Outpost - Player's Guide
Construction In The Early Stages
There is a fine balance between getting your initial construction 'just right' and
watching it fail miserably. Therefore to get the most out of the chosen terrain and
your colonists you should build your structures in the following order:
Agricultural Dome, CHAP, Power Facility, Storage Tanks, Residential Units.
Remember to keep an eye on your morale factor; if it is falling dramatically, build
one or two residential units before you construct the power facility, as the Seed
Factory will sustain power for a short time. This should hold the situation.
Once you have your basic units up and running it is best to invest in a SPEW
facility, as this generates useful resources from residential waste. The SPEW also
generates MPG, which will maintain flailing resources until you can compensate.
It is also beneficial to construct a Warehouse and a Robot Command facility so
that you can put the robots created by the Seed Factory to good use. Next
excavate a couple more mines to keep your resources steady.
The best thing to remember, however, is not to rush things - build slowly but
steadily. If you build too quickly, you will deplete your resources and as a result
construction will cease altogether. Also, the Seed Factories collapse after 150
turns, so you must try and compensate for the resources they generate before this
happens.
Seed Factory
The Seed Factory plays a vital part of the initial construction and well being of
your colony. From here you can begin to explore the possibilities of developing
underground facilities by placing a Robodigger at the end of a tube emerging
from the Seed Factory construction site - the Robodigger will proceed to tunnel an
air shaft. During your later turns you can begin construction on an underground
site by placing a Robodigger at the end of any service tube as long as it connects
to the main colony.
The Seed Factory is a vital facility because it generates power, smelter and the
Robot Factory. When the Seed Factory collapses after 150 turns you must be
prepared to take this loss in your stride by compensating with other units. Make
sure, therefore, that you have these facilities constructed before this time, and at
this point all tubes carrying power and air should now bypass the dying factory.
Get your Seed Factory producing numerous types of robots early on, enabling you
to get on with numerous different tasks. Access the text entry area on the robot
report and pull down the production menu by clicking on the small arrow to the
right of the report. Select a robot type and close the report. This then
automatically selects which robots will be constructed - one is built after every
five turns. Try to build at least one of each, then look into building more of a
specific type when needed.
Once your Seed Factory dies you will have to build another robot manufacturer,
and this is where a surface factory comes into the equation. You must also store
your robots in a warehouse; one will usually suffice due to the continual turnover
of the goods. Once you start gaining a surplice robot supply build a Robot
Command Centre to activate those stored in the warehouse - one Centre can
control up to ten robots in the field.
Structures And Tubes
You may not be getting the most out of your buildings, and your facilities are
becoming idle. If this is the case, check your resources, power or people.
The CHAP facilities are a priority and cannot be left to rot. If resources are scarce
and you have a SPEW structure, try bulldozing redundant buildings so that you
can recycle the materials. If you take this approach, make sure you also have
operating Mines, Smelter and vacant Storage Tanks to handle the recycled
materials (only build a new tank when the others are almost full).
An idle Lab, on the other hand, can be caused by one of three things:
1) You don't have sufficient resources - check what you need from the lab report.
2) You don't have sufficient scientists - train more.
3) You don't have a research topic allocated - call up a topic from the lab report.
If your problems are simply due to a lacking workforce, for quick results bulldoze
redundant structures and then re-allocate the unemployed workforce.
Also, remember to build DIRT facilities within a few spaces of your Tokamaks,
Nanotechnology Facilities and Hot Labs as these have an unnerving tendency to
explode from time to time. The DIRT facility can aid against other disasters
within the immediate vicinity.
As soon as your scientists have discovered Nanotechnology build at least one
facility on each of your colonies. This will reduce the emphasis placed on
resources and in turn will no longer limit the expansion of your colony.
Transport And Infrastructure
To move resources quicker and more efficiently you will need to employ the use
of trucks, which can be built in your surface factories. Each mine has one truck
automatically assigned to the carriage of resources, however, any extras that you
have created will make absolutely sure that there is no lapse in the transportation
of your resource
should a truck break down. You do not need to build roads or any other kind of
infrastructure for transportation.
Man Management
Initially, leave your colonists in orbit during the first 20 turns to enable your Seed
Factory to get established. After this, your colonists may well die due to accidents
on the surface or through old age - don't panic, that's life! However, when you get
a death message it may be due to starvation or lack of air, so keep a continual
check of your Agricultural Domes (one unit feeds ten people) and that each
structure has air tubes going to it.
If you find that you are not getting enough skilled workers, such as scientists,
construct a University to increase the general educational level of your student
populace and general workers.
Morale is all important and is obviously remedied by constructing more
Residential Units - morale is best when there are no more than 25 colonists per
unit. Other aspects which can alter morale is the construction of recreational
centres, parks, police stations, agricultural domes and luxury goods (created in
underground facilities). Also, research laboratories studying humanities or
psychology can help. Be careful with Red Light districts, as this can have a
beneficial and negative effect depending where it's built.
Rebel Alliance
A Rebel Colony can rejoin yours, at which point it will come under your
command. Simply click on the Command Centre of that colony to gain access to
all their structures and resources - you can now manage it as your own. If the
Rebel Colony has not rejoined you and you wish to locate it, you will have needed
to pack an Orbital Observer Satellite before you left Earth. If you did, it needs to
be launched as soon as you arrive at the outpost - this will let you view all surface
activity in the colony. If you didn't pack the Satellite, then it's down to a manual
search of the planet, inch by inch.
Anything We Can't Categorise...
If you're wondering where you're going with all of this, try setting yourself this
aim: Lead up to the creation of a space research project which could lead to the
generation of another colonisation starship. This is going to require success in a
number of different areas, which is a mammoth task in itself. You will need a
good morale, a healthy and well-sustained colony, and research facilities into a
wide range of diverse topics. As soon as you launch your new starship you
effectively 'win'.
Don't rush things. The most effective route to growth is being cautious about
construction and resources, your so-called money spinner. It will take time to
achieve a healthy and efficient colony, Rome wasn't built in a day you know!
Also, remember there's a moral injected into Outpost and it's one that should be
imprinted on your brain for both every day life as well as this escape - recycle,
recycle, recycle...
Cheat!
Yep, there are cheat keys in Outpost and if you're really stuck (or just downright
impatient), here they are:
CONTROL and F8 together - Activate cheering and applause mode.
CONTROL and F9 together - Inflict a Mass Driver disaster on the Rebel Colony.
CONTROL and F10 together (will work on CD version only) - Inflict a choice of
disasters on your colony.
CONTROL and F11 together - Gives infinite supply of resources.
CONTROL and F12 together - Increases the morale, educational level or crime
level to the maximum or minimum.
Further Reading...
Outpost programmer Bruce Balfour has written a comprehensive strategy guide to
accompany the game and can be found in all good book shops. Its ISBN number
is 1-55958-508-0 and it's published through Prima Publishing, retailing for
18.49.
