Welcome to our 95th 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.
We’ve seen the flow of news slowly dry up these past two weeks, while anticipation for the release of SAGE Labs continues building. This past week, the main spotlight undoubtedly shone on the SAGE Labs ship specs that were shared by Chip (Director of Game Systems Design). Besides that, surprising news came in the form of Dan Park announcing his departure from ATMTA. Lastly, it looks like StarPath V2 could be right around the corner!
Let’s dive in!
SAGE Labs
A little over two weeks ago, Michael (CEO) shared that the team was targeting the last week of August, or the first of September, to launch SAGE Labs. This suggests that we should see Labs go live this week. However, since that announcement, we haven’t received any further information that would indicate a launch is near. Of course, these are target dates, and, as such, have a tendency to slip. It would be unsurprising if this week does not see the launch of SAGE Labs. This is reinforced by the pre-announcement of an announcement regarding StarPath V2 coming this week (see next section), due to the lack of any mention of SAGE Labs. In the end, however, we’ll have to wait and see!
Ship Stats
In a surprise move, Chip released the SAGE Labs ship metrics for each spaceship that currently exists. He bundled these numbers in one big spreadsheet that he publicly shared on Discord and Twitter.
If you are not afraid of raw numbers, it’s definitely worth looking into this sheet directly. For each ship, it lists metrics such as the mining rate, food/ammo consumption while mining, warp distance & speed, and plenty more.
Community Tools
To make it easier to deal with these numbers, we also enriched our NANCY tool with this data set. This allows you to compose fleets of various ships and see immediately how good they will be at the various tasks available in SAGE Labs.
Furthermore, we also made a number of new additions using these specs, combined with on-chain pricing data, to our analytics dashboard. You can view the new charts and insights by clicking on the SAGE Labs tab.
The cost (ammo + food) of mining is low compared to the value of the output, even with less optimal mining ships. On the other hand, in the freighting business, you absolutely want to optimize for efficiency. Here, picking the wrong ship could result in the cost (fuel) to eclipse the value of the transported goods. – Aephia Data Runners
Crafting
Last week, right after the brew, the team shared the correct crafting schema (or paths) for SAGE Labs. This graphic gives a clear overview of the paths available to turn raw resources (aka R9) into other items, including R4. It also shows how the resulting items can themselves serve as input material again for more complicated crafting formulas.
StarPath V2
The team is about to launch their new referral system, dubbed StarPath v2 (SPv2), very soon! If you are not fully up to speed on this completely overhauled referral system, check the extensive write-up in our 92nd newsletter.
Originally, the team was thinking of launching SPv2 around the same time as SAGE Labs, but this may have changed. Last week, during the Atlas Brew, Michael chimed in at the end to let us know that a major announcement regarding the launch of SPv2 would be coming this week.
Guild Support
Guilds are not yet officially supported by Star Atlas, and it unfortunately looks like SPv2 is not going to support guild referral systems directly either. However, having talked to the folks from BuddyLink, the on-chain referral platform the team is using to re-implement their own system, it looks like it will be possible to change the referrer’s Solana account in the future. This means that guilds can create a referral link for their guild using a less secure solution, and transfer that to a multi-sig solution at a later time when this feature is implemented.
Of course, it’s best to secure such a referral link with a multi-sig solution from the get-go, and perhaps Squad’s custom transaction builder could provide a solution there. If not, it is good to know you won’t be doomed forever if you use a cold wallet (or a hot one, if you really have to) instead.
![Star Atlas - Ogrika Niruch [In-Engine]](https://aephia.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/star-atlas-ogrika-niruch-veh-3-1024x428.jpg)
Dan Park Leaves ATMTA
Last week, by means of an announcement on LinkedIn, Dan Park (General Counsel) shared that he left ATMTA in favor of joining Paxful in the position of General Council. We copy/pasted his message for you to read below:
After people started thanking Dan for his work on Discord, he shared the following in the Foundation Room on Discord as a follow-up:
Hey there–appreciate the kind words! I’ve had an absolute blast and have loved every moment working both behind the scenes and also when interfacing directly with so many of you. Sorry I didn’t say much before I left, but I didn’t think my leaving would merit much attention anyway…
Dan Park (Former General Council ATMTA)
Everything is in good hands. Michael and the team are able to track what I was working on and they have access to plenty of internal and external resources, including best-in-class outside counsel who are ready to jump in if something complex arises. As for the Foundation, it’s also in good hands with an excellent independent director staying on to carry out its mission (he’s also a lawyer)–and frankly it has been and will be fairly quiet there anyway, until the DAO starts to pick up steam (soon TM).
And as for myself, I am only leaving because something came up that lined up very closely with my skill set, including my specialization before I came to Star Atlas. Unfortunately, it wasn’t flexible in terms of timing, so I felt I had to just take the plunge—it all happened quite abruptly although I was and am conflicted about leaving. Michael knows it was a tough decision for me. ATMTA is an amazing place to work, this community is the best in web3 gaming, I love true on-chain development, and I just can’t wait to see how things pick up as the in-game economy really starts to take off with the launch of Labs. So anyway, I’m still here and plan on sticking around, only as a fan instead of a contributor.
Sneak Peeks
To wrap this week’s newsletter up, here are the images and work-in-progress shots shared by the team last week:
