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[geoffroypir]

any idea when we'd get some hands on experience? this looks so fabulous.

I think I echo the unsaid sentiment: "I WANNA PLAY YOUR GAME ASAP PLS"

Seriously, it looks great and I don't mind bugs. I want to play your game. That is all.

I have no date at the moment. While the simulation holds together well, I can't call it an even passable game yet.

once this goes into early acces or release its probably a instant buy for me...
i thought its cool already ages ago when it was "just" some 2d pixel planet sideview and now it has all the space stuff too.
this game reminds me a lot of starsector, distant worlds or x4.

maybe a demo that just showcases the 2d planet stuff could be neat already... like it randomly generates a planet and you got some peoples on it and can build a mine or so and advance some years and see how it changes and then make a new planet and watch there... a bit like a ant farm to watch or screensaver.

or like a demo with just one solar system in it... you have one planet where you can do stuff and build some basic spaceships maybe (frigate, cargo, builder and just the most basic modules for them... tiny cargo bay, one gun, one missile, some armor, a slow engine or so)... maybe 1 hostile pirate planet for some basic space combat showcase, and 2-3 moons or an asteroid belt to build space bases and get freighters to move stuff to your planet...
maybe something like that would be neat as a demo, something like them two gifs to look at:
https://cdn.akamai.steamstatic.com/steam/apps/1343010/extras/CityTimelapse2.gif?t=1672102282
https://cdn.akamai.steamstatic.com/steam/apps/1343010/extras/Traffic.gif?t=1672102282
but that just random ideas, dev probably has a plan for all that already once it gets closer to releasing something playable for peoples.

It has really evolved indeed !
I am afraid vertical slice is not ideal for my game, can't ship it in chunk or the dev time will last for another decade.
Having less systems for example would not change much appart for performances.

I will get to the release, slowly but surely, one ought not to worry wether or not I'll hold the line, I will.

[geoffroypir]

Here is a big devlog : (https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1343010/view/3669925177423225438)


It has been a while since the mid-July devlog, but this was certainly not idle time.

Fleets



The fleets have improved in all aspects, the archetypes are better, the AI expanded, parasites (ships hosted in carriers) are automatically managed, and fleet movement has been overhauled for better performance and stability.

This fleet is currently performing a new type of mission which consists in largescale mining operations

The most visible aspect is the UI, it used to be very complicated since managing ownership across intertwined alliances was complex and assigning the fleet formation quite cumbersome.

Point Defense turrets against inbound missiles

I have tried to hide this complexity as much as I could and here is the final result.

Most informations are accessible though tooltips and interactions through context menus.

Assigning a ship is also possible directly when selecting a ship or any UI representation of the ship through a context menu. There are many reasons that can prevent recruiting a ship, it is often a lack of influence toward a faction or an alliance issue with another ship in the fleet.

This ship won't join our fleet because it is not allied with all other ship's factions.

Another important aspect is the formation, the fleet AI manages 4 possible formations.


A ship's formation will determine it's behaviour

This determines how individual spaceships behave when breaking formation.

Core formation


Escort


Interception


Strike



Spaceships and modules

This is quite huge, I have decided to bite the bullet and completed a ship and module editor (not yet in-game), with automatic balancing of power across modules, cost, semi-automated placement of modules collision geometry, etc...

I have then redone every single ships, space stations and modules with support of the editor.

This is not an easy task, especially given the number of modules for each ship and the manual placement.

Here is a list of 100% completed ships (this is a catalog in a text editor)


Automatic loadout
Ships now dynamically create loadouts of compatible modules for each slot, for example, ships designated as an escort will automatically choose point defense turrets.  There are many roles and possible combinations.

Spaceship AI & Strategic AI

The threat analysis and faction decision-making has been developed further, and there is now "conquest" and "fleet mining" missions. (lot of work)

Uh, that's it... AI has nothing that can be shown :/

Crew Transfer

 "Crew" which also designates landed parties can be transferred between each other.


Ammo & Magazines

While it is a good opportunity to show the new overhauled ship UI, the major addition I'll show is ammo and magazines.


"Ammo magazine" is a new type of module for cargo slot that increases the amount of combat-ready storage. You can store ammo in cargo but it is not as secured (secondary explosions) and can't be used by weapons. You can only do a transfer while docked.



