The Atlas Star ✧ Issue #16

Welcome, Explorers from all corners of the galaxy! Your galactic news source of record is back with another epic edition to discuss one of our community’s favorite topics: The economy.

In this issue, we are discussing the rationale behind Star Atlas’s decentralized economy, walking through our high-level vision of how users will be able to acquire resources, craft in-game assets, trade them, acquire goods and services, and much more of the basic game structures.

Also, in this edition, you will learn about the latest developments in the Star Atlas ecosystem, including our news channel, the Punaab Whisper, the sacred community event, the Atlas Brew, and all else related to Star Atlas.

We are nearing another exciting time in Star Atlas development, so fasten your seat belt and get ready for take-off. We are about to hit warp speed.

A Top-Level Vision Of The Star Atlas Metaverse Economic System

Inflation, growth, monetary policy, supply chains, and consumer behavior — these concepts are not usually associated with games pertaining to the realm of economics and economic analysis. Nevertheless, Star Atlas, through its economics department, is harnessing those concepts and several other instruments of the economic theory literature in order to build the ultimate gaming experience.

If you have been following us for a while now, you know that Star Atlas metaverse aims to recreate the most exciting aspects of real-life economics. We are creating an entire universe, full of scarce resources and planets to conquer, which will allow players to compete, collaborate and experiment in order to fulfill their personal agendas, literally building from the ground extensive galactic empires and civilizations.

Manifesting this vision is enhanced by our blockchain architecture, which makes every in-game asset a potential property in-game, with players being able to have many options for what to do with these assets — even destroying them forever.

This beautiful horizon requires extensive work — a special type of analytical work that prevents the Star Atlas economy from going into an inflationary death spiral or becoming a dry desert of liquidity, impeding trading and growth and sharing the fate of many countries in Earth’s history.

That’s the mission of our economists, and today you will learn some of the mechanics they use to create a thriving ecosystem for our players to enjoy their assets inside the game to the fullest, focusing specifically on the “Achilles Heel” of most MMO’s games, the introduction of raw resources in the economy.

Come with us on a journey to the realm of effort and value.

The Economic Journey For Raw Materials Extraction in The Star Atlas Metaverse

The beginning of our journey comes from the premise that informs the whole architecture of Star Atlas economics: “Nothing comes from the void. All in-game assets are the result of the effort, investment of time, and dedication of players.”

What this premise tells us is that once Star Atlas economy starts to function, all in-game assets will come from the player’s efforts. If you want to have a ship, you will need to find the component to build it, acquire the expertise to assemble it, and expend time and resources into building it.

In this edition, you will see the first part of this enormous economic loop and how players can acquire the raw resources to build everything the Star Atlas metaverse offers. We will walk you through the first part of this variable, which informs the offer side of the economic equation of the game, preventing players from acquiring raw materials in a frenetic manner that overwhelms demand and growth, which would turn all the assets in the game useless

Now, without delay, let us start discussing the framework of the raw materials acquisition.

Once we kick-start our economic loops, everything inside Star Atlas, from cooking meals to feed your crew members to repairing damaged ships and constructing enormous star bases to rule a star system, will require specific basic raw materials to be done.

Obtaining those raw resources is the most fundamental task for those envisioning a career inside Star Atlas economic structures, and it will require players to create appropriate infrastructure, deploying time, capital, and labor while also having the proper storage, security, and management of their operations.

Let us go through each one of those steps, starting with the infrastructure aspect.

Most of the resources you will find in Star Atlas won’t be lying down on the floor, waiting to be picked up by an adventurer while doing their evening walk. They will require players to create the means for their production or harvesting in the form of infrastructure.

A good example of this is how mining operations function. To mine resources over a planet, players will first need to claim a territory using enormous structures named Claim Stakes, which will be responsible for establishing the conditions for the basic infrastructure inside.

Those claim stakes, in turn, support a number of pieces of planetary infrastructure according to their tier, such as power plants, mining drills, farms, shields, and defenses, amongst others, meaning that your first strategic decision will be about balancing productivity output versus security or variety.

Star Atlas is an open and organic world where many bad events can affect the results of your operations, such as:

• Your claim stakes can be attacked by players and NPCs, which will directly impact production yields and demand supplementary investment in form of repairs, defense, and opportunity costs.
• The prices of the different commodities in Star Atlas fluctuate with the open market, especially the one where your Star System is located, which causes uncertainty in terms of prices.
• All planetary operations in the medium and safe zones of the galaxy are subject to taxation from the regional government of the Star System, generating costs that, if not observed, may cause loss of land.

