In this episode, we recap the latest news of Star Atlas from the past week.
We are looking for guests to be on our podcast. The podcast is a discussion of the past week’s news about Star Atlas. If you are interested in being on the podcast, please contact us.
We are launching a Star Atlas merch store. Please check it out at Intergalactic Gear.
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Podcast Transcript
[00:00:00] Hi, this is Matt with the Intergalactic Herald. Welcome to my Star Atlas week and review podcast. This is podcast number 86. Any articles or videos mentioned can be found on my website at intergalacticherald. com. Just look for news recap number 135. So just a quick summary of things we’ll be talking about.
[00:00:17] Some information about some upcoming product not release dates, but at least really schedule from AFIA’s newsletter. Quick some information from Metaverse Explorers video. Sorry, I wrote the wrong thing in my notes. I gotta fix that. Anyways and then some thoughts on the latest Atlas brew, and then I’ll do my two kind of thoughts on the state of Star Atlas and my journey.
[00:00:39] So, but before I get to that, just a couple things on my Star Atlas projects. Again, I am slowly, very slowly creating a Star Atlas merch store It’s open for business. Unfortunately, it’s only selling mugs right now with different logos on it. Hope to bring out some more products as time allows, but again, it’s unfortunately low down on my my list of things that I have to do, like Well, got to get chores done, which I just finished for the day anyways.
[00:01:03] But if you go to the website, intergalacticgear. com, there is a merch survey and love to get any feedback on other merch items that you may be interested that I can see if I can put in my store. And then also I am trying to get started. Well, I guess we’ll call it a non guild guild, but basically a community of Star Atlas gamers that aren’t.
[00:01:22] Interested in joining guilds, maybe you want a different experience than the Star Atlas discord more of discussions, not chats and ability to come in and out of them and get email alerts on things that are of interest to you. So go to intergalacticcoalition. com and I do have an interest survey there.
[00:01:38] You can learn more about what I’m proposing for the community and if you’re interested, please fill that out. So go ahead and get into the content section. So AFIA I believe it’s Funcracker, puts out a weekly newsletter of what’s happened in the past week of Star Atlas, so I really always appreciate reading that.
[00:01:53] He’s able to get some of the content from the Foundation Room approved and puts it in there, so that’s always great. And you know. It’s great to get other summaries. So anyways, but one thing I wanted to call out that it was in it, that he repeated for the second time, but it was a little more concise this time was the upcoming order of releases rated to the Sage economic functionality.
[00:02:14] So there’s been some discussion about different things. I think Michael Wagner brought some of these out at the break point conference. But These are a little more clear and one note is that these are just rated to Sage, nothing to do with UE5 or the fleet command. So the first thing is going to be the golden tickets, which are the re, I guess a year later, of the idea you can craft a golden ticket by mining different resources within Sage and then put those into the fleet.
[00:02:43] Some sort of weekly or bi weekly raffle and prizes will be there. So that’s the first thing that was coming. Then the next will be the localized markets and the regionalized RFRs which again, I don’t remember what they stand for. Again, lots of acronyms in Star Allies. But it’s interesting that, again They got clarification that those are kind of tied together, so obviously regional RFRs localized.
[00:03:06] We knew that obviously the markets were going to be per star base, but that there will be different RFRs at each of those areas and may or may not have different crafting. We haven’t received that. We did receive the crafting receipts for the golden ticket. So anyways but it was, I think, great to kind of get that the RFRs aren’t are also kind of going along with the localized market.
[00:03:26] So then the third thing that was listed was the fleet rentals but there was a note possibly the same time as number two, i. e. the regional RFRs in the localized market. So, again, concept of fleet rentals is the idea that you can have someone else Borrow your fleet and use it and somehow come up with things.
[00:03:44] So fleet rental has been mentioned quite a bit in the past about star Atlas. So again, it’s on the on the project plan. And then the fourth thing was. Quote, advanced financing options like pay over time. This could take six plus months from fleet rentals. So I kind of vaguely remember something, but maybe I’m also thinking of things that were mentioned in the foundation room, which of course can’t talk about.
[00:04:10] So I’m just quoting what was in the newsletter. But it was interesting and I’ll get to a couple other things. Metaverse Explorer also mentioned this and he had an interesting take when it said plus six months. He’s like, ah, it could be a year. It could be, it could be a long time. So I think I’ll get into a little bit of timing later, but anyway, so those were the four things.
[00:04:29] So it was great that. There is a list of things obviously no dates, but definitely something that makes sense. Golden tickets should be easier to do because we’ve already done it once. RFR is bringing back, but adding the localized market, which as I mentioned in the last A podcast I’m actually kind of excited about.
