Guidance For A Beginner

[Tigramans]

First of all, greetings and salutations to the Outpost -community. I hope the place is living and breathing! :3

I got Outpost 2 back to my driver and began to play it again. I never remembered it was THIS hooking.

Everything is going fine so far playing single player, but the nights are ruined by a single announcement:

"WARNING: Volcanic eruption detected!"

...And there goes my dreams. Any way to stop the damn lava flow? Even predict the vulcanic activity? Or should I expect the worst: to shift the whole damn base elsewhere, up in the hills?

Everything else, so far, EVERY-damn-THING else can be handled.

Enlightenment much appreciated should you reply this message.

[Kayedon]

Which mission were you playing? There are ideal spots that I always go for on each map, difficulty and time depending, of course. I'm guessing you're playing the Plymouth Missions, ja?

Also, this reminds me that some day I wanted to post strategy guides for each mission, haha. I remember we used to have some but they were incomplete to the max.

[Sirbomber]

Uhh, yeah... Which map is this?

Generally volcanoes serve as a mission timer (not unlike the Blight).  Take too long to complete the mission and it's game over.

Though there are some colony games where that's not the case.

[Hidiot]

And volcanoes have a predetermined expansion path. Simply learn how it will stop flowing and build accordingly. Sometimes the lava is there to force you to change the positions of some of your starting buildings, or your whole starting colony, although the latter is very rare, and I think nonexistent in the original maps.

[Larrythepoet]

I thought Volcanoes only expanded on the dried lava terrain tiles...

[CK9]

depends on the skill of the person who made the mission.  Way long ago, people would make "new" games by associating different maps to .dll files, causeing all kinds of chaos with volcanos.

back on topic, though

after a certain point in the campeigns, you can research the natural sciences, which will give you early disaster warnings, including volcanos.

[Kayedon]

And volcanoes have a predetermined expansion path. Simply learn how it will stop flowing and build accordingly. Sometimes the lava is there to force you to change the positions of some of your starting buildings, or your whole starting colony, although the latter is very rare, and I think nonexistent in the original maps.

It is in the original game. Twice, actually.

One is Plymouth 3, where you can relocate your entire base to the grey area on the bottom of the map (where storms spawn, mind you). I always move down there because it lets me research and build up my colony so I don't die from population reasons. I try to meet the population objectives of mission 5 (difficulty depending) before I finish the mission (although you do have to hella rush Agridomes in the start). Anyways. I counted this because there is a clear possibility and no blight, plus the beacon location makes it seem like Sierra planned it (since even on Easy I have difficulties meeting the objectives because of the volcano, but I haven't played on easy in years. )

The second one is Plymouth Population. On easy, your base and mine are fine. On medium, the lava murders your only reasonably-mineable beacon (though you could tube north) and the bottom part of your base (just an agridome I believe). On hard, it smothers pretty much your entire starting area, forcing you to locate to either the enemy spawn point or Australia.

[Tigramans]

Which mission were you playing? There are ideal spots that I always go for on each map, difficulty and time depending, of course. I'm guessing you're playing the Plymouth Missions, ja?

Also, this reminds me that some day I wanted to post strategy guides for each mission, haha. I remember we used to have some but they were incomplete to the max.

Yes, I mainly play with Plymouth. Some campaign levels completed, and I understand that in campaign, you just have to run away from them sometimes (such as first missions). But now, I play Colony games and other "custom" stuff (to be honest, I hate playing campaign, not just OP, but many games... no liberty to do things).

So in a nutshell, so far I seek assistance to the Colony Starship/Population games.

So far I've made up a strategy to shift my whole base with most vital structures elsewhere and keep the former colony alive till/before the eruption begins.

[Highlander]

In Plymouth Starship I, the lava will eventually take out both your original smelter and your structure factory. (+ other structures nearby if you have placed the in the wrong place) In the end there will only be a small passage between North-West and South-East part of map. The soultion: Build your base on the East side of your Command center.

In Plymouth Population, the lava will eventually ravage most of your base. It will do so quite slowly though, so you should have plenty of time to relocate. If you play the mission as a test first, you can check exactly when the volcano will erupt and you can restart and relocate to a new base by then. Be aware that lava will kill your mine as well, so you have to complete the necessary research and collect enough ore for the move. Solution: Relocate base. Some say South apparently, I always prefer going West. (As far as I remember most Vortexes appear in the South, while earthquakes happens in the west.) So I'll leave that choice up to you, main point is - Move!


I made these advices on the assumption that you are playing on Hard. On Normal or Easy, disasters and the game will treat you a bit nicer. Check back in if you need any further help, but I suggest this topic is moved to the Outpost 2 section of forum.

[Kayedon]

Mm. Knowing the difficulty helps to, because on Plymouth, your base/the lava flow actually change depending on difficulty. On easy your base shouldn't be affected, but on hard you're f***ed.

