(Antimatter) A big Devlog

[Geoffroypi (OP)]

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


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.

[Xkill]

This is looking amazing. Deep economic simulation, political interaction and interesting combat mechanics. Can't wait to play it!