Weekly Star Atlas Newsletter #66

Welcome to our 66th 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.

In a week with no Town hall and no Atlas Star newsletter, things were relatively quiet on the Star Atlas front. On top of that, the tragic disaster in South East Turkey & Northern Syria easily overshadowed the few news tidbits that did come out. We’ll also address that in this newsletter, but let’s kick things off with the newsworthy bits from last week!

The Making Of Star Atlas

During a recent interview, Michael (CEO) casually mentioned that they are working on producing some sort of “The Making Of”-show for later this year. This will enable the community to be [even more] involved in the development process and see behind the scenes.

Sometimes that process can be pretty messy. Michael referenced the Light & Magic docu-series on Disney+ about Industrial Light & Magic. In that show, they go back in time, look at behind-the-scenes footage during the early days, and interview (former) employees about that time when they all came together and worked on classics such as Star Wars. This series is known to be “suggested watching” material for any new ATMTA employee.

And now it looks like we might also be getting something similar about ATMTA and Star Atlas!

Airdrop Claims 

Last week we wrote that the team expected to make the “airdrops” available for claiming this past Friday. It turned out they needed a few more days, as they moved that date over the weekend to today (Monday)!

If you bought anything during the Start Sequence that would come with a promised airdrop, you can claim that reward (later) today. Note that the airdrop will not actually be air-dropped! Instead, you will be able to claim these goods in your inventory!

Not every reward is claimable at this time: The CSS location whitelist and commercial land whitelist won’t be available for claiming.

The team published a lengthy article to kick off these claims, which is highly worth a read!

Showroom 2.1

Last week we reported on the many things you can expect when the next Showroom patch (R2.1) is published (targeted for Q2). Two of the highlights mentioned were:

• Ground Racing
• Jetpack Flight

Last Friday, Danny (CPO) shared an extensive work-in-progress video showing the current state of both of these features, including work done on several ships (including the upcoming Calico Scud) and weapons (for R3). The team later shared it on Twitter, and it is highly worth a view!

CORE 

Issue 4 of the CORE Graphic Novel was released last Wednesday! You can easily read it through Apple’s Books and the Star Atlas website.

As always, you can acquire a special, collectible (paid SFT) version on MagicEden for 0.87 SOL (the 20-dollar equivalent at the start of the sale) and an alternate version for 20 USDC on the Galactic Marketplace. Core #4 will remain on sale (from the team) for the next nine days!

Rectification: Claim Stakes in Faction Fleet

During the last Townhall, Michael mentioned that a Mining Drill & Power Plant are required to be enlisted alongside each Claim Stake in Faction Fleet in order to receive the R4 rewards (we wrote about this last week as well).

However, last week Michael came back on this, sharing that he had misunderstood. You will NOT need to enlist a Mining Drill & Power Plant alongside a Claim Stake. Just the Claim Stake itself will be enough.

It’s important to realize the above is only relevant to using Claim Stakes within Faction Fleet (aka SCORE). This functionality should come online in (early) March.

For SAGE gameplay, which will come much later, you will need a Mining Drill and Power Plant to produce any resources.

Turkey/Syria – Earthquake Aftermath

It won’t have escaped your notice that Turkey & Syria have been struck by a major catastrophe in the form of a 7.8 magnitude Earthquake (followed by several dozen aftershocks). The number of deaths is staggering (31k+ at the moment of writing), and many more have been injured or become homeless.

Our hearts go out to any and all of those who this, one way or another, has impacted. The loss of so many lives and loved ones boggles the mind and can only be met with deep sadness and condolences. We stand in solidarity with all those who are struggling in the aftermath of this disaster.

There is a great need for various emergency aid and relief supplies, but a monetary donation is most helpful right now. Every little bit helps; it is only through the collective effort of many that enough aid and comfort can be provided to those in need.

The leader of COEXIST, a Turkish Star Atlas guild, has created a Twitter thread with some additional background info and options to help:

Besides the initiatives mentioned by Lumina above, here are some more ways in which you can help:

• Donate via UNICEF
• Donate via the Türkiye Relief DAO (Solana enabled)

News Tidbits

To wrap up this newsletter, here is a last surprise update on the Mobile Companion app that is coming this year:

According to Michael, this app is targeted for a Q2 release. It looks like we won’t have to wait very long then to learn more about this!