Outpost

**Location:**  Infinite Lagrange Wiki -> Miscellaneous and also How-to

An **outpost** is a "building" or "structure" (to use in-game terminology) that has two main purposes:

* A player's Base can be **relocated** to an outpost - this is the most common way for a player to move their base
* An outpost serves as a **warp point** for fleets belonging to the player's organization (union, clan, etc)
	+ **Except that** if the player relocates to the outpost, any fleet using it as a warp point will immediately drop out of warp and continue travelling via cruise (if possible)
		- This may make the player's union mates unhappy
	+ The outpost can be used as a warp point the instant after construction actually begins (which is the point at which construction costs are deducted)

    Outposts consist of a central structure (which may not be in the center if it is **docked**) and an enclosing 10Gm square operation. Clicking on the structure itself allows a player to **transfer** a fleet to the outpost. This type of transfer is often necessary to use the outpost as the originating point for a **rally**. When a fleet is transferred to an outpost, the outpost becomes the **base** for that fleet and can retreat to that outpost until they are transferred to another structure or base.

Summary of important points:

* Having an outpost will increase the player's **prosperity** by 100 (?), if the outpost is destroyed or removed, the increase will revert
* Building an outpost will contribute 20 **Activeness** towards the player's progress in the Partnership Agreement
	+ Repeatedly building and then cancelling outposts is one way to complete levels in the Partnership Agreement, if the end of the server/season is approaching
* Because the outpost is an operation area, the player's fleets can operate in the enclosing square, including mining and combat
* An outpost can be used as the originating structure for a Rally but the starting fleet **must be transferred** to that outpost
* Fleets **transferred** to an outpost and then moved to a circular operation will retreat to the outpost, which can be useful if the player does **not** want them retreating all the way back to their base and annoying when the player **does** want them to retreat to the base
* Transferring a fleet to an outpost and moving a fleet from an outpost are not considered "cross-operation actions" and so do not automatically cost 20 action points

## Construction

The construction of outposts becomes possible when the player completes the first level of Outpost Command Center, which is part of Expansion zone 4. Each level of the Outpost Command Center allows the player to build an additional outpost. Before completing the expansion of zone 4, player's can only move their base by Base Reconstruction. Upon achieving zone 4, reconstruction can still be used, but it becomes prohibitively expensive.

The outposts operation area is **always** aligned to the game grid with corners being places at points with coordinates that are even multiples of 10Gm.

Cost:

* Metal: 100k
* Crystal: 10k
* Deuterium: 0

### Undocked

When a player wants to construct an outpost that is **not** docked to a docking point or resource node, they simply click on a point in empty space near where they wish it to be located, and then click the  to begin the construction command sequence.

### Docked

To build an outpost that **is** docked, the player must click on the docking point or resource node, and then click on the .

* Docking to a docking point has no additional requirement
* Docking to a resource node that is level 1 or 2 has no additional requirement
* Docking to a resource node that is level 3 or 4 requires that the player has completed **level 5** of the Outpost Command Center
* Docking to a resource node that is level 5 or 6 requires that the player has completed the Docking Command Center, part of Expansion zone 8

### Construction Command Sequence

There are four panels that the player must go through to construct an outpost.

#### Building Selection Panel

The first panel allows the player to select the type of building they wish to construct. On this panel, the player would click on **outpost** on the far left. Note that some or all of the building types may be disabled because:

* The player has not completed the required base improvement
* The player has already built the maximum number of a particular building type
* The player does not have enough resources to pay for construction
* Only **outposts** can be docked, so if they have used the **dock** command, a mining platform cannot be selected

#### Construction Details Panel

On this panel, a player is shown where the outpost is currently set to go, what features are currently located in that area, and the name of the outpost. On this panel, the player may, depending on circumstances, do some, none, or all of the following:

* If the player used the **build** command, they can move the proposed location of the outpost by dragging the square outline around on the board; if they used the **dock** command, they will **not** be able to change the proposed location, even if they change it to being undocked
* If the proposed location contains dockable features, the player has the option of changing the outpost
	+ The  Docked feature button will indicate the feature that the outpost will be docked to, clicking on this will change the outpost to being undocked
	+ The  Dockable feature button will indicate any features that can be docked to, if the player clicks on one, the outpost plan will change to docked and the docking target will change to that feature
* If the player selects a location containing an existing circular operation then the outpost will be considered an expansion or extension of the existing operation and will take its name, otherwise, there will be an  edit name button, that will allow the player to change the name of the outpost
	+ Circular operations, mining platforms, and outpost names can be changed **only** when they are created

Up until the point when the player clicks **confirm** on the Construction Confirmation Panel, the player can come back to this panel and make changes.

#### Choose Fleet Panel

Many of the commands in the game have a similar panel, allowing the player to select or create a fleet to carry out the action. For construction commands, the player may only choose or create fleets that contain a utility ship and that are (at least theoretically) able to travel to the selected location for the outpost.

#### Construction Confirmation Panel

Also similar to panels for other commands. This panel shows the statistics for the construction fleet, distance it will travel, estimated travel time, and the proposed route, which the player has a limited ability to adjust (usually three choices are offered).

### Construction Time

* Maximum time (1 X8 - Small Utility Ship: 03:04:20
* Minimum time (1 X20 - Large Utility Ship: 01:00:00

Construction time is a function of the number of **engineering points** allocated. The number of engineering points that an individual ship contributes is shown on the Utility ships and individual ships page. Look for the  in the info-box.

The minimum time is achieved with 3,100 engineering points, but the contribution to improving construction speed (time saved per minute per 100 engineering points) goes down as the total engineering points increases.

## Deconstruction

Deconstructing of a **completed** outpost takes **30 minutes** and recoups one-half of the construction cost (50k metal, 5k crystal). Deconstruction can be cancelled at any time before the timer hits 0. Deconstruction of an "in-progress" outpost is instantaneous and cannot be cancelled.

There are two ways to command the deconstruction.

### Reclaim the operation

When a player selects the **operation** by clicking on the operation number in the bottom-center of the outpost's operational area, or by clicking on the outpost name in the **operation list** on the left side of the Expanse View, or by simply clicking on the outpost when zoomed out to **fine level**, they will see an **Operational Area** popup as shown.

    In this view, the player can click on the  Reclaim button. This will take them to the **Destroy Building** confirmation popup, asking them if they want to abandon the outpost/mining platform. Clicking on the **Confirm** button will start the 30 minute timer.

It is unclear as to why the game uses three different words (reclaim/destroy/abandon) for the same process.

### Cancel the Outpost

     If the player has selected the outpost/mining platform itself, they can click on the  View button.

     In the **outpost view**, there is a red  cancel button located at the top of the view. The player can click that, which will get them to the **Destroy Building** confirmation popup (see above).

### Stopping Deconstruction

Stopping the countdown can only be done from the outpost view. Simply click on the  cancel button at the top.

## Advanced Techniques

### Ghost Outposts

When a player issues the command to construct an outpost, but the fleet never reaches the target coordinates - either by the player issuing a retreat or because the utility ship fleet is destroyed - the ghostly outline of the outpost remains. In fact, the "ghost outpost" is an actual, usable operation.

### Air Drop

**Please note:** Use of this technique requires non-trivial levels of math.

An advanced technique that allows fleets in warp to drop directly on top of a target. This is best done if all of the fleets involved have the same warp speed and travel from the same starting point. The basic process is:

1. Construct an outpost on the **far side** of the target, in a direct line from the starting point
2. Transfer the fleets to a point near the target, using this outpost as the warp point
3. When the fleets are 30 minutes away from the target by warp, begin to deconstruct the outpost. Calculating the correct time is the non-trivial math part mentioned above.
4. When the outpost disappears, this will cause the fleets to drop out of warp and to recalculate their path to the target and, since they will be very close to it, they quickly reach their destination

## Updates

In a Patch on (date?), outposts were changed so that they only became warp points upon **completion**, rather than at construction. This made Air Drops much harder.