Podcast 154: Star Atlas Weekly Review

Podcast Transcript

This is Matt with the Intergalactic Herald. Welcome to my Star OS Week in Review podcast. This is podcast number hundred and fifty four. Any articles or videos mentioned can be found on my website at intergalactic herald dot com. Just look for news weekly recap newsletter…two zero two.
hundred and two. Anyways, just quick summary of things that happened this past week in Star Atlas. some posts in the foundation room related to…
prioritization of different products. There was an Atlas Brew this past week where they talked about Holosim and c four. I’m recording this on Friday, so actually, I’m not breaking news, but normally I don’t talk about things that happened, in the short term. But, there was an announcement of some, layoffs of Star Atlas, so I’ll talk about that briefly. And then, there was a follow-up in the foundation room kind of talking about, funding and things like that.
So anyways, before I get to that, just mentioned, some of my projects within Star Atlas. First, of course, is my website intergalactic carol dot com. It’s great. Star Atlas resource website with guides, directories, recaps, and the…
Discord news feeds where if you had signed up to it, you would have actually already got an email about the announced layoffs. So plugging that tool if you wanna not have to check the Discord all the time but actually get emails sent to you. Also, I do have a Star Owls merch store at intergalactic gear dot com. Not a lot of selection, a little bit static on that, but if you’re interested in a Star Owls mug and you’re in the United States where I’m shipping, please check that out at intergalactic gear dot com. So let’s go ahead and get into the content and again I’m kind of doing this in the order that it occurred even though the bigger news is at the end but you know again just sort of how I go through things.
So earlier this week, Michael Wagner posted in the foundation room to someone’s question about the, Fleet Command. And for people who are not familiar with Fleet Command was gonna be or is gonna be a, part in the UE five version of the game where you kind of get the web version, the Sage interface for the supply chain. So you basically go in and out within one software, in this case,
Unreal Engine five. So the, answer though was it has been deprioritized but still in the roadmap. So that’s first I’ve heard of in a while kind of where fleet command is on the grand scheme of things there. So, next thing was the past Wednesday the Atlas brew occurred. It was kind of well, it was a mix between kinda thinking about the future and talking about that, but then interspersing with some, current things.
So, couple interest and even some history. One interesting note that was brought up was that Halosin was actually intended to be a tutorial for c four, but with some of the delays in getting c four out, it became, realization it could become its own product. So that’s sort of where it came out. So I thought that was kind of an interesting thing…
The other thing they were kinda talking about and, again, keeping in mind this is a Wednesday thing, when it occurred, not the Thursday or excuse me, Friday when the announcements of the layoffs. They noted that one thing they wanna change in kind of their development is, wanted to deploy faster, and using that kind of phrase within development, fail faster and fix it. I’m not sure if, again, this is kind of response to twenty twenty five that there really wasn’t any products. so, again but that was an interesting thing. they were also talking a little bit in the future.
They were, talking about the idea of having maybe your own AI agent bot who could kinda play, twenty four by seven on your behalf, which, again, kind of interesting to me. near the end, they did talk about one of the changes that did occur this past week, which was on
Sage moving or I guess many things moving away from the Starcom v two, which, again, I’m say these words, it’s a system, a server. I’m you know, again, I’m not up on the nuances of all this, but they moved from the Starcom server to, quote, Direct RPC connections. And, first time actually, was mentioned one of the reasons they decided to move to that, even though there’s been some issues with the other connection method, is this was the first time I actually heard the word cost mentioned. So apparently, Starcom v two cost is the largest expense on something. now again, this was spoken on Wednesday, then they had layoffs, which, of course, layoffs is one way to reduce costs.
So…
putting those two things together, coincidence, doesn’t seem like it, I think, again. if you have a very large…
technology you’re paying for and you could get rid of it, you get rid of it. So…and then the last thing, and I was almost totally over my head, but it was a concept of spatial querying. something like, there’s just so much data on the blockchain with playing a game that you can’t see everything. So maybe you’ll see things close to where you are, but not as further out. anyways, so just again, total mix of talking about future of the games, what the games are currently happening, concepts they might want to do.
So it was, eclectic? Is that the right word? I’m not sure. But Atlas proves all over the map. But again, definitely liking kind of this…new style, which even more so once we get to the layoffs.
hearing lots of things from, well, bluntly people that are in the trenches building this stuff, managing this stuff. So, anyways, yeah, it was pretty interesting. So I’ve been kind of,
alluding to it. So, at some point, I think, at least my time Friday afternoon, it was announced on the announcement channel that, there were some layoffs. Two people were definitely mentioned, which are, again, more of the community team, so, slash other roles, but definitely started with the community team. So that would have been, Jose, the, lore rider, and Dominic Vane, who was kinda community manager senior and then became marketing manager. So, unfortunately, those two people were laid off.
the message is kind of vague. If there were others, we’ll see if any yeah. That comes out in the foundation room post going forward. so unsure, but definitely in conjunction with the…departure of Santee, the, community well, I kinda forget everybody’s title. So…but, yeah.
