Welcome to our 93rd 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.
Once again, the Atlas Brew from last week did not disappoint! Chris (Head of Game Economy) and Michael (CEO) were back for round two on SAGE Labs, while Chip (Director of Game Systems Design) was in the chat answering questions as well.
We did not just get more details (which we promptly added to our guide); we also got some screenshots this time around! On top of that, we got a sneak peek video of the Starbased UI, MoonPay integration, a DRiP-ing collaboration, and the first winner of the Photography Career Competition!
Finally, Michael also shared the target release window for SAGE Labs.
Let’s dive in!
SAGE Labs
If you are new to SAGE Labs, we warmly recommend you explore our extensive guide. It was updated with the latest information from last week. If you are up to date and care only for the new info: the primary takeaways from last week can be found below!
During the past Atlas Brew, the team also shared a new Medium article, announcing the upcoming launch of SAGE Labs and the related $1.5 million promotion.
Asteroids & Empty Sectors
Asteroid belts can only be found inside Star Systems in Labs. No asteroids can be found elsewhere on the map. Given that there are 51 star systems in the Safe & Medium Risk Zone, there will be 51 asteroids available for mining.
So, what is there to do in the 10150 empty sectors on the map? You can certainly navigate to these empty spaces (without star systems), but the only thing to do there is scan for SDUs!
Control
In SAGE Labs, besides their own Safe/Security Zone, each faction will control 1/3 of the Medium Risk Zone as well. This means that in addition to the 5 star systems of their home, an additional 12 star systems are accessible in SAGE Labs, for a total of 17 star systems. Of these, 16 contain a Tier 4 Starbase that you can use to store goods and craft resources. The last one contains the Central Space Station of your faction, which will offer the same utility as a Starbase, but also functions as your entry and exit point in and out of SAGE.
This divvying up the MRZ may come as a surprise, but from a gameplay point of view, it does make things a lot easier for the players in SAGE Labs. In the absence of combat and opposition, the alternative would have been that there would be no Starbases in the MRZ. This would lead to players having to travel a lot more, burning more fuel, in order to process their mined resources. It would, without doubt, lead to more people running out of fuel as well.
Simultaneously, when these Starbases are “taken away” from us when Combat arrives, we will all have learned the benefit a Tier 4 Starbase brings along with it, further incentivizing us to go forth and destroy/build them!
Fleet Size Limit
Though players are able to assemble as many fleets as they have ships, the maximum size of a fleet is limited in SAGE. For Labs, the limit has been set at 145 points. This means that a fleet can not consist of ships whose total point value exceeds 145. For SAGE, this limit was originally set to 100, but as hangars do not yet play a role, the team decided to up the limit to 145 for Labs.
Below is a table that lists the individual points each ship size class represents.
| Size Class # | Size Class Name | Points |
| 1 | XX-Small | 1 |
| 2 | X-Small | 4 |
| 3 | Small | 9 |
| 4 | Medium | 16 |
| 5 | Large | 25 |
| 6 | Capital | 36 |
| 7 | Commander | 49 |
| 8 | — | 64 |
| 9 | Titan | 81 |
Wen?
Michael seemed to suggest the team did not want to release Labs without first applying some extensive User Interface polish. He announced the game would be delayed by 3 weeks, with the goal now being to release SAGE Labs the last week of August, or the first week of September.
User Interface Designs
During that same Brew, the team shared a side-by-side comparison of the SAGE Labs interface from 4 weeks ago, and the Labs interface as it is today. Below we put those side-by-side once more, for everyone who missed the Brew or would like to have another look.
The Dashboard:
The Central Space Station (Starbase) Interface:
Mining User Interface:
Placeholder Website
When Labs goes live, it won’t be available through the sage.staratlas.com subdomain. Instead, the team launched a new subdomain just for Labs, labs.staratlas.com. At this point in time, it simply shows a “Coming soon” message.
Lore
José (Star Atlas official Penguin) has been writing lore for each of the 51 star systems, and the team hopes to integrate this into Labs before it goes live. Regardless, José (aka ZeSKK) has started publishing a few of these on Discord these past few days. Below you can find two examples, both from ex-colonies of the MUD faction.