[00:04:44] I think it will actually give a lot more aspects of the game when you don’t have to bring everything all the way back to the Central Space Station, especially if you have no intention of taking out those materials and putting ’em in your wallet and maybe sewing ’em on the global market place to, you know, do things like that.
[00:05:00] So again, I think localized markets is a, a great, next step in really diversifying things. Anyway, so that was great. I just wanted to kind of comment on that. Again, I was mentioning kind of Metaverse Explorer. He had his typical, not, always weekly, but, you know, consistently he’s bringing out a video at, at regular intervals.
[00:05:19] And he went through all kinds of the updates. And so it’s really great if you want to get another summary. I think parts of it was, he was just reading off the AFIA newsletter. So again, it’s fine, nothing different than what I’m doing. But one thing he did mention that was new, that was something AFIA had done is AFIA had a, some of these dashboards by service called flip side by some of the aphia data runners which are excellent.
[00:05:41] They had a small player kind of dashboard of how the return on investment on certain things like scanning and mining were. Typically, they didn’t have any really good return, but they did recently update it for just strictly crafting. Now that crew are no longer tied to ships, it was brought up that, yeah, you could just buy a single crew member and then buy some resources on the marketplace and craft those and potentially sell them for return on investment.
[00:06:07] So it was really great. And Metaverse Explorer Brought that out. So it was kind of good to see again, another opportunity if you wanted to play but this time just having crew and then what could you do with the crew? So anyways, I thought that was great video that was put out this last week.
[00:06:23] And then last thing, but also the biggest thing there was another Atlas brew, as there always is on the Wednesday, well, at least Wednesday in my time zone from the community team, but this time they actually brought on the new, and I’m not exactly sure on her title, but it doesn’t really matter.
[00:06:37] She’s definitely in charge of marketing Francesca. So She was kind of introduced to I guess, not officially, I think she was introduced to a couple Atlas Roosevelt, but this was one focused completely on marketing. So but before they got into I mean, her kind of answer questions or just tell us about herself.
[00:06:53] There was some background given, which I’m not sure if I’ve ever heard, but it was kind of interesting that as part of the The Star Atlas layoffs that happened after the FTX issues and things like that. That there was actually, back then, 15 marketing people and they were completely, I mean, everyone was laid off.
[00:07:11] So, maybe I heard that back when we had the big town hall right after the layoffs. But it’s a substantial marketing department size. So anyways, so Francesca then gave kind of her background which appears to be quite extensive. A lot of gaming companies she worked at, she mentioned. A lot of initiatives at those companies.
[00:07:31] She also mentioned a whole bunch of things on her gaming interests and what she likes to play and has played and things like that. So it was really great to, to find out all those things. So that was great. And again, if you’re interested check out the Atlas Brew from Starust TV.
[00:07:46] Again, that’s linked in my recap number 135 on intergalacticherald. com. Also, there’s a link if you just want to do the short recap that Beth usually does, that’s also there and you can get kind of the highlights there. So then kind of shifted to some marketing overview for Star Atlas. A lot of content I, I really appreciated that.
[00:08:06] Obviously you can tell she’s been thinking about a lot of things. I’m not exactly sure how long she’s been an official employee. It sounds like there might’ve been a time between being hired and when she was. Formally announced to the community. So definitely been doing a lot of thinking. So again, if you want some of the details definitely go check that out.
[00:08:25] One thing I did pull out and partly this is cause I’m in marketing. I have a small marketing agency, again, nowhere near the level of experience. Mine’s way more tactical. I help, you know, small businesses with lead generation, things like that. You know, But anyways, was her mentioning about defining specific target audiences for Starless.
[00:08:44] And this actually, I think, was really insightful, and again, it might have been just because I’m a marketing person too. But she mentioned the thing you can’t just market to all gamers, or everybody in the world that’s a gamer. And I thought that was really good. Not that we haven’t, not that it wasn’t something they had maybe been thinking about, i.
[00:09:02] e. the entire team. But it was really kind of the first time to realize that, yeah, we really, as a Well, I shouldn’t say we, but the team really needs to be like, who are they looking for? Is it a specific you know, again, is it only people that like crypto? Is it people that like other games and stuff like that?
[00:09:19] And there could be multiple audiences. But what I really found insightful about saying that was, again, that’s one of those classic cases of business owners, at least I found, that say, oh, yeah, I sell to everybody. Well, yeah, I guess, like, You know, I got a client that’s an electrician and I guess anybody with a house that needs electrical work, I guess, but you know, I don’t.
[00:09:43] To me all marketing needs to be focused, so I found that was really great. The other interesting thing that came out a couple times was again the need for onboarding and that has been a community sentiment for a long time that it’s really hard to get into Star Atlas if you haven’t been seeing things and obviously I’ve been trying to create some beginner videos which I think, you know, at least help people do some things, but still there’s way more things that I didn’t cover and things are changing and stuff like that.
