Once Oxide is installed and working it is a simple case to install plugins and features for Rust, just find a plugin that has the feature you want, copy it to the plugin folder and the Rust compiler will simply load the plugin automatically and generate the required config files which you can then edit to setup the features you want. 

This is where it gets both interesting and in-depth since Rust is now a 10 year old game and some plugins are very old, not maintained, outdated in functionality or more common now, behind paywalls where much of the modders scene back in the day was open source and free for all to use, this began to change as players created their own modded and paywalled servers and started to profit off the work of others and now some plugins demand a higher cost than the actual game itself costs. 

There are still loads of great free plugins to add some decent features tho some of the larger and most desirable ones do have a cost involved. A good word of advice is to try keep plugins to a minimum and install and test one at a time because sometimes issues arise, some plugins need to be manually fixed and updated and some plugins can conflict with others so a lot of testing is needed. 

Free Plugins Installed

For free plugins you can get them here:  https://umod.org/plugins

The following is a list of free plugins I installed and the reason. I have marked these ad “admin” which means they are used only for admin or system reasons, “feature” meaning the plugin adds a new feature to the game and “qol” meaning the plugin modifies the gameplay for a better experience

• Admin Panel / Admin Radar (admin): These 2 plugins create a quick access panel for admins and moderators to enable features to assist with admining a server such as showing where players and NPCs are on a map, location of stashes etc. This is basically an ESP suit of tools and should only be used by an admin  who needs to admin the server.
• Anti Offline Raid (feature): Prevents people raiding your base when you logoff with 48 hour protection. Logging off will cause your base to become 100% unraidable after 10 minutes and slowly drop protection allowing raids to happen but at the cost of much greater resources. After 48 hours the protection wears of completely allowing abandoned bases to be raided. All a player needs to do is login every day for 15 minutes to keep their base protected rewarding players who maintain somee gameplay. 
• Automatic Authorization (qol): Authorizes players who auth on the main Tool Cupboard on all door locks, locked crates and turrets for a base so they no longer have to enter codes on all your doors. Can be configured to not auth on boxes for instance so you can keep your goodies safe from team members.
• Auto Pickup Barrel (qol): Causes your character to automatically pick-up loot from a barrel when you destroy it saving having to look around on the ground.
• Better Loot (qol): This is explained in a lot more detail below but this is used in conjunction with the Looty Website to generate completely new loot tables or change how the loot system in the game works. It should be noted this can easily ruin the gameplay if you get loot distribution wrong.
• Bradley Guards (feature): Will cause heavy guards to appear once Bradley takes on damage requiring a further gunfight and increasing the difficulty.
• Building Workbench (qol): Simply extends the range of the workbenches throughout the entire base to allow crafting without having to stand next to a workbench.
• Copy / Paste (admin): This is a required plugin for the “Raidable Bases” plugin to allow bases to be generated but is also used by admin (and approved users) to easily copy any base as a template and paste it back again. 
• Crafting Controller (qol): Offers the ability to adjust the crafting times globally or per craftable item. Used to decrease craft times for some items
• Discord Logger / Discord Report (admin): Allow integration of game and server messages to a discord channel.
• Heli Control (qol): Allows adjustments over the Patrol Helicopter such as fire rate of the gun, how many rockets or fire missiles it shoots, the damage it can inflict and the speed it travels. Used in conjunction with some server commands to make the Heli less likely to flee when engaged and also to go down where you kill it instead of trying to flee to the closest monument
• Inbound (qol): Shows messages in chat when Heli, Chinook, Bradley, Cargo or Oil Rig events start allowing players to prepare if they want to take them on. 
• Info Panel (qol): A customisable OSD panel that is used in game to show the in-game time, how many players online/sleeping and if the Patrol Heli, Cargo Ship, Chinook Crate Drop and Bradley events are active and available on the map. 
• Kits (feature): Allows admins to create player kits which can be redeemed using in-game currency or for free. Used currently to offer starter kits for players when they first start
• Mini Copter Options (feature):  Allows for the addition of storage crates to the mini copter so players can carry items in their heli as well as setting an option to drop the items and the loaded fuel instead of it “burning up” when the heli is destroyed.
• Monuments Recycler (qol): I would class this as a QOL addition as it doesn’t change gameplay much. This simply adds a recycler to the oil rigs and the cargo ship so players can recycle components when doing these missions. 
• NPC Spawn (admin): This is just a controller plugin that is used by other plugins that can create NPCs but it is needed to use plugins such as SpawnNPC or RESpawnNPC.
• Ping (admin): Detects players who join that have a high Ping and automatically kicks them from the game. Useful to allow only local (Australian) players to connect and play.
• Quick Smelt (qol): Adjusts the timers for smelting different resources or globally along with the amounts given. Used to decrease smelting time by 2x.
• Remover Tool (admin): Admin tool to remove any placed entity in the game. Used to assist in designing bases for raid base events. 
• Sign Artist (qol): Allows images or text to be applied directly to signs and canvases. Use it as an admin to generate text signs but it is usable by players in game if they know how. 
• Skip Night Vote (qol): Opens up a vote in chat allowing online players to vote to skip night as it gets dark. Since night can be too dark to do much it allows for more gameplay however sometimes it is nice to have night occur so looking into methods to allow it to only work sometimes. 
• Sort Button (qol): Adds a simple sort button to containers allowing a container to be quick sorted by category of item or name of item
• Stack Size Controller (qol): Allows adjusting the amount of components and items that can bee stacked in a single slot. Use this plugin to increase stack size globally by 2x while increasing some other items such as medpens and bandages by 6 allowing for more healing on the go. 
• Timed Events (qol): Allows adjustment of the event times and how many people need to be online for the events to begin for the Patrol Heli, Cargo Ship, Chinook Drop, Air Drops, Oil Rig and Bradley events occur. For this server I make Cargo less often, about every 1.5 – 2 hours and Patrol Heli more often between 45mins and 1.5 hours with a chance that 2 patrol helis will spawn. 
• Vehicle Licenses (feature): Creates a vehicle license system where players can purchase vehicles normally at the vendors or using the /buy command in chat. For this feature the cost of vehicles is quite high however once you purchase a vehicle it can be spawned anywhere any time allowing you to call your vehicle or respawn it when it is destroyed. This is such a useful plugin that all players love.     

That is most of the free plugins used on this server and the reasons I have installed them but there are a couple of paid plugins that offer some of the most fun features…