Outpost Universe Forums
Community => News => Topic started by: BlackBox on January 04, 2021, 03:03:18 AM
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We're extremely pleased to announce the long-anticipated wait is over and unofficial update 1.4.0 for Outpost 2 has been released, adding proper support for the GOG version of Outpost 2!
We've included a huge number of fixes on top of the fixes from previous updates. In addition, we've moved to using a method for loading our mods into the game that better complies with the GOG EULA (we no longer make permanent changes to existing game files).
Note that this does require an existing copy of OP2, either the English CD or GOG versions should work (special note: if you have access to a non-English game CD, the installer can copy its files to localize the English install and still be multiplayer-compatible with it). If you don't have an existing copy of OP2, we recommend buying the game from GOG or getting the CD version from a website such as eBay.
You can download the unofficial update from the page here: https://www.outpost2.net/outpost2.html
For further details (including installation instructions, as well as a list of all changes and known issues, please see the release notes below.
Thank you for your patience throughout all this, and a special thanks to everyone credited in the patch notes below for making this possible.
One last thing: Please note that this material is not made or supported by Activision, if you run into issues and need help, please respond to this forum thread (or better yet, join our Discord via the "Chat" link at the very top of the page, which you can also use to find others to play multiplayer with), please do not contact Activision or GOG for help with the modded game.
Remember Commander, extinction is not an option!
Outpost 2 OPU Unofficial Update 1.4.0 Patch Notes
The OPU Update 1.4.0 is an unofficial mod loader and collection of patches for Outpost 2 that improves compatibility with modern systems (especially with regards to multiplayer), fixes numerous bugs in the base game, and makes various gameplay quality-of-life improvements.
In addition, several custom missions are included (both single-player colony games as well as new multiplayer maps). The update also improves support for modding the game as well as custom mission creation.
Note that unlike previous updates, in order to comply with specific requirements set forth in the EULA for the GOG Outpost 2 release, this version does not require permanent modifications to the existing files in the base game folder, allowing the unmodded game to be run at any time by simply double-clicking the Outpost2.exe file.
The OPU modded game may be run by double-clicking the OPULauncher.exe file in the OPU subfolder under the game folder, or by running Outpost2.exe /OPU.
Disclaimer / License
THIS MATERIAL IS NOT MADE OR SUPPORTED BY ACTIVISION.
This mod is distributed by Outpost Universe at https://outpost2.net. If you downloaded this from somewhere else, we recommend downloading it from our website as we can't vouch for the safety of other copies of it on the internet.
Outpost 2 is (C) Activision Publishing, Inc. and its affiliates ("Activision").
This mod ("OPU Update") is a community-supported update to Outpost 2, intended only to be used with a properly licensed copy of the game.
By using this mod, you acknowledge the following:
- All Outpost 2 original game content is property of Activision and may not be redistributed except as authorized by Activision.
- While we will do our best to provide support for OPU Update, you understand that this is solely on a volunteer basis, this mod was not created by Activision and we are not Activision employees, and that Activision cannot and will not provide support for this mod, only the base unmodified Outpost 2 game.
- You use this mod at your own risk; while we have tried our best to ensure it is reasonably bug-free, it is offered WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY or guarantee of any kind, and you assume all risk if your Outpost 2 installation, save files, operating system, PC, etc get corrupted/damaged as a result of using this mod.
- You agree to comply with the terms as already provided by the Activision EULA. This means you may not redistribute Outpost 2, or make this mod or any other Outpost 2 content available for sale.
- This installer package and mod as a whole are licensed under the following license:
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ or send a letter to Creative Commons, PO Box 1866, Mountain View, CA 94042, USA.
- Some software components have different licenses (see LICENSE.txt in the OPU subfolder for a full list).
Please do not ask us how to get Outpost 2 for free, or otherwise illegally pirate a copy of the game, as we cannot and will not provide that. If you don't already own a copy of Outpost 2, we recommend either purchasing the GOG version, or an original CD from a seller such as eBay or similar.
In the same vein, please do not contact Activision or GOG for support with this modded version. As described in the GOG EULA for Outpost 2, Activision/GOG can only support the base, unmodified copy of Outpost 2. If you run into issues with the modded game, please reach out to us on Discord or the OPU forums, and we'd be happy to take a look.
Requirements
- A copy of Outpost 2, either the original English CD version or the GOG version.
- For the CD based version, the installer will copy files from the CD that don't normally get installed (such as music and cutscenes) so that you'll no longer need the CD to play. If you don't have access to your CD, things should still work, but music and cutscenes won't play in game.