[00:10:09] So anyways. Again, if you’re really interested in learning a little more about what may be coming Great Atlas Brew, again you can listen on Star Atlas TV or Best Summary. So anyway, so that was pretty much the bulk of the content. So kind of moving into the next segment, kind of, you know, my thoughts on the state of Star Atlas.
[00:10:25] So I do again want to state that I really think the upcoming changes to SAGE are very interesting in that, again, we’re going to have many goals. So, you know, again, from Going to tickets, to RFRs, to local markets, and things like that. But, and again, I know I’m falling into that same trap. Though I don’t abbreviate it, W E N, but, again, but when is all this going to come?
[00:10:48] And, and I guess part of it is that Breakpoint I’m pretty sure was almost a month ago. And Again, I guess whether they announce it or it gets put in the foundation room and then approved for announcements. So I guess, you know, this kind of path and things and they’re the latest or last e comm form did state about the, the RFR, RFRs.
[00:11:09] And, and I can’t remember where the old guys markets came out, but anyways, so some of this has been there, but I was realizing that At least on the golden tickets, that seems like something that should be pretty straightforward to get out there and get people excited about. And again, they released the recipe, so maybe it’s right around the corner.
[00:11:27] And again, I know the team is totally within their total prerogative not to put dates on until they can do things. But, it is kind of interesting that those were presented at break point and a lot of stuff was, but again, a month later, we’re kind of still waiting. Cause again, again, crew was done before break point anyway.
[00:11:49] So again, It’s fine, but again, nothing’s changed. So I guess, I guess I see. I can’t even remember again, these things don’t really register, but anyways, but on the same note, one thing that is missing that at least officially hasn’t been stated was. Where’s anything on the UE5 one? Cause back at the summer town hall, there was a lot of talk about, you know, what’s going to be right for breakpoint.
[00:12:15] And again, it sounded like there were playable aspects of many things at breakpoint that were shown to people that were there in person. So yeah, I’m kind of curious, but part of this is that. As I’m recording this, it’s, you know, middle to late middle of October. And at least in the U S we have our traditional holidays stuff coming with Halloween and then Thanksgiving and then Christmas.
[00:12:40] And there’s not a lot of time to get anything before the traditional you know, kind of winter breaks that seem to occur. So and again, a lot could come still a lot of time, but as this like, you know, Are we going to see much else this year? So, anyways. About marketing changes as I kind of alluded to, I just wasn’t sure I’d heard that they had laid off the entire marketing staff.
[00:13:04] But regardless, 15 people, that’s a lot of people. And kind of makes me wonder again how much lost momentum there was. Didn’t kind of realize that Well, there was, there was nobody doing marketing. And again, I guess in hindsight, a lot of community sentiment was, you know, how are we going to bring in more people on that and don’t fault the team for focusing on well, if you look back on, oh boy, how long has FTX been a year, half a year, a year and a half, two years.
[00:13:35] Hmm. Don’t remember. Almost feels like it’s two years. Anyways. Yeah, it does really feel like it’s two years. It feels like it was something in the fall, but maybe the way I was didn’t occur until the next year. Ah, it doesn’t matter. It’s been a while that great. Now we got some marketing, but and again, I think the background and experience and knowledge is, seems like the new marketing person brings is, is great.
[00:13:58] But just one person. And. a leader, not hopefully a doer, though you might have to do both. I’m not sure. And again, we know that you can have leaders and the team can outsource like they do for a lot of the development. But yeah, I don’t know. As much as it was great to hear everything, it kind of left a lot of like, okay, now what?
[00:14:18] And they did mention at the Atlas Brew that one of the community members, Archetype, was actually hired to help with some graphics. So, that’s great. He seems very talented from the work I’ve seen and things like that. So maybe there’s two people but again, two is not 15. So again, and I didn’t, I’m not trying to put this at all on a negative slant and cause I think this is all great.
[00:14:40] And again, I was, again, very impressed by everything I heard, but I guess like a lot of things, I guess we’ll just wait and see. Yeah, I mean, Again, I’ve been saying this for kind of a couple of months. Some stuff’s really cool and then it’s over and then what? And so I, I guess this kind of momentum and I guess I just had a random thought.
[00:15:00] I mean, part of the reason maybe the golden tickets haven’t released is that now with actually having a marketing department, maybe there’s not just what is it, ship it just, you know, it’s done. So ship it. And I mean, maybe there is some effort to kind of how all this could be put together for.
