Star Traders: Frontiers News

Update #275 brings a major improvement to your quadrant map to make starred zones ever-visible as well as improving ship encounter messages, fixing an Explorer card, tweaking a ship price and making final preparation for the modding upgrade. Thanks, as always, to the community for making great suggestions on how to improve the game, reporting bugs and pointing out little places where we could put on a little more polish. We wouldn't have made it to Update #275 without such an amazing community gathered around the game, so many thanks!

The launch of Steam Workshop and full mod support is very close now. We're lucky to have had such an amazing crew of creators working on different improvements, adjustments and adds to the game. It's going to be awesome to see so many new things available to everyone on the first modding day!

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]Stars on Quadrant Map[/h2]
If you use Stars on your zones, they now appear right on the quadrant map as you pan or sail around. This really helps brings stars into constant consideration, avoids the need to use the Atlas and can help you spot and remember zones you might have otherwise forgotten. My captains are already grumbling about needing more colors!

[h2]Other Fixes[/h2]
Update #275 is more specific about the Depart messages in ship encounters for Merchants, Smugglers and Explorers, removing vague warnings about losing Reputation in the cases when that is not a possible result. We've also improved the text on the explorer card "Wild Revelations" and increase the number of crew who can possibly gain XP. The price on the Neutiquam Cruiser had to be increase a few hundred grand and finally we clarified some text in new game Templates around who can use gear (some crew!)

While we've got a really nice update here, there is a lot more work going on behind the scenes to finalize the mod support in each of these updates. If you're enjoying the pace of updates, be sure to tell a friend and leave a review!

[h2]v3.1.83 - 8/15/2021[/h2]
- Zone stars now appear on the quadrant map when sailing the void
- Improved depart messages from ship encounters for Merchants, Smugglers and Explorers
- Fixed "Wild Revelations" XP card in Explorer to reward 12 or more crew
- Fixed price issues with Neutiquam Cruiser
- Improved note about Contacts offering weapon/armor/gear in New Game Template

Update #274 arrives with a bevy of community requested improvements, new features, content balance and minor tweaks. A huge thanks, as always, to the big community surrounding the game, posting feedback, suggestions and reviews. As Update #274 goes live and modding is just around the corner, we're hitting our 3 year launch anniversary for the game and looking back to marvel at all that has happened. We've been busy, hitting an average update every 4.8 days if you include the 8 months of Early Access before launch.

If you've enjoyed the massive expansions and constant improvements to the game, we hope you'll take minute to leave a review and tell a friend -- there is no better way to thank us!

[h2]Live Streaming STF's Birthday[/h2]
Also, we're celebrating a major milestone -- 3 years since launch and nearly 300 updates! -- this Sunday, August 8th, on Twitch if you want to join us for a live stream party.
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/335620/view/3003324016167573939

But speaking of 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]New Mission Manifest[/h2]
With this update, we've added a new section to the Talent Manifest to cover the wealth of options within Mission Talents. There are over 13 different variations listed here, each with their own angle or bonus. It is an immediately useful section in our playtesting and helps to highlight all the ways you can build out your crew to focus on mission success.

This also gave us a chance to look closely at all the rules for the different mission Talents and we did uncover one bug. The Military Officer Talent "Power Play" Talent has long been using the wrong Attribute, relying on Resilience instead of Charisma for its Reputation bonus %. Now fixed!

[h2]Starport Boosted Discount[/h2]
The discount offered for Starport Boosted Rumor is now clearly codified into the game's Rumor list as well as displayed prominently in the starport when you're shopping. It's a solid 10% off, so you want to know in cases where that is saving you thousands of credits!


[h2]Tactician's Annex[/h2]
This one came off the presses just too good! We've removed the Armor bonus for the Tactician's Annex.