- For non-English versions of Outpost 2, we do support copying localized assets like the language-specific cutscenes and Savant voices from the non-English disc (but you still need to run the installer on the English version of OP2).
- Windows XP or higher, or an environment that can emulate it well enough on non-Windows platforms such as Wine.
- We've tested this update on both Windows XP SP3 and 10 and can vouch for it working properly (albeit with some minor features disabled on XP, due to lack of OS support) on those platforms.
- Despite the fact that OP2 was originally released for Windows 95, this update will very likely not work on any version of Windows prior to XP and we have no plans to ever support this (if you're trying to play OP2 on an old computer, for example).
- On Mac and Linux, your best bet is to install Windows in a virtual machine such as VirtualBox or VMware. That said, if you don't want to use or pay for Windows, we have tested that the game works on Wine, albeit with a few issues:
- On Linux, you need to install the 32-bit version of Wine (since OP2 was originally made for 32-bit Windows).
- On macOS Catalina and higher, due to the fact that Apple removed support for running 32-bit programs, the only version of Wine that supports 32-bit programs such as OP2 is the (commercial, with a free 30 day trial) CrossOver Wine; however in the testing we've done, the game runs almost unplayably slow in this version of Wine, so we can't really recommend this right now.
- Note that ARM-based Macs will not work; Wine and Windows programs such as OP2 will only run on an Intel-compatible CPU.
- There are a few other (minor) bugs mentioned below in the Known Issues section.
Installing
Simply download the installer and run it. It should work equally well on both CD and GOG versions, and will attempt to move any pre-existing mods from a CD install to a backup folder.
It will attempt to autodetect your OP2 installation, but you can specify the path to your installation directly (or copy the installer to your OP2 folder and launch from there).
As mentioned above, for CD installs, we recommend inserting the CD if you have it available, as the installer can copy music, cutscenes, and (if you have a non-English CD) localized content from the disc.
Note that there are options in the installer to extract the music to .wav files, as well as extracting from a localized CD if using the GOG version.
New and updated missions
This update includes several new and updated community-created missions, many of which are adapted from existing maps. All of these missions are selectable from the Colony Games and Multiplayer dialogs in game. Note that they will not be available when running the base, unmodified OP2.
Please note that (with the exception of the demo missions) these missions are community-created and may not have been as rigorously tested as the official missions, so they may contain occasional bugs, crashes, or gameplay and balance issues.
Single-player Colony Games
- Colony Builder - Eden, Civil War
- Colony Builder - Eden, Rising From the Ashes
- 'Pursued' Plymouth campaign:
- Ep 1 - Evac Under Fire
- Ep 2 - On the Run
- Ep 3 - Rescue Escort
- Plymouth Cold War
- Updates to the missions used in the official demos to make them playable in the release version of the game:
- Pre-Release Eden Demo
- Pre-Release Plymouth Demo
- Post-Release Colony Demo
Multiplayer "Survivor" co-op missions
Survivor is a new co-op game type that involves elements of the traditional Space Race with twists such as the need to survive the Blight and defend yourselves from hostile AIs.
Note that many Survivor maps also have custom game mechanics, such as requiring use of Scouts to discover mining beacons, requiring food loaded in Cargo Trucks when all your Agridomes are destroyed, requiring Evacuation Transports per 25 colonists when all your structures are destroyed, and DIRT coverage grants structures passive hitpoint repair.
All of these missions are selectable under the "Space Race" game type.
- 4P, SRV, 'Forsaken World'
- 4P, SRV, 'Caught in the Crossfire'
- 4P, SRV, 'Caught in the Crossfire 2'
- 4P, SRV, 'Darkest Hour'
- 4P, SRV, 'To the Skies or to the Grave'
- 5P, SRV, 'Fractured Alliance'
- 5P, SRV, 'DangerZone' (v0.17.3)
- 5P, SRV, 'Research & Development'
- 6P, SRV, 'Judgment Day' (v0.9)
Multiplayer "Exiles" co-op campaign missions
Exiles is a new series of co-op campaign missions. Descriptions of each mission can be found under OPU\maps\Exiles\Briefings.
All of these missions are selectable under the "Midas" game type.
