OutPost3

[Koshy]

Hey i was just wonderin if any of you have heard anything about the develpment of outpost3 because there site seems to be down.

[SquidDNA]

I didn't know there was going to be one. The first one was a great idea implemented by racoons and other woodland creatures. The idea was great, though..

[sajuukar]

Hmm... I really enjoyed Outpost 2's concept, building a civilan city while defending it at the same time in real time, but it was always either too hard or too easy back then for me (gaming is a skill that I developed). Where exaclty was this outpost 3 site? Was it any good? Sheesh... I don't even remember who developed that...

Racoons and woodland creatures...???

[Mac_Bug]

I seem to recall OutPost being the conotation of 'crap'.

[IgnusDei]

played the game, alhtough i quickly starved the last remnant of humanity pretty quickly.

[SquidDNA]

The original Outpost was a very deep game, but like I said, it was put together by woodland creatures who obviously knew nothing about putting together computer games. When it came time to get into all that depth, things didn't work properly. It was possible to run out of the vital minerals you needed to feed people, for instance. I can't stress enough how fantastic the concept was, but by the time you had finished the game you could see that the designers had forgotten what the concept was before they were through.

One thing that didn't make sense for me about the game: why go through the trouble of heading to another star system when Mars was available and closer, so more resources could be brought along?

[Koshy]

Heres the link. Heres a site related to it but it hasnt recievd much atention lately either.

And although i dont know if this is actualy the game story but I heard that they left the system because the astroid that hit earth was actualy part of a system wide storm that hit every planet.

[SquidDNA]

That was a later addition to the story then.

[Koshy]

I dont realy know if it was part of the story i just heard it somewhere in ine of the forums.

[Koshy]

Does anone here know anything about or are involed in its development?

[Kevin Ar18]

First of all, let me note that Outpost and Outpost 2 play almost like two completely different games.

Outpost 1 / 1.5
Outpost was turn based and was 2D. It had NO combat. One of the things about the game was that it required very detailed micromanagement -- there were lots of aspects that interdepended on each other and lots of numbers and variables.
From what I hear, the game was hyped very much. I remember looking at the 3D models on the box and expecting the game to be in 3D. In addition, there was a strategy guide released for the game that (from what I hear) promoted many concepts that never made their way into the game.
Since I never read the strategy guide and never read any of the hype material, I didn't have any expectations and thus wasn't disappointed. In addition, I hadn't played many other games at the time, and I enjoyed stuff with heavy strategy (aka Sim City 2000). Thus, I was a little more liking of the game.
From what I can make out, the major reason for all the disappointment is some people who got caught up in the hype, would find the game fell short and thus would be greatly disappointed (it's hard to recover from this kind of disappointment).
One other thing I will note, is that there was an Outpost 1 and an Outpost 1.5. Supposedly Outpost 1 lacked many things that Outpos 1.5 had. Once again, I started out with version 1.5, thus, I had less to be disappointed in once again (but again the reason comes to I had heard nothing about the hype).

Outpost 2
Outpost 2 was quite different from Outpost 1. First of all it was real time. It was still 2D. However, it dropped much of the micromanagement. However, it still required a certain level of strategy micromanagement, because the game offered both combat and colony building. The game was not simply about mindless combat like Command and Conquer, nor was it simply about building a colony like Outpost 1 was.
For those new to the series, it seems quite a few liked it. Multipayer was perhaps the most enjoyable aspect (during the years it was ative). However, for those still disappointed from Outpost 1, they mostly likely brought a certain level of expectation/disappointment with them. Thus, any little thing is likely to spur quite a bit of disappointment to them (whether they want to or not). I'm not saying the game was perfect; in fact there were some serious flaws such as no map editor, and a weak AI, however, many people also found aspects in the game that they loved - aka the combination of colony building and combat.

Outpost 3
Just as Outpost 2 was drastically different than Outpost 1, Outpost 3, would be just as dramatic of a difference.

Outpost 3 was being developed by a company called Stellarwave. From personally talking to the developer / owner of the company, the game sounded quite interesting.
It was gonna be in true 3D (no more 2D). It would be real time of course. The game would stick to the Outpost 2 model with a combination of colony management and combat. However, the game would expand on Outpost 2's style with better combat as well as more involved colony building and management. A better AI would also being included. He game me the example of say you attack a certain canyon a number of times, the AI will set up guard posts or better protection in that area as a result.

However, the game would also offer a choice of 3 styles of gameplay.
1. no combat - aka just building a colony
2. Outpost 2 style
3. and the new Outpost 3 style (whatever that would be)

Some other features:

There would be a surface level, underground, and underwater.
In Outpost 1, you had to switch between the undground and surface, however, in Outpost 3, a transparency layer would be used so that you can see the underground from the surface (thus, no switching).

