Star Traders: Frontiers News

Update #277 is full of exciting adds and accompanied by a pile of new mods coming out on the Steam Workshop as well. We've delivered on a longtime community request to decorate Mission listing with action icons, the galactic starports are now installing 4 new types of hybrid barracks, we've buffed Battle Prows and even tweaked the placement of the Skip All button in dialog for faster play. On the Steam Workshop and modding side, we've had thousands of players subscribe to mods and welcomed 10 new mods to the ready-to-play family.

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]Mod Spotlight![/h2]
Modding has been live for a week and we're excited to welcome
[h3]Fly Xeno Ships![/h3]
Have you ever dreamed of flying a xeno ship? Stalking the galaxy in a semi-organic, completely alien death cruiser? Or just wearing a really big hat? Then you must be Rychart! All joking aside, in this mod Shelgeroth Cultists of Rychart have unlocked the secrets to utilizing Xeno technology and now sell the xeno ships at their starports for a hefty sum.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2495203303&searchtext=

[h3]Mini-Mod Pack[/h3]
The mini-mod pack provides a easy to modify set of changes to the game and encourages players to pick and chose among them to get just the modded experience they want. It is already a big toolkit put together by @davea and @ptarth, two of the mod creator veterans from the mod beta. Check it out!
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2586893280&searchtext=

[h3]SFX Overhaul[/h3]
The newest SFX overhaul provides awesome sound FX for crew combat weapons, ship weapons, character injuries and all other parts of ship combat. Boom boom!
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2586103199&searchtext=


[h2]Mission Summaries[/h2]
Mission step groups now include a full list of all the icons of the types of actions for their children. This gives you a quick way to look at a mission and know what is involved -- from crew to ship combat, from exploring to salvaging or intel, stash and cargo missions. The ability to pick and chose missions wisely -- and to do it quickly -- is way up with #277.

In addition, the icons also include a Passenger, Prisoner and Package "+" to indicate adding one and a "-" to indicate a drop off. This is a big help as well to plan out your routes for captains completing multiple missions and especially if your multiple passengers are competing for limited space.


[h2]Hybrid Barracks[/h2]
Update #277 adds 4 new hybrid Barracks options as well as rebalancing the existing small slot Compact Barracks to be overall improved. The new medium slot Squad Barracks is a good way to get a few more crew capacity crossed with an officer bunk. The entire new series of Battle Barracks 1, 2 and 3 offer medium slot ways to keep a battle-trained and hardened crew at the ready, granting both additional Defense % and Boarding points.

[h2]Dialog Skip All Button Moved[/h2]
For some of us, this is going to take some muscle memory retraining -- the Skip All button for Dialogs has moved to the bottom center of the screen to minimize needed mouse movement to reach it.

[h2]Craft Crash Fixes[/h2]
This update cleans up a few sneaky bugs with craft crashing during combat, certain ordering when destroyed by capital ship weapons and a number of other edge cases that were hard to reproduce. A huge thanks goes out to the captains who kept reporting and sharing details until we could finally hunt this down!

[h2]v3.2.1 - 8/29/2021[/h2]
- Mission description now includes type icons for all segments (combats, op types, add/drop off passenger, etc)
- Baracks Components Update: 4 New Barracks Components, rebalancing Compact Barracks
- Added new medium slot "Squad Barracks" which provides a Cabin-Barracks hybrid
- Added new medium "Battle Barracks 3" with Defense and Boarding Bonuses
- Buffed Battle Prow Boarding Bonus, Added Minor Craft Defensive Buff
- Improved Spice Festival Rumor description
- Moved "Skip All" dialog button into middle center of screen
- Fixed sort order for craft to be more closely aligned with components
- Fixed issue with extreme hostility in ship encounter printing "ERROR"
- Fixed story issue where sometimes story mission could start twice
- Fixed a crash with Ship Combat with a type of Small Craft conflict
- Fixed reported typos from Forum and Discord
- Fixed crash issue with some hotkey combinations

With new mods coming online daily, we wanted to shine a big spotlight on some of the other awesome mods already available to play -- one that adds story content, one that removes complexity in ship builds and one that re-writes the default v1 map.

The modding creators have been working hard to bring their creations before the community. Be sure to tell them how much you appreciate their work, rate and share their mod!

[h2]Mod Spotlight![/h2]

[h3]Spy Pack and Story[/h3]
This mod is the very first story mod for Star Traders: Frontiers, adding an entire new vignette introduced by Contact Valen Ducote. The Spy Pack isn't only a story mod, it also buffs spying and diplomatic abilities and Talents, adds a new Stealth Raptor ship and new spying components. The modder, @schrader, is a legend for the amount of work he put into creating this mod and helping us document and test story modding support during the private modding beta.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2578776840&searchtext=

[h3]No More Mass Reducers[/h3]
This mod reduces complexity in ship build by completing removing the concept of Mass and therefore Mass Reducers from the game. With every ship component contributing only a small amount of Mass, the only thing you need to consider are your Small, Medium and Large slots and exactly how you'd like to set them up.

