Weekly Star Atlas Newsletter #231

Welcome to our 231st newsletter on Star Atlas! This weekly newsletter, published by Aephia Industries, focuses entirely on the development of this ambitious game. Here, we attempt to aggregate all the newsworthy tidbits revealed, primarily by the team, throughout the past week.

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A Town Hall is coming this week, as closed-beta testing of SAGE C4 has begun and the PTR launch finally appears to be getting close, for real this time! Meanwhile, Holosim is officially taking a back seat so both the team and the players can focus on SAGE C4. Beyond that, we got an update on the tabletop RPG campaign, alongside some beautiful new concept art sneak peeks.

Let’s dive in!

Town Hall

Probably the biggest news item from last week: this coming Thursday, May 28th at 18:00 UTC, the team is hosting the first Town Hall of the year! The official announcement promises to include development updates across the team’s products, with a special focus on Project Galia, z.ink, and SAGE C4.

If you haven’t already, make sure to mark the event on Discord so you’ll get a reminder!

The team’s last Town Hall was late December of last year, right before they went on their 2-week hiatus. Back then, UE5, Holosim, and the z.ink airdrop campaign got a lot of time in the spotlight.

SAGE C4

Late last week, the closed beta of SAGE C4 officially kicked off! As you read this, a number of community members, all under an NDA, are busy trying to break the game. Once all game-breaking bugs have been cleared, the game will be made available on the PTR (z.ink testnet). Although the team has not confirmed this, it would stand to reason to expect they are planning to launch the PTR test phase during, or shortly after, the Town Hall.

Meanwhile, the team shared two short C4 clips on their X account this past week. The first shows the team testing several scanning effects, while the second shows multiple fleets in orbit and the selection of targets for an attack.

Play Video: Star Atlas - SAGE C4 - Scanning Effects Exploration [WIP] Play Video: Star Atlas - SAGE C4 - Target Selection Reveal [WIP]

Lastly, they shared a shot of each faction’s Central Space Station in its Star System:

SAGE C4 – MUD Home Star System & Central Space Station

SAGE C4 – ONI Home Star System & Central Space Station

SAGE C4 – Ustur Home Star System & Central Space Station

Stay tuned for the Town Hall to see and hear a lot more about SAGE C4 and what’s next!

Regional Governance

Two weeks ago, during Atlas Brew #204, Jacob (CTO) revealed that he had been working on a prototype of Regional Governance, using Polis Voting Power, in SAGE C4. During last week’s Brew (#205), Michael (CEO) came on towards the end to share his vision for this:

Factions will need to upgrade a region’s King system starbase to Tier 5 to unlock a new class of building projects. One of these is a Diplomat(ic) Wing. After that has been constructed, players will be able to delegate PVP from the top-level DAO to these starbases, but only if they also commit crew members to serve as diplomats. For every 1000 PVP (for example), one crew member will need to be assigned to the new wing to serve as a diplomat/bureaucrat/lobbyist.

One of the things that players could vote on is crafting fees. These could, for example, be increased, and this increase could then flow back to the players in proportion to their diplomatic presence. Alternatively, they could decide to spend part of that pool on local defense or other regional priorities. He also floated more political extensions, such as voting on regional specialization, starbase hostility, or even whether the surrounding territory should support a war push into another region.

That direction is not entirely new in theory. Older Star Atlas governance material already described regional DAOs setting local taxes and policies, but last week was the first time we got a practical path that ties those ideas to king systems, crew logistics, and actual starbase income. The z.ink Player Profile will enable players to connect their PVP wallet(s) to their SAGE Player Profile, a crucial component of making this work. Michael theorized that this feature could potentially roll out faster than we might expect, but it does rely on some additional DAO-related work to be completed first.

He also mentioned that once C4 PTR is out, he wants to rotate attention back toward some of the tokenomic and governance systems that were pushed back while the team focused on gameplay delivery.

Holosim

John (Product Manager) shared during Atlas Brew #205 that he does not plan to push another major Holosim update before C4 PTR. The team is holding the next combat and marketplace release because shipping it now would split both player attention and team focus between Holosim and the C4 PTR.

Over the past few weeks, we have been following combat reliability, marketplace screens, drones, and the possible next Chapter 2 phase, but those now appear to be waiting behind the C4 testing window.

The Fountain of Evisco Digital Painting by Libra.Idtt — Star Atlas Inspired Derivative Art [Source: The Atlas Star Issue #13]

The Light of Evisco

During last week’s Lore Keepers event, José (Lead Lore Writer) shared that the TTRPG campaign is moving away from Embercoil to Evisco. He explained that, despite having written already 30% of the Ember Coil campaign story, he changed course because that dungeon-focused story did not use enough of Star Atlas’ species, factions, and broader setting. Evisco gives him a wider canvas.

The setting is not new, but its use here is. The Light of Evisco goes back to The Atlas Star Issue #13, where Evisco was described as a frontier world with an ancient ruined city and a strange stream of liquid light hidden in its temple. That older lore already featured competing expeditions and manufacturers trying to reach the city, so the new campaign is leaning on an established setup.

José also shared more about the tabletop ruleset itself. He has built a roughly 200-page Star Atlas RPG system with D6-based resolution, five core attributes, 13 skills, species-specific mechanics, and more than 30 perks per species. MUD characters lean into augmentations and willpower, Punaab characters use resource-hungry mecha suits, Usturs interact with Ohm and sect-based abilities, Sogmians use honor and house values, and Mierese can channel ancestral personalities.

The community’s voice is already feeding into the campaign as well. Attendees of the Lore Keepers event helped José pick factions that will enter Evisco alongside the player party, including an Ogrika Industries Punaab security group. José also confirmed that Jorvik pirates and main-faction representatives will appear.

Sneak Peeks

Marcel van Vuuren, who worked for Star Atlas from the start of 2022 to the end of 2024 as an Environment Art Director and Concept Designer, shared some older, but beautiful concept art of Akenat, the Punaab Homeworld, on his ArtStation profile. Below, we are sharing 3 of his works (of the 5 he shared), so make sure to check out his work directly, to see the rest and enjoy all of these in their full-res splendor!

Star Atlas – Punaab Homeworld Akenat – Pre-Production Sketches 2021 [by Marcel van Vuuren]

Star Atlas – Punaab Homeworld Akenat – Pre-Production Sketches 2021 [by Marcel van Vuuren]

Star Atlas – Punaab Homeworld Akenat – Pre-Production Sketches 2021 [by Marcel van Vuuren]

That is it for this week! Thanks for reading, and until the next!