- 4P, COOP, Exiles Mission #01 - Recovery
- 4P, COOP, Exiles Mission #02 - Sabotage
- 4P, COOP, Exiles Mission #03 - Siege
- 4P, COOP, Exiles Mission #04 - Contingency
- 4P, COOP, Exiles Mission #05 - Rescue
Multiplayer Last One Standing missions
- 4P, LoS, 'BoreHole'
- 4P, LoS, 'Confrontation'
- 4P, LoS, 'Hidden Treasure' (Beta)
- 4P, LoS, 'Team La Corrida'
- 4P, LoS, 'Enter The Dragon' v0.8
- 4P, LoS, 'Team Handprint'
- 4P, LoS, 'Nostalgia' v0.9
- 4P, LoS, 'Improved Pie Chart' v0.3
- 6P, LoS, 'Ridge & Siege Warfare' v1.1
- Updates to the official demo multiplayer missions so they will work with the release version of the game:
- 4P, LoS, 'Pre-Release Demo'
- 4P, LoS, 'Post-Release Demo'
Multiplayer Resource Race missions
Multiplayer Land Rush missions
- 2P, Convoy, 'Rescue Escort'
- 4P, LR, 'Plains & Passes' v1.1
- 6P, LR, 'BoreHole'
Other Multiplayer Missions
All of these missions are selectable under the "Last One Standing" game type, although these are not typical LoS missions.
- 4P, LoS, 'Swarm'
- Co-op map where you must repel 40 waves of enemy scorpions of increasing strength until your AI ally can complete a starship.
- "Initial vehicles" game setting increases initial Common Metals instead.
- 4P, LoS, 'Bomber's Big Blast'
- Roulette-esque map where players take turns controlling a Guard Post to select a "chamber", represented by vehicles you attack. Whoever selects the "loaded chamber" is eliminated.
- 4P, LoS, 'Doomsday'
- Survival map where players must build up their base before mass waves of disasters begin at mark 666. The player that survives the longest wins.
- 6P, LoS, 'Scout Rush'
- Team Last One Standing-esque map where players are expected to rely mainly on Scout self-destructs to win.
- Combat vehicles are enabled if "morale steady" game setting is checked, but they are much slower than in normal games.
Changes
- Compared with past OPU updates, we've overhauled the way the mod works so that we no longer have to make permanent changes to game files (which was also required to comply with the EULA for the GOG version of the game which forbids these type of changes).
- All modded files, with the exception of a couple files due to Windows technical limitations, are now stored in an OPU subfolder under the game folder.
- The OPU modded version of the game may be run by double-clicking OPULauncher.exe under the OPU subfolder, or by running Outpost2.exe /OPU under the game folder.
- The original unmodded game may be run by double-clicking Outpost2.exe under the game folder.
- Files such as outpost2.ini are stored under OPU in the modded version of the game to avoid settings clashing with the unmodded version of the game.
- Saved games (SGAME*.OP2) are stored under OPU\saves in the modded version of the game due to backwards-incompatible changes (such as the unit limit fix) that break old saves.
- Additionally, we also attempt to remove any prior modded files to avoid other issues, backing these up to a backups subfolder within the OPU folder.
- The installer also provides the option to extract the music on the CD to individual .wav files for listening to the music outside of the game.
- Automatically check the OPU website for updates at launch.
Changes specific to the CD or GOG releases are annotated with (CD) or (GOG) accordingly. In all other cases, the CD and GOG versions of the game are treated as equivalent.
Mission-specific balance changes and bug fixes
- Make the tops of inaccessible areas (such as cliffs) impassible on most maps. This improves pathfinding, and also avoids a potential exploit involving factory output locations ending up on the top of cliffs if the normal output location is blocked.
- On Flood Plain, change some tiles to fix bugs with collecting wreckage.
- On Pie Chart, reshape some of the choke points to improve symmetry and balance (previously, some player start locations had unequal "entrance" gaps to defend).
- Various Plymouth Cold War fixes for crashes and initial resources difficulty scaling.
- Various Swarm fixes for balancing, crashes and graphical corruption.
- Various Caught in the Crossfire 2 changes for balancing and AI improvements.
- Updated Forsaken World to the correct version.
Gameplay-related changes and bug fixes
- Various spammy or broken Savant notifications are silenced/modified:
- Don't trigger "alliance formed/broken" alerts at the start of the game (e.g. in co-op maps where all players are allied).
- Don't trigger "transfer received/complete" alerts if the transfer is to/from AI or Gaia players.
- Only trigger "power levels optimal" and "metals storage needed" alerts once, rather than repeating them frequently.
- Fix a logic bug that incorrectly caused "food stores are plentiful" to trigger only when population is zero (the intended behavior is to trigger when there is enough food for 15 food calculation cycles (~3.8 marks) but storage is decreasing).
- Avoid repeating "food production in surplus" alerts (only alert once when food production rate becomes positive).
- Avoid repeating "morale is ..." alerts when there are no changes, or if morale is forced to a specific value.
- Light Towers now play "enemy unit sighted!" alerts similar to Scouts when an enemy unit is nearby.