Note, this mod really needs to go last in your mod config or it can cause crashes when combined with other ship or component mods.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2492139496&searchtext=

[h3]V1 Default Map Revamp[/h3]
The first mod that creates a customized map for players to enjoy, this mod revamps the original default v1 map. New jump routes have helped improve playability and travel within the original map.

After subscribing to the mod, you must delete any map_2.db file in your saved game folder, otherwise the mod changes will not take effect.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2498806096&searchtext=

After months of working closely with the mod community, Star Traders: Frontiers is opening our Steam Workshop for all to contribute and enjoy. After years of interest and requests from the community, we've been able to add modding to Star Traders: Frontiers just after its 3 year anniversary. We owe a great thanks to the 100+ creators who have already started working in the modding space and helped us write documentation, improve mod capabilities and test out the entire workshop kit.

One of the first things many of you will notice is the game now offers you a choice at launch, to play either ST:F or its moddable version. These two versions of the game will both receive the same updates, but will store saves separately. Additionally, the mod version of the game comes with all of the Unlocks automatically achieved, so you may decide to play this version of the game just for that.


[h2]How to Get Started with Mods[/h2]
The Steam Workshop is now open with some of the first mods created and tested during the modding beta. This first wave of mods covers a wide gamut -- from UI, to SFX to ship design and more. The creators are hanging out with us -- and the community -- in our Discord #stf_mods channel waiting for your feedback and ideas.

To check out these mods, the process is straightforward:

1. Visit the Steam Workshop, browse and pick some mods by clicking the green “Subscribe” button on the mod page. Your Steam client will download any subscribed mods. If you don't see the downloads queuing, then try restarting your Steam client (classic).
   
2. Select Star Traders: Frontiers within your Game Library and push the big green Play button. This will pop up a choice to play the regular version of the game or the moddable version of the game.
   
3. When you pick the mod version of the game, you'll see a very different main menu with your subscribed mods listed. Click "Activate" to enable any mod you'd like to include in your current game configuration.
   
4. Any time your mod configuration changes, you must restart the game.
   

[h2]Modding Going Forward[/h2]
We've worked for 4 months with the modding creator beta team to expand modding support and build out the needed documentation. With the first crop of mods now out and the Workshop going public, we know there is a lot more coming. There are multiple story mods for vignettes in the works -- some reportedly being released soon -- and a great frontier of new content that could be added including jobs, professions, story vignettes, eras, ships, outfits and more.

Join us in Discord or on the new Modding discussion board in Steam’s community hub to post up your ideas for mods, find like minded creators and get busy! The modding documentation for players and creators is homed on the wiki.

[h2]Mod Spotlights![/h2]

[h3]Merchant Marine: Fly Casual[/h3]
Merchant Marine: Fly Casual is a game rebalance mod that was inspired by Space Opera and Western tales, small ships with small crews up against the universe. But has since broadened to include a larger number of changes to base ST:F gameplay. The mod aims to increase the options players have, while fundamentally retaining the gameplay of ST:F.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2539177784

[h3]Dave's New Ship Components[/h3]
Dave's New Component mod lives up to its name, dropping a boat load of new and awesome ship components into the game, such as new officer cabins (Quartermaster's HQ and the Shrine of Shalun), cargo holds that reduce the Mass of your ship, and the Caterpillar engine which reduces both ship encounters and fuel use drastically. Not stopping at components, Dave has also included a new ship, the Habbanya Frigate, a 5000 mass ship with a unique layout and at a price that's difficult to resist.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2560635932

[h3]Davea's Instamax[/h3]
A classic cheat mod, the Instamax Mod rockets your crew to level 40 in a blink of an eye and sets the price of every ship in the game to $1. Play with a new level of freedom and power as you cruise the void with max max max!
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2500463612

[h3]Davea's Army Officer / Military Commander[/h3]
This mod moves around the Talents of the MIlitary Officer and Commander Jobs to help each better focus on a single thing -- the new Army Officer is a crew combat expert while the Naval Commander excels in ship to ship battle in the void.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2501902114

[h3]Doctor Profession[/h3]
Currently 15 of the game's nearly 40 crew jobs provide special bonus traits to a Captain who starts with one of them. Now with the Doctor Profession mod, you have a new archetype to create your captains with. Envisioning a quippy Captain McCoy, a steely-smart Simon Tam, or ...why not Zoidberg? This mod gives you medical-minded captains a nice boost.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2567607837

[h2]What's next for Star Traders?[/h2]
While we've opened the door for modders to create in the endless reach of the void, this is far from the end of our own content for Star Traders: Frontiers. We'll be updating the public roadmap in the months to come and still have more story content and Eras planned.

If you enjoy the new features and capabilities still being added to the game without charge 3 years later, we hope you'll consider telling a friend and leaving a review.

[h2]What’s the latest on Cyber Knights?[/h2]
Development on our next game, Cyber Knights: Flashpoint, proceeds apace. We’re currently working toward the private alpha test for Kickstarter backers, following the same process we used for Star Traders: Frontiers. But you can view the latest updates on the CKF Steam page (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

[h2]v3.1.85 - 8/23/2021[/h2]
- Enables mod support and Steam Workshop