Welcome to our 170th newsletter on Star Atlas! This weekly newsletter, published by Aephia Industries, focuses entirely on the development of this ambitious game. Here, we try to aggregate all the newsworthy tidbits revealed [mainly by the team] throughout the past week.
Last week was packed with exciting developments! Fleet Rentals officially launched, marking a major milestone for the ecosystem. The Econ Team hosted another insightful Forum, a second community-created PIP was approved, and the long-awaited SDU Install Timer adjustment finally went live.
We’re also sharing the latest on PIP-10 and what’s ahead for the Council elections, which are set to kick off once (and if) the proposal is approved.
Let’s dive in!
![Star Atlas - Fleet Rentals - Fleets Available to Borrow [tab]](https://assets.aephia.com/wp-assets/c8447f6db3b4b3b872f8e7d4248e1690880e2f4c3956637772a14efeb7acbfd6.png)
Star Atlas – Fleet Rentals – Fleets Available to Borrow [tab]
Fleet Rentals are a Go!
This past Wednesday, during the Atlas Brew, the team brought the Fleet rental feature online. And it has to be said, this has been one of the smoothest feature launches so far, and it was perfectly timed on top!
We’ve shared a lot of details in our previous two issues:
In addition, the team created two helpful mini-tutorial videos that show how to put a fleet up for rental and how to rent a fleet from someone else:
Community tools updated
A lot of players are using (or even depending on) 3rd party, community-created tools to help them play the game. These tools wasted no time in adding Fleet Rental support! The following tools have been updated:
- SLYA Tool—Usable with Fleet Rentals as long as you uncheck the SAVE PROFILE option and refresh. You will then be able to re-check the SAVE PROFILE option. You are required to do this every time the status of a borrowed fleet changes (i.e., your rental ends or a new rental begins). If you are renting out a fleet, it will still show up in SLYA. You’ll need to leave the configuration for those fleets empty; otherwise, you’ll burn SOL trying to move a fleet controlled by someone else.
- Atom—Supports Fleet Rentals and posted this heads up for people who are using it: In these first days, make sure to track your rent expiration! If your fleet rental expires mid-route, you might end up wasting SOL on unfinished trips. Stay sharp and plan accordingly! We’ll work to improve the next few days.
- Eveeye—Supports Fleet Rentals and allows you to view rented fleets!
- Aephia Dashboard—Fleet Rental Analysis & Stats
SDU Install Time Change
It’s been a long time coming, but the team finally increased the SDU Install Time! This means that installing an SDU on a Starbase no longer takes 1 second per SDU but.. a whopping 220 seconds per SDU!
This change has received some scrutiny in the community, as an increase was welcomed, but this big increase feels to some as overdoing it. Chris has more or less acknowledged that they perhaps have been a bit aggressive, but they are still looking into it at this stage. In short, no further changes are planned for now.
Star Atlas DAO
DAO News
Last week, the Star Atlas DAO approved its second-ever community proposal—PIP-9: Adjust STV Backup Vote Handling to Prevent Unintended Vote Redistribution—with an overwhelming 99.29% approval!
This update ensures that Voting Power (PVP), lacking backup options, will no longer be redistributed to other voters. Instead, it will be removed from the system, improving the STV algorithm used. The team will ensure this change is live before the next Council Elections begin.
Speaking of Council Elections, PIP-10: Star Atlas Council: Second Term & Beyond is still open for voting! It will close at the end of the day (UTC) on March 13th. It currently sits at an astounding 100% approval rate, with 100 million PVP already having voted.
If this PIP passes, the second-ever Council Election cycle will officially kick off!
Council Elections – Term 2
The current Council is the first group of 5 community members ever to hold the role of DAO Council Member. Their first term officially started on October 11th, 2024 (16:00 UTC), which means that it ends on April 11th, 2025 (16:00 UTC), exactly 6 months later.
This means that a new Council should be elected within the next 30 days to prevent an interruption.
If PIP-10 passes, this should work! The schedule tentatively looks like this (UTC times):
- March 14 (Start of the day) – March 20th (End of day): Nominations open — A form will be posted that community members can use to nominate themselves.
- March 24 (Start of the day) – April 6 (End of day): Election PIP opens for voting
- April 7: The Council composition for Term 2 will be announced publicly.
- April 11, 16:00 UTC: The new Council will commence the second Term, lasting 9 months
Economic Forum #10
During the 10th Economic Forum, the econ team shared updates on their Dashboard, the SDU Install Timer change, the ATLAS Locker Addendum, and the Free to Play version of SAGE. It was an interesting discussion, and if you care about any of these topics (you should), make sure to check out the recording.
Star Atlas – Economic Forum #10 – Fleet Rental metrics over the first (almost) 24 hours
SAGE: Free to Play
The team has been working diligently on the Free to Play version of SAGE, and it looks like it’s getting ready for prime time! During the Forum, Chris (VP of Game Economy) mentioned the following tidbits:
- When you log on to the game, a bunch of transactions are kicked off to set up the whole game for you (including getting a fleet). All that is needed from the player is their name and preferred Faction.
- There is a quest system live that will guide players through all the different gameplay aspects of SAGE, plus base mechanics such as fleet creation and docking.
- You will be able to craft ships and expand your fleet that way.
- The map will reset every so often. This could be monthly, quarterly, or something else (TBD)
- There is an incentive to play: There are leaderboards and prizes for the top-performing players.
- To prevent botting, Chris wrote an algorithm that detects them so they can ban those players.
- Rentals won’t be available in this version, and the team is still deciding whether to include the LP system (including upkeep), which is currently not in the game.
News Bits
The team, specifically Dominic (Sr. Community Manager), released another tutorial video this past week focused on mining in SAGE. If you are new to SAGE, this is well worth watching!
Lastly, likely meant to synergize with the above video, the team shared the below infographic on mining on their X account:
Star Atlas – Mining Career Infographic [source: X]
You’ve reached the end of this week’s issue! Thanks for reading!