- Double the maximum number of units on the map at once to 2048.
- Surveyed mining beacons now animate differently based on their "variant" (lesser modifier to yield on top of the 1-3 bar modifier): low variant has no animation, medium variant (best peak yield) has a slower animation, and high variant (best minimum yield) is the same as original.
- Fix a crash when transferring units to the Gaia player.
- Fix various issues with EMP missiles:
- Fix an issue that causes missiles to not land for Eden players.
- Fix an issue that caused nearby Meteor Defenses to ignore missiles that were targeted directly on top of a Meteor Defense.
- Prevent Meteor Defenses from shooting down allies' missiles.
- Fix some issues relating to building walls:
- Invisible "perma-walls" are no longer left behind when an Earthworker dies during wall construction.
- Walls no longer fail to build if built in a 3x3 area around another wall being built, Blight, or lava.
- Refund metals and cancel the wall-building operation if another unit is on the wall tile at the same time the wall is supposed to finish.
- Fix a bug that caused wreckage to be turned into rubble if the wreckage was placed on certain terrain types.
- Structure docks no longer damage allies' vehicles.
- When a player deploys an EDWARD Satellite, all mining beacons will be automatically surveyed by their allies (as if they had deployed their own EDWARD Satellite).
- Cargo Trucks can now be partially loaded with food or metals if your storage is less than the truck's capacity (1000 by default).
- Mission objectives like "have 5000 Common Metals in Cargo Trucks" are based on the total cargo amount. If you had 5 Cargo Trucks with metals but one truck only contained 900 units of metals, then you would need to load a 6th truck with at least 100 metals to fulfill the objective.
Interface-related changes
- Rearrange some dialogs, such as the multiplayer lobby, for better experience (such as increasing the size of some UI elements).
- Replace the program icon with a redesigned, modern one.
- Replace the game main menu background image, fonts, dialogs, and text color schemes.
- Don't force-uppercase the contents of the status bar for better readability.
- Fix a bug that causes radio buttons to not appear selected unless Alt is pressed (or accelerator-key underlines are set to always display in Windows).
- Changed the "IP Address" input in the "Find Session" dialog to a dropdown that saves recently used IP addresses.
- Default focus to "looking at the IP address" in the "Find Session" dialog.
- Fix a small bug with minimap clipping.
- Always display damaged units' HP bars, and hide when undamaged.
- This is configurable via the Game.ShowUnitHPBars INI setting. Value of 0 = selected and mouseover units (original behavior), 1 = damaged units (new default).
- Enemy vehicles with headlights off in darkness don't show their HP bars until they get too close to other units that are hostile to them.
- Infected structures never show their HP bars.
- Red (< 25%) HP bars no longer flash.
- Display vehicle cargo and amount in mouseover tooltips and destroyed notifications in the message log.
- Shorten stock multiplayer mission names to improve readability (e.g. '6P, LoS, 'Pie Chart').
- Invert the behavior of holding Shift when using control-group hotkeys so that holding Shift centers the player's view.
- Allow repair commands to be given to multiple selected ConVecs or Repair Vehicles.
- Allow setting ore routes on Cargo Trucks that have ore in them.
- Allow localization to be applied to the game.
- Built-in localized string tables for Outpost2.exe and OP2Shell.dll are configurable via language.ini located under each language mod subfolder under OPU\lang.
- Other aspects of localization are handled by the installer copying UI, cutscene, voice clip, techtrees, story, etc. files from a localized Outpost 2 CD version to the appropriate language mod subfolder.
- Known issues: mission names, mission objectives and some other in-game messages, the "About Outpost 2" dialog, and multiplayer dialogs are not localized.
- Changed some setting defaults in the multiplayer lobby:
- Resources for each player now defaults to high.
- Morale steady now defaults to on.
- Disasters now defaults to off for Last One Standing and Land Rush, but still defaults to on for other game types.
Graphics-related changes
- Force the use of windowed (pure GDI) mode, allowing the game to run at any resolution, rather than forcing a resolution change to 640x480 (CD) or 1024x768 (GOG) via DirectDraw.
- Fix a crash that could occur if the game window was made too big (for example, if the game was maximized on a 4K screen).
- Fix a potential crash/drawing glitch if the game window is larger than the current map, centering the detail pane within the available space.
- Fix various issues related to desktop compositing on Vista and up that caused graphical stuttering and the Aero window frame to be drawn incorrectly, on top of the existing game window frame.
- Graphical stuttering fix can be manually toggled via the Game.ForceFullRedraw INI setting. It is enabled by default on Vista-Win7 if DWM is enabled, in all circumstances on Win8-10+, or if the game is running in a virtual machine.