[h2]v3.1.81 - 8/5/2021[/h2]
- Added Mission Talents to Talent Manifest (13 variations)
- Corrected bug with Military Officer Talent "Power Play" which was using Resilience instead of Charisma
- Improved Starport Boosted Rumor listing to clarify 10% discount on component upgrades and make visible in starport
- Improved ship encounter bribe text for Merchants, Explorers Zealots and Bounty Hunters to be more specific
- Removed Armor Bonus from new Tactician's Annex component
- Fixed issue when enemy crew uses On Init debuff Talents such as Sniper's "Target Acquired" text printing in wrong side of screen
- Fixed issue when enemy Wing Command users "Ripcord" Talent messing up the combat order

It’s a crazy summer, but we didn’t want to let this milestone pass unnoticed. It’s been 3 years since Star Traders: Frontiers launched on Steam!



This Sunday, at 8pm EDT, join us on Twitch for a community party! Join us (Andrew, Cory, and a whole bunch of you awesome players) to...

• Look back at some of the biggest changes to ST:F in the nearly 300 free updates we’ve made to the game.
  
• Showcase some of our favorite player creations & achievements. (If you have fan art or screenshots of your favorite captains / crews / achievements you’d like to share, post it in our Discord!)
  
• Get a preview of the upcoming Steam Workshop mod support.
  
• Talk about what’s still to come for Star Traders, both in Frontiers and (potentially, some day, purely hypothetically), the next Star Traders game.
  
• Hang out, meet some cool people from the community, celebrate being a part of making Star Traders and Trese Brothers Games better and better (10+ years 🎉)!
  

We’ll see you on https://www.twitch.tv/TreseBrothers at 8pm Eastern, August 8th!

Update #273 launches from the starport with 2 new powerful options for officer's annex in the medium slot, a major upgrade to Smuggler's ability to flaunt Trade Conflicts in the Exchange, better duration for all Intel gathering missions, Talent icon upgrade and improved error handling for new game templates (thanks mod team!). If you're enjoying the pace of updates and new content, remember to tell a friend and leave a review!

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/Cyber_Knights_Flashpoint/


[h2]No One Saw That Trade[/h2]
Smugglers have always been the kings and queens of the Black Market, but their ability to break the law in the Exchanges has been limited. Now, we've upgraded their "Slippery Trader" Talent to enable it to completely remove any Rep loss from trading into a Trade Conflict, where before there was a minimum of -1 Rep loss always. Knowing the right things to say, the right people to find in any Exchange, you can feed the economic demand and avoid your dings. Merchants on the other hand can continue with "Bold Statements" to lawfully trade and gain Rep bonuses with the faction they are supporting.


[h2]Warden and Tactician Come to Roost[/h2]
Two new officer annex have been released in Update #273 giving even more ways for you to hybridize your officer space into other duties as well. Both Annex are medium slot components which provide a single officer living space along with another set of powerful bonuses.

Sold only by Steel Song, the Warden's Annex includes a small prison cell for 1 prisoner who needs to be closely watched as well as minor boosts to Armor and Medical Rating.

Sold only by Thulun, the Tactician's Annex can provide a ship with powerful offensive and anti-craft capabilities, with +10% Accuracy, To Hit Craft and Damage, as well as +10% Craft Evasion. It's perfect for a Gundeck Officer, Commander or other military-minded officer. The presence of such a hardened position on the ship also helps reduce Morale loss.

[h2]Intel Mission Duration[/h2]
While many types of missions receive different levels of duration boosts, thanks to come of the modding creators in the beta, it came to our attention that that the Intel gathering missions -- faction, Conflict and Science -- all lacked an appropriate bonus. These self-directed missions can take a lot more time than a normal mission and often don't have the type of mufti-step traveling requirements that buoy many mission durations. With Update #273, we've added a healthy bonus to the duration of all of these missions and will keep an eye on them to see if more is needed.

[h2]Orchestrated Salvage[/h2]
This Talent is now appropriately colored to match with other Talents that destroy the enemy ship, as this is a key choice that removes other options like refueling and conscription.


