Season 4 Outpost Rules

[kinggath]

The City Plan Contest is continuing as always with the same general rules we've always followed, but since we're building Outpost Plans there are a few differences in the item requirements, due to the default mechanics for outposts.

Outpost Plan Requirements

• The City Plan must be flagged as an Outpost Plan in the City Plan Plugin Creator tool. You can find this check box under the Advanced Options section of the web tool.
• Agricultural, Commercial, and Industrial are not allowed. The default rules prohibit these plans for Outposts, so we want to see designs that lean into this.
• Must include a City Planner's Desk and a War Planner's Desk. The City Planner's Desk ensures the player can see the designer and have controls for the City Plan, and the War Planner's Desk ensures they can lead strategic assaults from that Outpost.
• Only 50% of your population needs to have job plots. This ensures a certain number of soldiers will automatically be available for Assaults, Guard Duty in remote territories, and Patrols.
• Must include the following plot classes:
  • Caravan Services (Municipal): This ensures players have access to the Marketplace Trading systems which are invaluable, especially early game, for acquiring resources for soldiers.
  • Armory (Martial): This class is required for players to change the Loadout on soldiers stationed at that Outpost.
  • Watchtower (Martial): In addition to sharing all the excess defense an Outpost naturally has, it works in tandem with Communications to ensure players are notified when a location is under attack.
  • Communications (Municipal): This is required for the player to be notified a location is under attack and works in tandem with the Watchtower.

Helpful Tips to Create a High-Functioning Outpost

- Aim for population about 50% higher than you normally would. For example, if when building Sanctuary you normally would support 20 people, aim for 30 people instead - as this will ensure the player can house additional Soldiers that are guarding Territories or Vassals.

- The 50% job requirement will not only help the player have lots of extra Soldiers available for Role assignment, but will help ease the stress on build limit you'd otherwise be under aiming for such a high settler count.

- Beds over Residential can help ease the build limit stress of a lot of plots, but Multi-person residential will be very valuable to the player. Residential plots have the benefit of generating caps, which can be spent on recruitment of new soldiers.

 

[Karvoc]

I have a plan for this month already. My raiders want you.

 

[veelynnlove]

Clarification question:
Is “50% support soldiers” a hard rule or more of a suggestion, because in the outposts I’ve been making, it’s usually about 5-15 support soldiers and 20-40 warriors/guards/etc, so 25-55 total soldiers.

If I were to go off of the 50% support soldier rule, I’d be looking at 13-28 job plots for my outpost, which seems like waaaay too many job plots for Martial & Municipal (even with the added martial plot types.)

Could I get some clarification on where the number for “50% of your population needs jobs” comes from and why it needs to work that way?

 

[UNDRCVRGmrLdy]

KG, sent you a message.

 

[Skywise001]

The City Plan Contest is continuing as always with the same general rules we've always followed, but since we're building Outpost Plans there are a few differences in the item requirements, due to the default mechanics for outposts.

Outpost Plan Requirements

• The City Plan must be flagged as an Outpost Plan in the City Plan Plugin Creator tool. You can find this check box under the Advanced Options section of the web tool.
• Agricultural, Commercial, and Industrial are not allowed. The default rules prohibit these plans for Outposts, so we want to see designs that lean into this.
• Must include a City Planner's Desk and a War Planner's Desk. The City Planner's Desk ensures the player can see the designer and have controls for the City Plan, and the War Planner's Desk ensures they can lead strategic assaults from that Outpost.
• Only 50% of your population needs to have job plots. This ensures a certain number of soldiers will automatically be available for Assaults, Guard Duty in remote territories, and Patrols.
• Must include the following plot classes:
  • Caravan Services (Municipal): This ensures players have access to the Marketplace Trading systems which are invaluable, especially early game, for acquiring resources for soldiers.
  • Armory (Martial): This class is required for players to change the Loadout on soldiers stationed at that Outpost.
  • Watchtower (Martial): In addition to sharing all the excess defense an Outpost naturally has, it works in tandem with Communications to ensure players are notified when a location is under attack.
  • Communications (Municipal): This is required for the player to be notified a location is under attack and works in tandem with the Watchtower.

