Welcome to our 57th 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.
The past week saw the conclusion of the first 7 days of the Golden Era: Start Sequence campaign, where ATMTA offered ships at an 80% discount. The team managed to earn over half a million dollars during that first week, which exceeded both the team’s and critics’ expectations. With the discounts lowered since then, sales have all but dried up during week 2. Also of note: No titans were sold in that first week.
But there was more! The team published the 13th issue of the Atlas Star, the official Star Atlas newsletter. In it, there is an extensive lore piece detailing the Mierese race (part of the ONI Consortium). Furthermore, the latest on the roadmap is shared, of which we’ll present a summary in this publication.
But what really took the spotlight last week was the info released by the team detailing their upcoming land sale, or more precisely, the sale of the Claim Stakes.
Buckle up, this is going to be a long one!
Golden Era: Start Sequence
With the discounts on ships having been lowered last week, people’s attention has definitively shifted to the upcoming land sales, which will start on December 21st (see our previous newsletter for more details).
As promised, the team released a document on Tuesday (November 29th) detailing their upcoming Land & Claim Stake sale. The information on Claim Stakes caused a small tidal wave that passed through the community, as people quickly figured out that the new supply seemed very limited, especially when compared to the supply that was already out there.
Rebirth
For those who have been around for a while, you might remember the Rebirth meta-poster campaign that came with airdrops to individuals who collected a set of them. The four individuals who acquired all posters received 255 Tier 5 Claim Stakes each.
Compared to the paltry offering by the team, of just 69 Tier 5 Claim Stakes, this would mean the market was really being controlled by these 4 individuals, who collectively owned over 1000 of them.
As soon as this was pointed out to Michael and the team, they realized a mistake was made. The Rebirth rewards had not been properly taken into account. Michael promised an update would soon come that would rectify this.
That update came this past Friday, December 2nd, and though it did not update the price or the supply from the team, it did introduce a conversion process for the Legacy Claim Stakes (as the current supply has now been named) into new Claim Stakes, which will drastically reduce the current supply. More on that below!
All in all, this was another whirlwind week for the community.
Claim Stake Sale
Let’s first look at the details published by the team regarding the upcoming sale of Claim Stakes. Below you’ll find the the information in a handy table shared by the team:
Though only Claim Stakes will go on sale, at an appropriate time in the future, buyers of these Claim Stakes will get a Mining Drill and Power Plant airdropped for each of the Claim Stakes acquired. These buildings will match the tier of the Claim Stake for which they are awarded.
Space Stations are not being airdropped and are not mentioned in the plans presented by the team. They will still have a role to play, and the upcoming SAGE manual will shed more light on this.
SCORE (aka Faction Fleet)
Last week we wrote that Michael shared that the Claim Stakes would provide some utility in SCORE as well, and we’ve learned since that the Claim Stakes will actually produce R4 (Fuel, Ammunition, Food & Toolkits) when being enlisted (aka staked) in Faction Fleet.
The table above shows the rough equivalent of ship upkeep (R4 input) the Claim Stakes produce. It’s important to note that the Claim Stakes do in fact simply produce R4, so you don’t need to have any ships of the sizes mentioned specifically.
In other words, owning Claim Stakes will reduce the amount of R4 you need to buy to sustain your enlisted fleet.
SAGE
The benefit granted by the Claim Stakes in SCORE is small, and not in any way worth their price when compared to ships. However, it’s really only meant to provide some temporary utility until they can be used within SAGE.
Currently, the team plans to bring their functionality online in the first mainnet release of SAGE (targeted late Q1). The exact way these will function will be described inside the Game Manual that Chip (Game Systems Designer) is currently working on. He promised to publish the relevant part of this manual right before the sale of Claim Stakes and CSS Land Plots will go live.
Expectations are that Claim Stakes will deliver much more value in SAGE, compared to SCORE, provided they are used optimally.
