In this episode, hear an AI summary of the latest Star Atlas community event. Full video recordings can be found on the YouTube channel of Star Atlas TV at https://www.youtube.com/@staratlastv.
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Podcast Transcript
The Atlas Brew #162 (though some participants referred to it as #164 or debated the number, it was confirmed to be #162) featured Brett, the VP of Engineering, as the “source of truth for everything C4 related when it comes to mechanics,” with game design being handled by Danny and economics by Chris. The primary purpose of this session was an open-format Q&A to address questions following a previous town hall that provided extensive information on C4.
Several noteworthy announcements and updates were shared before diving into C4 mechanics. Star Path, the existing referral program, is being sunsetted on June 23rd because it primarily functioned as a discount program and was not effectively serving its referral purpose. A new referral program is being actively worked on with partners, with the idea of making it an application-based system requiring certain criteria to ensure it rewards creators and educators who bring new players to Star Atlas. The Holo Sim open beta was released last week, and the team is actively seeking player feedback and bug reports, as this is the core idea behind its launch. A shout-out was extended to the various international communities hosting Atlas Brews in different languages, such as Portuguese, Spanish, French, Turkish, Italian, and German, highlighting the importance of community building and supporting non-English speaking players. Upcoming events for the community include a Poker Night next Thursday, with a 200,000 Atlas prize pool that will grow with more participants, requiring a 20,000 Atlas buy-in. There will also be a Lore Keepers session next week focusing on C4 and Holo Sim lore, and Game Nights this Friday for playing the shooter game modes.
The main focus of the brew was a deep dive into C4 mechanics with Brett. A significant announcement was made regarding faction control in C4 tied to Starbase progress in Starbase/Sage Labs: factions will be awarded full region control in C4 if they possess a Tier 5 King System Starbase in Starbase/Sage Labs. This means any Starbase upgraded to Tier 5 in Starbase will automatically secure all core systems within its region for the owning faction at C4 launch, bypassing the need to capture them. This is seen as a major advantage, making existing Starbase upgrades highly strategic as upgrading later in C4 will be much harder due to combat and other variables. Progression towards the next tier for a Starbase will be wiped if not completed before the conversion to C4 mainnet.
Regarding regions, safe regions are those fully surrounded by regions owned by your faction, with no opposing Starbases within them, preventing opposing factions from entering or performing actions. Border regions, conversely, are accessible to opponents, either through neighbor connections or if an opposing faction owns a Starbase within them, making them “open season” for combat and conquest. This system aims to provide safe areas while still allowing for PvP engagement. Losing a Starbase in a region can turn a safe region into a border region.
Local markets will be specific to Starbases, with only the King System (central Starbase) in a region having a local marketplace. Access to this market is granted by owning that specific Starbase. These new local marketplaces will be “much more efficient” and operate on a “best execution only” model, meaning purchases will automatically buy at the best available price. If a Starbase is lost or its level drops below the requirement for the local market, all cargo within the Starbase’s local market is burned, and all buy/sell orders are canceled, with resources for canceled orders being returned to players. However, claim stakes and ships on local markets will not be burned but will respawn instead, even if they have components attached.
Repairing Starbases requires repair ships or any other ship with a repair stat. Repair ships offer greater repair capability and efficiency. While docked at a Starbase, ships can be repaired by the Starbase, but this process takes time and prevents undocking without losing pending repairs. Repairing a Starbase does not currently provide LP, to prevent “infinite loops” of damage and repair. Starbases cannot repair themselves and must be repaired by fleets; losing Starbase level progression due to damage can occur during upgrades.
Claim stakes extract raw resources, with their extraction amount multiplied by the planet’s richness for specific resources. Planets can have multiple resources with different richness values, and players choose specific extraction facilities (e.g., copper mining drill). Claim stakes also support autocrafting capabilities, allowing players to build facilities to process raw materials into more advanced items directly on the claim stake, potentially even becoming self-sufficient. Claim stakes have a storage limit, and production will cease if storage is full, necessitating regular pickups by fleets. Different building options for claim stakes, including those that might be exclusive to higher tier claim stakes or specific planet types based on “tags”, will offer various trade-offs (e.g., solar panels versus fuel generators). Building requirements also include crew requirements, and there may be automated mining drills that require no crew but are less efficient. Buildings on claim stakes are removable and reconfigurable, allowing players to adjust their setup over time. However, claim stakes will not have defensive buildings in the initial C4 release, as direct claim stake attacks are not supported; instead, attacking a Starbase evicts associated claim stakes. Players will need to dock with each individual claim stake to unload resources.
Fleet size in C4 is expected to start smaller and be upgradeable with council rank XP, with a potential final size around 145 ships. Players who have accumulated XP through long-term play should be able to leverage it to build fleets or other upgrades. Crew members do not “die” in combat; they respawn at the CSS or the local Starbase if it’s controlled by your faction. There will be no direct rentals for claim stakes. The developers are exploring large future projects such as building warp gates or terraforming planets. A Public Test Realm (PTR) will be released on devnet for testing C4 mechanics for several months before its mainnet release, allowing toolmakers to build tools and gathering community feedback.
The session concluded with an acknowledgment that many questions remained, and a “part two” of the C4 deep dive is planned for the following week.