- On Win10, disable DPI awareness as this caused the entire UI to appear tiny.
- GDI scaling is still enabled so text in the menus should appear crisp. Unfortunately this doesn't work for most in-game text due to how the game renders text internally.
- DPI mode can be configured via the Game.DPIAwareness INI setting. The default setting is -5 (DPI_AWARENESS_CONTEXT_UNAWARE_GDISCALED). See Microsoft's docs (https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/hidpi/dpi-awareness-context) for all possible settings, or use a setting of 0 to use built-in behavior.
- Draw the Acid Cloud translucency effect using 50% alpha blending instead of a checkerboard pattern.
- Fix a crash that could occur in some circumstances when drawing Thor's Hammer lightning.
Audio-related changes
- Allow music to continue playing when the game window doesn't have focus.
Network and multiplayer-related changes
- Install NetHelper by default, a module that uses UPnP/NAT-PMP to forward ports if you are behind a router that supports either of these standards.
- Removed NetFix as it is no longer functional. A new SIGS/WON replacement will be coming in a future update.
- Fix "replicating players list failed" error that occurs with TCP/IP mode when behind a NAT, as is the case with most home networks.
- Bind to all network adapters instead of the highest priority one, which improves behavior with virtual network adapters such as Radmin VPN, Hamachi, and other VPNs and doesn't require manually configuring network adapter priority in Windows.
- Disabled IPX, modem, and serial netplay protocols as they are no longer practical on modern systems (DirectPlay is no longer supported). Opening the "Multiplayer" menu no longer stalls for several seconds.
- Don't halve the game speed in multiplayer, allowing multiplayer games to run as fast as single player.
- Fix game start checksum validation to checksum the techtree file actually used by the map, instead of always just the built-in techtrees.
- Techtree checksum logic now factors out localization and other non-function-related contents.
- Other OPU game files such as op2ext.dll and OPUPatch.dll now also get checksummed.
- Disable all "Dan's" cheats in multiplayer. They are allowed in single player.
- Increase maximum chat message length.
- Allow players to ping locations on the map by sending chat messages of the form "@X,Y" (can be followed by other text). Receipients can double-click on the message log entry to jump to the pinged location.
Mapmaking/modding and developer-related changes
- The original game data files (such as the .vol files among others) are now all extracted to folders underneath the mod subfolder for easier viewing and modding purposes, avoiding the need for additional tools to manipulate the .vol files and helping reduce clutter in the main folder.
- To run the OPU-modded version of the game in a debugger, you may run Outpost2.exe /OPU instead of OPULauncher.exe to sidestep child process debugging issues.
- Allow DLLs to be placed in this folder hierarchy or within a libs subfolder, to avoid cluttering up the main directory.
- Mods and maps now live in their own subfolders, and the search path logic has received an overhaul to prefer these first over looking at other folders:
- For example, all of the mod-installed content that overrides the base game files lives under OPU\base, and custom maps (under OPU\maps) are free to replace files as well.
- This also sets up for support for mods having their own folders under the OPU dir in order to prefer these (such as localization mods or other large/game-breaking mods) over the base game files.
- Maps now live in named folders for each map (e.g. OPU\base\maps\PieChart), which have precedence over other folders when that map is being loaded, allowing custom maps to override base game files or include additional content.
- The OPU directory is searched next, followed by the main game directory, .vol files, and CD (if present).
- If the DEBUG.art_path INI setting is specified, treat this directory as the highest precedence for all files.
- Trigger function callbacks are now of the form void TrigFunc(OnTriggerArgs*). Legacy trigger callbacks of the form void TrigFunc() are still supported.
- For more information, refer to TethysAPI: Tethys/API/Trigger.h
- Added new mission API callbacks:
- int OnLoad(OnLoadArgs*) - Called when mission DLL is first loaded. Unlike InitProc(), this is called earlier, and is also called when loading from a saved game. Return 1 = success, 0 = failure.
- int OnUnload(OnUnloadArgs*) - Called when mission DLL is unloaded. Return 1 = success, 0 = failure; failure is intended to cause the app to restart (not yet implemented).
- void OnEnd(OnEndArgs*) - Called on mission end (does not include map restart or app exit). Unlike OnUnload(), this gets passed mission results data.
- void OnChat(OnChatArgs*) - Called when any player sends a chat message.
- void OnCreateUnit(OnCreateUnitArgs*) - Called when a unit is created.
- void OnDestroyUnit(OnDestroyUnitArgs*) - Called when a unit is destroyed.
