Welcome to our 92nd 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.
Last week was very much a copy of the week before. The week was relatively low on news, and then the Atlas Brew happened. This time the topic was the Economy in SAGE Labs, for which they brought on a special guest: Chris, the Head of Game Economy. He shared a good deal of new information on SAGE Labs! Also in attendance was Michael (CEO), who piled some more alpha on top, making the last week a treasure trove of new information!
Though, in all honesty, there were a few other interesting bits shared last week, including an update on CORE (collectible) hardcovers and an update of the Ship Configurations!
Let’s dive in!
![SAGE Labs [WIP]](https://aephia.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Labs-1024x681.jpg)
SAGE Labs
With all the news we’ve gathered these past few weeks, it was high time to publish a comprehensive guide on this game that will be out soon. In it, we compiled all the information that has been shared by the latest brew (which is worth a listen), previous updates, and of course, the information we already learned previously about REC/Starbased.
Please check it out: SAGE Labs – A Guide
Wen?
Last Friday, the team has frozen its codebase, which means that no more features/improvements will be implemented. The only changes allowed from now on to the Labs codebase are bug fixes. This week the team will spend time testing the current build, and depending on their feedback, Labs could see the light of day soon after! Note, however, that the testing will be extensive, so this may take a bit.
No official date has been announced by the team yet.
Ship Specs V2
A few weeks ago, the team published the result of a major pass over the specifications of all the available ships. This resulted in some pushback from the community regarding some of the changes made, some of which turned out to be simple mistakes made in translating the numbers to the website.
Last week the team published all of their corrections. They corrected the aforementioned copy/paste mistakes, reviewed all the user feedback, and made changes across the board. This included another pass of the Make & Spec tables, which can be found in the Lore Wiki.
Chip (Lead Game Designer) mentioned that there are a few outstanding issues for which they are in the process of finding solutions. In other words: More updates will be forthcoming!
The team actually published a “changelog” for this update, which we included below:
- Implemented various fixes to ensure consistent adherence to V2 rule sets outlined in the Star Atlas Lore Wiki
- Adjusted Crew, Components, and Mods across all ships to ensure consistent ordering
- Updated ship dimensions to match the latest work done in Unreal Engine 5
- Gave the Pearce F4 and Pearce X4 a Cargo module to be more consistent with their description. Implemented other minor module tweaks
- Adjusted Calico Guardian, VZUS Ballad, Pearce T1, and the Fimbul BYOS Tankship weapons. Adjusted some slower ships to be given turrets in lieu of fixed weapons
- Adjusted Bombers to be more consistent in their bomb bay packages, but have reduced fixed weapons
- Added Utility Rigs to several ships that were missing them
- Added Janitors and other crew members that were missing from several ships
- Made minor adjustments to the Opal Jet, Opal Jetjet, Fimbul Mamba, and Pearce X5 descriptions
- Adjusted Drone ports across all ships to be correct total class and quantity
- Added stealth to the MFG bonus table for VZUS
- Adjusted the VZUS opod and VZUS ambwe to no longer sport undersized heat sinks
StarPath v2
We got some new details on the upcoming overhaul of the referral system, and it looks like the numbers have been finalized! However, please note that anything you read below is not final until it’s live!
You will be able to create a referral link on the play.staratlas.com Portal and send that to any of your friends, via any means, in a fashion similar to the current referral system. Contrary to the old system, all connections are stored on-chain, meaning these can be verified by both users concerned (and any other interested parties).
Referring Old Friends
It’s good to know that the new program has no connection to the old one, and is not aware of any previous connections made through V1. It also won’t distinguish between people who already made purchases in the past and those that never made any purchases on the Galactic Marketplace. This means you can refer friends that are already active in Star Atlas and who already made purchases, unlike with the previous version.
How the Connection is Made
When someone clicks your referral link, that browser will store this info in its memory forever. If the user clicks other referral links later in that same browser, these will be ignored. If, at some later point, the user buys something on the Galactic Marketplace (from the team, or someone else) in that same browser, the referral connection is made on-chain, and the link between these two accounts can no longer be broken.
However, if the user had not made any purchase yet, and later clicks a different referral link in a different browser (for example: on a different device, such as mobile) and then proceeds to buy an asset in that browser, the link is made on-chain with the wallet from the second referral link.
As not everyone may buy something on the Galactic Marketplace immediately after following your referral link, it may be good to instruct them to make their purchase (at a later moment in time) in the same browser they were using when they clicked your link.
