Weekly Star Atlas Newsletter #245

Welcome to our 245th 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 brought the clearest picture yet of how the final SAGE C4 PTR phases should lead into mainnet. Phase 3 appears to be getting close, Phase 4 will serve as the final launch rehearsal, and we now have the first concrete ATLAS cost for Council Rank research. Beyond C4, the UE5 upgrade to Unreal Engine 5.8 is underway, and voting has opened for the fourth DAO Council term; however, with only three candidates for five seats, the outcome is already settled.

Let’s dive in!

SAGE C4

Michael (CEO) said during Atlas Brew #219 that the team hoped to release Phase 3 within roughly a week, though he stopped short of giving a firm date. The phase should run for another 30-day test window and use values much closer to the intended release candidate for resource distribution, richness and hardness, Council Rank progression, and XP rewards. Progression will remain accelerated so testers can still reach the highest Council Ranks within that month.

The Democracy Module has now moved into Phase 3 as well. It was originally expected during Phase 2, but never made it in. We reported last month that this module will bring regional governance, including local fees and treasury decisions, into C4. The single-player campaign is also still planned for Phase 3, though players will receive only a teaser of a partial campaign rather than the full experience. It looks like the team is still considering selling the single-player campaign separately.

Phase 4 then becomes a 30 to 45-day launch rehearsal for C4, the z.ink Genesis event, and the z.ink mainnet launch. Development on the C4 client should be effectively frozen during that period. The team plans to take a snapshot of each player’s Solana mainnet wallet and issue artificial copies of those assets on the z.ink testnet as their starter bundle. Actual bridging will not begin until SAGE launches on the z.ink mainnet.

Progress made during Phase 4 (the release candidate) will not carry over when the game next launches on mainnet. As has been promised since day 1, existing SAGE: Starbased license XP will provide a starting boost when C4 reaches mainnet, using a migration formula the team has determined in the meantime.

Michael also floated moving part of Starbased’s ATLAS emissions into the C4 PTR during this transition, but called that an internal idea rather than a decision. Once C4 launches on mainnet, the current Starbased front end and its economic incentives are intended to close, while its assets remain available for withdrawal and bridging to z.ink.

Council Rank costs and ATLAS Locker utility

We also got the first concrete price for Council Rank research. Each point is currently planned to cost 350 ATLAS on mainnet, and probably during Phase 3. Michael said there are 216 points in total, which comes to 75,600 ATLAS. He estimated roughly 86,000 ATLAS during the Brew, but that does not match the stated point count and price.

Players with a Tier 2 ATLAS Locker or higher are planned to receive all Council Rank research for free. Tier 2 currently requires 80,000 locked ATLAS. Locker benefits have been discussed since 2024, including discounts, preferred pricing, and a possible skill tree, but this is the first specific benefit tied directly to C4 progression. The model is not yet live and may still change during implementation.

Combat and safe zones

Several combat rules were also nearing the PTR last week. A destroyed fleet should retain its composition instead of being wiped completely, with ATLAS respawn fees and medallion drops designed around that recovery loop. EMP weapons are being changed as well: rather than acting like kinetic weapons against shields, they will drain attack power.

Phase 2’s safe-zone expansion can leave an opposing faction’s starbase or fleet stranded inside newly protected territory. A stranded starbase will remain attackable and can be flipped by the surrounding faction. A stranded fleet may move out of the safe zone, but cannot travel deeper into it or initiate attacks while enemy players can still attack it.

It looks like the team may go back to their initial idea of requiring 100% of starbases captured in phase 3, before a faction can claim full ownership of a region. Afterward, they will compare what worked best.

UE5

Jacob (CTO) has been working on upgrading the Unreal Engine game to UE 5.8, a process Michael said during the Brew was expected to wrap up later that week. As this update introduces MCP support to help the team build code and gameplay systems, the hope is that it will enable the team to use development agents to get more done in less time while continuing to use the game’s existing art and asset library.

As a result, some developers are expected to move to the UE5 game after C4, though Michael does not plan to move the entire team. The first target is to accelerate work on new gameplay and modes, such as Conquest, and bug fixing.

DAO Updates

The fourth Star Atlas DAO Council election was published last week. Voting opened yesterday, on Sunday, August 30th, and closes on Sunday, September 13th. This one is procedural: three candidates nominated themselves for five available seats, so all three will be elected.

Because only three candidates nominated themselves for five available seats, all three nominees will be elected to the Council. This ballot therefore serves as a procedural vote, formally recording participation and the election outcome within the DAO governance system.

PIP-35: Council Election #4

This proposal determines who will serve on the Star Atlas DAO Council for its fourth term (October 11, 2026 – July 11, 2027). As outlined in PIP-10, there will be one round of voting. Three candidates nominated themselves for five available seats. Because the number of candidates does not exceed the number of available seats, all three candidates will be elected and will officially begin serving on October 11, 2026.

Structure:

• Structure: Single Transferable Vote (STV)
• Voting Opened: Sunday, August 30th
• Voting Closes: Sunday, September 13th (end-of-day UTC)
• Available seats: Five
• Council term: October 11th, 2026 to July 11th, 2027

Current results (~half a day in, 747,323 PVP committed across four ballots):

1. Emperor — 644,154 first-choice PVP
2. Earther — 103,169 first-choice PVP
3. Jithblade — no first-choice PVP yet

A one-month transition period is planned before the fourth term begins, which will start when this vote ends.

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