All of those systems make it very possible that, in certain circumstances, the whole operation might not be profitable, especially if there is an overflow on the offer side of a product inside the Star System, which will incentivize a shift of production from the owners of claim stakes, creating an equilibrium in the offer.

Nevertheless, even after creating the necessary infrastructure, you will need to keep it supplied with a working force and every resource necessary for their work support, such as food, fuel, ammo, and toolkits, so that your operation can function properly.

This adds another layer of management and risk since crew members can be attacked, can be affected by environmental circumstances, or simply fail to do their jobs properly by a lack of skill or motivation.

The Variety of Resources

Then the fun part begins: The harvesting of the resource. Galia Expanse, the Star Atlas galaxy, is filled with a variety of resources, ranging from common ones, which are mostly found in any star system, to anomaly classes, which can only be acquired in very special conditions in high-risk environments.

When we look at specific resource harvesting, interesting aspects join our analysis. Different resource scarcity inside the game is controlled by three variables, two on the economic front and one of the game design.

Variable I: Resource Richness

The first one of those is called Resource Richness.

Resource Richness is the measurement of how likely you are to find resources in a certain area and how bountiful they are. The game logic is oriented toward making the most inaccessible and dangerous zones the ones with a higher resource richness number, mainly due to the fact that they have been less explored and most of its natural resources are still there, waiting for those daring enough to acquire them.

Another important aspect is that the closer you are to the inner and most dangerous parts of our galaxy, the more the planets you are visiting receive the influence of Iris, and it’s common knowledge among explorers that Iris influence bends the law of reality to some extent, creating, sometimes, unique veins and resources.

So, if you are exploring regions with a low degree of resource richness, the variety and abundance of resources will impact the possible output of your operation due to lower yields of production.

Variable II: Resource Hardness

The second aspect that will influence your journey while extracting resources is Resource Hardness.

This aspect measures how hard it’s in terms of time spent to gather the resource from the source and load it in your ships or storage. To explain this concept, the economy team came up with the analogy of the “size of the straw.” Imagine you have a whole lake filled with good water, but you can only use a coffee stir to take the water from the lake into your mouth. It will take a good amount of time to quench your thirst, which will demand you to spend a long time on this activity.

Some resources in Star Atlas will have a high degree of hardness, meaning that your crewmembers will have a hard time extracting them, so they will give you a lower yield per unit of time.

Variable III: Appropriate Skill Proficiency

Finally, the last variable, which will come in a farther away future than the two already presented, will be Appropriate Skill Proficiency.

Some of the materials that inhabit the depths of the Galia Expanse planets will require specialized work. You will need to allocate personnel with the proper experience and skill set to manage the extraction operations of most of the rare resources in our galaxy. This is measured in the game by our careers system.

In Star Atlas, crew members are able to learn different skill specializations, such as mining. As long as they train their skills by acquiring experience in their fields, they can reach new thresholds of knowledge, allowing them to engage in bigger and more complex challenges in their respective areas.

Keeping our examples in the mining field, at the start of your career as a miner, even working on iron veins, will prove difficult and exhausting for your crew member. Nevertheless, should he keep on training in-game and accruing experiences related to mining, he will learn the tricks of the trade and will be able to mine rare crystals like Lumanite in the depths of the medium zone one day.

Now that we understand those variables, you can see that there is a lot of effort and time going into simply extracting those resources from the ground. Nevertheless, those efforts and investments are what make those resources valuable and meaningful in the game since they are the basis of how the economy works.

Still, we only touched the tip of the iceberg as there are still lots of variables that influence the first part of the economic equation of Star Atlas: The offer side. In our next edition, we will discuss another main component of the offer side. The supply chain that enables the raw materials to reach out to crafters and developers throughout the galaxy!

Now, let’s see what everyone’s favorite reporter has been up to in the Punaab Whisper.

The Punaab Whisper — The Atlas Star Tabloid

My Dear Readers! Today, the Punaab Whisper is investigating another interesting group in our galaxy, the self-proclaimed servants of fate, the Heralds of God Vignus.

“Well, we are basically on a mission from our god to deliver fate to those who must learn about it. Everyone is born with a destiny, but not everyone’s fate is relevant enough to make me lose my time visiting them. Nevertheless, while we search for the ones touched by destiny, the ever so merciful Vignus allows us to make good ATLAS by sharing shards of the fate of the inexpressive masses.”

This was the opening quote one of the heralds gave us when we asked them about what his group occupations were.