Regions

 Regions aren't just a cosmetic addition but were added to overhaul how city/nation manage planet tiles (previously designated as "regions" themselves).

The problem is that managing dozens of regions was cluttering the player with information and micro-management. The simulation itself is still accurate to the tile level but now management and AI decisions are mostly taken at a region's scope.





This UI is going to change to show a single aggregated region ("Flaness"), instead of these cluttered informations

Primitive population

The problem with past simulation was that every human population was simulated as a nation which is very complex and also requires the entire planet to be generated.

Uncivilised populations, those under the influence of the giant worms,  or those who never recovered from the Antimatter crisis, are now simulated in a more abstract way and they only retain the characteristics from the historical simulation. This allowed me to populate much more planets with almost the same level of detail.

After a certain threshold of development, such population will evolve into an in-game nation.

Trade venture

Trading with locals is possible from any region, even outside a nation's border, it takes 2 days to spread the word and gather merchants. If within the border of a nation, you access its market. Trading with primitives is possible as well, and the market will be the equivalent of the subsistence production of the region (subsistence production is highly dependent on local resources )



Editor Mode



Adding a fleet to one of the existing faction with the editor
Added dozens of editor mode interactions, this is the premise of an in-game editor.

Saving/Loading
This is completed (what a pain!) this is quite a milestone, but doing this late clearly saved me months of maintenance overhead.

I also confirm some wishes I had for Antimatter, that are now reality :

• No loss of data and bare-minimum procedural regeneration: This means any world you create will stay as detailed in the simulation as well, not just visually and not just when revisiting them.
  
• Possibility to play a new character in the same universe or carry on by playing an existing AI character.  (currently only doable by manually changing the save file, but the simulation supports it)
• A lot of freedom in scenario building.

Here is a picture depicting the complexity of the hierarchy of unserializable classes :

Each colored cell is like being whipped while walking barefoot on broken glass. If you have some dolorist fantasy to fulfill, do this. You are welcome.

[Mephansteras]

I'm liking the ship designs!

[King Zultan]

I'm not sure if you mentioned it but are there aliens or is everyone human?

[Blood_Librarian]

I can barely comprehend the work that goes into making the save operations happen, but that seems like a serious amount of work, congratulations on getting it done. I'm also a pretty big fan of all the new details you put on the original post since the last time I checked it out a year ago, it feels like a world of difference.

[geoffroypir]

Thanks guys.

I'm not sure if you mentioned it but are there aliens or is everyone human?

Yes, giant intelligent worms (Urghogh), they play a significant role.

And another sentient one is represented in the game by "Replicants", autonomous ships used as their fighting force.

Finally there are a range of extra-terrestrial flora species, specifically, some are ammonia and methane based.
Fauna and micro-organism isn't yet implemented, and human race is the only one represented in any population.

[geoffroypir]

Here another devlog about ... Soot!
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1343010/view/3729601044547785067

This is a much smaller and light-hearted devlog about nuclear apocalypse .



[h1]Some context if you've just left your fallout shelter or failed school (or both)[/h1]

As you may know, humanity recently mastered the atom and weaponized it. Two small, yet conclusive tests were performed on Japanese cities, and despite the military enthusiasm to then use it in bulk, the war ended soon.



The arms race continued, and the accumulated yield of all nuclear weapons reached stunning values that a human mind could barely fathom.

Recent studies estimated that a full-scale nuclear war between Russia (no longer the USSR) and the USA would kill 360 million directly and 5 billion (humans) as a consequence of starvation. A small regional exchange between India and Pakistan would kill about 2 billion. My conclusion is that both scenarios would provoke a significant dent in Antimatter's future player base, which is indeed unfortunate.

So, who is responsible for this astonishing good result in such a macabre endeavor?

[h1]Soot[/h1]

Over decades of studies concluded that accumulation of black carbon soot in the high atmosphere would create a significant obstruction of solar radiation over several years. The consequence would be a sudden drop in surface temperature leading to periods of no-food production and mass extinctions of other species as the dire consequence of a completely fuck-up natural food chain.



Soot is not only produced by nuclear strikes.  Large fires and volcanoes produce soot as well, the eruption of Mount Tambora in 1815 for example contributed to creating a global cooling.