- For more information, refer to TethysAPI: Tethys/API/Mission.h and Tethys/API/Unit.h
- Fix an issue with TethysGame::ForceMorale*() functions that caused them to have no effect when called for a specific player (unless called twice).
- Fix a bug with ScStub recycling that affected some custom missions, causing the game to crash if too many ScStubs were created.
- Double the size of the light-level adjustment table, allowing a potential map size of 1024x512.
- Extend the map file header fields to allow specifying world-map wraparound on maps smaller than 512x256, or disabling wraparound on 512x256 maps.
- Known issues: forcing wraparound on <512-width maps causes the pathfinder to hang, the minimap is offset incorrectly on 128-width wraparound maps, and there are major rendering issues with 64-width wraparound maps.
- Force old dock vehicle damage mechanic that allows damaging allied vehicles for buildings that are set as special targets using CreateSpecialTarget().
- Correctly draw single or dual turret sprites for Lynx, Panthers, and Tigers based whether the double-fire-rate flag is set.
- Convert the well*.bmp tileset files from the custom PBMP format originally used to standard BMP files, allowing these to be opened in normal image editors while still being in a format the game can use.
- Fixed Unit::DoInfect() to work on maps with more than 1 player (human or AI).
- A debug "Run Script" dialog where arbitrary missions can be loaded may now be accessed by pressing the D key on the menu menu.
- Known issue: game settings in this dialog are non-functional.
- Multiplayer maps run offline via this method no longer immediately trigger victory and exit, and now have the "Restart Game" option.
- Fixed a buffer overflow bug caused by ScGroup::TakeUnit() leaking PathContext object memory.
Miscellaneous changes
- OP2 internal version number is incremented to 1.4.0 (to ensure modded games cannot join multiplayer matches with the unmodded game by mistake).
- (CD) Automatically apply official updates 1-3, including extraction of updates 2 and 3 which no longer work on 64-bit Windows due to the installers being 16-bit programs.
- (CD) The CD is no longer required to be inserted to play the game.
- (CD) Copy files from the CD that aren't installed by default (such as music and cutscenes) so they will be available if the CD isn't present.
- (CD) Copy the Indeo video codec used for cutscenes from the CD and configure this to be used if the codec isn't installed or is disabled system-wide (as is the case in most modern Windows versions for security reasons)
- Fix a float conversion issue with the sprintf family of functions.
- (GOG) Reenable checking for the SIGS DLLs (not currently used, but allows overriding the SIGS DLLs in a future update which will be used to further improve netplay).
- Update a few defaults to be more reasonable:
- Game speed defaults to 10
- Display of unit shadows and completed objectives default to on
- Default to running in a maximized window rather than 640x480
FAQ / Known Issues
Important: Before reporting bugs, please first try reinstalling the original game from either CD or the GOG version and try again with this "pristine" copy of OP2, especially if you previously had modified your game files or installed older mods.
If you continue to have problems, please reach out to us directly via Discord or the forums rather than reporting this to Activision or GOG (they did not make this mod, are not responsible for support for our mod or any other custom mods). In doing so, please include as much detail as possible (such as your Windows version, whether you're using the CD or GOG version of the game, which previous mods were installed (if any) where the problem occurred, etc.)
Windows Defender, my virus scanner, etc. thinks this is malicious/a virus! Is this legit?
- Unfortunately, various parts of the update show up as a false positive on some virus scanners due to the fact that we load patches into a running program, which is a technique that a lot of malware also use to accomplish their nefarious goals.
- While we can vouch for the fact that the version of the update found on the OPU website is safe and doesn't contain any actual malware or attempt to do anything besides patch Outpost2.exe in memory, if you happened to find this update someplace else, we recommend re-downloading it from OPU to be safe in case others have attempted to modify it to add anything questionable.
- We cannot vouch for any custom maps or mods you may have installed that aren't included with this update, using these is at your own risk.
- We recommend adding an exception to Windows Defender or other antivirus software you may have for the entire Outpost 2 directory to avoid any issues caused by antivirus blocking access to or deleting files used by the mod.
The update won't install, fails with errors, etc.
- For best results, we recommend copying the installer to the game directory and running it as an admin (you should be prompted by Windows for this).
- If you are using Windows XP, ensure that you've updated to Service Pack 3.
- If you originally installed using the CD installer and the game is in the Program Files or Sierra folders, there could be permissions issues due to these being installed as an administrator. Re-launch the installer by right clicking its icon and choosing Run as administrator.
- If the game is installed on a network share or some other location that doesn't have a drive letter mapped, you're likely to run into issues. Either copy the game to a local drive or map it to a drive letter (and use this drive letter when running the installer).