After further research, we learned that the Heralds of Vignus is the name of a group whose characteristics vary widely depending on who you ask: From prophets and augurs to drunks, swindlers, and heretics. The children of Vignus, as they call themselves, roam the galaxy cashing certain individuals and also sharing their curious prophecies with whoever manages to strike a deal with them.

The two rules of their trade are well known in the folklore of the galaxy.

The first rule: No revelation is given for free, and one shall pay a fair price as established by the herald.

The second rule: Once given, one cannot avoid encountering their fate.

The “liturgy” of the prophecy also seems to follow a set pattern. First, the mythic sits together with the seeker, sends a prayer for fate, licks the palm of the seeker, and delivers the prophecy.

This last part depends on the herald. Some proclaim poetry; some draw a painting, sing a song, or write a single word.

More often than not, the prophecy is so general that it’s irrelevant, which usually amuses the herald, who will shrug and laugh at the boring faith of the seeker.

This usually doesn’t end well, giving bad fame to the heralds. In some worlds, they are outright banned from entering, and there are cases of heralds being beaten to death after delivering a “bad prophecy.”

Nevertheless, the common folk seems to believe in the power of Vignus, and most of them try not to engage with the heralds as if fate can be avoided by preventing its reading.

This Punaab of yours tried to strike a deal with the fortune teller but, unfortunately, was dismissed with an enigmatic denial: It’s still not the right time.

While we await “the right time,” the Punaab Whisper will keep investigating this suspicious group, which seems to live up to the worst names they are called for.

Thank you for your patronage, as usual, and keep your eyes open for the next edition of your favorite reporter publication!

Updates

In the second part of the Atlas Star, we summarize the latest updates and events since the last publication.

Star Atlas CORE Episode 5 is Out!

The fifth episode of CORE, the Star Atlas Graphic Novel, is ready for minting! In this issue, the mighty Punaab Huricanno makes a decision about the fate of Gyun’s party, as the group is hunted down by everyone in Mondra 7.

On our hero’s front, Gyun and Moda discover that the mysterious Ustur Timpo has as many talents as secrets, and he shares his plan with his unwilling partners, aiming for a place far, amidst the stars.

Learn the truth by acquiring your readable NFTs! Remember that the last day to acquire your own CORE Episode 05 is March 22, 2023. So mark this date on the calendar so as not to miss the opportunity!

As always, make sure to pay attention to the ARC cipher and unlock the secrets of CORE. If you haven’t checked out Episodes #1, #2, #3, and #4, you risk missing out on all the fun!

You can also sign up for the newsletter here and get extra lore content about Star Atlas.

The Atlas Brew

The restless members of the Atlas Brew had some awesome theorycrafting sessions around every subject pertaining to the Star Atlas metaverse! Check out our member’s discussions in the links below:

Episode # 51 — Politics — Freestyle and Community Updates — The Atlas Brew #51

Episode # 52 — Economics — The Impact of the New Releases in the Economy of Star Atlas — The Atlas Brew #52

Episode # 53 — Politics — In-game utility of POLIS — The Atlas Brew #53

Roadmap Report

Project: UE5 Showroom — R2.1

General /// Level Art: BUILDING /// Engineering: BUILDING /// Gameplay: BUILDING /// Game Design: Building /// SFX: BUILDING /// Veh: BUILDING /// Characters: BUILDING /// UX/UI: BUILDING /// Animation: BUILDING

Updates:

Started conversations with Kudelsky about UE5 features. /// 1. Volant Station map: Ground racetrack — WIP — Working on the Fence gate (race start) — Working on landscape biome and props of racetrack — Checkpoints gates — Procedural map generation 2. Train station — Train exterior and interior/// 1. Leaderboard — Converted old Leaderboard into Common UI and implementing the new Leaderbord for Ground race track. — Dogfight Result menu conversion 2. Marketplace implementation updates on BCside — Exchange and Cancel Order completed — Optimized PDA function running in a separate thread — Created Account and Create Order instructions — Created Ledger Device Manager and Transaction manager — Started UI implementation 3. X4 hover prototyping — Weight distribution calculation logic for hoverbikes — Pumped up the rotational friction — Implementing X4 launch mode — Work on float and acceleration curves — Springs now ignore collisions with walls — Overhauled ship speed limiter so it works as intended 4. BP refactor 4.1. Gameplay Ability system implemented — Working on GAS for HealthAttributeSet and CharacterAttributeSet — First implementation of thrusters in GAS — Fixing replication bugs 4.2. Clean up — Fields/Variables in BP_PlayerShip and BP_FlightModel 4. Gravity for Train — train movement component for single player implemented — bugfixing for MP 5. Text chat — Global chats working in UI 6. Cha customization tool in progress — Save and load customization to player profile — in progress 7. Voice chat join by chat ID . /// 1. Adding new GAS 2. The Jetpack prototype is done 3. Redo Ship Hud Speed, Fuel, and Heat bars like Lyra ammo counter to save performance. /// Working on X4 prototyping with engs. /// Progress on the Airbike, Lowbie, Jets SFX. /// Reprioritizing animation and vfx tasks. FloydLine — Adding Character. VSUS Solo — Review on Seating. VSUS Opod — Engine construction. Calico Scud — Review on Seating. Pearce C11 — On Hold. BYOS Pack Lite — Final Art. Pearce R6 — Working on Mech Arm. Pearce X6 — Habitation polish, Recreation room, Underbelly refinement. ECOS Unibomba — Rescaling BP. Lowbie — Rescaling. ECOS Greenader — Front bottom part detailing. Pearce X4 — Animation. Opal JetJet — Animation. Opal Jet — Size rework. /// Texture fixes for 2.1 — in progress. Squid octopus is ready to be implemented. MUD, Mierese, and Ustur characters — in progress. /// Jetpack and additional animation for characters in progress.

