Outpost 2

Outpost 2 is a real-time strategy computer game developed by Dynamix, released in 1997 by Sierra Entertainment. Outpost 2 is ostensibly a sequel to the game Outpost released in 1994 by Sierra Entertainment, although the tie-in is in name only. Since Outpost was considered an unsuccessful game, many expected Outpost 2 to be unsuccessful as well. However, it proved to be fairly successful.

Storyline

Backstory

Outpost 2 storyline is a pseudo-sequel to the original Outpost storyline, being based in events from the first game, but not in a strict way. As the introduction explains, in the year of 1998, the earth was discovered to be doomed, since a massive asteroid called Vulcan's Hammer was on a crash course to the earth. The size of Vulcan's Hammer was enough to assure total destruction of the earth, causing an extinction event on the same level of the one which wiped out the dinosaurs. After some efforts to divert the asteroid failed, a handful of engineers and scientists (along with their families) escaped in a gigantic, but rushed, starship named Conestoga.

The ship traveled in the interstellar space for many centuries, with the passengers in a cryogenically frozen state. The starship was self-sufficient, needing no human intervention, but after many centuries (perhaps some millennia), the supplies started to run out. Desperate, the ship's A.I reawakened the captain and some colonists. They gave orders to touch down on a planet that was closest to being habitable.

The colonists were set down on a Mars-like planet: thin in atmosphere, cold and dry. They named it New Terra. A small colony was established, initially called only "Outpost", but later called "Eden". After many years orbiting New Terra, the Conestoga crashed due to natural orbital decay. This plot can be seen as having some similarities to that of Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri.

The plot is revealed through a combination of the series of mission briefings and parts of a novella, which was written by J. Steven York. The novella follows two characters: Axen Moon of Eden, and Emma Burke of Plymouth, who were childhood friends and lovers.

New Terra

New Terra was described as Mars was like: cold, dry, and nearly airless, though with enough resources to allow a decent human colony to be established. No technical data is given about it, like the size, age, or average distance from its parent star. However, there are some hints about it through the game, the Novella, and the help manual.

New Terra's solar system has an asteroid belt, as said both in the game and in the manual. Also, the games hint at one point that there are at least one gas giant planet in the star system. As shown in the title screen, New Terra has a small spherical grey moon that has yet to be named. New Terra's geography is made mostly of an orange sand and rock, although there are some other kinds of terrain. Since New Terra had past volcanism, it has also lava basins and has a non-native plant lifeform, part of an old failed terraforming experiment of Eden. New Terra's poles contained frozen water like Mars, and the sand may be mostly oxidized iron.

The planet has been hit by many meteors and is mostly homogenised in the metal department. This makes seams of mineable resources much rarer than on Earth. These seams are roughly even mixes of metals though, just thicker than the natural crust. They are defined by "Common Metals", light elements like iron, aluminium, silicon, and others from the upper half of the table and Rare Metals such as gold, lead, copper, zinc, mercury, cobalt, and other heavy elements. There are references that lead to the conclusion that there are many semi-precious and precious gemstones included in their mining.

Separation

Some years after the landing, an argument erupted among the colonists. One group wanted to terraform New Terra, while the other wanted to adapt humanity to live with the planet's harsh conditions. The ruling council listened to both groups's petitions, and decided by a slim majority to go along with the terraformers. The other group was understandably upset, and stole materials and transports in order to set up their own base on an ancient volcanic plain.

The separatists over the time reprogrammed their Structure Factory to produce structures with a vastly different profile then those of the former group, although identically functional. This was due to the separatists' ideals to adapt themselves to the harsh conditions of New Terra. After much arguing and debate sent over the Communications Satellite, it is decided that the idea of two separate colonies is actually a good idea. The first group begins to call themselves Eden, while the second decides to go by the name of Plymouth.

