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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.

Iris' Star Atlas KB adds important framing for the newer generated areas: LP/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/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 conceptC4 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 systemsGame, StarSystem, RegionTracker, CelestialBody
Fleets and movementFleet, FleetState, startSubwarp, stopSubwarp, warpLane, warpToCoordinate
Starbases and faction infrastructurenested Starbase, StarbasePlayer, StarbaseUpgradeProcess
Resources and localized inventoryCargoPod, CargoDefinitionsCache, fleet cargo pods, starbase-player cargo, local-market cargo
Crafting and habsRecipe, CraftingHabInstance, CraftingProcess
Claim stakes and land operationsClaimStakeInstance, claim-stake placement, rent, buildings, production, fleet transfer
Local markets and tradeLocalMarket, OrderBookSide, OrderInfo, bid/ask builders
Scanning and lootScanPattern, ScanPatternNoiseMapUpload, Loot, scan, retrieveLoot
Combat, repair, and respawnattackFleet, attackStarbase, repair builders, respawn completion builders, reward registry/config/epoch/contribution accounts
Encounters and rewardsEncounterPool, EncounterCommit, AtlasRewardConfig, LoyaltyEpoch, resolveCombatRewards, claimLoyaltyAtlas
Faction economics and territoryFactionAccount, FactionStanding, FactionMarket, FactionOwnership, claimTerritoryYield, faction-market trade builders
Missions and questsMissionProcess, QuestProcess, mission start/settle/abort builders, quest start/complete/cancel builders
Council rank, XP, research, check-insCharacter, XpInfo, ResearchTreeDefinitions, dailyCheckIn, research unlock/config builders

Foundation dependencies

SAGE gameplay accounts do not replace the foundation programs:

LayerProgramWhat it manages
IdentityPlayer ProfileProfile authority, keys, names, roles, and permissions
FactionProfile FactionFaction selected by a profile
GameplaySAGEFleets, world state, economy loops, progression, and combat

When a SAGE page mentions a player, profile, or faction, link back to the foundation pages instead of redefining those concepts.

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

Page: 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

Page: 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

Page: 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

Page: 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

Page: 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

Page: 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

Page: Character and Progression

Page Pattern

For every gameplay domain page:

  1. Start with the relevant game concept.
  2. List the generated accounts and instructions.
  3. Show one read-only account example.
  4. Only then add state-changing examples with signer, account, and simulation notes.