Helpful Tips to Create a High-Functioning Outpost

- Aim for population about 50% higher than you normally would. For example, if when building Sanctuary you normally would support 20 people, aim for 30 people instead - as this will ensure the player can house additional Soldiers that are guarding Territories or Vassals.

- The 50% job requirement will not only help the player have lots of extra Soldiers available for Role assignment, but will help ease the stress on build limit you'd otherwise be under aiming for such a high settler count.

- Beds over Residential can help ease the build limit stress of a lot of plots, but Multi-person residential will be very valuable to the player. Residential plots have the benefit of generating caps, which can be spent on recruitment of new soldiers.

I found some mods I think would really help with the color of the outpost - if your cool with using them.

Abram M1A2 Tank Artillery Here
APC and Tank Turrets - They really shoot - and some WIP Minigun Here
Fallout Water Tank Truck Here
WW1 Tank Settlement Objects Here
WWII Armored Vehicle Settlement Objects Here

 

[Yagisan]

Clarification question:
Is “50% support soldiers” a hard rule or more of a suggestion, because in the outposts I’ve been making, it’s usually about 5-15 support soldiers and 20-40 warriors/guards/etc, so 25-55 total soldiers.

Hard rule. 50% of the solders must have jobs from plots. It is OK if more than 50% have jobs from plots. It is not OK if less than 50% have jobs.

If I were to go off of the 50% support soldier rule, I’d be looking at 13-28 job plots for my outpost, which seems like waaaay too many job plots for Martial & Municipal (even with the added martial plot types.)

That is correct.
The intention is that you have a reasonable number of soldiers in the outpost. Reasonable being "does not set a pc or xbox on fire".
So, if you have 20 soldiers total, 10 must have jobs. 30 soldiers total, 15 must have jobs. 40 soldiers total, 20 must have jobs.

Could I get some clarification on where the number for “50% of your population needs jobs” comes from and why it needs to work that way?

It comes from above me, and because it's a contest, constraints encourage maximum creativity.

I found some mods I think would really help with the color of the outpost - if your cool with using them.

Abram M1A2 Tank Artillery Here
APC and Tank Turrets - They really shoot - and some WIP Minigun Here
Fallout Water Tank Truck Here
WW1 Tank Settlement Objects Here
WWII Armored Vehicle Settlement Objects Here

No. Those mods are outside the scope of what is permitted in the contest.

KG, sent you a message.

... if it's about the rules, posting here would get you a response from the team faster.

 

[kinggath]

Clarification question:
Is “50% support soldiers” a hard rule or more of a suggestion, because in the outposts I’ve been making, it’s usually about 5-15 support soldiers and 20-40 warriors/guards/etc, so 25-55 total soldiers.

If I were to go off of the 50% support soldier rule, I’d be looking at 13-28 job plots for my outpost, which seems like waaaay too many job plots for Martial & Municipal (even with the added martial plot types.)

Could I get some clarification on where the number for “50% of your population needs jobs” comes from and why it needs to work that way?

It's not 50% support, it's 50% job plots - which includes Martial classes that make people into Guards if they are using the Watchtower or Basic/Adv/HT Defenses.

55 soldiers is way too many for most people's systems to handle, unless most of them are off guarding territories or running patrols. The assumption is you'll start out looking at a settlement the way you would in a normal design to determine how many people, and then increasing that by about 50%.

For example, in Sanctuary, one of the largest settlements, we would generally suggest support for about 20 people in a non-Outpost design. So for an Outpost, 30 is a reasonable target, with only 15 needing job plots. Hangman's Alley on the other hand, we'd probably target 12 people for a normal settlement, so 18 would be decent for an Outpost - with only 9 needing job plots.

Presumably, most players will want the majority of the new Martial classes in their Outposts: Armory, Prison, Field Hospital, Recruitment Center, Battlefield Scavengers, Watchtower, plus the 2 required Municipal: Caravan Services and Communications. So you're at 8 right out of the gate. So even in a big settlement where you might want 30 people, 50% coverage means you only need 7 more job plots.

