Welcome to our 103rd newsletter on Star Atlas! This weekly newsletter is published by Aephia Industries and focuses entirely on Star Atlas. Here, we try to aggregate all the newsworthy tidbits that were dropped by the team throughout the past week.
Today, the biggest Solana event of the year kicked off in Amsterdam, and Star Atlas is there! On Thursday, November 2nd, Michael gives a Keynote speech on the main stage, and on Tuesday, October 31st, there will be a community meetup in two parts. But throughout the week, Star Atlas will meet (potential) partners, discuss possible collaborations, and, of course, soak up the info on all the new solutions coming to Solana that will be announced during the conference itself.
Additionally, the schedule for the Golden Tickets raffles has gone live, and you can submit your tickets for the first draw right now! But there is a ton more this week!
Let’s dive in!
Breakpoint – Presentation
On Thursday, November 2nd, at 11:05 (local time), Michael will give a 30-minute keynote on the mainstage (aka “Black Box”). But for those attending, you can see Michael a little earlier as well, during the Buddy Link session, which happens right before (from 10:40) at the very same main stage. So, in short:
- 10:40 – 11:00: Buddy Link: The Future of Web3 Engagement [Main Stage – Black Box]
- 11:05 – 11:35: Star Atlas Session [Main Stage – Black Box]
The organization is providing a live stream of the conference. Make sure to tune in there to get the best quality while Michael is speaking.
Keynote
Of course, we don’t know all the specifics of Michael’s presentation, but (to build upon the list from our last newsletter) some bits have been revealed already:
- Upcoming Showroom R2.2 Update
- SAGE Labs and SAGE Starbased (expect footage!)
- Lending / Rental system
- Build Program & Community Developers
- Partnership with Meta Gravity: 30k+ simultaneous players in the Showroom
- Mobile Companion (fitness) App
- DAC Announcement
Breakpoint – Community Meetup
On October 31st, there is a community meetup in 2 parts.
Part 1 – Dinner Cruise
From the exact location of the ferry taking Breakpoint attendees to the Conference Venue (The IJcatcher), the Star Atlas Dinner Cruise will depart at precisely 18:00 (local time). It will take 40 people, including 13 ATMTA team members, for a nice boat trip along the canals of the city center of Amsterdam. During that time, an Indonesian buffet is available to all, and basic drinks are included.
Two hours later, at 20:00, the boat will drop everyone off at the Radisson hotel in the center of Amsterdam. From there, it is a small (< 5min) walk to the venue where the second part of the evening will take place!
Part 2 – Drinks & Networking
At 20:00, The Green Palace (in Dutch: “Het Groene Paleis”) will open its doors to Star Atlas enthusiasts! Over 140 registered people have been allowed in, with an additional 100+ people on the waitlist who will unfortunately miss out. It is safe to say that this year, Star Atlas is a much bigger priority for many than during the last Breakpoint conference in Lisboa (2022).
Among the attendees will be team members, partners, Star Atlas players & enthusiasts, and many people interested in learning more and potentially seeking an introduction to ATMTA.
This party will last until 23:00 (most cafes close early on Tuesdays), with the last round of drinks available at 22:30. For many attendees, this may probably be for the best, with Breakpoint starting again early the next day!
SAGE Labs
These past few weeks have seen a relatively stable number of users playing SAGE Labs. Interestingly, however, the number of transactions generated by these players has changed significantly, with some of the more impactful patches being released. The last leg down is right after Scanning was revisited the past week (see patch notes below), incentivizing movement. The first leg down was right after Toolkit costs for Scanning were multiplied by 10x.
In the end, the success of SAGE is not measured in transaction volume. Far more important is player activity and adoption, which should be a decent representation of player happiness. Also, a good chunk of the transaction reductions are due to bots that stopped working (of being efficient enough to employ).
Patches
The team released four patches this past week, which we list below for your convenience:
Patch V1.1.1 – October 24th
- To make SDU scanning a more engaging and interesting experience for players, the Scan probability has been adjusted to be conditional on:
- time
- location
- previous discoveries
- Players now have a small chance of finding a higher concentration of SDUs upon a successful scan.
- Added the probability of finding SDUs in a sector to the resulting toast message after a scan.
- Added a “Refuel All” button to the Hangar that fills up the fuel of all the fleets if sufficient fuel is available in the starbase.
- Added a “Rearm All” button to Hangar that fills up the ammo of all the fleets if sufficient ammo is available in the starbase.
- Added a “Unload All Cargo” button to the Hangar that unloads everything in the Cargo Hold of all fleets into the starbase.
- Added a “Quick Command” tab to the galaxy overview that allows for easier warping and exit warping.