- If the installer freezes immediately when loaded, try running it with the /NCRC switch from a command prompt ran as administrator.
- As described above, please try reinstalling the game from CD or GOG if nothing else is working, and reach out to us if you continue to have issues.
The game won't run after installing the update, displays a black screen on launch, prompts to insert the CD, or some other error message appears on launch.
- Please ensure that your installation is not corrupted or missing files in some way (as above, you should try reinstalling the game before applying the update).
- Double-check that you are launching the loader in the OPU subfolder rather than Outpost2.exe directly (the latter will just run the unmodified game).
- If you continue to receive an error, please reach out to us and we'll do our best to provide support.
I don't agree with gameplay change X, or it's breaking the campaign/custom missions, can I turn it off?
- At some point, we'd like to implement support for mod options to disable tweaks. In the meantime, you can run Outpost2.exe directly to play the unmodified, "vanilla" version of the game (we'd appreciate your feedback as well).
Mission X doesn't work, crashes, etc and I want to report a bug!
- If the mission is an official mission supplied with OP2, please check whether the crash is reproducible in the unmodded version of the game (by double-clicking Outpost2.exe).
- If the crash only happens with the OPU update, or in a custom mission, please let us know and we'll try to investigate. Please do not report these kind of crashes to Activision or GOG unless you're sure that the issue also exists in the unmodified game.
I can't host a multiplayer game, or others' multiplayer games don't appear in the "Find session" dialog.
- Please ensure that Outpost 2 is allowed through the Windows Firewall or any other firewall, if applicable. You may want to consider creating exceptions for Outpost2.exe and/or UDP ports 47776-47807.
- Check that UPnP or NAT-PMP are supported on your router, and ensure they're enabled if so. This will provide the most "seamless" experience with network play by allowing the game to automatically forward ports.
- Information about how to do this should be readily available online or in your router's user manual; there are many makes and models of routers and we can't really provide much useful support for this.
- If UPnP/NAT-PMP are not supported, assuming your router allows it, manually add port forwarding entries for UDP ports 47776-47807 to the computer running OP2.
- If port forwarding is not an option (uncommon) you could also try configuring your computer as a DMZ in your router if supported, or if you have a separate modem, directly connecting your computer to that temporarily (note that neither of these options are ideal long-term for security reasons).
- Failing the above, Radmin VPN is one free option to allow creating a VPN with other players for multiplayer.
- Please report your issues (including info such as make/model of router/access point) to us so we can investigate further as ensuring working multiplayer is a high priority to us.
When starting a multiplayer game, it fails with errors such as "remote load failed," "host and client checksums don't match," or a similar error.
- If you are playing a custom map (not included in this update), please first ensure that everyone has the same version of the map files; the game does not automatically download maps from the host as in many other RTSes.
- For other maps (including stock maps) this may indicate that your OP2 install has gotten corrupted somehow. The easiest solution would be to try reinstalling OP2 and this update again.
- If you continue to have issues, please let us know.
I tried to create / join multiplayer over IPX as described in the GOG release and the IPX option under Multiplayer is grayed out!
- You must use the TCP/IP mode. The other modes are not well supported in recent versions of Windows due to their reliance on obsolete Windows features such as the IPX network driver and DirectPlay, so we have disabled them. IPX is only (barely) supported in the unmodded GOG version via a provided wrapper that does not work over the Internet.
(GOG) When attempting to host or join a multiplayer game, the game crashes to desktop before the lobby appears!
- This is caused by a bug in the IPX emulator included in the GOG distro. It will be fixed in the next update. For now, you can work around this by renaming the wsock32.dll file in the base Outpost2 folder to something else. The IPX emulator is not needed with the OPU patched version of the game.
The "Outpost 2" text on the top-left of the game window frame is blacked out and the game isn't responding to some keyboard/mouse input!
- If this issue occurs immediately upon beginning gameplay, it may be worked around by alt+tabbing back and forth to the game window. This sometimes occurs when the game is launched from Windows Explorer/a debugger/etc. when its window and the game window are on the same display.
OPULauncher appears to hang/do nothing for a long time before launching the game!
- If you chose to enable update checks and have an unstable internet connection, it might take a long time for the check to timeout, before the game starts. You could try tweaking the Game.UpdateCheckTimeoutMs value in outpost2.ini or just disable it entirely by setting CheckForUpdates=0 in the INI.
(Win8/10) In the CD version, pressing F1 or clicking Help in the main menu leads to an error or opens a webpage about help not being supported anymore.
- You're probably running a version of Windows that no longer supports legacy Windows Help (what OP2 uses). Since MS doesn't support it anymore, download winhlp32.msi (https://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/winhlp32_for_windows_10.html) and manually open Outpost2.hlp with it.
