Star Traders: Frontiers News

Update #295 focuses solely on UI improvements around a big part of any Star Traders job -- plotting routes through the void, from one quadrant to the next, sometimes running missions, sometimes seeking grav services and sometimes hunting deals on cargo.

These improvements all stem directly from requests here on the Steam boards, so thank you for posting them. Also, a big thanks goes out to everyone helping us share the game, leave a review or tell a friend.

The Hunna Snakes Rule! challenge is in mid swing this month, so if you're looking for a new way to play and experience the void, this is a great way to test your limits --
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/335620/view/3225150323270014742

Speaking of new, new new -- if word hasn't trickled down from the tippity top of the New Boston spires, leaked below the streets and drip-drip-dripped into your safehouse, we're here to tell you about our upcoming turn-based cyberpunk heist RPG. Cyber Knights: Flashpoint will be coming to Steam in 2022 and mixes stealth, hacking and tactical combat with deep RPG elements and a unique heist system for missions. The wishlist button is calling your name, Knight.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1021210?snr=1_2108_9__2107


[h2]Galactic Map Hovers[/h2]
We've added 2 major improvements to the hovers over quadrants on the galactic map.

The first is to display a list of all Contacts who reside in that quadrant and are known by name, where previously we gave a simple count. This can help you look for specific contacts by name or by type as you plan your way across the stars.



Second -- specifically for mission runners -- we've added some very important details about offered and accepted missions. Again, where previously there was simply a count ("3 offered missions") we are now showing the mission title and the Contact who gave or is offering the mission. Now, when previewing missions from your Contact mission screen, you can make sense of the larger spread of missions and make better choices, faster.


[h2]Search Examples and Boolean Logic (AND, OR)[/h2]
To help more players find and use search effectively, we've added a set of hovers over the Contact and Star Atlas search boxes. These give a pretty awesome set of examples you are not going to want to miss. With the right search terms, you can find what you're looking for faster with just search over filters but the two combine nicely.



In addition to combining with filters, you can now use up to 2 search phrases combined with either OR or AND logic. Search likes "edicts AND trade permits", "sells water pur AND sells advanced med" come into play and make looking for higher value combinations much easier and faster.



As always, we love working directly off some of the best feedback on the Steam forums. We're grinding through a cycle of QoL and UI improvements before diving back into a summer of story content, so post up your good ideas now :D

[h2]v3.2.41 - 5/15/2022[/h2]
- Quadrant hover in galactic map now lists accepted and offered mission title and contact
- Quadrant hover in galactic map now lists known Contact by title and name
- Contact / System Atlas / Map Preview search now support use of one OR and AND per search (spy recruits AND edicts)
- Contact / System Atlas / Map Preview search boxes now have hovers with useful examples included

[h2]End of Month Wrap-up:[/h2]

(original challenge description below)

This last month you all have shown your Indie stripes and refused to play any games for “the man.” You and your crew did just fine on the fringes! Who needs trade permits when you’ve got smugglers? Who needs high-level shipyards when you’ve got- okay, well, maybe that would’ve been nice. But still!

It’s been a lot of fun reading your stories and hearing about your adventures. If you want to catch up on the fun, you can check out the challenge discussion thread and head to our Discord and go to #hunna_snakes_rule_challenge.

[h3]A few highlights:[/h3] MasterShake, for engaging Captain’s Logs with stories of combat gone wrong (crew member ☠) and gone surprisingly right (3 non-combat crew and a medic holding their ground against enemy boarders).



Lord Duluth for keeping Indie crew members on board who normally wouldn’t make the cut. When you live on the edges, you work with who (or what) is available.

Innocent and aware17, along with MasterShake, for coming in with crews that were nearly all Indie at the end of the challenge. 👏👏👏



Swuul for entertaining narratives on the challenges of helping the Hunna. Who knew it would be nearly impossible to find Advanced Electronics?

Steven of the Seven Sails, who along with Swuul was practically writing full fan-fiction stories for us all and getting lots of nice spice reactions in the Discord.



Great work, Captains! There are so many more of you who participated in the challenge, shared great screenshots and stories; thank you all! Of course, even though May is over, we would love to hear about your try at this challenge (or any of the previous community challenges) any time you’re looking for a fun twist to your playthrough.

[h3]Stay tuned for future challenges![/h3]



It’s been a while, but we are back with a new challenge for the month of May 2022!

Star Traders are independent and don’t need the establishment to be successful. In this challenge, we want to see you reject those faction phonies. You play by your own rules, and if they don't like it: tough. Who will acquire success without ever being part of "the system" -- and who isn’t afraid to make some enemies along the way?



To qualify for this challenge, your Captain must never acquire a military rank, edict, or even a trade permit with any faction. Your Captain must also never accept missions from any Contact representing "the man" -- Princes, Warrant Officers, Military Officers -- Only those who flaunt those rules are worth are consideration. No missions from ANY Contact unless:

• they also offer Black Market access
  
• are Hunna / Independents
  
• are Calagan Faen or Valencia, up to the point Valencia joins the Hunna
  

All other Contact services, such as selling Intel, recruiting and purchasing equipment are allowed with any Contact, regardless of their affliation.

