Welcome to our 54th newsletter on Star Atlas! This is a weekly newsletter, published by Aephia Industries, that is focused entirely on Star Atlas. Here we try to aggregate all the newsworthy tidbits that were dropped by the team throughout the past week.
Last week was an emotional rollercoaster the likes of which we hope to never see again. Even before the Solana Breakpoint in Lisbon was over (see our previous newsletter) rumors concerning serious trouble with FTX started to quickly pile up. As that situation went from worrying to grim, things got even worse for many as the weekend started with some pretty bad news from the Stars Atlas team.
$15 million lost - Runway shortened
A week ago FTX entered into a death spiral which ended with them declaring bankruptcy this last Friday. For those who might have missed (parts of) this, decrypt.io compiled a nice annotated list of the various tweets that document this crisis from the beginning to where we are now.
A little later on that Friday, Michael Wagner (CEO) released a statement on both Discord & Twitter, declaring that ATMTA’s funds had been materially impacted by these events. Shortly thereafter the team hosted an impromptu Town Hall on Discord to go over this announcement and answer questions.
You can read the announcement below:
To discuss this in full transparency, please join us in a Town Hall today at 5pm EST on https://t.co/mCa6L6xBZj. https://t.co/XnNuSdEaNG
Impromptu Town Hall
Michael started the Town Hall meeting by stating he did not want to go too deep into what exactly transpired, but he did state the following:
[…] there was an unfortunate chain of events in which we did not have access to our FTX account, over that time, being out of the country, and some other coincidences, and not have sufficient backup measures in place for someone to would have accessibility to that […]
He continued by sharing that the team has 100% resolve to continue their work on the game.
Due to this event, they will make some internal changes, including a reduction of their expenses. In addition to that, they are also looking into raising outside capital, to which Michael right away cautioned that this would be quite difficult so shortly after the collapse of the second biggest CEX. However, they did receive promising signals and people seem to be interested in what the team is doing.
He also added that it was not easy to withhold information, but they wanted to make sure they were representing their situation accurately to the community. This is why they delayed sharing this earlier.
During the event, Michael repeated a few times that he has strong confidence that they would manage to pull through this.
Shortened Runway
One of the reasons why the team kept part of their liquid means on FTX, was due to the fact that this was earning them yield through single-sided lending of these tokens (USDC, ATLAS & POLIS).
Michael clarified in the foundation room:
Lending rates were determined by demand for borrows, which people utilized when they were trading on margin. These loans were ‘risk-free’ from the lenders perspective, as all tokens were on exchange. Lenders could not lose money from a borrower default, as it was all managed by the liquidation engine. [..] We would pick up upwards of 100% APR on deposits. Again, marketed as risk-free. This would be like putting your money in a bank account and earning interest.
The team had close to $15 million in total asset value on FTX, which gave them (including yield) roughly a 20-24 month runway. With the loss of access to both the pool’s contents and this yield, this has been drastically reduced to about 6+ months.
Michael anticipates that with (temporary) cost reductions they should be able to stretch this to 9 months.
ATLAS Reserve
As before, the team is still not planning on selling their ATLAS reserve, which contains the ATLAS people used to buy assets. However, it has now become an option if they really have to.
Community Efforts
Ordinarily, we don’t cover community activity in this newsletter, but in this case, it felt appropriate to make an exception.
Right after Michael broke the news concerning ATMTA’s financial situation, the community came together to start brainstorming proposals that would allow the team to raise more capital from the community itself. A good portion of this discussion has been going on over at the Star Atlas Discord, but there has also been a new, temporary Discord server set up, solely to discuss these ideas together.
A few of the suggestions that are gaining traction (with both team and community) are:
- Propose ATMTA to acquire some of their locked POLIS & ATLAS tokens, at a reduced price, but with the requirement to stake them for a fixed amount of time.
- Ask ATMTA to sell land/space/habitats sooner, rather than later. This pertains specifically to land on the three Central Space Stations, which will be limited. The team acknowledged they had planned to sell land in late 2023 anyway, and they could definitely look into moving this forward.
Next to these, there are also other options the team is looking into, that involve the community:
- Moving the sale of crew members up. This was planned for early 2023 regardless but might now take place a little earlier than they originally planned.
