Outposts: Do people actually use the upgrades?

I use the warden upgrade alot because wandering darklings are very annoying when they destroy your resources, I also use them to hold choke points like a pass through a mountain or when I have the luxury of enemy nations having to go through an area to get to me. also I've occasionally used the horse upgrade to speed up travel within my empire if your enemies have a clear advantage over you in strength they can be an equalizer in limited coverage areas. with the exception of the warden if you're going to upgrade you might as well also put some units on the outpost to guard it. I sorta feel this is a problem with them. there should be an upgrade to place a small garrison there. like a mini town

i personally dont use it cause i think the citys have much better things to build old train. In some special cases only the +growth option.( Maybe 2-3 times in the last 100 hour of play)

I use them mostly to boost growth in fortresses via consulates because their natural growth is annoyingly slow. Even with "produce growth" they take forever to grow (usually +2 or a max of +3 for really well situated fortresses). Other than that I like to build the high tower upgrade to close gaps between control zones.

hightower mostly to expand connections and get more resources.  I do use the armory and fortification upgrades just in case, i can only think of a few instances where i felt they made a difference in battle.  Maybe i need to try to use them more "offensively" and plop them down near monsters i intend to fight. 

I use the warden upgrade when I have nastys nearby and my army is busy elsewhere. Speed up travel upgrade, and at choke points, the extra defense upgrade.

EDIT: I like the outposts.  If SD decides to discontinue the outposts might I ask if they could be left in as an option, a simple 'on/off' switch, if you will, that is activated when setting up that game?

I use the consulate a lot and the high tower fairly often.  I will occasionally use one of the others.

No.  I rarely use them.  I don't think the cost:benefit is worthwhile. 

I'd like to see them stay, it's just that I think they could use an overhaul.  Like providing healing to units, or acting like archer towers or mage towers which shoot at enemies.  Or they could boost the resources around them. 

The current options are just kinda boring.

This.

To be honest there were only two times I ever used outposts for anything.  One was when I modded in the ability for each outpost to make 1/4th a grain as an upgrade as well as 1/4 a material as a second upgrade option while consolidating attack and defense upgrade into one upgrade and dropping the high tower upgrade.  Since the reason for doing that mod passed I have also used them for closing off passes and that is it.  I would much rather outposts be a cityhub that upon reaching level 2 selects outpost as its upgrade option.  This way it can build its own upgrades but this is currently not possible because you can't connect a city to a city like an outpost.  Anywho that is my two copper on the subject.

Hey, Froggy, I asked Derek this, but you might know the answer too: what is the purpose of the beta for LH? Is it solely for balance and bugs, or will there be new content as we go?...

I'd love to see more heroes and stuff...

I use them very rarely. Sometimes the warden upgrade. 

Almost never.

Hightower is what I've used most often. This is especially useful when outposts are costly to make. I would have used consulates if outposts stopped costing pop but cities continued to cost pop. If both or neither cost pop I have little use for consulates.

The problem with investing in an outpost is that if it gets caught undefended just once everything is gone in an instant. This means border outposts are too exposed to justify putting the combat enhancing upgrades into and there's no benefit in putting these upgrades in safe locations. Also a combat enhancing outpost will only be on the front line temporarily anyway.

I would like for outposts to simply get the enhanced abilities when researched or at least through a gold only purchase (not expensive) and not use a city's production queue. They are far too fragile to require this long production buildup.

I do the same.

I use high tower for connecting cities when I need to. I use warden a lot, because I like to keep monsters out of my territory. The armoury and such I install when I want to pull off a tricky fight early, as every little bit helps. I've begun using consulate more often, because city growth seems to slow down quite a bit in the later game. Caltrops, only if I expect it to hold people up long enough for me to get some of my troops there to intercept them. Stables, on any trade route, is a must.

This.

And that the AI doesn't use them which makes quite the unfair advantage if the player does...

I rarely use them for the following reasons:

- Since they use the same queue as a city, I usually end up building stuff in the city instead since they impact the game more.

- It's hard to justify diverting resources (by that I mean building those instead of city upgrades) on something that is inherently more vulnerable than a city.

In short, it's usually a no-brainer to build city stuff or units instead. The only time I've used them is if the outpost is in an obvious choke point and I'm going to put units with it, but even then it didn't seem to impact the outcomes of any combats all that much.

I use them quite alot with all factions. I settle a couple cities I don't plan to develop very much to provide all the pioneers.

I use stables + High Towers to make one major "highway" through my empire for troop movement.

I use them on choke points that don't have a spot that can be settled. +50% attack / +25% defence / Half spell cost and double map speed for me/half for my enemy is huge.

If I share a border with a faction that is letting monsters run rampant, but kicks me out every time I enter I'll put up a warden tower.

I add consulates wherever I already have a tower up anyway.

hightower to get more crystals primarily, stables anywhere that my units tend to pass through a lot, and near end game, the + growth one will come in handy to get some of those slow growing cities larger, faster.

edit:  by "crystals"  I meant elemental shards.  Also sometime to close a gap between a city not contiguous to my capital, and the ones that are.

Like lots of other people said, I use Warden and High Tower quite often, usually on the same outpost.

I never looked at stables but I imagine I'll start using them on unit hubs now.

Caltroops seem silly since enemies can just counter the outposts.

The offensive and defense upgrades seem OP and slightly cheesy to be honest because I believe they provide an even higher boost then being stationed in a city would?

Never really looked into the extra growth option, will definitely be using it now.

I use Consulate a lot to upgrade growth in the city.

Also use them to connect cities, hightower can help there.

Love the Arcane Monolith.  When a wildland opens up, I cover it to prevent the vultures from settling cities on my hard work.

Have waned to upgrade for combat but it takes too much production.

Not often.  I'll do the stables from time to time...

If the outpost has martial strategic value I may build the armory as well.

I use the outposts, but they seem too vulnerable to invest a lot into them.  Last night they kept changing hands constantly so I didn't see much point in upgrading so that my enemies could just walk in and take them for his advantage.

I'll occasionally use Warden and the troop boosting upgrades at outposts that mark the border to my explored or owned land if I'm parking an army nearby.  I'll use the city boosting ones on a city once I get to mid game. That's it.  

I think some of the problem with the upgrades is that most of them are passive and to mean anything require a separately trained army to be in the area.  Is it really worth upgrading an outpost when I could just train another unit in roughly the same time?  The unit is both offense and defense and is mobile.  It can go to trouble.  A particular outpost upgrade is only useful if trouble is in its area. 

I think the upgrade options are fine.  It's the slot in the city's build queue that is the problem. 

If the outpost had a separate queue upgrades would get used more often and be another place to apply resources.