(Win8/10) Cursors are partially transparent or only show a black outline and are hard to see.
- This issue seems to occur when playing the game on a monitor with HDR enabled and as far as we can tell, appears to be a Windows bug. One potential fix (that seems to work in some cases) is to select the Enable pointer shadows setting in the Pointers tab of the Mouse control panel (in Win10, you can get to this by clicking "Additional mouse options" in Settings > Devices > Mouse), and then reboot your computer. Failing this, disabling HDR (either in Windows display settings or your monitor's built in settings) should solve the problem.
(Wine-specific) The game window can't be resized, and buttons in the title bar don't work.
- We don't have a fix for this yet. The game install defaults to maximized mode however to try to minimize the effects of this problem. Going to Game Settings (the rightmost Sierra icon on the report buttons just below the minimap in the upper-right) allows you to exit the current mission or the entire game.
(Wine-specific) The lists of missions (under Tutorials, Colony Games, etc) are illegible due to having a white background.
- We don't have a fix for this yet. For now it may be possible to read the mission lists by clicking on each entry.
(1440p and 4k-specific) Unit lights are rendered strangely at the very right end of the map in the tutorials and on other maps which are smaller than the game window.
- We don't have a fix for this yet. There is a minor visual bug in the game engine that we are investigating.
(1440p and 4k-specific) When playing on world maps such as Axen's Home and Around The World, the detail pane doesn't fill the entire game window (black bars on the left and right sides).
- This bug will be fixed in the next update. There is no work around at this time.
Credits
This wouldn't have been possible without the help and support of various OPU community members, of which there are too many to really list. We did want to call out a few folks for specific things:
- Arklon and BlackBox for the overall runtime patching logic and installer that make this release possible.
- Hooman and BlackBox for much of the older OPU patches and original game reverse engineering notes.
- Hooman and Vagabond for large portions of op2ext, OP2Utility (e.g. the VOL extraction logic).
- Sirbomber, Mcshay, Arklon, Vagabond, and others for contributing many of the custom missions, as well as playtesting, AI and balance changes, etc.
- Fenrisul for the redesigned icon used by the installer, launcher, and game windows.
- Monarky for the updated background graphic in the menus.
- Probably many others we've forgotten (please let us know if you're missing!)
Not to mention a few open source projects:
- bsdiff (https://github.com/mendsley/bsdiff)
- Capstone (http://www.capstone-engine.org/)
- Google Fonts Open Sans (https://fonts.google.com/specimen/Open+Sans) and Roboto (https://fonts.google.com/specimen/Roboto)
- libnatpmp (https://github.com/miniupnp/libnatpmp)
- miniupnp (https://github.com/miniupnp/miniupnp)
- zlib (https://zlib.net/)
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Edit: Source code is now available! See this thread (https://forum.outpost2.net/index.php/topic,6379.0.html).
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Edit: Outpost 2 1.4.1 hotfix has been released! (https://forum.outpost2.net/index.php/topic,6377.0.html)
It has come to our attention that you cannot progress past mission objectives like "have 3 empty Cargo Trucks" (e.g. Eden campaign mission 5 on easy), and the included version of the Fractured Alliance map is broken. A hotfix will be coming soon.
For people who have already installed 1.4.0, we will just distribute the update as a zip to extract over your Outpost2 folder. We will also update the installer exe for fresh installs, but it won't be able to handle updating yet.
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-Hey Guys! Its been a while since I posted here. Downloaded and played the Outpost 2 community patch. Noticed at the main menu you have my old picture there. I will post it down below. Its no problem. But I spent the time and made a new picture. Modeled a new ship put it in Photoshop. Its not the best work but thought if you want you could put this one at the main menu think its much better then my old one.
-Old pic https://www.deviantart.com/monarky/art/Outpost-2-150366784
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Here is a link to the Deviant Art page. Been over a month have not heard anything. Community pretty much dead?
https://www.deviantart.com/monarky/art/Outpost2-873402558
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Things have been quiet lately but that's not too unusual. There's generally more activity on Discord (https://discord.gg/VR4ue7MT) but even that's been pretty quiet lately. Personally, I hadn't said anything because I actually prefer the current image over this new one...
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I agree with Sirbomber - I also like the old version better. Maybe something to do with New Terra ?
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Oh hey, neat.
Yeah, I haven't been checking the forums recently. Plus, I haven't been getting notifications of new messages, so I don't know when to check.
I kind of like the space station in the older one a bit better. The top of the station in the older image looks smoother. The new one seems to have some aliasing causing banded lines.