- Added a larger warping dialog when warping from the Quick Command tab that should make it easier to navigate
- The warp dialog now shows your fleets on the map.
- The warp dialog now shows fleets that are (sub)warping on the map and the destination they’re traveling to.
Patch V1.1.2 – October 25th (Hotfix)
- Increased cosmic current frequency to boost the chance of finding a data-rich sector when exploring
- Increased global data richness across Galia
- Decreased time until a sector fully regenerates to its baseline scan conditions
- Fixed a bug in the sector data regeneration algorithm
Patch V1.1.4 – October 27th
- The Sector Survey tab now shows the probability of the last scan of the sector the fleet is on and whether SDUs were found in the last scan.
- The Sector Survey tab now has Warp and Subwarp buttons for easier navigation.
- The warp dialog now has colored tiles depending on the probability of finding SDUs on the last scan in that sector.
- The warp dialog now shows a colored border around tiles where SDUs were found on the last scan in that sector.
- The warp dialog now shows the probability for a sector when selecting it and whether SDUs were found on the last scan in that sector.
- The scan history for each sector is saved for 60 minutes.
Patch V1.1.5 – October 28th (Hotfix)
- Dramatically reduced the sector cooldown timer after successful scans.
Golden Tickets
Last Thursday, the team announced the kick-off of the Golden Ticket raffles and published the full schedule and loot tables for the 8-week event.
In total, the team will hand out $1.35 million in prizes (measured in VWAP!) to those participating in the event. The first drawing will have 300k in prize value, it being the first. As players have had multiple weeks to prepare and gather tickets, this means there is still a decent chance to win something.
The other drawings have 150k prize pools, except for the one in week 4. That week has a slightly bigger pool worth $175k (in VWAP).
Also, note the Prize pool for the 8th and last week is currently empty. It would appear the community will get some options to select for that one.
The first draw will occur on November 3rd, and you can submit tickets until 15 minutes before the draw. Submitting tickets for the first raffle opened on October 27th.
Week 1
You can now submit your tickets through Hedgehog, with whom ATMTA collaborates to run their raffles.
The submission link is https://hedgehog.markets/star-atlas. This website also allows you to have a more in-depth look at the prizes that are part of the loot pool.
Note: You have until November 3rd, 19:15 UTC, to submit your tickets for the first draw!
Ship Sale Delayed
Two weeks ago, the team announced the sale of the Opal Rayfam. Last week, however, together with the patch 1.1.1 announcement, they backtracked on that. The team shared that they first want to monitor and measure the impact of the new changes to SAGE Labs, without this new ship being available.
They expect to release the Opal Rayfam in one or two weeks.
CORE – Issue #9
Issue #9 (or: Act 2, episode 3) is now also available on Magic Eden. You can acquire the limited edition special cover there for 0.6 SOL.
Solflare – SolScout
Solflare is hosting a competition for users of their wallet (or their Metamask Snap), dubbed SolScout. The goal is to get people to get acquainted with a whole slew of Solana projects, including Star Atlas.
Every project has implemented some special treat for those partaking in this event. Often, you are required to buy something from the project, for which the project will give you additional rewards.
This is also the case for Star Atlas.
Mission: If you buy CORE episode #8 on the Galactic Marketplace, you will receive a free Golden Ticket. This mission will go live in 4 days.
It’s unclear why this mentions issue #8, as issue #9 has recently gone on sale. Perhaps this will be updated before it goes live; otherwise, you will have to use the secondary market to get this issue.
To be able to participate, you will need to:
- Have a Solflare wallet set up, and
- either
- buy a 0.15 SOL spacesuit NFT, or
- use the Solflare Metamask Snap to bridge an asset over to Solana
Good to know: by participating, you are also eligible for one of the grand prizes: $100,000 in rewards or 1 of 50 Solana Sagas!
Photography Contest – Theme 3 Winner
The Star Atlas Photography Career Contest has culminated in another winning contribution (see picture above)! The theme for this 3rd competition was Friends & Crew, and this picture seems fitting to underscore the importance of having those around when you venture into deep space!
In the original announcement, the team announced a competition spanning three smaller contests, each focusing on a distinct theme. This suggests that the competition has now come to an end. However, Dominic (Community Manager) announced that the next theme would be announced after a small break. It looks like this contest will remain around for quite a while longer!
GAM3 Awards
The Game3 awards are kicking off again, and you can nominate games and content creators. Of course, Star Atlas has been nominated, so go ahead and add your vote to it if you feel the project deserves a spot in the finals.
Wrap Up
There are no sneak peeks this week, but with the Breakpoint presentation this week, there should be plenty to show you next time!
Thanks for reading!
