I have been playing on the Cast Rust project for over half a year, so I can evaluate it not based on a first impression but on how it has changed over time. Unfortunately, the impression now is that the project is practically abandoned; only the server rent is being paid and that's it.
A few months ago, the server was actively developing. The player count regularly exceeded 150, events and contests were held, the administration responded promptly to complaints, suspicious players were regularly checked, and the project itself was gradually gaining popularity.
Today, the situation has completely changed.
The main problem is that the project owner, Dmitry, has practically stopped working on the server's development. For several months now, the server descriptions and their tags have not been updated, there is no work at all to attract new players, and community suggestions are either completely ignored or receive a "we'll do it later" response, after which they are simply forgotten.
The server rules appear underdeveloped and leave many contentious points. There is virtually no proper administration or moderation. The project's social networks are also abandoned and have not been updated for a long time. The exception is the Telegram chat, where one moderator appears periodically who, according to many players, issues mutes at their own discretion, often not adhering to the rules and the established punishment durations. Complaints about such situations go unaddressed by Dmitry.
It is also worth separately noting serious server performance issues. For a long time, players have been complaining about low performance, lag, and unstable server operation. Instead of finding and fixing the real causes, the project owner tries to reduce the load by cutting back gameplay: Deep Sea is cut back, NPCs are disabled, animals are frozen, the number of players on the server is reduced, and other limitations are introduced. However, this does not bring a noticeable improvement in performance—most players hardly feel any difference.
The most telling indicator of the project's state is the player count. If earlier in the first days of a wipe the server consistently gathered 150+ players even outside of holidays, now on the first day of a wipe, in the summer when everyone has vacations and holidays, the online player count is only around 60 people. For a project of this scale, this is a very noticeable drop.
As a result, most of the old players and almost all major clans have left the project. Many of them openly state that they do not plan to return. Our clan has also decided to leave the server for projects that are more actively developed.
It is very sad to see such a situation, because the project really had great potential. At one time, Cast Rust was one of the most promising servers for beginners in Rust, especially in the Novosibirsk region. However, without active management, regular work with the community, quality administration, and technical development, it is impossible to retain players.
Players have repeatedly told Dmitry to take care of the project. In response, he either ignored messages or once again promised to get to the project soon, but in the end did nothing for months. From this, the logical conclusion follows by itself that the server has been abandoned and they don't particularly want to do anything with it.