The condition is to produces a lot in a small area to lift it in the upper atmosphere, so you can already put away this BBQ, it won't solve global warming.

[h1]In the game [/h1]

As you know Antimatter is a 4X, and I guess that you'd never expect soot to join the arsenal of eXtermination (Actually you probably expected it by now due the the title and previous paragraph...)


We take as subject this nice little planet, teeming with life and love.

I model a complex planet simulation with a great deal of detail, and this, of course, includes the atmosphere. The latest small addition to this equation is soot particles in the high atmosphere.


As you can see this planet had a bumpy road before, the Creator misclicked some buttons, oops. (there was a civilisation here), but now it's all fine.

In Antimatter, soot is particularly effective in reducing the temperature, because it comes first in reflecting the star radiation. Contrary to the effect of albedo that still lets the radiation heat the atmosphere, creating the greenhouse effect and partially bouncing back again, soot blocks radiation right in the upper atmosphere.


This is the effect of 25% of soot just over a few months.

Soot is not something you can't control, (well you can at least add it, obviously), it is produced by volcanic activity and strategic strikes (not yet fully implemented) and it slowly fades after several years.


The effect isn't linear, as secondary effects are also simulated, such as the change in albedo.

The effect of soot is fast, global cooling will occur after the first months.

Since I simulate flora, any change to the climate is likely to create a huge drop in agricultural production, and subsistence production soot also affects solar energy yield. A subsistence economy could theoretically lose the entirety of its food production.


Grass survived, your lawn is safe, what a relief !

Currently "sun" exposure value for flora is not fully implemented, at this point, the effect of soot will be even more drastic to the biodiversity.

-----

Some stories to tell in order to make your children sleep tight:

https://www.johnstonsarchive.net/nuclear/multimeg.html

https://www.nature.com/articles/s43016-022-00573-0

-----

Disclaimer :

Antimatter is a video game with a relatively complex yet inaccurate, empirical, and unrealistic simulation of telluric planets (in this case). It probably doesn't come close to actual simulations and should not be taken as a serious source for scientific modeling or educational material.

[geoffroypir]

This is a massive chunk, with 3 devlogs combined, reformatted to be readable on the forum.

Original devlogs :
FACTIONS & BACKGROUNDS : https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1343010/view/3740861311281737077
PLANET EXPlORATION III : https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1343010/view/3719469846529534570
THE REPLICANTS : https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1343010/view/3719469846531345423

--- FACTIONS & BACKGROUNDS ---



Player's faction & background

There are now 6 playable factions:


These are the base organizations that drive the universe dynamic,  but of course, there are many others (sovereign organizations, corporations, and pirates) that are procedurally generated to complement the universe.


Muga, Uhmrane and the Eridani Pact share the core worlds.

The chosen faction will then determine the possible backgrounds. A background is the starting conditions (and difficulty) when starting a game, some are particularly rough, such as starting with a large debt.


Some factions don't have all backgrounds available, for example, Umhrane is too weak to offer the player to start with a large ship or a fleet, and some factions don't have any territories for the player to become a governor.

The Rim, is a particular choice as it puts the player as ruler of its own under-developed colony, outside the core world and under the influence of an Urghogh (a giant worm).

Polished universe generation

Besides the UI rework, the generation was greatly improved. Now history is separated into 5 eras, each having its own dynamic during the generation.

• Age of Exploration (The antimatter is exploited for uncontrolled exploration and colonisation)
• Replicant's Invasion (an unknown invader, using self-replicating spacecrafts, tried to seize the Antimatter and exterminate the Urghogh)
• The Reconstruction (A short period of time when humanity tries to rebuild while facing ideological turmoil)
• Urghogh Age (Antimatter Crisis, in reaction to the Replicant's invasion, the worms decide to put the human race under harsh tutelage )
• Eridani's Rise (The institution guarding the Antimatter rebels against the Urghoghs, thanks to the help of Uhmrane, the outcast worm. This is when the player starts)

Each circle is a stellar system

Title screen

This is not a big deal but here is the new title screen.

A fun fact is that what is shown here is emulated from the in-game view, Antimatter being in flattened 3D.