Legacy Claim Stakes (LCS)
As mentioned above, the current supply of Claim Stakes has been termed Legacy Claim Stakes and these will no longer function as Claim Stakes going forward. The team took a snapshot on December 1st and will airdrop new Claim Stakes to the people who owned the old ones on that specific date, on December 19th.
Below is the conversion table published by the team:
From this table, one can easily see that the higher the tier of the Legacy Claim Stake, the fewer new Claim Stakes one gets in exchange for the old ones.
Fractions
Any fractions that remain as part of this exchange will be rounded upwards! In other words, when looking at (for example) Tier 2 Claim Stakes, the amount of airdropped new Claim Stakes will be as follows:
- You own 1-4 legacy T2 Claim Stakes: You get 1 new T2 Claim Stake
- You own 5-8 legacy T2 Claim Stakes: You get 2 new T2 Claim Stakes
- You own 9-12 legacy T2Claim Stakes: You get 3 new T2 Claim Stakes
Buildings
It’s important to realize that the Claim Stakes being dropped as LCS replacements do not qualify as a “purchase”. As such there will be no future airdrop of Mining Drills and Power Plants for their respective owners. With the Rebirth campaign airdrops, a sufficient amount of Mining Drills and Power Plants was included, though these are all tier 1 buildings.
These buildings will still function as intended, as buildings do not need to have their tier match with the Claim Stakes they are being used alongside.
CARY Posters
The Legacy Claim Stakes (LCS) will be converted into posters belonging to a brand-new poster set. There are 5 posters and each tier of the LCS will be converted into a different one.
The team won’t mint/sell these posters directly, so the only way to get one is by buying it on the secondary market from LCS owners.
Note that these posters come with no utility and are purely cosmetic! According to Chip, owning the full set and putting it up inside of a gallery module (that some ships come with) could unlock some form of future utility. What this might look like has not yet been determined by the team.
More information concerning these posters can be found in the announcement released last Friday.
Central Space Station Land Sale
With all the attention Claim Stakes have been getting, one would almost forget a portion of the land plots on the three Faction’s Central Space Stations will also go on sale December 21st.
The same article describing the details for Claim Stakes also contains more information on this sale.
The image above helps get an impression of the exact size of the various tiers. We now also have the pricing and some other details available! *Note that the supply mentioned below is *per faction, so these need to be multiplied by 3 to get the supply over all three factions.
Price & Supply overview:
- Tier 0 — Price: $80 | Sale: 4,100 | Total supply: 41,000
- Tier 1 — Price: $1,610 | Sale: 157 | Total supply: 1,568
- Tier 2 — Price: $9,300 | Sale: 34 | Total supply: 340
- Tier 3 — Price: $20,000 | Sale: 27 | Total supply: 268
- Tier 4 — Price: $180,000 | Sale: 2 | Total supply: 24
- Tier 5 — Price: $2,000,000 | Sale: 1 | Total supply: 4
Note that all the prices above are without any discount. The sale, however, will provide these with discounts of up to 15%.
Additional Details
The team shared some more info for each of the different tiers, which we’ll go into below.
Tier 0 - BASE Tier
The Base Tier habitations consist of apartments that are located under the main levels of the space station in special tower condos that expand below.
As stated in our previous newsletter, these will be instanced and as such won’t physically be visible on the Central Space Station (CSS).
They are also fairly small, just measuring 5 x 5 x 5m. You will however be able to fill it with furniture and decorations in predetermined spots, with a choice of interior paint, while also storing your personal cargo and crafting your basic resources.
It will come with:
- Exclusive Interior Hab Paint
- Crafting Station — XXS
- Cargo Storage — Tier 0
- Tier 0 Badge
Tier 1
These land plots (and all subsequent tiers) do exist physically on the surface of the CSSs and can be visited by walking there.
In addition to the Tier 0 properties, these will allow for external painting and further customization of the assets. It also comes with a landing pad, allowing you to park your vessel when visiting.
