Outposts are small settlements that have a very limited ability to produce things with thier small populations, but can still be used as a storage depot, waystation, or the seed for a colony.
They are essentially size 2 colonies that cannot grow on thier own, the player must actively decide to develop them.
Outposts are completely ignored by all other parties in the sector as they're too small to be worth bothering with even if anyone knows where they are.
They can not have any administrator/leader (like the smaller core worlds) and so cannot benefit from skills, but they also do not count toward the colony cap.
However, each outpost does contribute -1 to your management ability, so they are still 'soft' capped by player faction stability.
Limited to 1 industry building, and 1 additonal structure.
The low population (lets say 200) is not enough to run many things fully, with the following effects:
- Any producing industry: -1 output, added items are capped at +1, cannot be upgraded
- Spaceport: Cannot be upgraded, -50% accessibility
- Patrol HQ: Cannot be upgraded
- Defensive Station: Cannot be upgraded
- Waystation: Does not contribute to accessibility
Commerce could be used to magnify the income from the population, but with only a single other slot to build something the stability loss could be potentially dangerous. Probably not the best choice.
Tech Mining, being a motley assortment of individuals and small groups, is completely unaffected.
The player can decide at any time to either abandon the outpost, or develop it.
Both are done on the colony management screen.
Abandoning is done via a single button press, with confirmation.
It requires that the player be at the outpost, and thier personal stockpile to be empty.
If the player fleet has enough crew capacity, the population (200) is added to the fleet. Any excess beyond the fleet cap will disappear.
Any resources in the colony stockplie are liquidated for some fraction of thier base value.
No trace of the outpost will remain (unless you renamed the planet).
Developing the colony requires that the player bring 1000 crew and add them the the colony stockpile, and have the 'develop' button on the management screen active (can be toggled like free port).
After a month (for building infrastructure etc, and to allow the player to have second thoughts), the colony will become size 3 and start behaving 'normally'.
All outpost restrictions will be removed, and growth will commence. Conditions permitting.