Quick Guide to Multiplayer Outpost 2

From OPU Wiki

Introduction: This Guide was designed with the newer players in mind. It includes some tips and tricks to help them get started, as well as bring them up to speed on the game. In general it assumes that the player has not played very much of the campaign games, and has not played often enough with in a multiplayer environment. Likewise it assumes that the player does know enough about the research needed to get certain vehicles and or techs, it also anticipates that the game will be played with Morale steady.

The Phases of Play: By now I am sure you have come to realize that there are what I like to call phases of play with in the game of Outpost 2. They are as Follows:

1. Building - Where all players build thier infastructure (Ore mines, smelters, power systems, guard posts.) and do the early research.

2. Build up - Where all players as quickly as they can build what vehicles they can, in preparation to attack or defend thier areas.

3 Attack/Defend - Where a player or group of players attacks and or defends thier base(s) of operation.

This guide is here to help you maximize your abilities, teach you what to build, where to build it, and how to coordinate your efforts with your team mates.

Phase 1 building your colony:

As you are aware by now having a well functioning colony is one of the primary keys to having a winning game. Obviously if your lacking in ore early on or your lacking in technology early on your going to be out done very quickly. As such there are several key areas you need to focus on to achieve a well rounded colony.

The 1st of which is ore production, or ore harvesting if you like. In outpost 2 you need alot of ore, and as such you are likely going to be tempted to early on move out and locate the largest ore cache in relative close proximity to your base, Don't. Instead find the closest ore cache to your ore smelter as is possible and mine the living hell out of it. Even a one bar can yeild the equivilent of a 3 bar if you do it right.

Now I am going to assume that you have found your self the standard all over and most found 2 bar. 3's are usually rare, and 1's are also almost as rare as 3's. The 1st thing you need to know is each mine can handle 7 ore trucks. Not 6 and never 8, but 7. 6 is too few, and 8 will inevitably eventually jam the mine. Each smelter can only handle 5 ore trucks. 6 Will jamm up the works. However unlike your mine, Smelters have an optimum number of ore trucks, IE the best possible number to be used, this is entirely dependant on how far the ore mine is to the smelter of course, but we will assume they are very close. Matter of fact I am going to assume they are at the optimum distance, this being with thier bulldozed boarders touching (not overlapping.) one another. At this range the optimum number of trucks is 3. 2 trucks and your smelter gets alot of idle time doing nothing but storing ore, and 4 just means your trucks are waiting around for a clear dumping space.

I know I know what your thinking already. I said 7 trucks per mine, but if your ore smelter can only use 3 trucks usefully, then why did you mention 7. Simple, your going to be adding more smelters. This is where you get really confused and start swearing at me I know, but pay attention this is important, your colonists are depending on you, hell forget your colonists I might be your team mate and I am depending on you.

For each mine if you build them properly (Boarders Touching!!!!), you can have as many as 3 smelters working with 2 trucks one (the farthest one away) will have 3 trucks a piece. By doing this you will always be getting ore from one of those smelters, niether your mine nor your smlters will ever be backed up and you will now have alot of ore.

There is a catch though. If you build 2 extra smelters right away you will be leaving your poor colonists with out a univeristy, and nursery for far too long. So make sure your structure factory builds in this order, Universisty, Smelter, Nursery, Smelter, Vehicle Factory, Advanced lab. Your start with 3 Ore trucks, so spread them our between the 3 ore smelters until you can build new trucks. This will allow you to get ore faster. (look below for a pic on how they should look when built.)

(insert picture here.)

The second most important part of your buildings is research. As such for this you need scientists. Once your univesity is built, train more scientists. As morale is steady, I always train ten more early on, and usually (but not always) research Hypnopidia while I am building my University so they will be ready all that much sooner.

I said above that I would be assuming you knew what to research to get to certain techs, well.... I will not assume everything. Your 1st research should be Cybernetic Teleoperation, this will allow you to build a Vehicle Factory and those all too needed ore trucks. Then research Focused Microwave Projection (Plymouth) or Large Scale Optical Resonators (Eden) This will allow you to build guard posts if you wish or need to. Then switch your your Advanced lab and research Mobile Weapons Platform, once thats done you can start building Linx at long last.

Realisitcally you should not have alot of ore in storage once your to this point, if you find you have more then 2500 ore laying around pratice on getting faster. I am going to leave the rest of the research to you, but one more word of advice. FOOD!!!!!! If by now you have not done so, build that second agridome, and spare a few scientists to improve your food production by researching Hydroponic growing Media. Chances are the game will take slightly longer then you have food to spare.

Phase 2 The build up:

This phase varies from game to game. Some players are obviously slower then others, some games have a time limit which is controlled by marks. Marks are the internal timer of the game click the Communications Icon (looks like a satelite dish.) to learn the Mark time.

Generally, the objective is very straight forward, in this phase you build up your attacking and defensive forces as much as is possible before you feel confident enough to strike out at your opponents or they strike out at you. My personally advice is you can never have more then enough. However Outpost is also a strategy game, and sometimes lesser numbers actually win the day.

