Okay, i'm new to Outpost 1, and I have great difficulty trying to understand how the game works, because there's a lack of useful walkthroughs, insufficient documentation, and strange game design. So I thought i'd ask some questions here, hoping someone has the answers to them:
I'll highlight questions that have been answered in
BOLD, as I update.
1. What does the 'Education Level' of a University mean? Does it mean when it reaches 100, the University becomes useless?
Also is there a way to check the level?
Is there any extra effect when more than 1 University is present?
2. Does research that increase efficiency of certain buildings (like the Factory upon discovery of Mathematics) affect the equivalent Seed buildings as well?
3. Is research lost when a topic is abandoned for awhile? Not that I would do that though.
Answer: Progress is kept.
4. What does a Medical Facility actually do? Does it prevent people from dying so often (like in OP2), or is it just a Morale boost? If it increases health, does it have a radius (i.e. max 5 tiles from it)?
It's supposed to delay the spread of the alien plague or something like that, but is this true?
Is there any extra effect by building more?
5. Does an RLD increase the local crime rate? I never build it though; just curious.
6. Does a DIRT actually help in preventing Hot Lab and Nanotech Facility explosions? If so, by how much?
7. Do Tubes require a contiguous connection?
I.e. ('+' for tube, 'O' for ground, 'X' for building)
OOOX+XOOO
XXXX+XXXX
+++++++++
XXXX+XXXX
OOOX+XOOO
Or can I use buildings as connectors in between each pipe section?
I.e.
OOOX+XOOO
XXXX+XXXX
++++X++++
XXXX+XXXX
OOOX+XOOO
Answer: Seems that I can...
Also, it seems that buildings don't need a tube once it's built; just a building, so:
XXXXXXX
XXXXXXX
XXXXXXXis perfectly legal. However this would lead to upgrading problems.
Also, the smelter doesn't require any tube connection and can be built next to nothing, as long as it is within the 30-tile Command Center radius.
8. When a building has a radius of effect, is this counted in the same way as the radius of building limits of the Command Center? That is, every diagonal counts as 2 instead of 1, producing a diamond-shaped design?
Like this: (Assume Radius 5, such as DIRT and Police Stations, 'O' represents no effect, '+' effect, and 'X' the building that radiates the effect)
OOOOO+OOOOO
OOOO+++OOOO
OOO+++++OOO
OO+++++++OO
O+++++++++O
+++++X+++++
O+++++++++O
OO+++++++OO
OOO+++++OOO
OOOO+++OOOO
OOOOO+OOOOO
And an example of a UG Admin building's effect, only affecting 3 UG Labs/UG Factories after deducting the necessary pipe connection:
O+O
+X+
O+O
Are these interpretations correct?
9. Do radius effects have any bonus should there be an overlap? And does the effect of the radius become weaker the further the tile from the building? Tell me if they apply to all the radius buildings.
10. Does it cost additional resources to produce things at Factories, compared to an idle Factory?
Answer: Nope, but you have to pay for the Factory's operational costs, which essentially is paying for the production, as producing nothing requires no maintenance costs from the Factory in question.
11. Does it still cost resources to maintain idle buildings? If so, do Labs researching 'Pause' or 'None' still demand resources? And for Factories, does it require resources to produce 'Pause'?
Answer: They stop demanding resources and workers if idled or paused.
12. How do I use Fuel Cells? Is it automatically used in Robots whose lifespan has ended? Is it even worth producing (maybe lower cost than recreating a Robot), considering it takes 10 turns to make 1 (without enhancing research such as Mathematics)?
Is it only for use in Robot Workers, or will they function for RoboDozers, RoboDiggers, RoboMiners, Trucks, etc. as well? If so, if the lifespan of these vehicles run out while on a task, will the Fuel Cells be used on them to prolong their lifespans?
13. When Self-Destructing a RoboDigger, how deep a depth does the 8-tile damage affect?
14. Trucks don't seem to work on their own with Auto Trucking. They still have to be assigned to the Mine itself to function. Am I right about this?
I think more Trucks seem to affect the rate in which the ores are collected from the Mine. Am I right about this?
Also, does Auto Trucking choose Routes smartly, or do they try to cut across the terrain?
Answer: Based on my games, I think Auto Trucking is pathetic, and you should manually assign Trucks even if you selected Auto Trucking, or your mined ore will be stuck in the mine for a long, long time while your colony erodes...
15. When assigning Trucks, do they jump straight to the location they are assigned to, or do they have to travel to the location from their current position? If they have to do so, do they do so smartly?
16. Do Trucks have any other purpose aside from ferrying ores from Mines to Smelters? If so, what else can they do?
17. Can Trucks pass through Buildings or Tubes? If so, what is the travelling speed? If not, can ores pass through them? If so, how fast, and how smart is the pathing for that?
18. How much ore can a smelter process at a time? Should I have more than 1 smelter? And should they be as close as possible to a mine to quicken the ferrying of resources?
Answer: Smelters process 1000 ore at a time at most according to the manual. The closer they are to the mine, the better.
19. Does distance affect the time it takes for smelted ores in the Smelter to reach a Storage Tank, or for a Product to reach a Warehouse?
20. It seems that Products have to be sent to a Warehouse for 1 turn before they are able to be used. Is my observation correct?
21. My Idle Vehicles losing their Fuel Cell capacity! Is it possible to preserve their Fuel Cell capacity if not used?
22. Assuming equal distance from a smelter, is it more productive to use RoboMiners to acquire more Mines, or is it more productive to dig deeper in existing Mines first?
