Antimatter

Antimatter within TE3000 was announced on 29th March 2023 in this group notice

"I have been hearing reports of people encountering something new upon purchasing ships. My own science advisors have been hearing whispers about this for some time, and I'm excited (if a bit ambivalent) about what it can mean for the future of our sector of the galaxy. At any rate, I wish you all the best of luck in exploring this new development."

Antimatter may be discovered on ship purchases. The amount discovered is related to the number of completed expeditions and any artefact multipliers in effect.

The first requirement is to purchase an antimatter-capable engine. This offer shows up soon after starting to collect antimatter.

Antimatter status is shown as extra pages in the Accts tab of the HUD.

Periodically an offer to undertake an antimatter mission will appear. The expedition will have a fixed cost (possibly related to the SPF multiplier) as a percentage of the credit balance. Missions may either be attempted at the next level to the current artefact or lower levels if there is not enough antimatter collected.

The duration of the mission will be three months plus (2 * expedition level) months. A notification message will appear on the hud on the turn before the expedition returns.

When the expedition returns the properties of the artefact can be reviewed (some will be positive, some negative) and a decision taken whether to install the artefact or not. If it is declined 50% of the antimatter spent is returned.

While an artefact is installed an opportunity to remove it early will be offered at every multiple of 100 months remaining.

The lifetime of an artefact appears to be 350 months plus (level * 150) months.

It is not clear yet whether artefacts are predetermined or their properties are dynamically assigned following some algorithm intended to balance the positives and negatives. The latter seems likely.

Antimatter used at each level

1	100
2	200
3	?
4	?
5	10000
6	50000
7	200000

Increase to antimatter found afterwards

1	10
2	20
3	?
4	?
5	150
6	300
7	?

Positive and negative attributes observed so far are shown in the table below

Artefact Attributes

Disasters	D1	Positive	Immune to Piracy
	D2	Positive	Immune to Corruption
	D3	Positive	Immune to Disease Ships S1 P 2 free ships S2 P Buy 2 ships at once S3 P Buy 1 ship get 1 free S4 P Sell for 50% more S5 M Buy/sell once a year S6 P Sell for 100% more S7 P Gain 1 paying fleet tax Efficiency E1 P Efficiency +20% E2 P Efficiency -20% E3 P Efficiency -50% Title T1 M Title reversed T2 M No title T3 M Title expires frequently Anti-matter A1 P Find 2x A2 P +50% antimatter A3 M Never find antimatter Artifact F1 P Lifetime + 20% Red Tape R1 P Gain 1 at census R2 P Gain 1 when paying dues R3 M Lose 1 at census Unity U1 P Gain 1 ship on disunity U2 M Lose 1 ship on disunity Commission C1 M Can't refund commission Events V1 P Risk/reward wins V2 M No credit windfalls V3 M Lose 1% of credits every 3 years Sabotage B1 M Must sabotage