The game would take the weapons technology of Outpost 2, keep it, and expand on it with a new level of weapons technology. The game would also introduce aircraft as well as more space related stuff. Combat would take on a new level in the game (compared to Outpost 2).
In addition, the game would have the option to build colonies in space. You could play on a solor system level and colonize in space as well as on multiple planets in the solor system. I remember one day talking to him where he told me he was working on the 3D model for the agridome for space.
In addition to this, they were considering a massively multipalyer version, where you play on a constantly running universe and colonize planets throughout the galaxy (while competing with other people).

I was also told about where he played a game (I guess of the alpha version) where the other person made a sneak attack by sending his units underwater and sneaking up on his base. Sounded interestig to me.

In addition to the combat aspect, Outpost 3 would keep and expand on the colony strategy elements. Monorails would be reintroduced as well as more colony control requirements.



Well, anyways, several month's ago, Stellarwave sold their assets to another company. The guy who owned the company now works for the company. However, last I heard that company decided not to finish Outpost 3 due to "lack of interest."

It's a little disappointing. It would have been nice to play a game that combines war and colony building at the same time. Outpost 2 can only be played for so long, and like I said, it does have its limitations.

[SquidDNA]

Plus on a 386 DX2 66, Outpost would take something like two minutes just to advance a turn once you'd really gotten the game underway.

[Red Kerensky]

Ok guys, the pro comes in, since i was good friends with the peeps making it and the person who made that site someone posted

Originally, Outpost 3 was going to be developed by stellarwave, however, saddingly, stellarwave went out of buisiness (as you see www.stellarwave.com is no longer avalible), Obviously the woodland creatures are known as SIERRA, they developed both Outposts 1 and 2 (and specifically claimed theres going to be no other sequels, which sucks). Outpost 3 had big plans, it was going to be a combination of the depthness of outpost 1, the combat and funness of outpost 2, and even aircraft and outer space combat, however. Another company has purchased the Outpost 3 title from stellarwave as it went out of buisiness, and after that i stopped paying attention (and from the lack of updates i can assume they just put outpost 3 on hold). But personally by the time Outpost 3 comes out, Eve-Online would already be out:tongue:

EDIT:eh, someone already posted this, eck, *personal note: Next time read every topic before posting something*

[Kevin Ar18]

Hey, Red Kerensky I remember you from somewhere. Must have been the forums (or perhaps email?).

Ain't it interesting how close your message sounds to mine even though you didn't read mine first.

So you knew the guy who was making OP3 as well? When you say you were friends, do you know them in person or just online like me?
You know, we ought to ask him about the game again. I haven't talked to him in a while.

BTW, there is somebody working on a "clone" of Outpost 2 and is gonna add a few things here and there.
Check out the Outpost 2 section of the forum:
http://op.virtualave.net/cgi-bin/boa...boardpower.cgi
It's entitled "Time to create a sequel....." and there's 100 posts just in that one thread on it - you can't miss it (unless I later move it to it's own forum).


To Everyone Else:
Although they dropped Outpost 3, last I heard they will continue production of an action game where you can control individual units in the Outpost universe. Of course I want a colony builder like Outpost 3 more than I want an action game - the colony builder needs to come before the action game IMHO.

[SquidDNA]

I'm with you. The original Outpost was such a great, deep, detailed concept for a colony builder that I'd hate to see it go to waste.

What's the name of the guy trying to recusitate it?

[sajuukar]

Wait a minute... maybe Relic could make Outpost 3!!! If you ask me, it would be ptretty groundbreaking to have a game where if you wanted you could just make a happy little prosperous colony that manages it's satilites and underground stuffness, or attack satilites with a military colony w/ undergorund mines!!!

Since it's never been done before as far as I can tell, it doesn't even really have to be Outpost 3... maybe just something else that relic makes up w/ a different name, concept story thing, and everything! Maybe...

[SquidDNA]

Hmm.. so.. wait, since Sierra published the original Outpost, this doesn't seem infeasible-- Relic might have a foot in the door already if they found this idea to be inspiring. This could potentially be really cool. The colony management could be really deep. Just thinking about security for a moment, I imagined situations where sections of your colony rebelled, or were taken over by rivals from another colony, so now you have an RTS with security teams and equipment taking place in the tubes and modules you've built...! That would just be one aspect of the game.. I see a little bit of outpost, a little bit of simcity, a dash of startopia maybe. But it would focus on complex and deep colony management.

It wouldn't really be groundbreaking, but it would be cool as hell. Nice idea, SQ.