Neil Young taught us that rust never sleeps, and true to that, Facepunch Studios announces a major change to Rust adding an experience and leveling system to the survival game (first TF2 adds matchmaking and now this!). This developer blog outlines the changes, and offers this trailer explaining their new merged XP system. Here's word:

If you don't have time to watch the video, here's what's up. Certain actions in Rust are now rewarded with increases in both your player level and XP. With each level you gain, you’ll have access to more items to spend your XP on. This allows you to select a path through the game's upgrades. You'll still have to gather the resources to craft them, but it should also make the game less of a loot crap shoot and more enjoyable.

Anything you craft--or have gathered the resources for--will continue to provide XP for you. If someone else uses it, you'll receive a small share of the generated XP. This hopefully gives players a reason to not immediately kill new spawns and cannibalise them. Taking pity on them and giving them a tool will benefit you both.

We're cleverly calling this an 'XP System'. When other games catch on to what we've done, we expect it to become the norm.