They measure 8.5 x 8.5 x 10m, resulting in 72.25 square meters of living space.
These come with:
- Exclusive Interior Hab Paint
- Exclusive Exterior Hab Paint
- Crafting Station — XS
- Landing Pad — XXS
- Cargo Storage — Tier 1
- Tier 1 Badge
- Calico Scud ship
Tier 2
As bigger versions of the Tier 1 habs, these measure 42 x 30 x 10m, resulting in 1,260 square meters of living space.
The announcement suggests:
This property is great for small groups looking to live and conduct business in the area of the space station or neighboring systems.
It looks like the team is planning to make it possible to rent out rooms as well.
These come with:
- Exclusive Interior Hab Paint
- Exclusive Exterior Hab Paint
- Crafting Station — Small
- Landing Pad — XXS
- Cargo Storage — Tier 2
- Tier 2 Badge
- Calico Maxhog & Calico Scud ships
Tier 3
Growing even bigger, this real estate measures 42 x 77 x 20m, providing a whopping 3,234 square meters of space.
The announcement suggests:
We envision these properties to be shared by entire guild squadrons or the headquarters of smaller organizations.
This property is also the first that comes with its own exclusive pet house. This can be used to show off that rare, exotic animal that you managed to capture on some remote planet.
These come with:
- Exclusive Interior Hab Paint
- Exclusive Exterior Hab Paint
- Crafting Station — Small
- Landing Pad — XS
- Cargo Storage — Tier 3
- Exclusive Pet House
- Tier 3 Badge
- Ogrika Niruch, Calico Maxhog & Calico Scud ships
Tier 4
With dimensions measuring 70 x 130 x 40m, these super mansions are for the elite, or for large groups of people.
These plots are located within the so-called inner area of the CSS (the previous tiers were all outside) and come with another exclusive: a unique sculpture for your yard.
The announcement suggests:
On this level, residences are big enough to be considered villas, allowing scores of beings to live in the most comfortable and flamboyant way possible. Only a special type of individual or institution would be able to acquire such an uplifting and glorious architectural wonder as their home and/or headquarters.
These come with:
- Exclusive Interior Hab Paint
- Exclusive Exterior Hab Paint
- Crafting Station — Medium
- Landing Pad — Small
- Cargo Storage — Tier 4
- Exclusive Pet House
- Exclusive Sculpture
- Tier 4 Badge
- Opal Rayfam, Ogrika Niruch, Calico Maxhog & Calico Scud ships
Tier 5
Finally, the super exclusive Tier 5 properties, for the richest of the rich!
There are only 4 of these in total per CSS, and only one of these will go on sale for each of the 3 CSSs. These measure an astounding 150 x 210 x 90m and as such, they could easily be considered palaces or modern castles.
The announcement suggests:
By purchasing such a property, you, your guild, or your organization make a bold statement that will be noticed by every citizen of that particular space station and beyond. At the same time, you and yours get to enjoy the ultimate in privilege, space and luxury that will never go out of style.
These come with:
- Exclusive Interior Hab Paint
- Exclusive Exterior Hab Paint
- Crafting Station — Medium
- Landing Pad — Medium
- Cargo Storage — Tier 5
- Exclusive Pet House
- Exclusive Sculpture
- Tier 5 Badge
- Fimbul Mamba EX, Opal Rayfam, Ogrika Niruch, Calico Maxhog & Calico Scud ships
Volant Studio Showroom - Pre-release 2
The wait is almost over, Showroom Pre-release 2 (or R2) is almost here. The team confirmed that it is still targeted for release during the second half of December.
Though an early version of R2 was shown off at Breakpoint, the team has been busy improving the experience since, importing more ships into the game, adding multiplayer support, and setting up leaderboards.
As a refresher, the signature features that R2 will provide are:
- Racing (individually, time-based)
- Dogfighting (Player-vs-Environment)
- Multiplayer support
Both the Pearce X4 and Floyd Liner (a freely available ship within the Showroom) will be available for you to fly around on/in.
