Announcing “Starbased” — A New Chapter in the Star Atlas SAGE Saga

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Star Atlas

7 min readMar 26, 2024

The people of Galia watch in awe as gray points start appearing in the skies. Star Atlas Golden Era starts a new chapter, and you, Captain, will be responsible for building and maintaining the enormous floating metropolis that promises hope and development for the galaxy’s citizens. Discover all the secrets and new challenges that follow Star Atlas’ newest massive gameplay update.

The Next Step of Star Atlas Economy

Starbased represents a revolutionary update to Star Atlas Golden Era (SAGE) — a cutting-edge blockchain-based, web-browser strategy game that operates within a free-market framework. This update invites players to collaboratively forge and sustain their faction’s intergalactic infrastructure within the Galia Expanse. It ushers in a new era of multiplayer objectives, rewarding the collective efforts of each political group in Star Atlas as they rise to compete for influence.

The introduction of novel gameplay mechanisms, such as Loyalty Points (LP), a substantial change in ATLAS emissions, Council Rank Experience Points (XP), Epochs, and starbase upgrading and upkeep, injects an additional layer of strategy, immersion, and entertainment into the SAGE experience. With the forthcoming deployment of the Starbased protocol on April 2, 2024, this article aims to prepare our Captains by delving into these concepts. Prepare for a journey to Galia that promises adventure and strategic depth like never before.

An Odyssey of Intergalactic Construction

At the heart of the Starbased expansion lies the task of developing and maintaining numerous starbases scattered across the Galia Expanse. Players will discover that, beyond the Central Space Stations of each faction (tier 6 structures), other sector space stations are now initialized as tier 1 structures. These foundational stations, equipped with only basic recipes, urgently require upgrades and maintenance to become operational.

Players are called to venture into the vastness of space, tasked with establishing a comprehensive, faction-wide supply chain to rejuvenate their faction’s infrastructure. This endeavor involves two critical actions: a) Upgrading (Developing a Starbase) and b) Upkeeping (Providing resources to a Starbase), each with its own set of requirements and implications for the broader game.

In this scenario, players must face the limitless void and make strategic gameplay adjustments to rebuild and maintain faction infrastructure. To help our captains get started quickly, here is a breakdown of how each one of those main actions works:

Developing a Starbase (Upgrading) — To help a starbase progress to the next tier, players must simultaneously provide some of the required crafted materials for the tier upgrade and lock their crewmembers to the starbase for a set period. As a starbase progresses to higher levels, it will need more sophisticated goods, more crewmember work, and a greater quantity of crafted materials to reach new levels.

Starbases can progress from tier 1 to tier 5, and every new tier unlocks more crafting recipes for the captains parked at the station. These recipes and other benefits will be introduced in later updates to Starbased.

Providing Resources to the Starbase (Upkeeping) — Starbases are enormous structures that house thousands of ships and personnel in the middle of space. Keeping these structures functional requires vast amounts of resources daily. In the current release version, players must provide food and toolkits for the starbase’s upkeep.

Remember that as starbases progress in tiers, continuous resources are necessary for their upkeep. Failure to provide enough resources for a starbase’s upkeep results in reduced functionality. If there is not enough food, the crafting in the starbase is disabled, and if there are not enough toolkits, the starbase upgrading is halted.

As one can see, keeping the galactic supply chain rolling won’t be easy, but fear not, because, in Starbased, no good deed goes unrewarded. The factions of Star Atlas are watching their captain’s devotion to their group’s progression, and a new in-game incentive system, which will be disclosed now, will take place.

Factions Influence and Loyalty Points

A pivotal feature of Starbased is the Loyalty Points system, designed to reward players for contributing to faction objectives within each game epoch (24 hours). By assisting in upgrading starbases or supplying resources for their maintenance, players earn Loyalty Points, which can be used to acquire a share of the faction’s daily ATLAS distribution for that epoch.

This system ensures that contributions towards faction goals are recognized and rewarded, fostering a sense of community and collective achievement.

In simple terms, those points will serve as the basis for calculating a player’s ATLAS distribution in an epoch based on how impactful their performance is in fostering faction objectives (Upgrading and Upkeeping starbases) in face of the rest of the players of their faction.

For example, Let’s assume the Ustur faction deployed 100 loyalty points in a given epoch through the combined efforts of all its players. Player X deployed 4 of those points by himself, so Player X will receive 4% of the Ustur daily ATLAS emissions in that epoch.

Nevertheless, it is important to notice that players can choose to hold or deploy the LP they generate on any given epoch. The information on how much LP was deployed on each epoch will also be public so players can strategize when they want to redeem their LP points for ATLAS.

Deploying LP is pretty simple. Players only need to go to any of their faction starbases, click on the marketplace tabs, and submit the amount of LP they want. After the epoch ends, you will be credited the proportional amount of ATLAS.

Starbased also introduces another rewarding mechanism: Council Rank Experience Points (XP). In this first version of Starbased, players can start accruing XP in their accounts by contributing towards starbases via upgrading and upkeep and through travel, freighting, mining, crafting, and scanning. Although the perks and systems of account progression will be locked for now, players will be able to keep the XP they earn, and once the system goes live, they will enjoy the benefits of their efforts in the early days of Starbased.

Gameplay Updates and Final Notes

With Starbased, we are poised to redefine SAGE’s strategic landscape, rendering specific existing mechanics obsolete in favor of more dynamic and engaging gameplay. Notably, the Council of Peace RFRs will be phased out and replaced by the robust Loyalty Points system for in-game ATLAS distribution.

Captains who brave Galia looking for SDUs needn’t worry, as the resource, which was necessary for the RFRs’ crafting, is still part of the game structure and one of the essential materials required to upgrade star bases.

As we are geared towards a smooth transition, there will be a two-week period during which all existing economic mechanics will be maintained. After this period, the new SDU mechanics will take place in Starbased, and the legacy SAGE client, with the RFR’s crafting, will be deprecated entirely.

As we embark on this new chapter, Starbased signifies a leap forward for the Star Atlas economy and sets the stage for integrating combat mechanics in future expansions. This evolution promises to enrich the Star Atlas universe, offering Captains and corporations unprecedented opportunities to expand their faction’s influence and revel in the myriad possibilities of the Starbased expansion.

We invite all Captains and their corporations to embrace the Starbased expansion, leveraging this opportunity to fortify their faction’s infrastructure and influence across the galaxy.

ABOUT STAR ATLAS

Star Atlas is a next-gen gaming metaverse emerging from the confluence of state-of-the-art blockchain technologies, real-time graphics and multiplayer video games.

Using Unreal Engine 5’s Nanite real-time graphics technology allows for cinematic quality video game visuals. In addition, blockchain technology using Solana establishes a largely serverless and secured gameplay experience. Player assets obtained and traded within Star Atlas create an economy that replicates tangible world assets and ownership.

To learn more, join a faction at Play.StarAtlas.com, get a spaceship in the Galactic Marketplace, and start playing the SAGE Labs browser game to explore, gather, craft and prosper on the galactic frontier.

Then, download the UE5 PC Game from the Epic Games Store.

Participate in governance of the Star Atlas DAO. Send your spaceships on a deep space mission by enrolling them in a Faction Fleet and harvest resources with Faction Claims.