Facepunch, the developer founded by the creator of Garry's Mod, Garry Newman, has announced an end to experience points and the entire levelling system in its open world, sandbox sim with nudity, Rust. Although a core component of the game's experience, Facepunch said that it was counter-intuitive to the game it was trying to make.
"Eventually we'd like to never have to wipe and just have decay and resource management take care of the server, [but] XP was not compatible with this goal without all kinds of workarounds and hacks forced in like some sort of prestige system," Facepunch said in a statement (via PCG).
The problem with the levelling system, was that it encouraged play to be focused around that feature. Players would enter the game and rush to hit max level, rather than scavenging and taking part in the emergent gameplay that Rust encourages. Moving forward, Rust will have no way to level up and every recipe and craftable will be available from the start, but you'll need to find the items to make them.
This is now known as the Component System, which requires you to find specific 'components' in order to craft specific items. Those components are not craftable themselves, so should encourage exploration and trading in the world.
Facepunch also said that radiation will be making a comeback, though it has been revised based on
