The Heart Of The City 2.00

Heart of the City is a full urban map built to immerse players with a richer city environment.

Instead of treating the city structures as monument scenery, HOTC lets players use it. Across the map, many natural rock formations have been replaced with city-based build locations, giving players places to build inside, around, under, and on top of urban structures while still keeping monument areas controlled and playable.

This map is best for server owners who want more than another procedural-feeling wipe. HOTC gives your players a dense city identity, unique landmarks, event spaces, race areas, custom monuments, vertical exploration, and hundreds of unusual build opportunities.

• A true city-wide Rust map, not just one city monument.
• Hundreds of city-based build locations where players can build inside, around, and on top of urban structures.
• 11 custom monument types, including West Coast Casino, KPC Island, Bradley Arena, Art Gallery and more!
• Urban transportation, including bridges, skytrains, urban streets and highways, and sewer tunnels.
• Event-ready spaces for racing, art, events, admin activities, and community gatherings.
• PVE/PVP flexibility, with casual T1 areas, card puzzles, vertical exploration, and high-value locations.
• Optional plugin support for Better NPC and Bank Heist.

HOTC is the map that hosted Cupid's Starlight Festival, a Rust charity event. It was rebuilt from that experience, and now lets other server owners run an urban wipe with event-ready locations, buildable city spaces, custom monuments, all the while supporting a valiant cause. 
Version 2.0 was rebuilt after our CUPID’s Starlight Festival, a Rust charity event supporting Starlight Children’s Foundation. The event brought players, artists, builders, racers, performers, and donors together inside the Heart of the City world, raising over $6,500 for Starlight. HOTC 2.0 carries that work forward: 50% of all future HOTC purchases will be forwarded to Starlight Children’s Foundation. Their mission is to create smiles and memories for seriously ill children and their families through hospital-to-home programs. 

HOTC’s custom monuments are designed to make the city feel playable at every scale. Some locations are small, familiar loot stops. Others are major server landmarks built for progression, combat, puzzles, events, or player gathering.
 

A large, map central casino monument with a multi-stage progression path. Players will need fuses, blue and red cards, and explosives to push through security and break into the casino vault.

This is intended as one of the map’s signature high-value objectives: recognizable, dangerous, and easy for players to understand as a major destination.

A custom race and event island built by @Wizla for the CUPID’s Starlight Festival charity event. KPC Island was designed for vehicle-focused gameplay, server-hosted races, stunt jumps, and hidden underground exploration through Karuza Labs.

Server owners can use this area as a race hub, event arena, vehicle vendor area, or special weekend destination. Custom vehicles and race systems are not included with the map, but the space is built to support those kinds of events.


 

 
A tall jump puzzle tower spanning multiple buildings with a hackable crate at the top. Lootable parachutes are placed at each milestone of the Mega Skyscraper for quick exit options.

A massive arena guarded by a circling Bradley and soldiers.

A vertical monument designed to have players search individual apartment units through the building.

A small and easy monument similar to oxum's gas station, built with dining area, bathrooms, office, and kitchen.

Consists of 1 Supermarket and 3 additional similar storefronts with various T1/2 loot. 

 

An old abandoned bus depot, buses explorable with T1 loot. Green card left abandoned on the payphones at the main building.


 

 
An outdoor gym along the eastern beach strip. T1 loot and greencard found here.

A safe-zone art space built for community servers, events, painting sessions, and player-made memories. The gallery includes indoor and outdoor canvas areas, side buildings, and gathering space for events.

During CUPID’s Starlight Festival, player art and donation-driven painting became part of the event’s identity. This monument gives other servers a place to create that same kind of community moment.

A Safe Zone for players to hang out, and ride bikes/other various custom vehicles. Has functional vending machines for resources, components and food.

Various styles of bridges spanning over city drainage, canyons, and even bridging the three main islands together. Bridges are a crucial route of transportation for players, so I have taken measures to make them non-buildable.

Several Skytrain Stations around the map serve as spawn points for train wagons and blueprint fragments. Train stations connect all train rails above ground across the map.
 
 




A large, now dried and dusty park. No longer green, the area is being milled and mined by the giant excavator until all ore is depleted.

Long flat strips of concrete draining into the ocean water from the urban landscapes. Buildable areas with lots of space for large bases. Also contains long tunnels capable of transporting vehicles.

 




A long strip of roads, docks and walkways along the eastern beachside. Many various build spots along the strip and docks.

 




Spilled oil has ruined the vegitation and land around here. Bandit Camp, fresh water, and plenty of interesting build space.

 




A long highway strip through the desert. Open ground, anvil rocks, and a sulfur quarry in a trench.

 




Filled with skyscrapers and various buildings. A highly dense area with lots of vantage points. A path of destruction from some form of meteor appears to have taken out many of the buildings in the area. This part of the downtown area is filled with uneven ground and plenty of nodes. An HQM quarry has been set up in the area for even more allure to the goods.

 




A sub-level basement inside sat dish, a data center with old abandoned recordings. Lost loot and a red card lie beyond the blue keyreader. SAM sites protect Satellite Dish atop the northwestern mountain. Highly compatible with Sat Dish Event by @KpucTaJl

 




Various new city-like water sources like pools, fountains, and old ponds.

 




Hundreds of city-based build sites exist across the map. Players can build on most buildings outside of monument areas. Basements, collapsed skyscrapers, building roofs, open skyscraper floors are all fair game around the map. 

 
Dozens of jumps for bikes and cars exist around the map, see where they will take you!

 




A lonely heart shaped island far off in the north east of the map. This island is barren and designed for events and other admin activities. 



 

Help Improve HOTC:

If you run Heart of the City on your server, please consider leaving an honest review after you have tested it or used it in a wipe.

The most helpful reviews mention:

• Your server type, PVE/PVP/Mixed
• Approximate population
• How setup/install went
• Which monuments or areas players noticed most
• Whether players used the unique map mechanics
• Performance notes
• What you would like improved in a future update

Positive, mixed, and critical feedback are all useful! I would rather have real server-owner feedback so we can improve the map and help other owners know whether HOTC fits their server.