Outcasters Starship can't be started

[Commander]

Hi OP2 fans,

I recently got back into OP2 - still one of my favourite games ever - and spent some time on these forums to see if there are any colony games/other SP scenarios I haven't tried. Came across Outcasters Starship, which I downloaded from post #1 here: https://forum.outpost2.net/index.php/topic,5014.0.html

Unfortunately, the scenario (after insertion in the OP2 directory) will not start up. First error message is "missing op2extra.dll", second one "could not initialize". I'm running OPU 1.4.1 on the GOG version, with mostly German audio and text transferred from my original CD when re-installing.

Any idea how I can get the scenario to work? I downloaded the most recent op2ext.dll from Github, renamed it "op2extra.dll" (I'm guessing it's the same as op2ext.dll anyway), which fixed the first error message but not the second one.

Thanks so much again to all you folks who put the work in to create this community content, I was stunned to see OPU 1.4.1 when first starting up and love the main menu's art, let alone the rest of the game.

Cheers,
Commander

[Sirbomber]

First off, welcome and glad to have you with us.  Feel free to hop into our Discord channel if you're so inclined.
To answer to your question, get a copy of op2extra.dll (maps/ForsakenWorld has one that may work) and copy it into the folder you've put the rest of the mission files into.  A word of warning though, if a custom mission wasn't included in the community patch, it's probably either buggy and unplayable, or of low quality and not fun to play.
Let me know if you're able to get the mission to run!

[Commander]

Hi Sirbomber,

Thanks for your reply and apologies for the delayed response. I might drop by in your Discord channel in the near future.

I went to https://arklon.outpost2.net/mcshay/XHTML/fw.html to download the op2extra.dll, however it's not available among the files for this map...?

[Sirbomber]

It wouldn't be; op2extra.dll used to be included standard in the fan patch but it's obsolete now.  Certain older missions still rely on it (with some missions expecting certain versions) so each mission has the version it expects included in its custom maps folder that gets installed to your PC.  So in the case of Forsaken World, you'd want to look in (your Outpost 2 installation directory)\OPU\maps\ForsakenWorld and you should find a copy of op2extra.dll there that will (hopefully) work.

[Commander]

Ah, got you, many thanks.

Unfortunately the outpost2.exe crashes when trying to load Outcasters Starship with the op2extra.dll from Forsaken World. Oh well.