“`html
Star Atlas Gets a Big Upgrade! (May 2025 Patch Explained)
Hey everyone, John here! Get ready for some exciting news if you’re playing Star Atlas. The game just got a fresh update in May 2025, and it’s packed with cool improvements. Let’s break it down in a way that’s super easy to understand, even if you’re new to all this GameFi stuff.
This update brings a completed Pearce X5 spaceship, an upgraded Paizul’s Arena, dedicated servers (finally!), and a whole bunch of other tweaks and fixes. The monthly updates will take a short break to prepare for a bigger mid-year release, which includes gunplay matchmaking and a progression system.
What’s Awesome in This Update? The Highlights
Here’s a quick list of the biggest changes:
- Dedicated Servers: For gunplay matches with 4+ players. This should make the game run smoother!
- New Lobby System: Easier to join and host multiplayer games.
- Paizul’s Arena Overhaul: The arena got a makeover! Plus, the Gateway map got redesigned.
- Pearce X5 Completion: The Pearce X5 spaceship is finally finished and looking good.
- Custom Keybinds: You can now change what keys do what on your keyboard and better controller support.
- Co-op Dogfighting: Team up with a friend to take down enemy spaceships!
- Multiplayer Racing Improvements: Racing is now better than ever.
- Mining Minigame Improvements: Mining is getting some love too!
Gunplay Gets a Makeover
If you like shooting things, you’re in luck! The gunplay in Star Atlas has been adjusted to feel better. Here’s how:
- Faster Deaths: They’ve tweaked the damage so people die faster.
- Faster Weapon Swapping: Switching guns is now quicker.
- Accuracy Fixes: No more easy sniper shots without aiming down the sights!
- Bot Changes: The training bots no longer start with a grenade.
And there are new weapons, too!
- New Shotgun: A brand new shotgun model has been added.
- Weapon Skins: New weapon models that can support skins have been added.
- Gatling Gun Changes: The Gatling gun now has a spin-up and spin-down delay.
- Bouncy Grenades: Grenades now bounce more.
- Rifle Changes: You now start with Auto Rifles, so the old Auto Rifle spawns will now be Scout Rifles.
- Melee Improvements Lag compensation support for melee hit detection.
- Weapon Spawner Increased pickup radius on weapon spawners.
HUD Improvements
The Heads-Up Display (HUD) is what shows you important info in the game. It’s been improved with:
- Better Minimap: The minimap is now more helpful. It shows building interiors, vehicles, trains, race gates, and more.
- Wall Indicator: If your bullets hit a wall, you’ll see an “X” on the HUD.
- Kill/Point Tracking: You can now see your kills and points during a match.
- Team Info: See how many people are on each team during team selection.
- Gun Game Winner Icon: New Icon for Gun Game winner.
- Adjusted Bars: Shield, Health and Jettie Juice HUD bars have been adjusted.
- Killstreak Callouts: The game will now announce killstreaks.
- Zone Capture Callouts: The game will now announce zone captures.
- New Animations: Crosshair animations and damage numbers have been added for Grenades and Jettie Melee.
- Missile Indicator: An incoming missile indicator has been added to the Ship HUD.
Exploring Galia (Open World)
The open-world part of Star Atlas, called Galia, has also gotten some cool updates. These make exploring and mining even better.
- New Vehicle Modes: Vehicles have new modes like Combat, Tractor Beam, Scanning, and Mining.
- Tractor Beam: A new way to grab things with your ship!
- Varied Asteroids: Different-sized asteroids for different mining difficulties.
- Mock Credits: You can earn “Mock-Credits” that can be saved between sessions!
- Surface Mining: You can now find mineable resources on planet surfaces.
- Gravity Changes: Vehicles now use gravity volumes instead of portals.
- Optimized API: Optimized API logic for getting gravity on an actor.
- Improved Character Movement: Improved character movement transitions between different gravity directions.
Map Updates: More Fun Places to Fight
The different maps in Star Atlas have been tweaked and improved, too. Here’s a rundown:
- Paizul’s Arena: New textures, better resolution, and destructible pillars!
- Gateway: The layout has been changed to make it easier to get into the action.
- Uru: More progress on the “white box” phase (that means it’s still being worked on).
- Gunplay Trainer: You can now shoot through railings and fly through gaps in the walls.
Multiplayer Enhancements
Playing with friends is now smoother, thanks to these improvements:
- New Lobby Support: Easier to find and join multiplayer games.
