Star Atlas Weekly Newsletter #198

Welcome to the Star Atlas weekly recap from the Intergalactic Herald. Below is what happened with Star Atlas this past week. The video and article summaries below are AI generated so they may not be 100% accurate.

Star Atlas: Year in Review-Part2 from Intergalactic Herald

The podcast, episode 150 of the Star Atlas weekend review by Matt of the Intergalactic Herald, serves as Part 2 of the 2025 year-end review for Star Atlas, covering the second half of the year. Listeners can find guides, directories, recaps, and Discord news on the Intergalactic Herald website, along with a merch store called Intergalactic Gear, and information about a community for Star Atlas gamers who are not joining guilds at intergalacticcoalition.com.

The second half of 2025 began slowly in July, with only the end of a Hall Sim test noted, as the team was preparing for the rebranded community event, Star Atlas Summer. This event kicked off in August and included traditionally held activities like the Copa (guild presentation), a Town Hall featuring a UE5 update, and the Joanie community awards. Mid-August saw the next major Star Atlas Summer event: the release of the new Hollow Sim season, dubbed Chapter 1, following a previous test. During this time, the team also announced Zinc, a new blockchain solution partly in response to transaction issues, designed to control the blockchain, lower fees significantly, and serve as another business and product. The summer events also included the launch of a new website landing page.

Late August brought the announcement of Starframe, described as a Solana framework development initiative, and changes to the Sage game, including the addition of a Phantom Starbase which allowed people to keep playing even though existing star bases had been leveled up. A Sage editor suite, a development tool primarily for C4, was also shown off. Following the productive Star Atlas Summer, September was quiet, though late in the month saw the first mention of Project D Galia, a single-player exploration campaign for the UE5 version. Unfortunately, the launch of Hollow Sim Chapter 1 experienced significant infrastructure problems that required patching in late September.

In early October, the team began bringing on Zinc testers, indicating they were working toward a year-end release for the product. A new community campaign called Iris Blessing was announced mid-October, offering weekends with double XP and a Discord bot for community raffles. An update also introduced “Ink,” a resource exclusively found by playing in UE5 that could be sold to players needing it in Sage. Later in October, Jacob, the CTO and a co-founder, provided technology updates during an Atlas Brew session. Early November included roadmap updates, which clarified the order of coming features, and the first alpha launch of the Zinc dashboard, a six-week test allowing interaction with how experience would be gained in Zinc via connecting to a Zprofile. Mid-November provided another update on the D Galia single-player experience.

As the year closed, December saw the announcement of Open Market Operations during the economic forum, introducing changes to the Star Atlas economy where the team would engage in buying and selling ships. Mid-December marked the official launch of Zinc (Origin), where points began counting. The final town hall of the year featured the announcement of a partnership with Tether. The D Galia single-player experience was released in the final UE5 update before the team’s break.

Reflecting on the year, Star Atlas Summer was considered the clear highlight of the second half of 2025 due to numerous announcements and product updates. The UE5 platform maintained a strong cadence, providing updates that included features like tournament enablement and integration with the Ink resource. However, Sage largely stagnated, although minor tweaks like the Phantom Starbases were implemented, as development effort was focused on C4. C4 did not launch in 2025, having missed an original summer target. The podcast noted that C4 and Zinc are now intrinsically linked, making Zinc’s release a prerequisite for C4 due to high Solana fees and transaction requirements. The newly introduced Open Market Operations are viewed as a key step for the team to find a funding source, possibly shifting away from selling tokens as their primary revenue. Looking ahead to 2026, the arrival of Zinc and C4 tests are highly anticipated, alongside the release of Hollow Sim Chapter 2, which is slated for January.

172 7/6/2025
173 7/13/2025 end of Holosim test
174 7/20/2025
175 7/27/2025
176 8/3/2025 Star Atlas Summer – COPA, townhall (UE5 update), Joni awards
177 8/10/2025
178 8/17/2025 Star Atlas Summer – Holosim new season, Z.ink announcement, new website landing pages
179 8/24/2025 Holosim launched
180 8/31/2025 Star Atlas Summer – Starframe, SAGE phantom starbase, UE5, SAGE editor
181 9/7/2025
182 9/14/2025
183 9/21/2025 Project Galia single player campaign
184 9/28/2025 SAGE patch, Holosim infrastructure improvements
185 10/5/2025 Zink testers
186 10/12/2025 Iris Blessing – double XP UE5 weekends and Discord bot
187 10/19/2025
188 10/26/2025 updates from Jacob (CTO)
189 11/2/2025 roadmap updates; trip to Switzerland
190 11/9/2025 Zink Alpha dashboard launch
191 11/16/2025 update on Galia single-player experience
192 11/23/2025 product stack infographic
193 11/28/2025
194 12/5/2025 Open Market Operations
195 12/12/2025 Zink launch
196 12/19/2025 Townhall – Tether, Holosim Chapter 2, Economy-OMO, C4, UE5, Galia

Latest podcast

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  Podcast 151: Star Atlas Weekly Review
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  Star Atlas Event Recap 57: LIVE-Atlas Brew #187
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