Hey there, Goldo
Glad you found us, and yes, DO drop in on IRC once in a while. With the WON gone, it's the only way to play multi-player games.
About the colony maps: you'll be happy to know we're creating a LOT more of those, in the past, and in the future. Not to toot my own horn, but there's also a single-player campaign in the make called
Outpost : Renegades and there's 2 more projects on totally
new outpost-games, one is in OP1-style (MIA), and the other in OP2-style, with an exciting new 3D-engine.
Just check out all the forums, and you'll find a lot of projects still alive (some just barely) or you might want to check out the programming forums, if you are up to it, so you can even code your own missions/maps