[00:15:16] Quote unquote marketing. So again, we’ll see. So I guess just to reframe a lot of this is like it all does sound good, but until it happens It’s just plans and and maybe again as I’m trying to struggle to figure out when the layoffs and FTX you know again, we still have Faction Fleet, Score, still Athene and Sage is there, but Kind of, kind of the same too.
[00:15:41] I mean, if anything, we’re bringing back things like going tickets and RFRs. I mean, localized markets is definitely moving in a new direction. But Yeah, and again, you know, somebody said on the Atlas Brew, Yeah, we know the website’s outdated and we need to update that, but I’m like, I build websites for clients and they’re small.
[00:15:59] I mean, something like this, it’s got to be a pretty large project and You know, again, they can outsource it, so it doesn’t mean they have to hire people, but, you know, short of anyways, it’s going to take time to build a new website and whatever the, the purpose and the functionality and then, you know, launching and all that.
[00:16:19] So, you know, again, I think just everything sounds good, but it sounded good for a long time. They’re just plans and and I’ve stated this before I mean if the team wanted to go faster It’s really easy. You just need more resources. Now. It’s not easy necessarily to pay for them So again, there could be some constraints and I’m totally of the opinion that you got to have a product I mean marketing without something to Show people or sell people whatever however you want to frame it is doesn’t go anywhere.
[00:16:48] So anyways, I don’t know again All good. But again, like a lot of things feels like, well, we’ll just have to wait and see and goes back to patience and which goes back to win. So anyways, but not to leave on a totally down note. So yeah, just my thoughts and hopefully that’s why you’re listening to this podcast.
[00:17:04] So anyways, and then the last little section I’ll bring up is sort of my journey. And one of the things I’m going to do this week, and I think I mentioned it last week, I’m actually getting more intrigued by Trying to see about redeeming a ship inside a SAGE. So again, they, they have two ships, I’m pretty sure, two ships.
[00:17:19] But already got, did the Max Hog before and they do have this Mamba XE, or EX, or I don’t know what it is. Anyways, it’s a bigger ship, or bigger than the Max Hog anyway. So, I was going to do some calculations to see how much raw materials would be needed to do the full effort. Because partly, as I mentioned earlier, I was a little afraid to do it if the supply ran out.
[00:17:40] But, Feels like it’s going to stick around. And I realized if, even if it doesn’t stick around, I guess I’d have those raw materials. And so it seems like that ship redemption within Sage is going to be a thing, may change ships or something, but anyway, so I thought, well, you know, couldn’t hurt to get the materials.
[00:17:58] And then once you have all the materials, then you can actually craft them. Cause again, I’d hate to. Craft things and turns out then I don’t need those components or something. But anyways, I thought I’d do the first calculation So anyway, so I might get back into doing something on a regular basis But again, there’s a purpose.
[00:18:16] It’s a fixed goal Fixed outcome. Those are all things I kind of like and like the LP and and Yeah, I guess LP because it was rated to upgrading starbases and yeah. So anyways so anyway, so that’s pretty much it. All I have to mention just wanted to kind of wrap up again. I’m definitely interested if anybody wants to be a guest on my podcast, love to have anybody within the community just to chat about the week in review.
[00:18:43] Or if you’re a builder or content creator and you want to come and talk about what you’re doing, love to. And of course, extend, always extend an invitation, anybody on the team who wants to come on again looking to record some more podcasts, kind of my beginner series. Again, I had a great chat with Jose on lore.
[00:19:00] Hopefully it was helpful for the community, but I’d love to chat about any other topics, whether it be the, you know, technology, the game design, economy, marketing now. So any team member who’s interested, again, won’t be about We’ve seen alpha or any of that just sort of things that I can keep putting on my beginner’s guide.
[00:19:17] So other than that again just wanted to Finally mention again, if you’re interested in starting any Star Atlas merch i. e Mugs I do have some at my merch store at intergalacticgear. com. Please take a look if you’re there don’t want to buy anything but or want to give me some feedback I’d love to have you fill out my merch survey.
[00:19:32] And again, if you’re interested in a Star Atlas community of gamers not necessarily people joining guilds that are looking for a place to actually have some discussions that aren’t kind of the chat thread, so you can kind of follow along with different things, not one person. Endless scrolling thread please go to intergalacticcoalition.
[00:19:50] com and fill out my earnest survey there. If we get enough people I’ll definitely move up on my priority list. Other than that, thanks for listening. Really appreciate your time. I guess I should mention if you want to, please. What is it like and review and all that stuff on your favorite podcast source.
[00:20:05] Or if you’re listening to this on YouTube I guess, you know, again, the algorithms all like that, but but that’s about it. So thanks very much. Hope you have a great week ahead. This is Matt with the Intergalactic Herald.