OutpostHD is the rebirth of the Outpost: Missing In Action project. Simply, it's an Outpost game inspired by OP1 that adds the missing advertised features, improves gameplay mechanics by removing a lot of the unnecessary and tedious micro management, interface choices that make a lot more sense, an enhanced research tree and a planned but as of yet undeveloped multiplayer mode.

The core of the project is to provide a fun OUTPOST game that has all of the advertised features and provides better feedback for things like resource lines, mining/factory/laboratory reports and colonist opinion/morale.

• Develop a new, modern code base that can be built and run on multiple platforms including Windows, MacOS X and Linux.
• Implement the core gameplay mechanics from OUTPOST
• Provide a better interface from which the user can get better feedback from their Colony.
• Add the ability to establish new colonies on the same planet.

• Develop new visuals to replace the old graphics using modern rendering procedures and alpha transparency (something impossible at the time the original game was built).
• Add additional planet and star types.

• Implement a multiplayer mode where other users can establish colonies on the same planet or different planets/moons within the same star system.

OUTPOST the idea was great. The implementation was not. Below I list the changes being made from the original design of the game to OutpostHD's.

In OUTPOST, the Underground Factory could produce luxury items that were either consumed by the commercial structure or the red light district structure. This made sense as a boost to morale levels however the game designers chose to use superfluous item names for the production such as Fuzzy Dice, Wax Lips and Neuromancer Games.

I remember personally thinking that this was silly. In OutpostHD, Underground Factories will produce luxury items which I think are simple enough to label as “Luxury Items”. UG Factories will also be used to produce other items but I haven’t yet decided what those items will be.

There is no reason to artificially inflate the game’s feature list. Most people just want to get into the simulation part of the game so I’m dropping the colony ship preparation and star selection phase of the game entirely. Instead, it will be a fairly simple interface allowing the player to choose the planet type, hostility and difficulty and then drop right into the game.

Outpost required that the player have available the following resources:

• Metals A
• Metals B
• Metals C
• Metals D
• Precious Metals A
• Precious Metals B
• Minerals A
• Minerals B
• Minerals C
• Fusion Elements A
• Fusion Elements B
• Fusion Elements C

All of these resources were required in one form or another in OUTPOST. Multi-purpose Goo (MPG, produced at the SPEW Facility) could be substituted for any of these resources.

OutpostHD's resource list:

• Common Metals
• Rare Metals
• Common Minerals
• Rare Minerals

That's it. These are the four mined resources. All mines produce them in varying quantities based on mine yield (low, medium, high).

The reasoning behind this is that players need to be able to know at a moments glance how much of what resources they have without having to look at a report that spans an entire screen. The four resources provide enough variety to account for all of the original resources (with the exception, perhaps, of fuels for fusion reactions however it's debatable if this really needs to be a separate resource or can be considered part of the Rare Minerals resource).

Hated the idea of this stuff. A goo that could serve as a substitute for anything? Nope. Plus, by having a spew and a lot of residences, you could amass MPG and effectively have limitless resources. Hell of an imbalance.

Instead, the SPEW will no longer produce MPG – instead it will reclaim a limited amount of minerals and metals from sewage and waste materials produced by various buildings. Demolished buildings will go to the Smelter for raw materials reclamation instead of the SPEW.