Quote from: Steve Walmsley on Today at 02:49:55 AM

The NPRs do consume fuel and have to produce it. They just don't suffer any penalty for being out of fuel except the overriding priority to refuel, so they will run out eventually.

Maybe I should modify minor races so that at some point they do develop jump capability, but not for several decades after creation.

Another option might be to have minor NPRs ignore the overriding priority for refuel, resupply, etc., either if they're out of fuel completely or at least reducing the priority of that order so they can effectively defend once they run out of resources. Since they are limited to a single system, the go-home-to-refuel behavior isn't as important from the perspective of simulation for the benefit of the player.

Another one can be every, let's say, two or three years the game regenerates minerals in the minor race system, and this triggers a (new) geosurvey to find them. This regeneration ends when the system is discovered by another race (the player or a NPRs), and the minor race can now discover/buy/steal the jump drive technology.

This is a video devlog recapitulating the "universe" part of development of Antimatter from 2023 to 2024.
Massive work has also been done on the surface aspect ( the 2d side-view) but will be shown on another dedicated devlog, with explanations on how it will communicate with the rest of the simulation.

This is not an exhaustive devlog, a lot more has been done in many other aspects of the game and simulation. But here this is a rare occasion to show some parts of the game as a video.

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And also I have skipped posting the last devlog, so here it is :

Politics



Continuing polishing the game (which is not the most exciting thing to talk about)... But this is still an occasion to write about what has been developed for the political system, which has greatly improved from the initial system.

Characters have a major role in the living universe in Antimatter and they even play the ever-changing political game.

The post-Antimatter crisis is bringing the intellectuals and/or the idealists to the first scene, much has to be done in a world where political tradition is banished to the domination of the Urghoghs (giant worms).

In this uncharted political land, intellectuals unburied (sometimes literally) the old ideologies from the XXI, XX, and XIXth centuries as the period of Urghigh obscurantism met a convenient analogy to the European's Enlightenment era.

The political scene is therefore dominated by diverse ideologies, in the most naive way. The old world's political legacy is religiously followed to the letter, even the neo-classic estheticism and symbolism mimicked with nostalgia in the haste to bring humanity to a new order.

The Assembly



The assembly represents all the voting members of an organization, separated into chambers that determine the voting power of the member.



A parliament can be extended or reduced with policies.



Each seat in the assembly is occupied by an actual character.

Ranks & Chambers



A member may be promoted or kicked out of a chamber depending on his influence and the influence of his peers.

A rank can have requirements such as the necessity to be landed, be a captain, have a certain education, etc... These requirements are to be voted as a new policy.

Political Parties



Political parties gather like-minded persons, who share common ethics.



While similar in name to the modern era's political parties, these parties have strong differences. they are an attempt to parrot the old world's political system but are still an emanation of their time. The Urghost party is the exception, they will oppose almost everything.



A political party has its own agenda of policies to enact (or to oppose). The resulting ethic of the party is determined by its set of desired and opposed policies.


Votes and Elections



A vote is taken with all members, many factors play a role in the acceptance of a policy, but generally, a member will vote for his political party.

A debate can extend for weeks or even months.



The player himself can be involved in politics just like any other character, he can propose the enactment or revocation of a policy by spending political power or debate against or in favor of a vote.

If I name one manually, will he stick, as some officers do when you name them by hand?

No, you need to turn off auto-assignments or disable officer assignment to the fighter class(es). That said, it's not worth worrying about unless you find yourself lacking for XOs generally because your fighter wings ate all the officers.

What minerals are Maintenance Supply Points made of?

Complement to nuclearslurpee info, if you don't remember, you can off and on the maintenance facilities on a planet and check the planned minerals expense variations.

Now I'm wondering... with the Imperium occupied by clearing out Necron encampments and now the presence of the T'au (yet to come: Tyranids, Chaos), it seems increasingly likely that the Jotun will stick around for a while as they're too difficult to dislodge yet not a threat to anyone.

Which brings to mind a question: how do the minor NPRs handle the eventuality of running out of resources? With a normal NPR there is always the possibility of expanding to other systems to fuel the war machines, but a minor NPR lacks that option and so would eventually run out. I know NPR ships are, for uhhh reasons, not limited by a lack of fuel or MSP, but the AI pretends that it is and tries to refuel, resupply, etc. those ships - I imagine that drive could cause some difficulties if the minor race is defending their entry JP after 100 years and the refueling AI starts to override the "defend in place" AI.

The NPRs do consume fuel and have to produce it. They just don't suffer any penalty for being out of fuel except the overriding priority to refuel, so they will run out eventually.

Maybe I should modify minor races so that at some point they do develop jump capability, but not for several decades after creation.