Star Traders: Frontiers News

Captains, welcome to the bridge. Please take the chair and get ready for Update #343. Not a typo, that's really 3-4-3. With this update we've got new 3 new high-level ship weapons, the amazing Esteemed Guest Cabin, upgraded enemy ship builder options and the on-going community challenge for Bounty Hunters.

If you're enjoying the years of support and updates, please take a moment to leave a review and check out our other games like Cyber Knights: Flashpoint.

[h2]Calling the Bounty Hunters[/h2]
The community Bounty Hunter challenge has really heated up in the last weeks - get in now to sail the stars and mete our your justice and RP as your favorite famous hunter.
https://steamcommunity.com/games/335620/announcements/detail/4114672134621189282?snr=2___


[h2]Esteemed Guest Cabin[/h2]
This update includes a new ship component suggested by a member of our Discord server. Designed specifically for small ships with mission-centric Captains, we are introducing the humorously named "Esteemed Guest Cabins" which provide a hybrid prison cell - passenger cabin that can hold one Prisoner and 1 Passenger simultaneously. Don't worry -- the quarters are separated by security and thick walls and feature completely different entrances so your high-valued passenger never needs to know they are housed next to some of the galaxy's most wanted.


[h2]New Weapons (thanks Twitch team!)[/h2]
During our Friday Star Traders: Frontiers dev chat on Twitch (join us this Friday, March 29th at 11 AM EST for more fun!) we worked on brainstorming and implementing new weapons based on community input. We added the new ship weapon, Chimera Missile Battery, which has moderate damage but a high chance to inflict devastating crippling effects on your enemy's ship. It is a terrific weapon for opening battles and gaining an advantage at long and medium range.

Also suggested, and named by our captains on Twitch, the new ship weapon Seraphim Railgun Array brings the power of a Medium sized railgun array to Captains who prefer to use 3RP weapons. The design of the Seraphim trades base damage for an increased rate of critical hits. When it scores one, the Seraphim will deliver top-tier damage by stacking high damage dice and massive void damage.


And finally, we've added a new small slot railgun, the Daystar Railgun. The Daystar Railgun provides a high level damage source for small components and is very accurate against both ships and craft. Depending on your ship's build and size, this new railgun array might be perfect for your medium range engagements.

[h2]Enemy Ship Builder Upgrades[/h2]
As new ship components are added to the game, we keep an eye on them and then release them out to the enemy ship builder. Update #343 includes a new batch of high powered ship components released to the enemy ship builder, so beware that your enemies can now use so of these higher end strategies and weapons that have appeared in the last run of updates. The viewers on Twitch were less excited about this development task, but Cory yelled something about "Crew Dog scum!" and kept Morale high by introducting the run of 3 new mighty ship weapons mentioned above.

[h2]Repriced Cabins[/h2]
While we were adding the Esteemed Guest Cabin, we noticed some balance issues and repriced some similar components, specifically the Reinforced Passenger Cabin and Shielded Passenger Cabin. We also fix some incorrect component levels for Passenger Cabins and Prison Cells to make the shipyard sorting better.

[h2]Our new turn-based tactics RPG![/h2]
Cyber Knights: Flashpoint, our stealth & squad tactics heist RPG, launched into Steam Early Access and how is marching to Update #65 as it battles through its ambitious public roadmap. We've just completed the sixth major roadmap milestone on the roadmap with the new Scourge class and the MAGNITUDE update adding 13 new proc-gen objective and map combinations to the the game in one massive swing. If you're looking for a story rich, squad-based RPG, take a minute to follow, wishlist or try Cyber Knights!

All support for Cyber Knights ultimately results in a brighter future for Star Traders, so hope you’ll check it out and spread the word!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1021210/Cyber_Knights_Flashpoint/

[h2]v3.3.99 - 3/28/2024[/h2]
- New Ship Component: Esteemed Guest Cabins (1 Prisoner, 1 Passenger)
- New Ship Weapon: Chimera Missile Battery
- New Ship Weapon: Daystar Railgun (Size Small)
- New Ship Weapon: Seraphim Railgun Array (Size Medium)
- Added some new components to enemy Ship builder
- Repriced Reinforced Passenger Cabin and Shielded Passenger Cabin
- Fixed Ship Component levels for Passenger Cabins and Prison Cells

Welcome to the Steam Spring Sale! Along with the 50% discount, we've got Update #342 with new ship components, fixes for prize ships scoring and pricing, improved distribution of the loot drops in Salvage Relic cards and a pile of fixes suggested by the community.

