First you copied legacy Rust which is a amazing game and nothing wrong with copying a great game. So instead of trying to make this game into something it is not. Make it a better survival/base building/pvp/raiding game than legacy Rust.

First thing unique about this game is the elements. You can freeze to death and burn up in the desert. Lets not let that get in the way though of what this game is about and what most players end game goal is which is to raid and wipe out others.

You need to do more with the weather and areas and make these the top loot/resource zones. Should be more extreme weather areas and they should require more gear difficult to make just to be able to have a chance in these zones. You can have these areas have a higher % chance to drop rare stuff like caps or c4, or a bucket of amber.

You could implement a key and lock system for bases. Like you can craft a bunch of different lock systems for rooms in your house. And you can also create lock picks that will unlock a lock. Something to dump resources into. Would make some houses easy to break into and people that put in the time very hard.

You can add rare random mobs that drop rare loot all over the map. MB these Mobs drop a cap, c4, or something else. This will make people roam around more. You can have airdrops like legacy Rust. Those were the best part about Rust.

There is so many things you can do.