About a month ago, I started playing Far Cry 3 with this excellent mod compilation, which re-imagined the game as a sort of "New Game Plus" sort of deal. One of the best features was that after taking an outpost, I'd have the opportunity to leave it for the pirates, which keep the map "hostile," and therefore a lot more interesting.
It seems that the folks at Ubisoft are paying attention to what modders have been up to, as the latest official update to the game adds the ability to reset outposts. From the update notes:
A big part of Far Cry 3's single player experience is taking over the outposts manned by Vaas's pirates and Hoyt's privateers. These outposts, when taken, offer a safe place to resupply as well as a base of operations when exploring new parts of the Rook Islands.
Taking over an outpost as a player also presents a fun challenge; everything from how to approach the outpost to what weapons and tactics to use. Hence, a lot of community members have requested to be able to ‘reset' the outposts, so that they can be taken-over again.
Here is how it works:
• After conquering all the outposts and completing the game, the player can reset the outposts by selecting "Reset Outposts" in the gameplay options menu.
• Doing this will reset and make all Outposts hostile again. All incomplete side missions and quests will become hidden. In order to finish the incomplete side missions, you will have to retake the outposts again.
Very cool. It's a bit different from how it works in the mod, in that you have to take all the outposts before resetting them, but that's actually kind of cool, in that it gives you a tangible goal to shoot for. Combined with the new "Master" difficulty, the reset outposts should make taking the Rook Islands twice no small feat.
Of course, a new update for the game means that I'll have to re-download my no-minimap mod yet again, but hey, I'll live. It'd be nice to see more developers following Ubisoft's example here, taking their cues from modders and implementing free improvements months after a game has been released.