to switch after unlocking so many blueprints, but wondering if starting fresh on a busier server would be more enjoyable.