Time passes, and the two colonies trade and argue. Then Eden publicly announces that it is beginning to terraform New Terra. Arguments grew severe as Eden continued on with their plans to reform the planet. The leaders of Plymouth become upset and decide to give the other side the cold shoulder by sending the deactivation code to the communications satellite. Unfortunately, it is realized too late that no one has the reactivation code.

Danger

Eden carries out an attempt at terraforming New Terra using a bioagent that breaks apart oxygen bonds, but an accident unleashes it on Eden, destroying it. Later dubbed the "Blight," the bioagent destroys boptronic computer systems and kills humans by breaking down organic molecules. The water produced by the breaking of these oxygen bonds lubricates long dormant fault lines, and the air released begins to thicken and storm. These result in more frequent occurences of earthquakes, lightning storms, and other natural disasters. In Plymouth, a long dormant volcano erupts nearby their colony, forcing them to evacuate the area. To top off the disasters, the planet does not have enough atmosphere to burn off asteroids, and is passing through a large asteroid storm. Both factions soon come to the conclusion that New Terra is about to become uninhabitable by the intolerable natural disasters, and the progressing Blight will soon engulf the entire planet. They decide to evacuate New Terra, though there are only enough resources left on the planet for one and three quarters spaceships.

Gameplay

An in-game Outpost 2 multiplayer screenshot of a Plymouth player (yellow) attacking an Eden colony (blue).

The gameplay is rather unique, focusing more on colony management than the destruction of enemies, with many differences from traditional real-time strategy games. For example, the buildings are built twice; the building is assembled first as a Structure Kit at a Structure Factory, and then constructed on the terrain by a ConVec. These structures must be linked to a Command Center by tubes to provide life support, power connections, free data flow, and human transportation. Because the terrain of New Terra is harsh, bulldozing the land with the Robo-Dozer facilitates both the faster construction of structures and the quicker movement of vehicles.

Morale is an important resource, as it will improve or impair the efficiency of many aspects of your colony, such as the birth rate, death rate, rate of manufacture at factories, and the production of food. Certain buildings specifically improve morale, manually or automatically. Certain events improve or decrease morale and some buildings also have secondary effects of improving morale by simply being in service.

Combat units are rather simple; there are eleven different weapon turrets, half available to each side, which can be built on a choice of three different chassis or as a stationary guard tower. There are also two types of miniature robots which, while physically weak, have several useful roles in combat.

In the campaign games, there are two separate tech trees: one for Eden, and one for Plymouth. In the colony games, both Eden and Plymouth share a third tech tree. As expected, many topics are shared between Eden and Plymouth both in the campaign and colony games. There are, however, differences; early on, these are subtle (for example, the shared Hypnopaedia technology which reduces the time to train Workers into Scientists has more effect for Eden than for Plymouth), but later on, these differences become more profound.

Fundamentally, Plymouth and Eden play the same. The main difference is that Eden has access to more powerful weapons and advanced technologies, while being internally fragile with higher morale fluctuation. Plymouth, in contrast, has less technology and weapons, but is much more internally stable, giving it to a better population growth and building efficiency.

Multiplayer

Outpost 2 has five different gametypes that can be played online. Any of these gametypes can allow players to form alliances with other players. The gametypes that are available includes:
*Last One Standing - The goal is to eliminate other player(s), or the other team(s). Players are defeated by losing their Command Center, and the remaining player or team that still has an active Command Center wins the game.
*Midas - Players try to gather as much resources as they can in a timed game. When time is up, the player with the most Common and Rare Metals in their storage is the winner.
*Resource Race - To win this gametype, players must gather a set amount of Common and Rare Metals.
*Space Race - Each player or team attempts to complete the Starship. The player or team that finishes their Starship first is the winner.
*Land Rush - This gametype is similar to Last One Standing, except that the players do not begin with a pre-build base. Instead, every player starts out with vehicles that are needed to build a base, then they explore the map to search for a suitable location to build their base. After the bases are built, the game will continue as Land One Standing.

External links

*Outpost Universe - The Outpost-Universe is a community for the Outpost series games by Sierra/Dynamix. This community is still active as of mid 2006.