Thanks to everyone who has supported us on this epic journey to #342 updates and beyond! We hope you'll share the game with a friend and leave a review.

[h2]Cyber Knights is getting lots of updates too![/h2]
If you haven’t checked it out in a bit, our new game Cyber Knights: Flashpoint is evolving fast in Early Access. In February we added the all new Scourge class to the game, unleashing the power of th chem-hive to poison, distract or trick the enemy security forces. And now, at the start of the Spring Sale we just dropped the MAGNITUDE update which simply blows up the variety in proc-gen missions for the game with a total of 10 new mission objective and mission map combos. Come check it out!

All support for Cyber Knights ultimately results in a brighter future for Star Traders, so hope you’ll check it out and spread the word!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1021210/Cyber_Knights_Flashpoint/

[h2]Bounty Hunter Community Challenge[/h2]
We've recently kicked off the latest Star Traders: Frontiers community challenge - the Bounty Hunter themed role-playing challenge. Base your to captain, officers, and playstyle around a famous bounty hunter from a movie, book or comic. Try to style your appearance, names and roles to match the famous character and their crew - and then take on the biggest bounties in the galaxy.
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/335620/view/4114672134621189281

[h2]+3 New Large Fuel Tanks[/h2]
By popular demand, we've added in the final 3 Large Fuel Tanks with levels 5 to 8. At the top end, this can grant a whopping 450 Fuel. If you're in a larger ship and want to install a few of these, you can now guzzle over 1000 Water-Fuel at the starports quite easily. Watch your price-per-unit now, as that can get expensive fast!


[h2]Better Salvage Artifact Distribution[/h2]
We've smoothed out some bumps and issues within the artifact loot tables for Salvage, including both weapons, armor and gear. This should help prevent certain types of results from being repeated too often and increase the chances to draw high-end salvage artifacts if the gear card has a high score.

[h2]Tally Those Prize Ships![/h2]
If you are gaining new ships through your Prize Ship Talents, the now count toward your ships owend score in your captain's overall score. This path to ownership had been missed in the stats, so thanks to the captains who pointed it out for a quick fix.

We've also fixed a bug that could result in $0 prize ships and another reported issue with prize ships ending up at indie zones which generally isn't right.


[h2]Randomize On![/h2]
We had some reports that randomizing your crew from within the roster could lead to crashes. We clicked enough times to make it happen too :D and then fixed it! Now you can randomize to your hearts content. We're looking at adding new elements to the randomization so that you can get a hat or eyewear swapping too. The feature is oddly so fun, it deserves more.

[h2]v3.3.97 - 3/17/2024[/h2]
- By popular demand, added Large Fuel Tank 5-8 (maxing out at 450 Water-Fuel)
- During Radiation Storm Rumors, Crew Mutiny is more likely
- Prize Ships now generate "Owned Ships" Score
- Updated Salvage Artifacts loot tables for better distribution
- Fixed crash that could happen when randomizing appearance in crew roster
- Fixes issue with $0 Prize Ships
- Fixes issue with Indie Prize Courts
- Fixed weak Edgebane Tincture gear
- Fixed weak Hogobloxin Balm gear

Hello, Captains. It’s time for another STF challenge. This challenge is a bit different as it is more of an RP challenge - to theme your captain, officers, and playstyle around being a bounty hunter. Shout out to Füchsingeist for giving us the idea with their themed playthrough.



As always there are a few requirements for this challenge, although they are more guidelines and starting points, rather than hard requirements. For this challenge:

• Your captain must be a bounty hunter
  
• Feel free to theme your run around fictional bounty hunters (Spike and Jet, Han Solo, the Mandalorian, Boba Fett) if you want or create your own original bounty hunter and their team
  

That's it!


Some ideas for what we’d love to see:

• Screenshots of your bounty hunters and their officers
  
• Description of your theme
  
• Tell us about your highest bounty and the story behind it
  
• Any other creative ways you want to share to tell us about the bounty hunter life: memes, interpretive dance, gifs, etc
  

No matter what you choose to share, please include one screenshot of your captain!

We’ve opened up a discussion here on Steam in the General Discussion forum for aIl of your posts. If you post on the discord, post in the #bounty_hunter_challenge channel found in the STF category.



Good luck and have fun, Captains!