[h2]Template Error Handling[/h2]
Thanks again to the mod team, we've found and fixed some error handling holes in the New Game template system. Malformed template files, invalid template files or those with professions that are not in the game (added by mod, removed by mod) could all cause crashes or strange behavior in the system. We've hardened this component now in prep for mod release and for anyone sharing templates with friends!

[h2]v3.1.79 - Update #273: [/h2]
- Improved Smuggler Talent "Slippery Trader" to be able to completely avoid Rep loss in Trade Conflict, used to preserve minimum -1 Rep
- Added Steel Song-made Warden's Annex, new medium slot component that holds one officer and one prisoner
- Added Thulun-made Tactician's Annex, new medium slot officer cabin granting accuracy/defense against capital ships and craft
- Clarified bonus for Engineer Annex, maximum Engine Safety Bonus is +6 no matter which components you get it from
- Increased Mission duration for those missions related to gathering Intel of any type
- Updated icon from "Orchestrated Salvage" icon to match ship destruction color schemes
- Improved error handling with New Game templates is JSON config file is missing or contains invalid syntax (hand-edit)

Update #272 rolls out a nice set of small polishing improvements to the core game and another set of improvements to help the mod creators working on everything from story to new ships. With Update #272, we've improved the balance of how often the new missions appear and added new logs and hovers to ensure that Medical Rating is given its full due.


[h2]Mod Creators, last chance to get in beta![/h2]
The mod creator's beta has been chugging along for almost two months and we are now closing in our early August launch date. Modders have cooked up some amazing things that will get featured in the first weeks -- rebalance mods, changes to ship design, new ships, flying xeno ships (!!!) and the first story mods are now under development! If you want to join the beta and get something in under the deadline to get featured in our mod launch celebration, now is the time. All the steps to join up are posted on the Steam group, so sign up today and let's create together.

[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_Flashpoint/

[h2]Medical Rating[/h2]
Medical Rating can be very helpful on a ship as a supporting stat for your Doctors and Combat Medics, but it is used in unique ways compared to many of your other ship stats. Its important role in traveling events was not clear enough in the game, so with this update we've improved the hover in Ship Status describing Medical Rating and also clearly labeled its effect on Doctor Skill travel events in the travel log. We'll even included it here -- each point of Medical Rating adds +3 Standard Dice to your Doctor Skill traveling tests, where your crew and officer's Doctor Skill adds +1 Strong Dice per point. For ships of any size, Medical Rating is a big help to pass these tests, especially for larger ones.

For all the rest of Medical Rating's far reaching effects, check out the wiki:
https://startraders.fandom.com/wiki/Medical_Rating

[h2]Mission Rebalance[/h2]
The missions added in Update #271 were using the new system available to the modders. We have now rewritten that system to be more flexible and also rebalanced it to prevent these missions from appearing too heavily in the rotation. Specifically, in this case, "Nomadic Defender" and "Mercantile Negotiation" will appear less often, especially in the early game.

[h2]Fixed Logging[/h2]
We've cleaned up 2 small logging issues -- where Spice Hall would mislog the Morale bonuses for Libertine Trait and where a Contact would fund a Spice Festival Rumor but the log would report it was Mercs. A huge thanks to everyone watching the game's simulation so closely and reporting these minor, but important, issues! Every bug must die :D

[h2]v3.1.77 - 7/17/2021[/h2]
- Improved mission weighting of new mission "Nomadic Defender" and "Mercantile Negotiation" to be more in line with other similar missions
- Improved log for Doctor traveling events to highlight the value of Medical Rating for saves
- Improved tooltip on Medical Rating, stating that it adds exactly +3 standard dice to Doctor travel saves per point
- Fixed spice hall log issue with Libertine Trait printing incorrect Morale bonus
- Fixed Zone News log issues misreporting a Contact funding a Spice Festival Rumor as a Mercs Rumor