Make sure while your building your forces up you remember a few key things. 1 you can never have enough tech, so keep researching as much and as fast as is possible with out cutting your production. 2 if it looks like its going to be a long game, rare ore early on may help you out. 3rd and finally keep and eye on whats going on around you. Watch the mini map, its your only real ally out there. You might be playing 5 against 1, and some of your team mates may be better then you, some may have been playing since the game came out, but even they can miss that all too appearent to you super nova sneaking in through thier back door, or it may be sneaking in through your back door!!!

Also remember that the enemy may rush you at anytime. If your not watching they could be inside your coumpound before you even have a chance to react. It also never hurts to read messages coming from other players, some will inevitablly be from your team mates tring to help you out. Others may be that uppity player on the other side giving away his attack.

Laslty, build everything you can. Alot of players have this notion that they can lay waste to an enemy just by building 2 different types of vecs. EMPs are nice and so are RPGS and ESGs are sweet as hell, but that lone Sticky Foam linx can suicide attack that pack of ESG tigers stopping an attack dead in its tracks.

Phase 3 The action:

At long last you and your team are ready to attack. 1st off remember if your playing with a team it never hurts to listen to the experianced commander. Chances are he has been around long enough to know the style of other players, seen more tactics then can be remembered easily and has forgotten more about OP2 then most will know. He may start issuing instruction that to you mean no sense at all. Maybe he saw something that gave him a clue about the enemies plans, or maybe he just has a hunch. 9 out of ten times if I am playing a 3 v 3 game, I will ask one of the team mates to work defense while me and another team mate run the attack. If you have been asked and agreed to work defense, DO NOT HELP THE ATTACK. This is majorly important to remember. There are 2 very good reasons for this. If your teams attack fails chances are you are all that stands between the enemy and your teams loss. That lone sticky foam linx that you sent into enemy territory may be the lone sticky that could have kept your team mates alive after all your other defenses there got wiped out.

If your on the attacking side or by your self, the phrase putting all your eggs in one basket comes to mind. it never hurts to leave behind a few combat vecs for defense. I try to leave 5 for each way into my compound. These vary depending on weather I am Eden of Plymouth, but generally 2 EMPs and 3 long range attack vecs IE Thors, RPGs, ESGs, RailGuns, and prepherably if possible in tiger format. Sure those 5 to 15 vecs might have helped win the battle that you just lost in enemy territory, but now they are all that stands between the bad guys and your base while you replenish your losses.

Additionally, attacking from more then one direction at a time is'nt going to hurt you or your teams chances. Most people have a hard time watching multiple fronts and going in through the back, side or hell all openings is only going to put more pressure on the defender. Making him/her divide his/her forces to protect thier investments. The bad news is now you also will have to divide your own attention and resources. Overwhelming numbers helps.

Also, while yes you can micro manage a battle, your vecs usually do a damned fine job all thier own with the occasional move orders issued by you. As such, spend this free time building replacements to your battle divisions.

Do not forget the fast attack. All too often newbies and veterans alike overlook this all too valid option. Tigers are nice, but really, so long as the enemy is dead then who cares how its done. A small group of links can easily whip in destroy something or several somethings of value before being destroyed.

My reccomendation is kill the Advanced lab 1st if possible. Its usually not as well defended as say the Command Center and you could stunt if not stop thier research progress for a damned long time. Take out ore smelters next if possible, ore mines if possible, and then the CC. Everything you destroy has value to the enemy, its one more thing they have to rebuild when the battle is over or risk loosing any advantage they may have had.

Laslty some simple ideas to help you out.

It never hurts if you can spare the ore to build a second command center and keep it tucked safely in a convec ready to be rebuilt if you loose yours, or ready to be traded to an ally if they loose thiers. I have seen players so utterly destroyed make come backs just by this being done. Park it in an allies base, and if yours is destroyed built it close to that ally, tube to what ever is left of your old base as soon as is possible or ask your allies to help rebuild you with a few meager supplies (structure factory, smelter, ore mine, Tokamak and ore trucks.) Remember these things are expensive, and your allies no matter how good they are doing are going to be sacraficing large ammount of ore to help you, so make sure you thank them by getting back in the game fast and helping them to beat the enemy to pulp.

Never quit, well almost never. If your totally dead and have no colonists or your food just ran out its probably time to bail. You could still be useful to your team mates by watching for them, and if they have a trade center they could still trade you vecs so they will not loose thier building advantages, but realistically your dead, so I will accept your good bye. However when not all hope has been lost, stick it out. There are alot of things that could happen. That over massed attack group in your compound might be turned aside by your allies, maybe they can rebuild you in time before your food runs out or all your scientists die. Its almost never too late to be saved in the game of Outpost 2.

Lastly either build your advanced lab some distance away from your colony, or build a double thick wall around it. If it is destroyed its going to blow up and probably take something or alot of somethings with it. Damage is bad, any damage any building or vehicle takes means its that much closer to death. Letting the enemy have a few free kills just by taking out your Advanced lab always is a bad idea.