As part of the multiplayer experience, R2 will come with:
- text chat (both locally and globally),
- voice chat, and
- a friends list
The leaderboards the team is adding will be fully on-chain and will document people’s individual achievements in both the dogfighting & racing modes.
As to the ships, the following ships will be available in their final state, though these won’t yet be flight-ready:
- Calico Medtech
- Pearce F4
- Opal Jet
The Fimbul BYOS Packlite will be present in a more WIP-like state.
Some other changes you can expect, include:
- Option to decorate your version of the showroom with your NFTs
- Character selection: You can play as one of four different characters
- A much-expanded area to explore
- Gamepad support
The team is currently finalizing adding gravity to a ship (for multiplayer purposes) & engine sounds, while also working on performance optimization & testing.
SAGE
The SAGE team has been busy these past three weeks and in this section, we’ll go over their reported progress.
The Game Design team has finalized the “Council Rank Progression” system, and has started work in the SAGE Player Manual.
Meanwhile, the Blockchain team has continued their work on the planetary mining system within the Fleets Program. They completed the Points-, and Points Store program, which are now ready to be audited. They also completed the Starbase upgrade work. The Cargo program now also supports Player Profiles. Lastly, they are currently implementing mining related emissions / R4 consumption formulas into a program.
The UX & UI teams are still busy implementing, and processing stakeholder feedback. UX is primarily focussed on creating user-flows for onboarding, crafting & mining, while the UI team is working on buttons, typography, colors & components.
The Web team has worked on fleet formation and disbanding. They also added ship metadata into the game, started work on a Network Manager, and added various functionalities to the overview menu.
Lastly, the Art department has completed various battle damage particle effects, the shader for laser beams, and muzzle flashes & thrusters for various sizes of ships.
Additionally they have been working on warpgate FX (effects), including inactive FX as well as active FX when a ship passes through. Work also continues on the planet shaders for procedural planet texture generation.
What’s next?
Upcoming activities from the team include:
- Incorporating feedback from SAGE stakeholders
- Build, peer review, and test programs on testnet, then audit.
- Continue to build out UI screens and elements and solicit feedback from stakeholders.
- Migrate game functionality over to new software architecture and implement UI functionality and data handling. Focus heavily on the hooking up of blockchain data to the client side. Continue to add key functionality to the UI.
- Add all assets and FX into SAGE.
CORE - Issue 2
This week, on December 7th, the second issue of the CORE Graphic Novel will go on sale. Like last time, the comic will be sold on both Magic Eden and on the Galactic Marketplace.
The price will be $20 worth of SOL over at Magic Eden. Last time the team was charging $20 worth of ATLAS over at the Galactic Marketplace, and it’s not currently clear if they will sell these in exchange for ATLAS again, or ask for 20 USDC instead.
Joni Awards
Last week we wrote about the GAM3 awards that are ongoing, and where you can vote for Star Atlas as your favorite Web3 Gaming project. This past Wednesday however, the team launched the JONI awards, which are awards explicitly meant for community members and to a lesser extent: guilds.
There are 2 separate phases, followed by an award ceremony on December 16th.
The first phase ends today and allows you to nominate community members, projects, and guilds by completing a survey.
The next phase will then take the top 4 nominees from each category and allow everyone to vote on them. Winners will be made public on December 16th, and they will take home a unique NFT statue of Joni, which comes attached with the category and year in its metadata.
This award show recognizes the following categories:
- Community Member of the Year
- Most Knowledgeable Star Atlas Community Member
- Community Helper of the Year
- Community-Created Project of the Year
- Meme of the Year
- Small Guild of the Year
- Medium Guild of the Year
- Large Guild of the Year
- Best Guild Website
- Star Atlas Video of the Year by a Content Creator
- Content Creator of the Year
- Favorite Solana Project
This will be an annual event, so if you did not make it this year, there’s always the next!