Show and tell us about your fiercely independent captain and crew with screenshots and stories, stats, let’s plays, interpretive dance videos, etc. You can share them here or in our Discord. At the end of the month, we’ll highlight several with the Trese Brothers flashlight.



[h3]Show your indie stripes and boast about:[/h3]

• Your favorite Indie Planet, your ship, your Indie crew with screenshots
  
• How you built your Indie crew, stories of missions from your favorite Indie/Hunna contact, and the challenges of working on the fringes
  
• Your strategies to survive outside the system: making money, finding supplies, trading partners, upgrading/buying ships
  
• Stats of your reputation with various factions, number of missions you complete
  
• Your own creative edits / showcases / celebrations of your adventures
  

No matter what you share, we ask that you include at least one screenshot of your “Indie crew roster.” Show off your coolest officers and crew and their Indie flag!

If you post in the Discord, please post in the #hunna_snakes_rule_challenge channel in the STF category.

We've opened up a discussion on the general forum for all posts, questions and shares for this challenge!

Can’t wait to see ‘em Captains. Stick it to “the man!”

With Update #294, Star Traders: Frontiers joins the celebration of everything rogue-y on Steam with a 35% discount, improved carrier meta, better ship dry dock UI and improvements to the recently added auto battle option in crew combat. Thanks to everyone in the community for posting feedback and suggestions! Check out the full details below --

[h2]What’s the latest on Cyber Knights?[/h2]
We're recently back from Cyber Knights: Flashpoint’s demo stint on the floor at PAX East where we joined the PAX Rising showcase, a group of 12 indie dev's hand picked by the Penny Arcade team. With that exciting show behind us, we're back to the private alpha test for our 1,000+ Kickstarter backers and back on the long march to release on Steam. So, cyberpunk heist RPG lovers -- make sure you’ve wishlisted (and followed!), or join us for behind-the-scenes discussion and development snapshots in our Discord.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1021210/Cyber_Knights_Flashpoint/

[h2]Craft Meta Shift[/h2]
With Update #294, we have removed the original (and confusing) rule that Skill points from Wing Jobs that involved getting into a craft -- such as Wing Leader, Bomber, Commado and Saboteur -- did not count toward the Skill pools to operate and run your capital ship. While this had some merit in the game's meta and balance, it is overly complicated especially in the case for Officers or Wing Bomber's Tactics Skill. With Update #294, we've removed the rule which is a net positive for carrier crew and craft -- the Skills of your craft pilots contribute to Ship pools like everyone else.


[h2]Better Dry Dock[/h2]
When previewing a ship in Dry Dock or looking to install a new component within the ship starport, a ship now correctly displays its bonuses stack like +Accuracy %, +Escape Dice, etc. This is especially helpful when shopping for ships to get a clear idea of what types of bonuses are coming out of the gate with the hull and its default components.

We also fixed one reported crash while selling ships. Thanks to everyone reporting bugs!


[h2]Auto-Battle Fixes[/h2]
A big thanks to everyone sharing feedback and posting bugs on the new Auto-Battle feature. We've now resolved the one class of bug that was reported -- that various movement Talents could feasibly move your own squad into the enemy ranks and just .... mess *everything* up! With this fix in #294, everything is looking clean for Auto-Battle to ride into the sunset and slay endless enemy combat crews!

[h2]Hideout Clarification[/h2]
We've provided a much needed clarification to the Smuggler's "Hideout" Talent with this update -- specifically that this Talent only protects mission packages, prisoners and passengers and not regular cargo from search and seizure. Based on the discussion around this clarification, we've started looking into how we could add some of the other possibility -- hidden smuggler compartments -- that would actually hide illegal *cargo* from search and seizure. We'd love to hear you thoughts on this one!

[h2]v3.2.39 - 5/2/2022[/h2]
- Boost for Carrier-meta: all Wing Jobs (Leader, Bomber, Commando, Saboteur, Tech) now contribute their skill pools normally to ship
- Ship Upgrade and Ship Dry Dock now correctly lists bonuses like +Accuracy and +Escape
- Fixed Auto-Battle issue with Talents moving your team forward or backward would push them into enemy lines
- Clarified description of Smuggler's "Hideout" Talent to be clear -- only protects mission items
- Fixed bugs with some modal dialogs crashing on double click
- Fixes issues with crash reporting

Hey Captains, we're back at PAX this year!

Our upcoming game Cyber Knights: Flashpoint was selected for the PAX Rising Showcase, a group of 12 indie games hand-picked by the PAX team for a spot in the Expo Hall.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1021210/Cyber_Knights_Flashpoint/

Even if you're not going to PAX, this means more in store for you, including a new studio chat in Discord next week (Star Traders questions always welcome!), and a giveaway of one of these awesome Cyber Knights posters:



Follow @TreseBrothers on twitter for sights from the show! (You know Star Traders is on twitter and Facebook too, right?)

