Podcast 157: Star Atlas Weekly Review

Podcast Transcript

This is Matt with the Intergalactic Herald. Welcome to my Star Atlas Week in Review podcast. This is podcast number hundred and forty seven. Any articles or videos mentioned can be found on my website at intergalactic herald dot com. Just look for a weekly recap newsletter two zero five.
So just a quick summary of what happened this past week in Star Atlas. the community…I keep on saying community team, but unfortunately, they don’t exist. But anyway, so let’s say the Star Atlas team. Sorry. had a couple, community events.
There we go. Community events. Not the community team, Star Atlas team. Anyways, the Atlas Brew occurred and then the Lore Keepers, event occurred. So those were the two there.
Atlas Brew, had some information about some thoughts on AI in Star Atlas, some zinc updates, c four updates, and Haul’s some updates. But before we get into the details there, I just wanna go over the things I’m working on in Star Atlas. Of course, you can check out my website, intergalactic carol dot com. It’s a great Star Atlas resource website with guides, directories, recaps, a discord news feed. Again, intergalactic carol dot com.
I do have a Star Atlas merch store. You can check that out at intergalactic gear dot com. And I am trying to get together a community of other Star Atlas gamers who don’t want to join guilds. You can check that out at intergalactic…
coalition dot com. So as I mentioned this past week, there were two Star House team events, community events, so the Atlas Brew and the Lore Keepers. If you’ve been listening to me for a while, I totally am supportive of lore. I just I’m not into it yet. So, but, again, you could check out the recording of that on Star Atlas TV.
And, of course, if you’re listening to this podcast, you probably already got my, AI summary…
podcast, video audio summary. So you probably already checked that out. So I’ll just gonna focus on the, Star Atlas brew. started out, I think there was a slight…
delay or not delay, but, I think they’d already started the thing before the recording was set. again, you could check out the entire recording at Star Atlas TV on YouTube. So they were talking a lot about AI in Star Atlas, and they mentioned that they’re definitely, are looking at different options maybe for NPCs or other things like that. They did mention that, they do feel like there’s a place for some bots. Now I’m not sure if this was in the framework of the…characters or if this was bots as far as automation or if this was bots as far as marketplace.
So, again but, definitely, they think there’s is a place for that. They did mention due to the fact that it is a blockchain, there will always be bots and I think this is more of the discussion kind of the marketplace and things like that. but that was the bulk of the conversations about AI and kind of,
what’s it called, theory crafting about different things. And then near the end, they did do some updates on kind of the development process. So on Zinc, they’ve been putting out some bug fixes, which I did see in the Zinc Discord, some announcements on those. They also kind of updated how the Sage gameplay…affects the, what is it, ZXP experience points updates. And they did fix some things related to profile linking in Zinc.
they did also give an update on c four. They said the internal team testing has been going well, and they’re doing that. And they’re actually going to, add some lore components to c four. Now…I didn’t get the feeling like this is one of those, that has to be done, that this could happen through the playtest, but definitely they want to have…consistent lore throughout it. And then the final thing they mentioned about Holosim, that it is probably going to be delayed.
And then I think
Star House Discord did have an official, delayed announcement because I think it was supposed to come out on Wednesday? Not sure. Thursday? I can’t remember. One of those two days.
So, and I’m recording this as of…Pacific time Friday night, and I’m pretty sure it’s still delayed. So, anyways, yeah. So that’s pretty much the Atlas Brew, kind of more of a…I don’t know. I guess I would call it a general discussion as opposed to sort of a set topic and things like that. But, you know, that’s fine.
So let’s go ahead and move into my next section, kind of my thing, thoughts on the state of Star Atlas, based on kind of what happened this past week. I do have to say, even though this At was Brew was slightly different, I am kinda definitely liking this…kinda different…
makeup of how they’re doing the Atlas brews with, way more specific development updates even if, again, they aren’t vague on timing. You know, just the fact that we know, hey. This last week, the c four did internal testing, and the team’s working on it and things like that. So, yeah, I think these are, kinda great updates and good to really, I guess, more feel like we’re in the…
yeah, getting constant updates every week on what’s going on. So…
awesome delay. Yeah. I mean, I guess you gotta get it right if there was some reason to hold it. That makes perfect sense. did seem like they were kinda I was more anticipating the I saw the announcement before I heard it was in the house brewing, so I was kinda assuming there was some, like, last minute, bug or something like that, but it sounds like they were kinda still polishing it.