Mycenas – V
During the tumultuous Convergence War era, Mycenas – V stood as a beacon of prosperity within the MUD territory, primarily due to its burgeoning community of scientists and a plethora of research institutions funded by the central MUD authority. However, as the war led to the MUD faction’s galactic empire collapse, Mycenas-V was left isolated, devoid of its earlier support and the consistent inflow of resources.
This sudden vacuum threw the sector into chaos: Pirate onslaughts, widespread famines, relentless raids by alien slavers, and numerous other calamities ensued for close to eight decades. It was only with the emergence of a formidable leader, Virel the Serene, that a semblance of order began to return.
Uniting inhabitants across the planets within the sector, Virel tapped into Mycenas-V’s rich academic heritage. The result was an imposing defensive barrier enveloping a significant portion of the Mycenas territory, isolating it from the greater galaxy. The sole exception being a strategically positioned starbase, which serves as a hub for select external interactions.
The people of Mycenas still remember the ordeal that the rest of their brethren made them go through, and MUD fleets that venture through the system will be met with outright hostility from the citizens of the sector.
Mycenas – V (by ZeSKK)
Abyd – IX
The last expansion of the MUD empire’s expansion toward Iris on the medium zone, Abyd – IX remains a testament to hurried colonization. Its lack of comprehensive infrastructure and underdevelopment became painfully evident in the war’s aftermath.
Severed from the support of the MUD regime, the sector was swiftly consumed by an ongoing civil strife. Various factions from both the Medium Zone and the MUD safe zone have perpetuated this conflict, each backing different planetary powers in a bid to secure Abyd’s vast resources.
The Council of Peace has repeatedly attempted to broker peace within the sector, but their efforts are continually hampered by the volatile political landscape, further complicated by tensions involving the Jorvik and the ECOS factions.
Amidst this geopolitical quagmire, the true cost is borne by the civilians of Abyd, with countless lives being extinguished amidst the relentless turmoil.
Abyd – IX (by ZeSKK)
Photography Career Competition
The past week saw the first official winner of the photography career competition! The theme was “ships,” and after all the votes were counted, the submission from [-U-] Ryecoe was the clear winner!
The team will now mint the photo and help the winner sell his work on the Galactic Marketplace (if they so desire)!
Round 2
Round 2 has now begun, and the new theme is Environment. Everyone has 4 weeks (until September 21, 2023) to capture pictures focused on this topic, with one winner being picked weekly. In the fifth week, the 4 week-winners will be put against each other, and a week of voting beings.
For both phases, the community’s vote counts for 50%, with the other 50% coming from a panel selected by the team.
Star Atlas x DRiP
The team has initiated a collab with DRiP, one of the most popular Solana projects at this moment, to hand out Star Atlas-inspired NFTs.
DRiP is a platform that works together with a great number of artists. People that registered with DRiP can subscribe to these artists who create unique works that they send out on a (usually) weekly basis to their subscribers. These works of art are NFTs that solely have a value as a collectible, but can also be burned to receive a tiny fraction of SOL. Registration to the platform and subscribing to artists is free of charge, which explains, together with more artists jumping on board, the steady rise to fame of this platform.
For their first DRiP, the team is partnering with the famous NFT designer, Degen Poet. The airdrop will take place today (August 21st)! In case there is still time left by the time you are reading this, be sure to register your account ASAP if you’d like to receive this collectible.
Note: If you want to register, do use the link that the team provided. Doing it manually could take up to 24 hours, as they are working with a waiting list.
MoonPay Fiat On-ramp Goes Live
In June of last year, Star Atlas announced its partnership with MoonPay. Their goal: provide an on-ramp for fiat directly in their products.
Now, over a year later, the team followed up on this and completed the integration. It is now possible to create and fund a wallet using your fiat (dollars, euros, etc) and purchase assets on the Galactic Marketplace directly after.
Note: On-ramp services tend to be more expensive than if you would use a CEX to convert and move your fiat. However, such is the price to pay for ease of use, improved speed, and direct integration into Star Atlas!
Sneak Peeks
This section has seen a small hiatus, but the team finally shared some cool eye candy with us again last week, including two videos! Check it out!