- Dedicated Servers: As mentioned earlier, dedicated servers for gunplay matches with 4+ players.
- Vehicle Improvements: Vehicle animations are better, less “rubber banding” (where vehicles jump around), and visibility issues have been fixed.
Racing and Dogfighting Upgrades
If you’re a fan of racing or spaceship battles, you’ll appreciate these changes:
Racing
- Better User Experience: Easier to start a multiplayer race.
- Reverse Races: You can now race in reverse!
- Jump Pads: New jump pads have been added to the tracks.
- Time Fixes: A variety of issues surrounding vehicle race times on a leaderboard have been fixed.
- Wrong Way Indicator: A wrong-way/missed checkpoint HUD indicator has been added.
Dogfighting
- Co-op Dogfighting: Team up with a friend to take down enemy ships!
- Drop Pickups: Added drop pickups after you destroy enemy AI spaceships.
- Improved AI: The enemy AI is now smarter.
- New Leaderboard: A new leaderboard has been added.
Vehicle Improvements
Ships have also received a number of upgrades, with the most important being:
- Pearce X5 Added the Pearce X5 with final art.
- Pearce R6 Fixed a variety of issues with the Pearce R6.
- XXS Ships Adjusted the handling of various XXS ships.
- Improved Nametags Improved nametag support for possessed vehicles.
- Equipment Groups Restored the ability to customize equipment groups in vehicle configurator.
- Subwarp Notification Added new HUD notification when trying to subwarp with insufficient fuel.
Character Improvements
- Jettie Dashing Improved jettie dashing while hovering.
- Chained Movement Added the ability to chain movement abilities.
- Knee Direction Fixed a character’s knees to point in the direction of motion during a slide.
- Camera Adjustment Adjusted camera for all species.
Sound and Visual Effects
The game now sounds and looks even better!
- New sounds: Game mod voice-overs, weapon swaps, Cockpit wind, Ragdoll Impacts, and states of character (alive/dead).
VFX
- Thruster Change Changed VFX on vehicle thruster.
- Jettie VFX Improved Jettie VFX and adjusted size/location by species.
- Grenade Sparks Added grenade sparks on bounces.
- New Waterfall Added new waterfall VFX.
- Tracer Lifespan Decreased lifetime of weapon tracers.
Under the Hood: Optimizations
Behind the scenes, the developers have been working hard to make the game run smoother and more efficiently.
- Galaxy Requests Refactored galaxy requests system.
- Unreal Engine Upgrade Upgraded to Unreal Engine 5.5.4.
- Weapon Effects Migrated and refactored all Weapon Effects logic to C++.
- Possession Logic Improved character/vehicle possession logic.
Bug Fixes
Of course, no update is complete without fixing a bunch of annoying bugs. They’ve squashed a ton of them!
Lila: John, that’s a LOT of bug fixes! What does “memory leak” mean?
John: Good question, Lila! A “memory leak” is like forgetting to turn off the water in your house. The water (in this case, computer memory) keeps running and running until it eventually causes problems, like slowing down your computer.
I won’t list them all here, but they’ve fixed issues with:
- Visual glitches
- HUD problems
- Missile damage
- Character respawning
- Team selection
- And many more!
What is Star Atlas?
Lila: Okay, this all sounds cool, but what even IS Star Atlas?
John: Another great question, Lila! Star Atlas is a game that combines blockchain technology with a massive online world. Think of it like a giant online game where you can own spaceships, explore planets, and earn real money (or crypto) while playing!
According to the original article, 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.
It uses something called Unreal Engine 5 (that’s a fancy way of saying it looks really good) and blockchain technology (which makes sure everything is secure). You can even trade things you earn in the game for real money!
To get started, you can join a faction, get a spaceship, and play the SAGE Labs browser game. You can also download the UE5 PC Game from the Epic Games Store. Don’t forget to participate in the Star Atlas DAO and send your spaceships on deep space missions!
Final Thoughts
John: Overall, this seems like a solid update for Star Atlas. The dedicated servers are a big win, and the other improvements should make the game more fun and engaging. I’m especially excited about the mining improvements!
Lila: Wow, that sounds like a lot of changes! It’s still a little confusing, but I’m starting to get a better picture of what Star Atlas is all about. Maybe I’ll even try it out!
This article is based on the following original source, summarized from the author’s perspective:
Star Atlas May 2025 Patch — Dedicated Servers, Pearce X5,
and Paizul’s Arena Gets a Level Up
“`