The Benefits
There are two sets of benefits, one set for the referrer and another for the person being referred, which we call the referee. The benefits apply whenever the referee buys items on the Galactic Marketplace. Dependent on if they buy items from the team (primary sales), or from other users (secondary sales), the benefits differ.
In general: The first time the referee buys an item on the marketplace, the referral connection is established on-chain. Additionally, a clock starts ticking that influences the exact benefits (and when they come to an end).
Primary Market Sales
- For the first 90 days, the referee gets a 10% discount on anything they buy from the team
- For the first year, their referrer gets 25% of the net amount spent. For example, the referee buys an item worth 10k USDC in their first 90 days – when their 10% discount is still active. This means they are paying 9k USDC effectively (net). The referrer will get 25% of the 9k, so 2250 USDC.
- After one year has passed, the 25% going to the referrer is lowered to 5% (for that referred person) into perpetuity.
Secondary Market Sales
Money from assets sold on the secondary market sales, of course, flow to their seller. However, a small fee is being levied on such sales, of which 1/3 goes to the Star Atlas DAO and 2/3 flows to the team. The exact fee depends on the ATLAS Locker level reached by the Seller, but it starts at 6% (the maximum).
- For the first year, the referrer gets 25% of ATMTA’s share of their part of the fee. So, if the fee is at its default (max) value, this means a 4% fee (2/3 of 6%) is normally transferred to the team. Now only 3% will go to the team, and 1% goes to the referrer (25% of 4% = 1%)
- After one year has passed, the 25% cut of the fee going to the referrer is lowered to 5% (for that referred person) into perpetuity.
- There is no benefit for the referee when buying assets from other players.
The part of the fee that is earmarked for the DAO will not be changed.
The BuddyLink Cut
There is a very important caveat to add to the above section: As the team is using a 3rd party service, BuddyLink, to implement this referral system, this service will be taking a 10% cut of the revenue stream going to the referrer.
However, it’s good to know that the team made a deal with BuddyLink to forgo their 10% fee for the first 90 days!
If we take the primary market example given above again, assuming the sale took place after the first 90 days, this would mean that the referrer is not actually getting 2250 USDC, but 225 USDC (10%) less, meaning only 2025 USDC is finding its way to the referrer’s wallet.
Golden Tickets
Another reward for the referrer will come in the form of Golden Tickets. For every 500 dollars (including ATLAS equivalent) a referee spends on the Galactic Marketplace, their referrer will receive one Golden Ticket. No distinction is made between primary and secondary sales.
CORE
When the CORE Graphic Novel was introduced, the team announced that in the future, at some point after its conclusion, collectors of all 18 on-chain issues would be able to redeem these in exchange for a limited edition hard-cover variant.
The past week the team came with an update, announcing that you would not just get the hardcover with all issues, but two more books! There will be a book focused on all the covers created (each issue has 3 covers) and another one that will focus on the art of the series.
This means the team has improved the deal greatly! And that is not all.
Act 1-3 Collectible Hardcovers
Instead of the book set above, each full Act set (6 SFTs) can be redeemed for a hardcover book of just that act with a limited edition cover. Not only does this provide a path to an alternate set of 3 books (if you redeem 6 covers for each individual Act), but it also allows people that got involved at a later date, and for whom the price on the secondary market is too steep, to still get in and collect at least Act 2 and/or 3 in a hardcover format.
Retail Availability
More importantly, however, these same individual Act hardcover books will also be made available for sale in an “unlimited” supply, for retail shops (with a different cover image)! That means that people getting into Star Atlas after the CORE series has concluded will still be able to acquire the hardcover books, without breaking the bank.
Auto-confirming Transactions
As many will know, the Solflare wallet has become a popular choice for Star Atlas fans during the Escape Velocity test. This is because they offered a way to create a burner wallet for which you could enable auto-approval of transactions.
This meant that you could move ships around in Escape Velocity without having to approve every transaction.
This past week, Phantom announced that they have enabled auto-approve, dubbed “Auto-Confirm,” for a select number of trusted projects, and Star Atlas is among these!
Solfare announced a similar feature on the exact same day! They, too, have selected a handful of services for which people can not enable auto-approve, without the need for a burner wallet. And Star Atlas is among these here as well!
This means that when SAGE Labs comes out, even though the Player Profile (aka Star Atlas Account) system is not fully available yet, users of Phantom and Solflare will be able to auto-approve every move they make!