[h2]If you're also going to PAX...[/h2]
You'll find us 10am-6pm in the PAX Rising section of the Expo Hall, booth #13091.



We'll have:

• a playable Cyber Knights demo level, with three different versions of the Vanguard for you to choose from
  
• at least two more chances to win a Cyber Knights poster
  
• a unique photo opportunity
  
• a ton of excitement to chat with anyone who's already a Trese Brothers fan!
  

Hope to see you there! Have a great weekend!

Update #293 follows on after Update #300 (what madness is this, it's April Fools!) with a major quality of life upgrade for combat captains, a powerful balance improvement for mission runners, new content for the crew barks system and fixes for Blade Dancer and the Templar storyline. We're hard at work again, knocking off the major quality of life and rebalance requests from the community. If you are enjoying the improvements, please take a moment to leave a review, post some feedback or share our game with a friend.

[h2]What’s the latest on Cyber Knights?[/h2]
Earlier this year, Cyber Knights: Flashpoint’s private alpha test went live for our Kickstarter backers, following the same tried-and-true process we used for Star Traders: Frontiers. With a thousand players in the game now, development pace has picked up and we’re on the long march to release on Steam, so make sure you’ve wishlisted (and followed!), or join us for behind-the-scenes discussion and development snapshots in our Discord.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1021210/Cyber_Knights_Flashpoint/


[h2]Auto-Battle![/h2]
When it comes time for the rapid takedown, we've made a lot of improvements over the last year to help combat captains play faster. An upgraded suite of keyboard shortcuts and the high speed combat option to skip animation and SFX have both helped. But compared to the newest Auto Battle option, these previous improvements are tepid spice beer compared to a heaping spice plate.

Auto Battle --

• Uses the same AI controlling the enemy to control your team
  
• Uses all your Talents, healing and attacks automatically
  
• Resolves combats very quickly, especially when combined with Fast Combat option
  
• Can win easily if you are in a commanding position -- if you outclass the enemy or you've already cleared half the enemy team, Auto Battle will help you mop up. If the enemy is a lineup of E-Techs and Navigators, Auto Battle can give you that rapid takedown experience.
  
• Should be used carefully in evenly matched combats where every decision counts. In closely balanced battles, Auto Battle will duke it out but will not be able to use your team's combat builds as optimally as you could.
  
• Can be quickly turned off - click the toggle to get control again
  
• Will never Surrender and always fight to the death
  
• Is not responsible for deaths to your team members -- Use at your own risk!
• Starts disabled with each new combat. To a void mistakes where Auto Battle runs the first few (woops!) turns of a xeno combat, it always starts disabled
  

Auto Battle always starts disabled and as soon as you engage it your team will take care of the rest. We recommend trying out Auto Battle option in a few safe situations -- when the enemy is down to 2 crew, when the enemy is far lower level than you, when your fighting mostly enemy ship crew boarding -- to see how it feels with your combat crew. The Auto Battle AI uses basically the same AI as the enemy, so it may not be able to use your combat crews optimally, may not buff in the order you like or may heal less than you'd chose to -- etc.

We're excited to hear your feedback -- especially from boarding-heavy captains -- to see how this helps and what we could do to further tune the Auto Battle AI.



[h2]Red Badge Priority Drop[/h2]
With Update #293, Reputation mitigation Talents like the Diplomat's "Adept Mediation" or Spy's "Stealth Op" will activate before the Bounty Hunter's more generalist "Red Badge". This is a boon to captains who specialize in these skill-focused Talents, enabling you to save your Red Badge for a later mission step that might not have Stealth or Negotiation options.

The Bounty Hunter bearing an Edict has always been able to use Red Badge to reduce Reputation loss on any type of mission step in urban zones (not Exploring). Historically, it always went first. Many captains found this to be a disadvantage to the newer Rep mitigation Talents and we've finally caught up with the change that activates Red Badge always as a last resort.


[h2]Clarified Ritualized Retreat[/h2]
We have fixed the description of the Blade Dancer's "Ritualized Retreat" Talent to be much clearer about what Black Market cards it can protect against -- that is, only cards that include "Cargo Lost" in their title specifically. It does not protect against encountering hostile security squads.

[h2]New Barks -- Thanks Twitch![/h2]
In a recent Twitch stream on our Twitch channel, Cory hung out and chatted and gathered awesome suggestions from the community to improve and add to the already huge set of barks in the game. Another 20 entries were added for specific Traits.

[h2]v3.2.37 - Rapid Takedowns[/h2]
- Enabled hotkey and button to toggle auto-combat in Crew Combat (AI will resolve for you)
- Added button to toggle fast combat in crew combat
- Added 20 new barks for crew Traits
- Adjusted order of Mission Rep Loss mitigation Talents -- Blood Badge will run AFTER other specific Skill (Stealth, etc) Talents
- Corrected description of Blade Dancer's "Ritualized Retreat" Talent to only cover Cargo Lost cards
- Fixed bug allowing reclaiming (and then using) Templar gear