So that was, yeah, that was definitely,
big news and things like that, and I’ll kinda talk more about what that news to me at least means. And then, I’ll kinda segue into the next section and then, related to some…funding and because, again, it was stated that the layoffs were due to not having enough revenue. Michael Wagner did post a very long message about…some of the funding questions and things like that. So I’ll, don’t think I’m gonna read it word for word, but I kinda jumped through it. But, again, let’s kinda get to the next section.
So let’s kinda look in that we can review and then kinda talk about the state of Star House going forward. So, but, again, we kinda go in chronological order when information came out. So, yeah, on the state of development, it was interesting that the fleet command was mentioned, but as soon as it was mentioned, it was kinda like, yeah, duh, they’ve been pretty upfront about they need to get this c four product done. Obviously, c four runs on Zynq and so that’s been a priority. So,
we have been seeing developments in UE five. In fact, I think this week a couple more patch notes even came out. So definitely pushing out way more versions of, the UE five game, but kinda I’m gonna call it separate games even though physically they’re in the same thing. Fleet Command does feel like something that would be way down the road now. so, anyways, I think that’s good.
overall, the Atlas brew was, fine. I listened to it out of order. I heard about the layoffs and then listened to the Atlas brew. So, overall, I still think it was a great brew, but kinda hard to kinda because since they’re all out of sequence, really listen and go, I wonder what who knew when what and, you know, things like that. So, yeah.
Anyways so, big meat, of course, is talking about the layoffs and then kind of this understanding of the funding. So,
yeah. I mean, on a individual level, people level, yeah. I mean, getting laid off, whether it’s yourself or someone else. I mean, yeah, it’s just rough. It’s sad.
There’s just nothing. Yeah. I mean, what can you say? But…I think if you do have to step back and think about it kind of objectively, and I’ve mentioned a few times on podcast, Michael Wagner has been pretty upfront about, lack of revenue and how that’s affecting, development time and things like that. So, you know, I don’t know if we’ll ever know or if it even matters why today was the day to cut back some revenue again.
Like, I kinda speculated if, Starcom two was eating up a large, line item on the budget, and they’re gonna move away from it anyways. Yeah. Kinda makes sense. Just pull the plug on it and, yeah, save money. So,
yeah. And he’s Michael Weidner has been upfront. I mean, development is…
related to resources and resources related to how much money you have to pay for those resources. So, again…as much as I think there’s the chalk of this, because if you’ve been around Star House for a long time, multiple years ago, of course, they had the gigantic layoff where they, I think it was seventy percent of the staff was laid off, downsized. Now potentially more. Again, we’ve only heard two names. But, I think the bigger issue is, if you just look and analyze kind of the departments.
And so, unfortunately…
paid community members, I guess, I don’t…I assume the mods have to stay around to monitor the Discord, but, they weren’t paid to begin with. But, you know, the team that seemed to exist with, Xanti and Dom, Minnick, and Jose doesn’t exist anymore, though. I think…
where did I see that? No. Yeah. I was in the post that Jose might put out a PIP or something like that. So but, again, just looking at this as, from a org chart level…
community team…
paid team, gone. Lore rider, gone. Manage or, marketing, gone…
they they’re not involved in the game development. I mean, no game, you don’t need those departments. I mean, yes, lore is important, but if you don’t have a game, you don’t need lore. you don’t have a game, you don’t have anything to market. If you don’t have a game, you don’t need a community.
So, I mean, strictly saying if you have to well, you know, again, we haven’t heard or may never hear why now. What was the criteria to make this happen, you know, end of January…
Yeah. I mean, these are departments that can be cut, and they were cut before. If I remember correctly, the entire marketing department was cut in the big thing. So, I mean and I think if I remember correctly, there was, like, ten plus people working on just the never alone campaign, if you remember what that was. So yeah.
So, yeah. I mean, it it’s hard on a individual level, but from a company decision, I mean, they don’t have a revenue stream. our ten, twenty dollar a month passes aren’t gonna go only so far and, yeah. So, I mean, it’s rough, but…
it’s business. Yeah. So…
the…
future funding. So, yes, Michael Wagner again posted to someone in the foundation room…
And, I’m just gonna paraphrase because I have to say I’m actually tired tonight. I’m sorry. just yeah. And again, I guess on a just purely personal level. I mean, this isn’t fun.
I wanna play a game. I didn’t I mean, again, I feel for the guys. I really do. But, I mean, I just want a video game, and so it it’s not this is the part of business that, you know, games are games, and you just wanna play a game. You don’t wanna have to worry about, yeah, people’s paychecks and things like that.
But, again, it’s also a business. So, yeah. Anyways, yeah. So, it was mentioned again about kinda comparing, Star Atlas a little bit to Star Citizen and how they’re kinda working, over the years. But…bank Michael Wagner brought up a really good point that they’re comparable in some cases, but completely different…
business models in the sense of that was crowdfunding and this is sort…
of having some unique…
sorry. I got a scroll on my screen. There we go. That’s better. Now I can read the whole words.
