The Outpost Universe

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Welcome to the Outpost Universe!

The Outpost Universe is a fan site devoted to the Sierra released games Outpost 1 and Outpost 2: Divided Destiny. Feel free to drop by our IRC channel for a few games of Outpost 2, or some realtime chat with other fans. Or perhaps drop by our forums and leave us a message or join in on one of the topics. Here we have extensive discussions of gameplay, storylines, modding, or the latest patches, releases and projects being worked on.

The Outpost Universe has managed to attract both gamers and programmers alike. If you're a gamer, than join up with the other gamers for a few quick skirmishes over IRC, or perhaps discuss strategy on the forums. If you're a programmer, or looking to get into programming, then you are sure to find a few like minded people who can share what they know, or help you along. Or if you're a gamer who is looking for precise descriptions of how Outpost 2 works internally so you can perfectly optimize your next killer strategy, well, we have people that can probably help with that too.

Currently, the Outpost Universe offers a NetFix patch to help people play Outpost 2 over the internet who are behind a home router. It's not a complete WON replacement, but it's a significant step in the right direction. We also have a Hamachi network setup for people who would prefer to play over a VPN. For level designers, we have a mission development kit and map editor if you want to try your hand at making new Outpost 2 levels, but be warned, you pretty much have to be a programmer to use these tools, and you'll need a C++ compiler. Bug fixes and enhancement patches are also provided for various issues that have cropped up over the years, such as the option button highlighting, screen resolution issues, network gameplay problems, or just wanting to build twice as many units. We also provide a patched version with the cheats disabled, so you'll never again have to worry about cheats ruining your next online game of Outpost 2. Please be advised that different versions of Outpost 2 are not compatible with each other in network games, and most people here choose to use the patched version from the download section. The list of bug fixes and enhancments included is too large to list here, but if you're curious to see what we've done with the game, then check out ChangeLog.txt included in the download package.

So, why not stop by our forums to signup and say "Hello!", and see our current projects.

News

Content Contest
Posted by Sirbomber on Jul 1 2010, 11:55 AM GMT | Comments: 15

Hi everyone! I'm announcing the start of our Summer Content Contest, lasting from July 1st to August 15th! The idea of the Contest is simple: to see who can create the best new Outpost 2 content (see below for categories list). Please submit entries into the Content Submissions thread in the File Forums.

Oh, and everyone's looking forward to some really interesting stuff, so don't just slap something together and call it "good enough." But some effort into it!

VERY IMPORTANT NOTE: Please, please, please check out the rules and submission criteria before you start working on your submissions.

QUOTE (Submission Categories and criteria)

-Maps (May use any tileset)
> Judged by creativity, aesthetic appeal/professionalism, and playability.

-Missions (Multiplayer and Colony Games)
> Judged by originality and fun. Unplayable entries receive automatic 0.

-Mods (Campaigns, Sheets Mods, EXE Hacks/Mods that alter OP2's behavior or functionality)
> Judged by originality and extent of mod's effects on gameplay. Color Mods and sheets mods that make the game one-sided receive automatic 0.

-Artwork (Hand-drawn or Computer-generated images, Tilesets, Music, Video)
> Judged by quality/appeal, professionalism, and originality. Entries using content stolen from other sources receive automatic 0. This means no "sprite comics" or anything similar.

-Writing (Novellas)
> Judged by creativity, fun, and professionalism. Entries with excessive spelling and grammar issues receive automatic 0.

-Programming (Tools, Remakes, Sequels, Etc.)
> Judged by user-friendliness and usefulness and/or fun as applicable. Entries need not be 100% complete but must be presentable. Trainers or any program that provides an unfair advantage during multiplayer will receive an automatic 0.

-OP2 In Other Games (OP2-themed weapons, stages, vehicles, etc. in other games)
> Judged by faithfulness to Outpost 2 and fun. As judges may not have the game you've modded, a video of your content in action must be provided.

QUOTE (Rules)

-Maximum of 3 submissions per person/team. Limit of one submission per category.
-The winners in first, second, and third from each category will be announced. The first-place entries from each category will be compared, and a "grand champion" will be chosen from this list.
-Up to three people may enter together as a team.
-You must create something new for this contest. Old content released before July 1, 2010 will be disqualified. Material previously released as "Betas" or "Demos" are exempt from this rule.
-The final due date for submissions is August 15, 2010 at 12:00 PM (noon) EST.
-Winners will be chosen by public voting (popularity) and by judges looking for the specific criteria mentioned above.
-Winners will receive "People's Choice" Awards and/or "Judge's Choice" Awards.

Some Usefull Items
Posted by CK9 on May 23 2010, 01:33 PM GMT | Comments: 0

Irc Downtime
Posted by CK9 on Apr 27 2010, 01:35 PM GMT | Comments: 38

Due to some office maintenance at the IRC server location, there is some schedueled downtime (just a day or two). While it's down, there's always the forum

EDIT by Mez: IRC server is up

I'm Back, And Some Website Updates
Posted by BlackBox on Mar 21 2010, 04:11 PM GMT | Comments: 22

Hey everyone,

I know this may come as a huge surprise but I have decided to become more active in OPU again. Some of you may have seen some of my posts and my presence on IRC, one of those posts being a large release of the code to a bunch of projects including the OP2mapper.

I no longer have the free time I need to be able to work on programming-related projects much anymore (this may change in the next few months but we will have to see). That being said, I do want to continue to improve the website, servers, etc (and these are tasks that I feel that I have the time to accomplish), some changes have been implemented already, for example, DNS fixes that were causing some people to not be able to access the forums or IRC.

Because of all this, I want to ask the community a few questions:

First of all, I would be interested to know how many people would be opposed to moving to more up to date forum software. Currently we use an ancient version of Invision Power Board (before it became a paid product). You also may have noticed that there have been an infusion of spambots onto the forums and this is partly due to the fact that we are using ancient software that has certain security vulnerabilities associated with it.

I personally do not consider it worth our while to expend the effort needed to fix this software, but I want to leave the final decision to update the forums to the community, as there has been resistance in the past to move to different software. New software would enable us to implement more useful features as well (for example, we cannot have subforums more than one level deep which has been responsible for some of the clutter on the main page).

This is also part of another personal goal of mine: unify the OPU website and forums and make it look nicer and more usable. Right now I don't see the website as being the greatest front to our existence (it's kind of bare and not used for a whole lot). Additionally, in the past, we had the wiki and the gallery: the wiki turned into a disorganized mess and eventually ended up being made read-only; at this point the software it uses is no longer compatible with our server environment and no one has taken the time to fix it because it became such a giant mess. The gallery on the other hand kind of fell into disarray (it is still actively used by some people, but one may notice that there are lots of spam comments posted to it).

I would like to combine these things together; perhaps by making the main site a wiki, or at least in some way editable by certain users (another ambition of mine includes allowing some way for people to post pictures as well as new maps, missions, OP2 mods, whatever to a personal section of the website and have these things show up in some directory on the site).

What does everyone think? Post your input, comments, suggestions, etc.