Upcoming activities: 1. Completion of the release 2.1 scope.

Project: SAGE v0

Game Design: BUILDING /// Blockchain: BUILDING /// UX/UI: BUILDING /// Web: BUILDING ///

Updates: Updated game design for the new iterative launch of the Mining and Crafting Release. /// Continuing to work on “Blockchain Playground,” which helps the team test all SAGE blockchain programs with a simplified UI. /// Working closely with the Web team to provide design feedback for the upcoming release. /// Continued to polish the front end for the upcoming release that tests fully on chain, real-time movement. /// Merged audio manager

Upcoming activities: Continue to define explicit requirements for core gameplay mechanics and incorporate feedback from SAGE stakeholders. /// Build, peer review, and test programs on testnet, then audit. /// Adjust designs for Mining and Crafting wireframes and continue to provide design feedback. /// Prepare for launch. Start UI layer for Mining and Crafting screens.

Note: all on-chain programs associated with SAGE will undergo cybersecurity and threat modeling prior to the official launch.

Project: Star Atlas DAO — Usability Improvements

Product: BUILDING /// Web: BUILDING /// UX design: BUILDING /// Data: BUILDING ///

Updates: v.0.3.10: Changes to locker info panels Web2.5 authentication implementation scoping. /// Design component planning completed. /// Refining designs. /// Development pipeline improvements

Upcoming activities: Engineering authentication solution for web3→web2 login.

Project: Graphic Novel

Art: BUILDING /// UX/UI: BUILDING

Updates: Episode 5 done; Episode 6 is in progress. /// Episode 5 released.

Upcoming activities: Finish all promotional materials. /// Make the next Episode available.

Project: Play.staratlas.com

Features / Bug fixes: Live updated to v0.5.269 PRE-ALPHA. /// Graphic Novel: CORE Episode 5 launched.

Features in pipeline: Star-atlas-portal. SCORE Claim Stakes app. Player Profile Program integration. DAC Platform. Faction Claims

ABOUT STAR ATLAS

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

Using Unreal Engine 5’s Nanite, real-time graphics technology allows for cinematic quality video game visuals. In addition, blockchain technology using the Solana protocol establishes a largely serverless and secured gameplay experience. Non-fungible tokens obtained and traded within Star Atlas create an economy that replicates tangible world assets and ownership. To learn more, visit StarAtlas.com, join a faction at Play.StarAtlas.com and send your spaceships on a deep space mission by enrolling them in a Faction Fleet.

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Disclaimer

The updates in this report are provided for informational purposes only about the Star Atlas game and metaverse, for which ATMTA, Inc. is the lead developer. Except for statements of historical fact, the statements included herein are forward-looking statements that are based on the beliefs of ATMTA, Inc.’s management as well as assumptions made by and information currently available to ATMTA, Inc.’s management. Although ATMTA, Inc.’s management believes these forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, there can be no assurance that forward-looking statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. ATMTA, Inc. undertakes no obligation to update forward-looking statements if circumstances or management’s estimates or opinions should change except as required under applicable law. These forward-looking statements are, by their nature, subject to significant risks and uncertainties and include, without limitation, statements about ATMTA, Inc.’s business prospects, future developments, industry and market trends and conditions, strategies, objectives, and goals. These statements are not guarantees of future performance and undue reliance should not be placed on them. No financial, tax, or legal advice is given or implied.