So, again, I don’t have any problems with that. Dates launch dates are just what it is, and they it’s not like they put a ton of marketing behind the date or anything like that. So, yeah. And I think Ultimate, I think I’ve said it before. I mean, this launch has to work, to just start reinstilling confidence in the development, in the gameplay having something consistent to bring in new players and things like that.
So, yeah, makes perfect sense. So,
about the AI, and again, I think, in Star Atlas, anyways. first, I don’t know if we have…a…definition of when people say, oh, you need AI. Because I think…it’s sort of like saying you need the programmer. You need, I don’t know, be fun. it means something different to each person.
So…
I don’t know. I do have some thoughts on AI in Star Atlas. And again, I guess it’s, again, how you wanna apply it.
again, if AI equals bots, that’s kinda different. I don’t know. Bots, like…
if you read the Stars Discord, people are saying or have always said that certain, bots are buying and selling items on the marketplace. So…I don’t know. I don’t have enough…
I don’t have enough understanding. I mean, I don’t even know how that works. Not from a technical standpoint, but, I mean, it what is it? The arbitrage money. You sell a little high and then you buy and, I don’t know, somebody has a ton of money to kinda be buying and selling constantly.
So, yeah, I this is just stuff I don’t really understand nor do I understand because, again, the marketplace to me is an economic…
system, so I just don’t have the background in all pro or con. but one thing they were talking about with AI that kinda resonated, maybe in a negative way with me, talking about having independent AI players. And I’m like, I don’t know, that just doesn’t…
I don’t know. I mean, I don’t have a problem if there are again we use these terms bots. But I mean if you’re playing the shooter there’s always been these concepts I mean this predates what we call AI now. I mean, I remember playing against, quote unquote, bots and, you know, or even, I’ll go back to some of my original game playing, you know, like RTS’s like age of empires or whatever. There was always, you know, computer players, and you played against them and you had the difficulty setting and you use, you know, could change that.
And, yeah, I just played on beginner. Why? Because I just wanna have fun. I didn’t I don’t need to there and, you know, be patient enough and you almost always win. But again, it’s fine.
I don’t care. so, I mean, this idea that AI, I mean, if that’s what we had before, I mean, that’s fine. Just yeah. Sure. But I don’t know.
I guess when we were talk when they were talking about,
or when the idea of crew came out, ships I mean, I was always…I guess, to me, anyways, we started or my experience started in Star Atlas buying ships. And so it’s like, hey, I’m buying a ship. Okay. And then I’m buying another ship and another ship. And there was no kind of concept of crew.
And then once we could finally…see a player and get into our ship and pilot around, you know, you would walk in, get the different keystrokes and sit down the cockpit and then it switched and you could fly the ship. And I was like, yeah. No. This is just I don’t know. It just was like, that’s how it’s gotta be.
But then when they released crew and these crew had names and characteristics and things like that, I was still under the impression that you would, I don’t know, take over your crew and so it was still you looking through their eyes. I mean, just I don’t know. I just never thought of it any differently. But it sounds like what they’ve been,
brainstorming is that the crew could, like, be interactive. And, again, this is where, I don’t know, we throw on terms like AI and NPCs or yeah. NPCs. Now I get it when a quest, you know, you walk up to somebody and they say, hey. Go get me this stuff and bring it back.
And that’s a non playable character, MPC. But, they give a quest, and so you don’t expect them to…interact. And I know they some other game, they talk about how much, you know, voice actors they put in and how many different decision trees and things like that. But if we’re talking the way we think of AI now and of course the idea that these things are totally autonomous and then you put this in as a player in the game and then they’re playing a game, again, I don’t know if they’re…controlled by the team or controlled by…
individuals or whatever. But, I don’t know. It just it feels like then you’re not playing a game or you’re not playing because we’re using the acknowledge and the Alice Pru about, you know, playing poker and, you know, somebody just does it casually, they’re not that good, and then somebody practices all the time. And, yeah, we could take that from poker and put it into different sports analogy. Yeah.