Answer: Digging deeper is better, as you don't need extra manpower to man the additional mines, and you don't need extra trucks if the mine is very near your smelter, and it's faster to expand your shaft rather than build a new mine.
The only exception I can think of is if you're short on resources and can't afford the drop in productivity when you expand a shaft (when you place a robominer on a shaft to expand it, the mine produces ore as if it were 1 level shallower, till the RoboMiner finishes its work).
23. Does anyone have a Tech Tree describing what advantages each technology gives when discovered?
24. What the heck does Basic Research do anyway? And why can I continue researching it even after discovered?
Partial Answer: It's supposed to increase your research rate, but the extent in which it helps and whether continuing to research it helps, is questionable.
25. Does researching the same thing in many labs improve the rate of research of that tech? If so, how much improvement is granted? Is it 1+1=2, or is there a loss or gain of efficiency?
Answer: It is suspected that the efficiency doesn't improve.
26. Does morale affect the rate of research?
Answer: Nope. Even if it does, the effect is negligible.
27. Suppose if the Rebels have abandoned their colony and I am granted control. If I use their RoboDozers to scrap their buildings, do the MPGs go to their SPEW (probably), or mine? What if I use the RoboDozers from my colony instead?
28. Does bulldozing the Rebel Colony to the ground incur any morale penalty?
Answer: Probably not, but can't confirm it yet.
29. When packing the Starship at the start of the game, what exactly will the Rebels steal half of? Also, do they round up or down when stealing half of the goods?
Answer: They at least steal half your Colonists and Colonist & Cargo Landers, rounded down. Other items have yet to be confirmed. In Easy mode, they get duplicates of your Solar Power Arrays.
30. Can colonies overlap? If so, how is the Command Center jurisdiction determined for buildings within this overlap?
31. Is there a way to see how many smelted ores you have other than clicking on every single Storage Tank and adding the stockpiled resources up? Selecting the Transfer Assets from the Command Center right-click menu doesn't seem to be useful at all, since it only shows the assets stored within the Command Center...
Answer: Have fun clicking every Storage Tank and counting, because they're not displayed conveniently in one screen.
32. Is there a way to see the total number of each smelted ore consumed every turn? Is there also some sort of Balance Sheet of stockpiled ores against consumed smelted ore?
Answer: Since there is no display for the total ores you have, there's also no resource Balance Sheet.
33.
What ores can MPG replace? Can it also replace ores used to maintain structures, or is it restricted for construction purposes?
Answer: It seems to replace anything, and can be used for maintenance purposes as well.
34. Do I lose morale when buildings explode? If so, do tubes count?
35. There seems to be a 'burning' rubble and another regular rubble graphic. Does this affect the game in any way, or is the 'burning' rubble there just for flavour?
Answer: Burning rubble just means that the building just exploded, and doesn't carry any significance to gamplay.
36. Is it better to bulldoze obsolete buildings and rebuilding their upgraded version, or to keep the obsolete building while building the new one (assuming there is ample space)?
What if i'm short on resources? Can the MPG generated from the bulldoze make up for the lack of ores to rebuild the building?
37. What buildings increase morale? I know of Residences, Medical Facilities, RLDs, Benevolent Police, Recreational, Universities, UG Factorys (with UG Commercials), and Parks/Resevoirs. Did I miss out anything? Also do these effects stack with themselves (e.g. having more than 1 of each)?
38. When I switch production in a Factory, do I lose all the progress that has been made, or is it carried over to the new product, or is the incomplete product kept for future completion?
Answer: Progress is lost, but i'm not certain if it takes a turn to switch to a different product as well.
39. Which buildings cause an increase in crime?
40. Does high morale reduce crime?
41. Trucking paths need only be set from the Mine tile to the Smelter to work properly. Is this correct, or otherwise?
42. What are RepairBots and AirBots for?
43. Do the attributes of a planet other than the # of mining sites or maximum digging depth (i.e. gravity, temp., rotation, atmosphere, solar energy received etc.) affect gameplay? If so, in what way?
44. Is an effect radius of a building affected by the way tubes are built around it? For example, the DIRT team has to travel along tubes to service a destination, and can't do so otherwise.
45. How much is rubble worth? Does it depend on what the rubble used to be?
46. Does crime affect anything other than the spawning of RLDs?
47. Is the ore extraction operation affected when using a RoboMiner on an existing Mine to drill deeper?
- Answer: Apparently. While a RoboMiner is drilling, the mine produces as if it were 1 level shallower. For example, a Level 1-depth mine that a RoboMiner is working on to drill to Level 2 will produce nothing, and a Level 2-depth mine with a RoboMiner on it produces as if it were a Level 1-depth mine, and so forth.
48. Do Admins even help with the research rate? I don't seem to notice any difference in my research pace.
If they do, is the effect higher if I have more than 1 Admin next to my Labs?
49. Do building effect radii affect buildings on different levels as well?
50. Why don't I see any benefit from replacing the standard Residences with the upgraded Residences? They don't seem to be able to contain more people.
51. Is it harder to increase morale as your colony grows?
52. Can I still get the 'Product: Magical Elixir of Everything' text from the SPEW report in Outpost 1.5?
53. Is the Rebel Colony cheating like crazy? Because it sure looks like it. They still lose quickly though. (thumbsdown)
- Answer: yeah, they sure do.
I may have more questions as I encounter more issues that I can't find much information on, or as I remember the other questions i've been meaning to ask.