Welcome Star Traders and exiled Cyber Knights to another exciting update post for your favorite Star Traders game, Star Traders: Frontiers. 😁 If you haven't already seen, all of the Trese Brothers games and bundles are 33% to 80%-off for the next several days!

This includes the Android and iOS versions of Star Traders and our other games, and we just released a new "Best of Trese Brothers" Steam bundle for a bonus discount on any games you don't already own -- top-down turn-based tactics RPG Templar Battleforce (set in the same universe as Star Traders!), our new squad tactics heist RPG Cyber Knights: Flashpoint, and old-school fantasy tactics in our party-based RPG Heroes of Steel.

https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/37813/Best_of_Trese_Brothers/


[h2]On to the ST:F update! New Talents![/h2]
This update brings two new Rank 15 Talents, one for Spy and one for Quartermaster. The new Quartermaster "Combat Debrief" talent provides a catch-up mechanic for Crew Experience and provides a strong Morale heal following Crew Combat. Depending on how popular this Talent is, we might be releasing a twin brother Talent that provides the same result but for Ship Combat.

The Spy gains "Asset Forfeiture" which is a Prize Ship talent capable of seizing ships during Conflicts, if the Captain holds and Edict and can pay the tithe. Chasing prize ships is a favorite activity for many late game Star Trader: Frontiers players and adding this talent to the Spy has been a popular request. Our hope is that this will open up more Officer builds for players hunting Prize Ships.

We love hearing your ideas for new Rank 15 Talents, even when they are a little bit OP. Keep 'em coming!


[h2]New Ship Components[/h2]
By popular request, we've added "Fuel Tank 8" and "Fuel Tank 9" to hold previously unheard of quantities of fuel. Useful for players building ships with the capacity for many hyperwarp jumps without refueling and available for installation on small and medium sized ships. They are expensive to install, but not particularly expensive to maintain. These components won't become available until after the Plague Era has started, and can only be found in zones with level 9 Economy, 7 Military, 9 Starport.

For an upcoming patch we are testing additional Large Fuel Tank upgrades for players who are building dreadnought-sized behemoths with a terrible thirst for fuel.


[h2]Exploration & Salvage Linked[/h2]
In an effort to provide even more variety and seekable scenarios, and make Salvage Rumors more valuable for more types of builds, we've added some new rules about how Salvage Ops and Explorer interact. The Explorer deck now includes additional reward, and some risks, when a Salvage Rumor is active overhead. During an Orbital Disaster there are increased risk of Ship Damage, but also the possibility of finding valuable components and cargo that was ferried down to the planet from the dying Orbital. Orbital Construction Rumors also modified the Explorer deck increasing the potential to strike it big when Exploring.

We have reworked the very dangerous "Meteor Storm" -5 orbital Risk card to include Navigation or Command in the avoidance save. However, the rule that 25% of the time no save is permitted is still in place -- so watch out for this card. As this card was only included in the deck for a single Rumor, we've also expanded it to be present in all Salvage Operations, albeit at a very low percent.

In keeping with the theme of running a rescue operation during Orbital Disasters, we've added an additional large Reputation Bonus reward card to that Salvage Operations deck. This should help balance out some of the additional risk cards that have been added during the v3.3.x series of updates.

[h2]Shipyard Accountants Strike Back[/h2]
The v3.3.x series of updates has included a large number of fixes, new components and price adjustments, both for install value and maintenance cost. As a result, some of the ship prices have started to drift outside of the expected bands. The accountants at the largest Rychart shipyard have teamed up with a Javat price to push for updated pricing, and here we are. Four ships got more expensive, one ship got a lot cheaper. Several ships received patches and adjustments to fix issues and replace some incorrect components.

[h2]First new class added to our new RPG![/h2]
Cyber Knights has just received a huge update with the new Scourge class, and we wanted to thank all of our players who have helped support all of our games through Early Access and beyond. It makes a big difference to the final quality of the game.

