Space Colony -Outpost inspired- [Fully explorable + Do It Yourself!]

There's a question for all of you at the end of the description!

tl;dr version: space colony inspired from a very old video game; terrain unfinished, many buildings, fully explorable! And now, you can download the buildings separately and build a colony yourself!


Wall of text version:

Context:

Outpost is a very old game (1994), focused on building and managing a space colony, the Earth having been hit by a giant meteor. The game was unfinished and buggy as hell, but as a kid, I loved the s***t out of it, so here's my take on a space colony from the game!

Disclaimer:

The terrain isn't finished for now, I'll do it once the buildings are completely finished, in order to have a better integration of both elements. (and normally, in the game, eveything is flat!).
The original game doesn't have very detailed graphics, therefore I had to design a large portion of the buildings (including the interiors) by myself. Feel free to suggest improvements! For reference, I have provided pictures of the game with my build's screenshots.
I'm currently using Plaff656's awesome sci-fi texture pack (version Mk. XI), many thanks to him :-)

Colony history:

1- A brand new planet!

- Once a suitable planet is located, an automated lander, filled with robots, is launched from the Colony Ship. Three automated buildings follow (foundry, robot factory, and energy module; don't worry, later buildings WILL have a different look!), which are linked together with a series of tubes built by the robots.

- The command center is built. Once the colonists have landed, it will be the main building of the colony, with the commander being able to monitor and control everything from the command room.

2- A small step for man...

- Now that the colony is almost habitable (and that the Colony Ship's vital systems are slowly falling apart), our 50 brave colonists strapped themselves in a transport, and prayed that their pilots were as good as they claimed. After a rough atmospheric entry, they managed to land safely.

- Being huddled together in the small atrium of the Command center (hey, they have nowhere to live for now!), the colonists decide that their main objective is to keep on breathing fresh air, a feat that would become increasingly difficult with their very limited oxygen supply. Fortunately, the miner robots have gathered enough materials to start the construction of the CHAP module (Closed Habitat Atmospheric Production). With this installation, there will be breathable air and recycled water for all.

- Cannibalism being somehow damaging to morale, the colonists decide to build an Agridome before resorting to this rather extreme solution. The lower floor of the structure provides an excellent growing area for a very nutritious (if tasteless) mold, whereas in the dome itself, wheat, mushrooms and even trees are grown. No more hunger problems!


3- Getting settled.


- Robodiggers have been busy digging (or stuffing TNT in the ground) to create caves big enough to build underground structures. These will be the main living centers of the colony, with medical centers, labs, universities, ...

-The first underground building is a residential area, so that our colonists can have their own room, instead of staying in the command center. Morale improves, everyone can now survive more comfortably in this new world, and the colony seems to have avoided the tragic end some people predicted for the first days...

- With resources and building materials repidly decreasing, the decision was made to build a mine, some distance away from the colony. Automated trucks are now able to transport raw materials to the Foundry. However, building roads taking a lot of time (for now), only a small road segment was finished, thus making resource transportation much slower.

- Storage tanks and warehouses are built to, well, store our brand new resources, as well as the new robots produced by the Seed Factory. The resource issue being resolved, it is now time to get a little bit more comfortable on this brand new planet!

- Our latest addition in the colony is the underground Medical Center, which is pretty much what it says on the tin. From emergency rooms to MRI and comfortable rooms for the patients to rest, we have our space flu covered! Pregnant women of the colony can now give birth in ideal conditions, which means that the population of our colony is increasing!


4- Moving forward.


- Among the original colonists were some of the finest scientists of Earth. With the basic needs of the colony fulfilled, it is time to put them to work! In the underground laboratory, those brilliant minds will be the key to a brighter future. Urbanism, artificial intelligence, genetics, energy, spaceships, nanotechnology, you name it, we can research it!

- Robots are one of the keystones of the colony, with their ability to mine, flatten, and dig (via TNT injections in the ground), but are often in need of repairs, or simply lost when they wander too far. The newly built Robot Command is therefore a structure designed to monitor, repair, and automatically or manually pilot the various robots used in the colony, in order for the Command Center A.I. to be able to pilot even more of them! Additionally, with the brand new Communication Tower built at the same time, no more robots will be lost because they wandered out of the colony's comm range.

- The next building in line is an industrial factory, larger and able to build more things more quickly than the Seed factory. In addition to robots, we can now build road parts and energy cells. Trucks from the foundry unload their goods near the entrance of the factory, which are then transferred to a processing facility that converts them into useful building parts, stored in one of the towers. The main building is the assembly line, where the robots/structures/cells are properly built.

- The underground factory, unlike its surface counterpart, is designed to produce "comfort" items, such as shoes, clothes, soccer balls, electronic games, and pretty much everything a building society needs to develop its economy. Two assemby lines make the production that much faster, allowing the colonists feel more at home, and to entertain and prevent their kids from wandering in the lab or outside without a space suit.

- Now that we have all those consumers goods, where do we sell them to our colonists to create a new economy? In the underground commercial center, of course! You can buy anything you want here, and a playground for your kids is provided, as well as a restaurant! Things are starting to look comfortable in our colony...

- A growing population and the capacity to manufacture alcoholic beverages can only mean one thing: incidents. Since it isn't a very good idea to let drunk people near airlocks, the new Police stations (underground and above ground) have been built to "accomodate" them for the night. And since the colonists are humans after all, the stations and their personnel will help prevent illegal activities in the colony.

- Speaking of a growing population, the colony will need to teach its youth in order to thrive in the future. With its 4 classrooms, the newly-built University will serve this purpose, forming scientists, technicians, builders, and teaching them everything the Colony needs.

5- Finishing touches.

- The Colony needing more power than the Seed power plant can provide, a Solar Power Revceiver Array was built to receive the solar energy redirected by the handy satellite put into orbit when the Colony Ship arrived in the system. The solar panels will provide all the energy the Colony needs for a very long time.

- The DIRT module (Disaster Instant Response Team) houses the team responsible for the rapid response to disaster and emergencies in the Colony. It also doubles as an emergency, heavily armoured shelter, able to house the Colony citizens, resources, robots and trucks in the event of a major disaster.

- The SPEW (Sewage Processing and Environmental Waste) facility is designed to recycle all the waste materials in the Colony. It then produces MPG (Multi-Purpose Goo), a special synthetic that can be used to replace any other resource required to maintain the functional status of an existing structure.

- The Recreational Center is aimed at improving the moral of the colonists (particularly young ones), with features such as a bar, bowling, arcade games, flight simulators, and a dance floor! On the other hand, the Park/Reservoir structure is also designed for entertainement, but a bit more peaceful: the whole family can wander in a "natural" landscape, amidst trees and grass. There's even a beach!


Now, for my question: in the original game, it is possible, once enough research has been done, to build better versions (Tier 2 and 3) of existing buildings. Should I continue this map and add the Tier2 and Tier3 buildings near the others, or would it be better to make a second and third map, to show the same colony (same disposition of the buildings) at different stages of its evolution?

Thanks for taking the time to answer!

[to be continued!]

Do not hesitate to give feedback or advice!


A big thank you to Momentaneously for his custom geodesic dome!

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