The 50% rule was definitely about pushing people to have some number of "unassigned" soldiers so players would naturally have extra folks for assaults and assigning to Guard/Patrol duty, ie. that's meant to act as a maximum threshold, rather than a minimum. So we will presumably be treating that as a guideline eventually, but for this first contest - let's keep it as a hard rule. @Yagisan will no doubt be collecting feedback and letting me know how this is working out as we go!

 

[veelynnlove]

55 soldiers is way too many for most people's systems to handle, unless most of them are off guarding territories or running patrols. The assumption is you'll start out looking at a settlement the way you would in a normal design to determine how many people, and then increasing that by about 50%.

Mm, I hadn’t considered the 55 soldiers would be too many for systems to handle since most of my soldiers were out guarding territories or running patrols, but you’re right, if they AREN’T engaging in those mechanics then 55 soldiers ALL at the outpost would be way too much. Thank you so much clarifying and for providing examples!

The 50% rule was definitely about pushing people to have some number of "unassigned" soldiers so players would naturally have extra folks for assaults and assigning to Guard/Patrol duty, ie. that's meant to act as a maximum threshold, rather than a minimum. So we will presumably be treating that as a guideline eventually, but for this first contest - let's keep it as a hard rule. @Yagisan will no doubt be collecting feedback and letting me know how this is working out as we go!

Thank you for being open to wiggle room on the 50% rule! Definitely excited to see how this season of builds turns out and will trust the process!

 

[UNDRCVRGmrLdy]

Q&A with KG:

Question: Is it true that Warriors only use vanilla beds and not residential plots?
KGs Answer: This is not true - they can use either.

Question: Is it true that Warriors only use and prefer Luck and Endurance training plots?
KGs Answer: No this isn't true. Currently, SPECIAL stats have no impact on soldiers, but that will change with a future patch where EVERY special stat will provide a benefit to soldiers (Warriors or otherwise).

Question: Is it accurate that in a settlement with 20 support soldiers, one needs to build 20 "job" plots?
KGs Answer: If you want to have 20 support, sure. Watchtowers and the three Defense-type Martial plots will flag people as Guards. Anyone without a job plot available will be left as Warrior class.

Question: Is a Power Transfer plot a good idea?
KGs Answer: Power Transfer is free for Outposts, so it's not necessary.

Note: The goal of the "in-game" rules for Outposts is to have the player focus on their soldiers instead of spending much time thinking about which plots to build. As you've pointed out in that list, it's very easy to use up all the Military options quickly, so you don't have to spend much time planning which classes to use. Instead, the challenge for designers this season will be to focus heavily on aesthetics to create a location that feels like it should be housing soldiers and supporting a Military.

List of plots KG Is referring to (something I built with support for at least 16 support soldiers):

• Armory
• Basic defense 1
• Basic defense 2
• Basic defense 3
• Battlefield scavengers
• Communications
• Field hospital
• Mayor’s Desk
• Mess hall -- Not a job
• Military training -- Not a job
• Power
• Prison
• Recreation 1 -- Not a job
• Recreation 2 -- Not a job
• Recreation 3 -- Not a job
• Recruiter
• Sanitation
• Sanitation 2
• Training 1 Luck -- Not a job
• Training 2 Endurance -- Not a job
• Vanilla Guard Stations x3 = 1 job
• Vanilla Guard Stations X3 = 1 job
• War desk
• Watchtower
• Water

 

[Yagisan]

To help with planning your outposts, please remember that they are consumers. They import excess food, water and power from your network, and in return export defense. This means you don't have to worry about making them self-sufficient. They can import excess resources (if available) from settlements in range.

Please remember that your warriors, if not running assaults, or guarding territories, will be in your settlement, and the game doesn't really handle more than 40 NPCs in a location very well (especially on xbox).

The 50% jobs requirement looks daunting, but really isn't.