Sorry…
Yeah. And, again, I think he actually, framed in the right way that, unlike Star Citizen, they have unique challenges, but they also have different value propositions, I. E. The use of entities or blockchain…you know, the idea with…
you know, in fact, he mentions they’re on a railroad economy, a real cash economy, and they’re depressed financial incentives. but, again, he always, leaves on a thing that, again, you build and track the product used both for the gameplay and then the financial layer too. He did say, again, the product cash flow right now is from token sales, which he doesn’t like, but that’s how it is. The long term strategy was transition to a fee generation from the marketplace, but with depressed, deo active users and transaction volumes quite…
low. Yeah. And they didn’t realize they were getting relative fees from selling crew on Tensor. So again but he mentioned that was small right now. he does look forward or toward the zinc, actually having different options.
Some of them is, emissions as a validator on that…
There’s even talk of some license deal for the validators. but, anyway, he says he doesn’t really rely upon token sales…
Yeah. Primary strategy is to leverage hype in the airdrop to drive star out list activity and to, in turn, drive revenues. Inc. Has other potential revenue sources through, namespace and other things. and he mentioned they had talked about raising capital before.
So yeah. I mean, yeah. If nothing else, even though I…
understand that not every question gets answered, but when Michael Heider does decide to answer questions, they are, you know I mean, I don’t doesn’t feel like he’s holding anything back that he’s really sharing with the community. So yeah. So, things that we’ve kind of always known that their primary revenue stream was supposed to be ship sales and fees and things like that, and now they have to rely on token sales. And, yeah, all this could change if you get a product and people enjoy the product because those products have these built in revenue streams. So, yeah, I mean, it is what it is.
And like I said, just doesn’t feel like a good day, but also it doesn’t feel like a shock. It’s just one of those things that has to happen. So, don’t wanna leave on a negative or positive note, but did wanna kinda just give a quick thought on the future of Stylus. And…I think it’s pretty much been said many times, but I guess it’s just,
needs to be said again. a lot of people go on and go, what’s the runway? What’s the runway? And, again, Michael Wagner said it. It’s indefinite.
And what he meant by that, and I think he said this, but now it’s pretty clear, is in order to increase one way, you decrease costs. And in this case, staff. Yeah. Maybe you can reduce some fees for technology hosting StarCon too, but, employees have…salaries. Hopefully, there was benefits packages too.
so, again, this all adds up, and, yeah, none of it makes the game happen tomorrow. So, get down to your…
core…resources or, excuse me, core, staff that you have to build things, and that’s the staff you keep, until the bitter end. And I’m sure if, they needed to cut more, they would cut staff related to products and focus on one or two products. So, you know, I guess we should be kind of reading between the lines of the fact that all sims still is gonna come out and c four is still gonna come out. There’s still an economy and things like that. So, yeah, I don’t have any insider information on how the org charts range.
So, but, yeah, you could see just you prune the things that don’t go back to that core. So, so the spin, I guess, if there is one, is that, this concept of an indefinite runway is based on how much resource you have to pay out. And if you pay out less, you can keep building the game longer. So, again, I guess we’ll just have to see,
you know, also see how we all feel in the next couple days, but, not to be too whatever. But it’s like, I mean, what else do you do? if reducing staff is one way to keep building the product, you reduce staff. So, just leave it at that. and then just, last point, just talking about my journey playing Star Atlas.
So continuing with what I’m doing which is, trying to gain some, z XP. still hoping to craft a bomb x, but, yeah. I mean, it just takes a long time. So I mean, to do the current command. So, yeah, for the last past week, just still moving back.
let’s see. I’m moving back nitrogen with my big fleet and mining, silica, I think, with the, little miner guy. he’s almost I think to the point where I’ve had enough of Silke, but…
haven’t been tracking daily things. But, you know, closer to the end than the beginning. So, yeah, so just monitoring that, monitoring my…ZXP…
kinda keep, slightly going up the, leaderboard each day, maybe one place. So that’s kinda cool. but, yeah, just kinda status quo. didn’t really seem like the, Sly assistant got affected by the RPC changes. they got a reboot, but could also have been a Chrome update.
I’m not sure. So, yeah, so just doing that. So, anyways, yeah, that’s, it’s kind of the week. Again, not the funnest Star Atlas news, but, you know, just part of business. It has nothing to do with games.
it’s business. Yeah. So just to wrap up again, totally open if anybody wants to be a guest on the podcast, please check out intergalactic carol dot com. you can go to my merch store and buy a mug. Yeah.
I know. Why would you? And, but do check out my website, interactive carol. It has a lot of great resources,
guides, directories, recaps, of course…
promoting the Discord news feed only because you would have gotten an email like I did, around two o’clock my time when the announcement was posted. So other than that was this week in Star Atlas. I’m Matt with Intergalactic Herald. Have a great week ahead…