Recent Posts

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Outpost 2 Update / Updated Video Codec (2018 Edition)

« Last post by Drakmar on August 13, 2018, 02:16:02 PM »

I've had a bit of time this week to work on a few stuff (actually had a day off from work, which has been nice), and decided to take a look at the video codec issue again. I've managed to convert them to the H264 codec, which does slim down the videos a bit further and puts them back on a mainstream codec. Naturally, the audio codec has remained at its default due to Outpost 2's built-in requirements (16-bit Signed PCM).

Now, the really interesting bit here is that when I switched over to Windows to play the game, Outpost 2 can't decode the videos, even though the host system can play them fine (audio plays fine though). Digging deeper, I discovered why. The built-in player is actually using the (ancient) "Video for Windows" component, which is why I haven't managed to switch over to a codec that doesn't require us to install something extra. That said, it's still an improvement over FFDShow, and there is a Video for Windows version of the H264 codec, so I figured I'd share with all of you anyway.

I do want to point out that during my attempts to grab a fresh copy of the videos from the download page, I noticed that the link is actually broken. It points to outpost2.com instead of outpost2.net. Simple enough to fix, but casual people interesting in starting out may not think to do that.

H264 Encoded Videos Download: https://sam-node.com/nexus/index.php/s/T4MDTCjQmbizRgL/download
VfW H264 Codec: https://sourceforge.net/projects/x264vfw/

Edit: I've also gone ahead and updated the Wiki with this new information.

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Outpost 2 Divided Destiny / Re: WTB 3 Bar common/rare.

« Last post by Hooman on August 10, 2018, 04:40:14 PM »

why don't people create a map that gives us a 3 bar common and 3 bar rare

Does "people" include you? 

Let me know if you're interested in getting started.

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Outpost 2 Divided Destiny / Re: WTB 3 Bar common/rare.

« Last post by lordpalandus on August 10, 2018, 12:51:51 PM »

For both colony games that ship with the game, I always move my base elsewhere. Eden Colony has poor resources in the NW(starting area), but there is a variety of two to three bars on the other side of the map, with a whole lot more defensibility as well (makes it great for defending against enemy waves) in the grey area. Similarly, for Plymouth Colony, as the volcano will wreck most of your base on Normal+, I move my base down to the grey area to the SW with a volcanic area on the edge.

If you stay in the starter locations, these are typically very hard to defend against enemy waves and have poor resources anyway.

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Outpost 2 Divided Destiny / WTB 3 Bar common/rare.

« Last post by Sorcer on August 10, 2018, 11:10:34 AM »

Ok so one thing I've noticed in all the colony games is that no matter what you ALWAYS get no more than a 2 bar common and usually only a 1 bar rare near your base, why don't people create a map that gives us a 3 bar common and 3 bar rare it's ridiculous. Additionally there's a colony game for i believe eden where there is literally no rare that is possible to acquire due to a volcano. it's literally ridiculous.

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Outpost 2 Divided Destiny / Re: Has Colony Game difficulty changed?

« Last post by Crow! on August 09, 2018, 09:00:07 AM »

Idling structures reduces the damage they take from all sources.  It's mentioned in the game's electronic manual but not its physical one.

You may choose to deactivate, or Idle, any Active or Disabled structure, generally for the purpose of freeing up resources for use at other structures. (Another reason to Idle a structure is that Idled structures take less damage from disasters and attacks.) All Power, Scientists, and Workers are released...

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Outpost 2 Divided Destiny / Re: Has Colony Game difficulty changed?

« Last post by Highlander on August 08, 2018, 11:42:59 PM »

Probably you could survive the scenario if you avoided military research and only relied on self destructing scouts, though you'd need 2-4 VF's to have a high enough scout production. I haen't tried this approach though, so I dont know how well it would actually work. I'd also regard it as somewhat cheating, since you are manipulating the game to some extent (Im sure self destructing scouts was not an intended way of passing the scenarion )

The other method which you (Crow!) mention, (which will also work on most maps where enemy units enter the map if I remember correctly) is to self destruct your military units and rebuild your forces once the next enemy attack wave enters the map. This keeps enemy attacking units to a minimum, and if you place your VF's strategically on the map, you will have enough time to build defenses and intercept enemy units. But again, this is manipulating the game a bit..


The only way I have succeeded with this scenario on hard is to stall weapon research as long as possible, while building up my base and population. Then, when the first microwave attack begins, blow those lynxes up with scouts and jump start weapons research.
The enemy will enter the map on 6 different locations after that - two groups with 4x Vehicle Factories on each side will probably be able to produce enough units to keep up with the attacks.
EMP + ESG  Tigers is my main choice in weaponry -> set up bottlenecks at locations attacks pass through and the EMP/ESG combo will clear out most of the enemy units. As a backup you might want to keep 1 spaceport armed with an EMP missile + a few supernova or microwave lynx.

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Game Discussion General / Re: Cataclysm of Chaos, Remade (ASCII) - Alpha V11

« Last post by lordpalandus on August 08, 2018, 05:20:49 PM »

As far as I can tell, it is a limitation with the libtcod library. You need to use, what I think is a sprite sheet, with all the various characters and symbols off a font file (included file is the font size 12 file). Why it has such large spaces in some words, and other times have like no spaces, I'm not entirely sure why that is.

I can definitely agree that having too many spaces in a word, artificially lengthens the word and makes it harder for me to read it quickly. Probably a perception related thing where the user expects the word to be longer, because it takes up more space that it usually does.

I'll fiddle with the UI, as it might be a problem created on my end. Maybe by giving a window too much excess space, it spreads out each character to fill that space more effectively. Or maybe legacy code from the tutorial creates the text issues. Or maybe it was fixed in a later version of libtcod library, and I'm just using an outdated version of libtcod.

Or maybe there is a text-formatting option in libtcod that isn't being used, which could be used to shrink the spacing of characters.

EDIT: I might be able to have Alpha V12's release out tomorrow. I am fighting with a few annoying interface bugs with the changes from font 10 to font 12, so I am not going to be able to promise a release. I've solved some of the interface issues, but not all of them, and many of them are extremely complex in nature, so it is slow, troublesome, and often times painful work to address these interface issues. And as the interface is key to gameplay, the game isn't really in a playable state at the present time.

EDIT2: I won't be able to release it today. However, I have made immense progress in getting the new character customization system to start working and I'm slowly but surely solving a whole bunch of interface related problems along the way. I hope to get this release out as soon as possible, but this all depends on how much more grief the interface will give me, between now and then.

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Graphics Update / Re: CHAP

« Last post by JetMech1999 on August 08, 2018, 04:54:36 PM »

So true.

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Game Discussion General / Re: Cataclysm of Chaos, Remade (ASCII) - Alpha V11

« Last post by Hooman on August 08, 2018, 02:33:23 PM »

That's much easier to read. The letters are large enough to be clear.

I still find the spaces between characters within words slows down my reading. I vaguely remember reading an article years ago that talked about a scientific study on how spacing affects reading, which suggested spaces within words makes it harder to read.

Not sure how attached you are to that spacing, or if it's part of the engine you're using. Looks like it's part of the engine.

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Game Discussion General / Re: Cataclysm of Chaos, Remade (ASCII) - Alpha V11

« Last post by lordpalandus on August 08, 2018, 11:32:02 AM »

Yes, when in a sub-menu it won't work. If you were able to move your character around the map, and then hit shift + /, then it would have opened the help menu.

Here is two screenshots, to give an indication of changes in font size.