So, looking at job plots needed you may have a list like this:

• Armory (Hard Requirement)
• Prison (Outpost Only)
• Field Medics (Outpost Only)
• Recruitment Center (Outpost Only)
• Battlefield Scavengers (Outpost Only)
• Watchtower (Hard Requirement)
• Caravan Services (Hard Requirement)
• Communications (Hard Requirement)
• Power Transfer (Yagi thinks this is immersive)
• Basic Defense x2 (Outposts export this)
• Advanced Defense x2 (Outposts export this)
• Sanitation x2 (Hygiene mechanic)
• Cemetery (Hygiene mechanic)
• Hospital (Hygiene mechanic)
• Basic Power (Yagi thinks this is immersive)
• Basic Water (Yagi thinks this is immersive)

That's easily 19 jobs from plots, with most being optional and something you could use to specialise or theme your outpost around.

 

[Yagisan]

As a reminder folks, because I was asked on Discord.

Each person may only submit one entry per month. If it is found that an individual is submitting multiple entries under different usernames, all entries from that person will be rejected.

This rule is unchanged since Season 1.

 

[Skywise001]

The City Plan Contest is continuing as always with the same general rules we've always followed, but since we're building Outpost Plans there are a few differences in the item requirements, due to the default mechanics for outposts.

Outpost Plan Requirements

• The City Plan must be flagged as an Outpost Plan in the City Plan Plugin Creator tool. You can find this check box under the Advanced Options section of the web tool.
• Agricultural, Commercial, and Industrial are not allowed. The default rules prohibit these plans for Outposts, so we want to see designs that lean into this.
• Must include a City Planner's Desk and a War Planner's Desk. The City Planner's Desk ensures the player can see the designer and have controls for the City Plan, and the War Planner's Desk ensures they can lead strategic assaults from that Outpost.
• Only 50% of your population needs to have job plots. This ensures a certain number of soldiers will automatically be available for Assaults, Guard Duty in remote territories, and Patrols.
• Must include the following plot classes:
  • Caravan Services (Municipal): This ensures players have access to the Marketplace Trading systems which are invaluable, especially early game, for acquiring resources for soldiers.
  • Armory (Martial): This class is required for players to change the Loadout on soldiers stationed at that Outpost.
  • Watchtower (Martial): In addition to sharing all the excess defense an Outpost naturally has, it works in tandem with Communications to ensure players are notified when a location is under attack.
  • Communications (Municipal): This is required for the player to be notified a location is under attack and works in tandem with the Watchtower.

Helpful Tips to Create a High-Functioning Outpost

- Aim for population about 50% higher than you normally would. For example, if when building Sanctuary you normally would support 20 people, aim for 30 people instead - as this will ensure the player can house additional Soldiers that are guarding Territories or Vassals.

- The 50% job requirement will not only help the player have lots of extra Soldiers available for Role assignment, but will help ease the stress on build limit you'd otherwise be under aiming for such a high settler count.

- Beds over Residential can help ease the build limit stress of a lot of plots, but Multi-person residential will be very valuable to the player. Residential plots have the benefit of generating caps, which can be spent on recruitment of new soldiers.

You dont mention a location, the helper unlocks Egret and Warwick, am I limited to them or not?

 

[Yagisan]

You dont mention a location, the helper unlocks Egret and Warwick, am I limited to them or not?

The actual contest announcement is Season 4: Episode 1 - Yagisan Strikes Back!

This thread is the general rules for Season 4. Thank you, and looking forward to your entry.

 

[Yagisan]

The rules for Season 4 include a new plot job requirement. The key word here is plot. I want to stress this, because those farmers at Warwick do not count as jobs. Vanilla jobs do not count towards this requirement. Even the city planner desk job, does not count.

The strictest and safest interpretation of that rule is 1 job per plot, per city plan level.

The most generous interpretation of that rule is the maximum possible jobs per plot at level 3, at city plan level 3.

I judge all entries using the generous interpretation of this rule, but the strictest interpretation is the easiest to build for.

 

[Skywise001]

So its only outposts all year long? Im sorry - I got confused and Im no longer sure what I should be making :/

 

[veelynnlove]

So its only outposts all year long?

Yep. Season 4 is outposts.

 

[Skywise001]

Well damn..thanks for telling me. I guess I got too excited - Id been playing Tenpine design ideas for a while.