For Plymouth Starship, Just expand east/west. Going up or down will lead you into the lava flow. Play it a few times and learn the flow and where not to go. On medium, the lava flow will rape your smelter, and I haven't survived long enough to determine where the second volcano flows to (I haven't played this mission on medium in a good 6 years so my old strategies blow hardcore). On hard, well, your guess is as good as mine.

For Plymouth Population, you're fine on Easy. Just don't go too far south and micro-manage your trucks (or use waypoints) until the lava stops flowing. On medium/hard, you have to relocate. I personally recommend moving to the Australia (south-east corner) location, as you have 2 commons and a rare. However, the truck routes are plagued by vortexes so you have to keep your smelters rather far away. I'll post a picture about a good location if you'd like. Other than that, no other location is decent and has rare ore. On medium, the lava will only take out your starting agridome and your mine. On hard, it will smother your entire base.

[CK9]

on plym pop, I personally prefer to move west and overwhelm the spawning enemy.  Then when I get rare, I make a small mining outpost and keep a smelter at the main colony in case something happens.

[Kayedon]

on plym pop, I personally prefer to move west and overwhelm the spawning enemy.  Then when I get rare, I make a small mining outpost and keep a smelter at the main colony in case something happens.

Hmm, maybe. I always find being in Australia to be advantageous. Firstly, there are only 5 rare ore beacons on the map. Two one bars, two two-bars, and a three-bar. One one-bar is the spawn point, another is about the middle-middletopleft of the map. One of the two two-bars is in Vortex Alley, and the other one gets just barely made unusable by lava early game (on easy, it's actually possible to tech fast enough to mine from there. Just hope it never, ever gets destroyed.) Then the three-bar gets covered. So I choose to give myself not only a huge warning of incoming assaults (it takes about 3-5 minutes for them to reach you and attack, which is tons of time to repair and bolster defences), but also the best available rare (it just has to be distance-mined).

Anyways, this is not a place to discuss strategies. :3

[CK9]

aye, I was just pointing out that there are multiple methods.

[Kayedon]

aye, I was just pointing out that there are multiple methods.

Many of which involve U-R DE-TH

[Highlander]

Eden units will "Always" congregate around 55,10. Either you can use the "bottleneck" in the 65,20 area or just pick them off as they approach.

As long as you get a 1 bar rare, you'll be fine in this scenario. Common ore is, as always, more important.

[lordpalandus]

I've found for plymouth colony on medium or hard difficulty, the best place to move to is far west where the grey tiles are (not the blackish volcanic tiles; the tiles that sometimes have shrubs on them). That area has 3 great advantages but 2 disadvantages.

Advantages:

1) Don't have to worry about earthquakes, volcanoes or vortexs
2) Lots of craters and rocks to create chokepoints; easier to defend
3) Several (2+) Common and Rare beacons, though not necessarily of the best quality.

Disadvantages:

1) A lot closer to enemy spawnpoint; May get overwhelmed if you are not prepared for them on hard difficulty
2) Long distance away from start point. The most effective way to use the far colony is to build it up as quickly as possible. So for startpoint build bare essentials: Standard Lab, Extra Agridome, Nursery, and University. Then save up all resources to build an extra command center and a structure factory.

[lordpalandus]

The other advantage of this location is that on easy and medium you are right next to a 3 bar common beacon that will eventually get covered by lava but great source for quick income!

[Kayedon]

Eden units will "Always" congregate around 55,10. Either you can use the "bottleneck" in the 65,20 area or just pick them off as they approach.

As long as you get a 1 bar rare, you'll be fine in this scenario. Common ore is, as always, more important.

I find their collection point changes based upon the location of your base. If you're at the starting area, then they collect in the chokepoint-like hills to the northeast. If you're in Australia, they pile up in the brown crater area just north (I think it's a crater area). Unsure about other locations.

[Highlander]

I find their collection point changes based upon the location of your base. If you're at the starting area, then they collect in the chokepoint-like hills to the northeast. If you're in Australia, they pile up in the brown crater area just north (I think it's a crater area). Unsure about other locations.

Thats why I said "Always"  B)
(As I always build to the West of the original starting position)

In any case, this can be manipulated by moving to other locations on map.
So, if you upload the location you usually see them meeting up, then we will know 2 of those gathering points

[Tigramans]

Thanks for the info. I'll try your things out and see if there's any additional questions or problems they may bring to my mind.

Thanks once again.
OUR COLONY IS SURVIVING :'D

[CK9]

Don't forget that the ai units don't sit around and attack until you are at a certain research point, heh
 

[Kayedon]

Don't forget that the ai units don't sit around and attack until you are at a certain research point, heh

Really? Do you know this particular point? I've experimented with researching some things and not researching others and they always seem to group and attack even if I don't research much.

Meh, it's been ages.

[Highlander]

AI will attack in the end whether or not you have researched weapons.

[CK9]

I restarted 3 times, each time the sit and attack came after I researched the earth military thing in the basic lab...then again, the one I'm playing has an altered tech tree...

[evecolonycamander]

That would explain it well the best bet is to mak a moble colony. taks a lot of or but it may save you some troble in the long run