All support for Cyber Knights ultimately results in a brighter future for Star Traders, so hope you’ll check it out and spread the word!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1021210/Cyber_Knights_Flashpoint/

[h2]v3.3.95 - 2/22/2024[/h2]
- New Rank 15 Spy Talent: Asset Forfeiture (Prize Ship w/ Edict)
- New Rank 15 Quartermaster Talent: Combat Debrief (Bonus XP, Morale Recovery)
- New Ship Components: Fuel Tank 8, Fuel Tank 9
- "Meteor Storm" orbital card can now be reduced with Navigation or Command check
- Salvage Ops can now draw "Meteor Storm" card (very low base chance)
- Successful Salvage Ops can now generate Rep Bonus during Orbital Disasters
- Explore operations have additional cards for Orbital Disasters and Orbital Construction Rumors
- Increased the price of "Rim Exocruiser" by 200K credits
- Increased the price of "Basalt Carrier" by 200K credits
- Reduced price of updated "Vark Carrier" by 1M credits
- Increased the price of "Horizon Highliner" by 175K credits
- Increased the price of "Horizon Cruiser" by 175K credits
- Components adjustments for "Obsidian Carrier" and "Larimar Battlecruiser"

Welcome Captains, to the next episode of This Old Star Traders Update. We sincerely hope that you enjoy the twists and turns of 3.3.91. Let's dig into what's changed!

If you're enjoying the continued support and updates for Star Trader: Frontiers, we hope you'll take a moment to review the game, check out Cyber Knights: Flashpoint or tell a friend about our work.


[h2]Outfit / Name Randomization[/h2]
First, by popular request we've ported the outfit and name randomizer out of the appearance screen and promoted them to the Crew details screen of the Roster. This intends to increase the number of players who can see and use this feature, as well as making it easier to re-randomize large parts of your Crew by using Next + Randomize. Be aware, Captain, that changing the appearance and name of your Crew will do nothing to dissuade or confuse Legendry Bounty Hunters, like "Draiv Solregard" who also get a sneaky little buff in v3.3.91

[h2]Improved AI Ship Builder[/h2]
This update also expands the ship component catalog with new components and integrates previously released components into the AI ship architect. With each update, as we release new ship components first they head out to the player base where we can get feedback and observe their balance. Then, after a period of testing, they are released to the AI ship builder.


[h2]Water-Fuel Reclamation 6[/h2]
New for players this time around are two structural components and a new type of Plasma Cannon. First, the new Water-Fuel Reclamation 6 component will help Captains with smaller fuel tanks maintain longer operational cycles by reducing fuel use and offering a rebate on used fuel. This component can also serve a powerful function in ship combat, as attacks that normally would hit the Ship's Engine can be soaked by a Reclamation plant.


[h2]Armored Salvage Bay 6[/h2]
The Armored Salvage Bay 6 provides another upgrade for ships built to Salvage and Explore. The Armored Salvage Bay 6 provides substantially advantages in Salvage while also increasing ship survivability by providing a large amount of Ship's armor. The originally armored salvage bay upgrades were added due to player requests for more Salvage-Combat hybrid components. Salvage operations are always dangerous -- the richest prizes bring all the predators out -- and as a result Ships engaged in Salvage operations are far more likely than Patrol or Spy operators to encounter hostile forces. The Armored Salvage Bay provides enhanced survivability and other minor combat benefits.

[h2]New Obliterator Plasma Cannon[/h2]
Ok and now for the good stuff -- new weapons! The new Obliterator PKX-5 Plasma Cannon will absolutely obliterate your opponents if you can fit it on your ship. Do not attempt to install two of these monsters, that just wouldn't be fair. As a size 3 Plasma Cannon, the Obliterator PKX-5 is now the most devastating mid-range weapon in the game. Previous iterations of the Obliterator line, such as the PKX-3 and Obliterator PKX-1 are size 3 but require a full 4RP to fire, making them difficult to field on all but the largest battleships. The advanced PKX-5 design allows for increased efficiency and plasma coil cooling which means it can be fired for 25% less overall energy while still packing the same devastating punch.


[h2]And Your Fixes![/h2]
We also fixed some small issues players found and reported. We fixed a rare and specific path through the UI that would allow players to pay landing costs twice for the same zone. We changed the rate of Mutiny generation during Xeno Fleet Rumors, without reducing the Morale loss from the Rumor. Crew are less likely to start internal fights when surrounded by Xeno ships. While less common, Mutiny during Xeno Fleet is far from impossible given the difficulty of passing through such sectors.

[h2]v3.3.91 - 2/5/2024[/h2]
- Added randomize name and outfit to crew screen from roster
- New Ship Component: Water-Fuel Reclamation 6
- New Ship Component: Armored Salvage Bay 6
- New Ship Weapon: Obliterator PKX-5 (RP3 Plasma Cannon)
- Fixed re-landing issue where hitting space or clicking would count as a new landing
- Added components from the v3.3.x updates to the AI ship designer
- During Xeno Fleet Rumors, Crew Mutiny is less likely