- Temporarily repricing all ship inventory in USDC at a considerable discount (i.e. as high as 80%)
Roadmap Details
The weekend following Michael’s announcement have been buzzing, and we’ve also seen team members chime in to reply to questions. As part of additional information being shared in response to questions from the community, Danny Floyd (CPO) mentioned a few of the dates the team is targeting for some of the first few UE5 releases:
- Pre-release 2 (R2): Mid-December 2022
- Pre-release 4 (R4): Q4 2023
- Season 0: Q4 2024
These are target dates and as such are subject to change. There is an increased chance they will change, as the team might be forced to deprioritize their UE5 roadmap for the immediate future, given their current financial circumstances.
Danny also shared some of the rationale behind the roadmap they presented during Breakpoint (emphasis ours):
Its mainly based on the dependencies required for building all the gameplay loops out in UE5. For example, flight and ship combat in UE5 were the first core mechanics that need to be ready. So, with that in mind we create a product around that (Season 0) and release it for everyone to enjoy those loops. A lot of thought when into the dependencies through all the seasons and releasing what will feel like fully formed products for each season release. Meaning, if a new person were to download Star Atlas on season 0 they would just play it as a fully formed game with full progression without knowing there is anything missing from the product. But we know there are still big plans coming for the full economy. Along side that is SAGE of course which will have all economic I/O much earlier than Season 8. We’re also exploring very MVP utility in UE5 for most ship specs for around R4. Some ships may not be ready but we could even allow people to perform those loops which allow some economic activity even with just their clay models.
Central Space Station: ONI
Under the monicker of Project Rosegarden, the team has more recently started work on several future UE5-related modules. Given the current situation, the team decided to reveal some additional cards they have been holding in their hand. More specifically they showed off some of their early, work-in-progress footage of the ONI Central Space Station. This station is currently slated to be released as part of UE5 Season 1.
Though this release likely won’t move forward, the sale of land on all three space stations just might.
Land Details
Though it’s not yet sure the team will accelerate the land sale on their central space stations, Danny did already share their current thinking on how that might work.
Plots & Habitats
There will be two asset types involved in establishing a player-owned building on these stations: plots and habitats. The idea is that players acquire a plot and then find a hab they like that fits the tier (size) of this plot.
According to Danny, it’s likely that they will initially sell both as a package deal, to prevent starting the game with only barren lots all around.
Players will also be able to customize their habitats, and potentially even replace them, using various resources that can be mined/acquired.
Placement Limitations
The aforementioned habitats will come with a certain aesthetic, and this will determine in which district they can be placed. For instance, Sogmian buildings (see image below) can only be placed in the Sogmian district, and Photoli/Rainbow buildings can only be placed in the Photoli district. Outside of these restrictions, players will be able to place buildings within the zone based on the fit. As Danny said: “if it fits it sits”.
Habitats for sale will come with a description of the district in which they need to be located, and what zoning restrictions exist within it.
Lower Decks
Danny also shared that there is a “lower decks” sort of area beneath the surface, that contains cheap, condo sprawl-like habitats. This area will likely have a more industrial aesthetic.
Utility
Asked about the potential utility of owing a habitat, Danny answered these could give you access to:
- cargo storage
- landing pads/ship storage
- convenience
- command terminal
- possibly small crafting stations and loadout lockers
SA:GE
During his Town Hall address, Michael shared that they are doubling down on SAGE for the immediate future, at the expense of other progress. At this point, the team is looking to get something playable out to their community as soon as possible.
It’s unlikely this will move up the release of the alpha test version of SAGE, but potential future releases might see some benefit from this action.
Alpha
Danny also shared some alpha on the roadmap of SAGE. We’ve learned that planet(/land) ownership is planned for SAGE V1, along with ship customization. He did not go so far as to provide any target dates for SAGE releases.
Gameplay involving mining and resource extraction on player-owned land is scheduled to give live in UE5 with Season 5, however, this feature is planned to go live a lot earlier in SAGE. And the exact same goes for ship manufacturing.
According to Danny:
SAGE planning is to have everything out in rapid succession, regardless of the [UE5] seasonal cadence.
Star Atlas: CORE
Issue 1 of the CORE Graphic Novel has been released and the reception has been phenomenal! In several countries, the comic ranked #1 (or very high) on the various vendor charts for free books.
holy hell @timmcburnie!!!! We did it #1 book on @AppleBooks 🤯🤯🤯 @staratlas #PowerToThePeople #StarAtlasCORE #staratlas Thank you everyone whose reading!!! Grab your copy!!!!! https://t.co/AoMcDIN3QM