Would you like to know more ?
Universe & history generation :
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/geopi/antimatter-a-city-builder-and-4x-game/posts/3571013

Characters :
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/geopi/antimatter-a-city-builder-and-4x-game/posts/3366719

Organization:
 https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/geopi/antimatter-a-city-builder-and-4x-game/posts/3694897

Characters (part II) :
 https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/geopi/antimatter-a-city-builder-and-4x-game/posts/3680996

Organizations [Part II] :
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/geopi/antimatter-a-city-builder-and-4x-game/posts/3797976

-----------------

--- PLANET EXPlORATION III ---

This major addition expands the exploration system even further. (see planet exploration I and planet exploration II to know more)
I have completed the (massive...) framework and scripting system for encounter and tile features and content-wise, I have decided to complete the first content "arcs" to stress-test it.
Regional features
 


Regional features


Regional features are persistent points of interest on the planet's surface, they can be visited and have effects on a city, an outpost a region, or an organization. They can also trigger special events, some can be easily discovered (even from orbit)while others need to be found with a land expedition.
 

Built early in reaction to the Urghoghs, these rare and often disabled devices create pocket of developed civilisation.

These are important discoveries as the bonus/malus can be very significant and cumulate across the entire region.
 

A list of regional features present on this planet




Encounters
Additionally, there are non-persistent "encounters" which are contextual events occurring during travels but also as time passes. They can lead to more areas/events and sometimes contain rewards in the form of goods, codex entries, and people to hire.

 
This unassuming rock shelter leads to an underground ruined city, this is quite a rare occurrence.

Some action can also be performed, there is a system for crew skill and traits roll and a full range of effects. But for now, there isn't enough content to make very long and engaging adventures.
 


Some valuable industrial machinery and tools were found here.

Currently, there are :

• Rock shelter (and all variants for all climates)
• Stash
• Abandoned Mineshaft
• Worm tunnel
• Aquifer cave
• Fungal cavern
• Magmatic cave

New areas can also be revealed during an encounter if that's allowed by the context, current region, and the planet.

The Future

It is important to have a critical mass of content for all that to become relevant and properly intertwined, so the future content arcs that will be built upon this framework each have a range of encounter and tile features :

• Civilisations remants (Tile feature)
• Crashed spaceships (Dynamic)
• Unique lifeforms and biomes (Tile feature)
• Geological features (Tile feature, partially done)
• Crew and Expedition routine (but I won't include party member buggering you with their life problems)
• Encounters & Combats (using the abstract ground combat system)
• Accidents (chain of decision and skill/trait tests with very limited initiative reserve)
• Planetary and celestial events (Will occur regardless of player's presence)
• Urghogh (dynamic, related to migration/ presence of giant worms)

Bonus

Too short to make a devlog, but too significant to skip it :

Landing
A previous devlog introduced planet exploration, which is now polished.
 


Exploring the planet's surface is necessary to find some type of regional feature, trigger some "encounters" or trade with local populations and nations on the surface. Now scanning the planet from orbit is dangerous due to the replicant's threat, which I will describe later.


Some risks are unknown given the survey level of the region
 
the atmosphere, the relief, flora density, and surface gravity pull are all factors creating more risks to land, while the crew's skill, survey level of a tile, and the presence of a landing pad minimize the risk.
 

This region has been surveyed and the risks are known.

 
There are the following hazards :

• Atmosphere density: during atmospheric entry, the ship's hull is heating and can take damage, this risk is dependent on the ship's hull condition, aerodynamic profile, and the ship's size.
• Relief: chaotic relief and ship size influence the risk.
• Flora density: which also depends on the ship's size.
• Surface gravity: which is influenced by the thrust-to-weight ratio of the ship.

Crew casualties

Now any penetrating damage to a ship (including accidents) will wound and kill crewmembers


--------

--- THE REPLICANTS ---

A new foe

A sort of autonomous spacecrafts with limited ability to self-replicate was used during a past invasion and repurposed by the Urghoghs (the worms) to nest into any world outside the core and ward off any local civilization from spacefaring. These swarms of spacecraft are now dormant, nestled into their host planet's crust.

To provide some context, here is a generated universe:


The core worlds consist of a few star systems inside a nebula, this is also where the only source of Antimatter is found


The "Rim" consists of all worlds cut out for hundreds of years from the Antimatter supply.

Most inhabited worlds of the rim are infested with replicants (and the giant worms (the Urghoghs)).

