SAGE Gameplay Overview

SAGE C4 is a major expansion and update of the Star Atlas strategy game.

For beginners: SAGE C4 is where the game world lives on-chain. The other foundation programs explain who the player is and which faction they belong to.

Strategic Game Layer

SAGE C4 is built around fleets, faction conflict, starbases, navigation, resources, crafting, progression, and territorial economics. In practical developer terms, it is the game layer that turns a Player Profile and Profile Faction into visible player actions.

The classic SAGE loop moves players away from passive emissions and toward player-driven activity: gather resources, burn inputs, craft outputs, move goods, defend infrastructure, and make choices that affect faction and local economy state. C4 expands that loop on the z.ink testnet; the generated clients let developers inspect the accounts and instructions behind the browser game.

The newer generated areas belong to the same strategic loop: loyalty and ATLAS rewards are tied to active faction-supporting play, crew is a real gameplay access and utility layer, and C4 territory is organized around regions, King Systems, Core Systems, safe and border state, and faction-controlled warp lanes.

Program role

@staratlas/dev-sage manages the main game state:

• game and world configuration
• star systems, regions, celestial bodies, and starbases
• player fleets and fleet state
• movement through subwarp, warp lanes, and coordinates
• cargo pods, resource movement, and inventory-like flows
• mining, scanning, and loot
• crafting recipes, habs, and crafting processes
• claim-stake instances and planetary production loops
• local markets
• faction ownership/economics, missions, quests, encounter pools, loyalty rewards, crew rosters, outlaw flags, territory yield, starbase upgrades, combat, repair, respawn, research, and daily check-ins

Game Concept to Program Surface

Game concept	C4 program surface
Player identity and authority	@staratlas/dev-player-profile, Profile, PlayerName, profile keys, roles, permission bytes
Faction alignment	@staratlas/dev-profile-faction, ProfileFactionAccount, Faction
Galia map and systems	Game, StarSystem, RegionTracker, CelestialBody
Fleets and movement	Fleet, FleetState, startSubwarp, stopSubwarp, warpLane, warpToCoordinate
Starbases and faction infrastructure	nested Starbase, StarbasePlayer, StarbaseUpgradeProcess
Resources and localized inventory	CargoPod, CargoDefinitionsCache, fleet cargo pods, starbase-player cargo, local-market cargo
Crafting and habs	Recipe, CraftingHabInstance, CraftingProcess
Claim stakes and land operations	ClaimStakeInstance, claim-stake placement, rent, buildings, production, fleet transfer
Local markets and trade	LocalMarket, OrderBookSide, OrderInfo, bid/ask builders
Scanning and loot	ScanPattern, ScanPatternNoiseMapUpload, Loot, scan, retrieveLoot
Combat, repair, and respawn	attackFleet, attackStarbase, repair builders, respawn completion builders, reward registry/config/epoch/contribution accounts
Encounters and rewards	EncounterPool, EncounterCommit, AtlasRewardConfig, LoyaltyEpoch, resolveCombatRewards, claimLoyaltyAtlas
Faction economics and territory	FactionAccount, FactionStanding, FactionMarket, FactionOwnership, claimTerritoryYield, faction-market trade builders
Missions and quests	MissionProcess, QuestProcess, mission start/settle/abort builders, quest start/complete/cancel builders
Council rank, XP, research, check-ins	Character, XpInfo, ResearchTreeDefinitions, dailyCheckIn, research unlock/config builders

Foundation dependencies

SAGE gameplay accounts do not replace the foundation programs:

Layer	Program	What it manages
Identity	Player Profile	Profile authority, keys, names, roles, and permissions
Faction	Profile Faction	Faction selected by a profile
Gameplay	SAGE	Fleets, world state, economy loops, progression, and combat

See Player Profile and Profile Faction for the identity, authority, and faction context reused by SAGE gameplay accounts.

Gameplay Domains

These domains connect game concepts to generated accounts:

Fleets

Fleet accounts are a good first SAGE domain because they visibly connect profile identity, faction, ships, cargo, fuel, movement, and combat state.

Generated anchors:

• account: Fleet
• PDA helper: findFleetPda
• examples: fetchMaybeFleet, fetchAllMaybeFleet

Workflow: Fleet Creation Workflow

Starbases

Starbases are important places for storage, crafting, movement, repairs, upgrades, and faction conflict.

Generated anchors:

• account: StarbasePlayer
• account: StarbaseUpgradeProcess
• instructions around starbase attack, repair, upgrade, and player registration

Crafting

Crafting connects resources, recipes, habs, crew-like constraints, and production timers.

Generated anchors:

• account: Recipe
• account: CraftingHabInstance
• account: CraftingProcess
• instructions around starting, stopping, closing, and managing crafting processes

Related guide: Crafting

Workflow: Crafting Process Workflow

Claim stakes

Claim stakes are the land and planetary-production layer.

Generated anchors:

• account: ClaimStakeInstance
• instructions around stake creation, updates, rent, resource extraction, and fleet transfer

Related guide: Claim Stakes

Workflow: Claim Stake Placement Workflow

Local markets

Local markets connect starbase location, cargo types, ATLAS-denominated order books, and player escrow.

Generated anchors:

• account: LocalMarket
• PDA helper: findLocalMarketPda
• instructions around market creation, close, order placement, cancellation, and cleanup

Related guide: Local Markets

World data

World data covers game configuration, star systems, celestial bodies, regions, and staging accounts for large definition updates.

Generated anchors:

• account: Game
• account: StarSystem
• account: CelestialBody
• account: RegionTracker
• upload accounts: RegionBorderUpload, ShipDefinitionUpload

Related guide: World Data

Mining, scanning, and loot

Mining and scanning connect fleet activity, scan patterns, loot tables, coordinates, and generated loot accounts.

Generated anchors:

• account: ScanPattern
• account: ScanPatternNoiseMapUpload
• account: Loot
• instructions around mining, scanning, retrieving loot, and scan-pattern admin

Related guide: Mining, Scanning, and Loot

Workflow: Scanning Workflow

Cargo and currency

Cargo and currency are shared accounting surfaces used by fleets, starbases, markets, crafting, claim stakes, and admin vault flows.

Generated anchors:

• account: CargoDefinitionsCache
• account: CurrencyConfigCache
• types: CargoPod, SingleCargo, CargoType, Resources, Currencies

Related guide: Cargo and Currency

Character and progression

Character and progression covers SAGE-specific player state: check-ins, XP, research, rentals, crew, and modifiers.

Generated anchors:

• account: Character
• PDA helper: findCharacterPda
• instructions around registration, daily check-in, XP, research, crew, and rentals

Related guide: Character and Progression

Extended systems

Crew rosters, faction territory, encounters, combat rewards, loyalty, missions, quests, and research extend the same Profile → Character → Game hierarchy. They are grouped separately because several flows still need live PTR verification before they are safe to send.

Related guide: Extended C4 Systems