Welcome to our 236th 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.

Last week’s news was dominated by further discussion and the opening of the DAO vote on ATMTA’s historic reimbursement proposal. This is arguably one of the most consequential governance discussions the Star Atlas community has faced in quite some time. Beyond that, SAGE C4 Phase 2 development is ongoing and will bring support for zXP, the complete Cultivation Claim gameplay loop, and the first rollout of the Nemesis Engine — starting with Jorvik NPCs and the fleet transfer mechanics that pave the way for piracy, refueling, cargo transfers, and more.

Let’s dive in!

C4 PTR

During last week’s Atlas Brew 210, Michael (CEO) confirmed that, beyond Combat V2, the Nemesis Engine, and the Democracy Module, Phase 2 will also come with:

  • zXP rewards for the z.ink airdrop campaign, for playtesting
  • A complete Cultivation Claims stimulant loop, allowing you to both create and use stimulants in-game.

We also got the first concrete public rollout plan for the Nemesis side of that package. John (Product Manager) said phase two should introduce Jorvik NPCs first, with the Sorkof pirates planned for phase three and Collective Anarchy later on. He also said the Jorvik design work is pushing new fleet-to-fleet transfer mechanics, which are needed for pirate tribute demands but also open the door to refueling, cargo swaps, rescue, and repair extensions. In short, work on Nemesis is pushing concepts many players have been waiting for since the start of SAGE! These elements likely won’t be accessible to the player right away, but their presence means they can be (more) easily added afterward.

Meanwhile, José (Lore & Community) showed off the back-end interface he is using to create in-game missions for Phase 3 of the C4 PTR rollout. This UI allows him to add missions to a specific region, system, or planet, and gate them based on local conditions or prior mission completion. Furthermore, he can set required assets (payment) when taking on the mission, and define XP, ATLAS, resources, and components as rewards.

DAO Updates

The reimbursement discussion has moved out of Discord argument mode and into a live DAO vote.

Last week, Michael made it clear that the DAO does not have legally binding unpaid debts and that the reimbursement request is exactly that: a request. POLIS holders can still reject it. He also tied the proposal directly to preserving runway ahead of C4 and z.ink mainnet. That lines up with the launch sequencing we last discussed in #232, though the timeline he gave here was slightly tighter: roughly two to three months to z.ink mainnet plus C4 mainnet, provided phase two (of the C4 PTR) lands cleanly and the feature list stops moving (Michael’s goal).

José’s proposal, still in the draft phase, for a second 6-month term paid for by the DAO, has been paused in anticipation of PIP-33’s approval (which, as we explained last week, would eliminate the need for it).

PIP-33: ATMTA Historic Expense Reimbursement

This proposal seeks reimbursement of $469,513.53 USD from the Star Atlas DAO Treasury for verified historic expenditures paid by ATMTA on behalf of the Star Atlas DAO covering 2021 tax obligations and payments to two professional services providers.

Structure:

  • Requested funding: $469,513.53
  • Structure: 1-off PIP
  • Author: Michael Wagner, on behalf of ATMTA, Inc.
  • Voting Opened: Friday, June 26
  • Voting Closes: Friday, July 10 (end-of-day UTC)

Early results (~0 days in, ~172M PVP committed):

  • For: 41.3%
  • Against: 2.4%
  • Abstain: 56.2%

That is an unusual opening distribution, with most voting power sitting in Abstain. The community’s best guess is that the top abstainer is likely Michael (or ATMTA), to make it clear they are not participating in this vote.

News Bits

Here are a few smaller bits of news to round out this week’s issue:

  • The team was, unfortunately, unable to get the dedicated UE5 multiplayer servers back up in time for the double XP weekend. They seem close, but it’s clearly taking longer than they anticipated.
    It’s unclear if the double XP weekend will move to another weekend or if the June one is effectively canceled.
  • The Fleet Rentals program has been experiencing issues over the past few days, resulting in fleets not being returned to their owners at the end of the rental period. Instead, current users of those fleets can use them for longer without paying any additional fee. Anthonyra is working on a fix, and this should be resolved soon.

Sneak Peeks

Last week, we shared some links and work from Sperasoft on various MUD outfits meant for racing. This week, they released many more outfits for MUD characters, including infantry, support, and commanders.

The following MUD-related art was shared this past week:

Star Atlas – MUD Combat – Created by Alex Dmitriev [Concept Art]

Star Atlas – MUD Combat – Created by Alex Dmitriev [Concept Art]

Star Atlas - MUD Sigmond Nok - Created by Vladimir Nikityuk [Concept Art]

Star Atlas – MUD Sigmond Nok – Created by Vladimir Nikityuk [Concept Art]

image

Star Atlas – MUD Commander – Created by Semyon Sokolov [Concept Art]

Star Atlas – MUD Combat – Created by Alex Dmitriev [Concept Art]

Star Atlas – MUD Combat – Created by Alex Dmitriev [Concept Art]

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