While the core is also occupied by the worms, replicants are machina non-grata in this space, as the worms exert a much more direct form of control there (especially on the Antimatter source which proved itself to be a historical can of worms (uhuhuh (got it ?))).

Finding nests

While kicking on the nest by flashing sensors toward the planet's surface is a viable way to purge the planet from the infestation, this is also a good approach to get swiftly destroyed and form another planetary ring consisting of little matter and much vanity.


Found the buggers...

Another way to get rid of the nest, or even plunder it is to find them on the planet's surface and perform some fireworks directly at the source, with good old explosives and heroically timed detonators.


The combined skill and special traits of the crew would help for successful rolls.

Nests are created during the universe generation, these are simulation-persistent features and populated during the historical generation, they are scattered on the planet and come in 7 different sizes, from the single replicant fighter to a giant fleet with its mothership.

A nest allows some interaction, such as destroying it, deactivating it, or reprogramming it in order to add it to your fleet.

Replicants are only a problem for those in space


Oops ?

Waking a nest while are the surface won't create a problem for anything at the planet's surface, the replicants will launch from the planet after some time and angrily patrol the vicinity and shoot on sight.


Let's leave this planet, it can't be this bad...

Keep in mind that at this point their AI is as advanced as a pissed wasp's brain.

This is potentially a good way to have a free and zealous force protecting your planet, or a deterrence to follow you.

Replicant also has a chance to wake when landing or launching from a planet, making viable planets for mining operations or colonisation scarcer.

A global threat

Until they were reprogrammed, replicants used to be an existential threat to humanity, as such in their "vanilla" form they regroup around a mothership purposed to create more spacecrafts from raw materials.


The mothership's fleet. Just unbeatable in a single strike...

In the game such motherships can be found in deep space until more events are introduced into the game, this fleet is active and replicating right from the beginning of the game.


The mothership's  fleet is dispatching 3 harvester fleets

Replicants have a special faction AI, they will send a fleet of harvester for very long mining expeditions and then come back with raw material to the main fleet.

They don't have faster-than-light drive and, thus are very slow for interstellar trips. This is a slow, predictable foe, but potentially with overwhelming power.

Is that... gameplay ?!

It must come to you as a piece of shocking news, finally some glimpse of this so-called "gameplay loop" with progression, shooty stuff, and bad guys to waste without moral overthinking.

Indeed since spacecrafts are a big deal in Antimatter, killing people is yet another big deal, it is nice to have a foe finally pressuring the player.

[AlStar]

Looks like it's all coming together!

[Mephansteras]

Yeah, looking pretty snazzy!

[Starver]

So I'm still lurking away, here, admiring the procedural generation from afar. Desperately trying not to plagarise any of the concepts in my 'never to see the light of day' pet project! (And holding back from polluting your own creativity with any more of my advice... You clearly don't need it.)

That taken as read, can I just pass on that I totally admire the artwork, too. The bit that I definitely can't help with (I can appreciate it, but haven't an artistic bone in my body when it comes to creating it). Obviously there's an overlap with some of the procedural rendering/assembling (hard to tell where the boundary lies[1], which is good), but the actual stuff like the feature illustrations/location backgrounds/ship designs/etc look really good.

I mean, as a bit of a fan of 8-bit cartoony graphic styles, or of course of games like DF that rip straight from the Codepage characters, I absolutely can appreciate the complexity of the game internals without such adornments. But the adornments look good here. (On top of all that internalised complexity.)


And, for what it's worth, I just thought it was too long since I last delurked and made any contribution at all here. I've not exactly been very active in encouraging you, but... Yay!  Not the most eloquent of responses, but I hope it'll also encourage you.


[1] Like how much is Perlin Noise/whatever, mapped onto the opening screen planet, and whether the character graphic has an advanced nurb-based physionomy; or is it full manual artwork...? No, don't mind me, I'm just pondering to what extent I might match what I see.

[LoSboccacc]

fyi information still getting released on kickstarter, last few blogs "missed":

OUTPOSTS https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/geopi/antimatter-a-city-builder-and-4x-game/posts/3947810
POLITICS https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/geopi/antimatter-a-city-builder-and-4x-game/posts/4020705

and nothing, still in the wait for a playable alpha or smth