If you just play a little basketball, you have fun, but you’re not gonna join the NBA. Well, nobody…wants to play against that good player. Right? You gotta have proper matchmaking and things like that. So yeah.
I don’t know. And then now that you could think of AI having better strategy, you’re definitely, able to play twenty four by seven and, of course, I gotta sleep. Yeah. I mean, if you went into a gaming environment and all there were these independent bots, AI players, whatever you wanna call them, and they’re doing their thing. I mean, if they leave me alone, I guess I don’t care.
But if, like, we got combat and you go into a battle and they always win, I mean, the bots playing each other. I mean, I don’t know. So yeah. I don’t know. This that just doesn’t sound…
fun to have that. Now on the other hand, AI assistance. Oh, no. That totally sounds right. I mean, again, if, my…
you know, mining…
drill or something, you know, I gotta well, here’s a perfect example. The current things right we have right now is, like, claim stakes. You know, I have to go in once a day and empty them. Okay. I don’t wanna do that.
So if I could have that automated and maybe instead of just…not making me do that, if I had to, hire a bot to do it and that’s their job and that’s all they do, yeah, it’s fine. no problem. We can easily do that. And then you can imagine again that moving up the chain from other things. So again, where’s a bot AI automation?
Where’s…independent thinking? Again, I mean, we do we are talking a lot right now in society about AI and automation of manual tasks. So I guess you can apply some of those within the Star Atlas game. So yeah. I mean but I don’t know where the division is between an assistant and an independent player and there.
Now having said all that, it you gotta have a game to automate first. So, you know, you’re not gonna have, I think,
an independent AI doing the shooter mode and doing any better than traditional shooter bot things that, you know, may have difficulties. But…actually, you know, now that I think about it, unlike today where we just assume these are semi not thinking, but definitely…
more freedom, I would assume in the olden days of gaming that when you went up to level difficulties that they just, well, basically could cheat. I don’t know if that’s true or not. But, I mean, that would make sense why if on high difficulty they always shoot you because they just they have an edge because they’re allowed to and then maybe it just gets…less precise if you go to easy mode or something. I don’t know how it works. But anyways, so I still think these are all great discussions…what could happen and things like that, but I think in the short term, that this is all not gonna happen anytime soon.
you know, but again, like they said, you know, since it’s on the blockchain, there’s really not much you can do to stop somebody because, again, these are just simply blockchain actions. So if somebody created a program that could…do what you need, and…
again, Sly Assistant does that right now and I find that completely, useful. So I’m still setting strategy, but it deals with the actual mundane things. So again, it was a great discussion to see, you know, different ideas and things like that. So anyways yeah, so that’s my thoughts on the State of Star Atlas because of this past week. just to wrap up on my journey playing Star Atlas, again I’m working in playing Sage, trying to look at a MobX.
I did see an announcement that the recipes were changed. I haven’t had a chance to take a look at that, but hope to do that this weekend. but I’m moving through kind of mining different…
raw materials. So, finally finished being done moving with my silica back to the central space station. So now I’m mining and transporting luminite to get up to the level which may or may not have changed. So that’s been working good. And, successful to sell some food at the starbase.
So I’ve decided to take some more out and see if I can find a price point that people are still interested in buying that. So yeah, that’s kind of fun and I have to say that’s what I always thought local markets were for. So this is kind of cool to be actually…participating in that. So anyways, yep, that’s what I’ve been doing this last week in Star Atlas. So thanks again for listening.
again, totally open if anybody wants to be a guest on the podcast, please reach out through my website, intergalactic carol dot com. while you’re there, check out all my other Star Atlas resources, guides, directories, recaps, my Discord news feed. If you want to get a Star Atlas mug, please check out intergalactic gear dot com. And lastly, if you want to join other Star Atlas gamers, I’d love to get a community together and kind of help
post that, at intergalactic coalition dot com. till next week. This is Matt with Intergalactic Herald. Have a great week ahead…