Star Traders: Frontiers News

Update #231 continues to deliver on exciting new ship and component expansions, bringing new options and new meta to the table. With this update, we've included 2 new end-game faction ships and 12 new components that all make use of the completely new ship effect types (Engine Safety, Jump Time reduction, Craft Boost) released in Update #230. We're excited to announce as well that this update completes two of our content milestones on the publicly posted dev roadmap -- moving us closer and closer to completing it entirely!

We've also made a big rule change for Scavenger captains (Repair in new game templates!), improved the Defense Pattern Matrix 4 and fixed some issues with how the AI was trying to build out a set of big end-game ships.

If you enjoy the stream of updates, free content and general game support please remember to leave a review and tell a friend!


[h2]Roadmap Content Milestones[/h2]
With Update #231 we have closed two of the major content milestones we have been tracking to since the game's release in August 2018. With the addition of the Neutiquam Cruiser and Tempus Freighter we have completed a long march to triple the size of the ship catalog across Mass spectrum. And with the blast of 5 new components in the last update and 12 new components in this update, we have hit our goal to double the size of the ship component catalog, massively expanding the ways in which different captain professions can specialize their individual ship and hit the metrics they feel are necessary to safely sail the void.

Of course, hitting the milestone goal doesn't mean we won't be adding more :D
https://steamcommunity.com/games/335620/announcements/detail/1696055855739611821

[h2]Faction Flagships[/h2]
The Tempus Freighter is a contender for the crown of most advanced large-capacity and long-haul cargo ship. Produced exclusively by the De Valtos syndicate, the Tempus Freighter carries an exceptional fuel and cargo load while still maintaining heavy armor and shield. The merchants of De Valtos value their sprawling cargo holds but know that the best cargo delivery is one that is made safely. While formidable without any upgrades, a fully built Tempus Freighter delivers top-tier cargo storage and unparalleled combat survivability. Boasting 11 medium and 8 large slots and a trailing 9 small slots, the Tempus has the capacity for another $5M-$6M in upgrades to create the ultimate merchant-warriors freighter or anything in between.

The Neutiquam Cruiser is a compact, heavily armored ship that soaks damage like a much larger hull. Built for boarding combat, attack shuttles and anti-carrier duty the Neutiquam Cruiser is difficult to hit and harder to kill. Sold for under $2.5M at Steel Song starports, this military vessel can be reasonably effective without upgrades, it truly shines after an overhaul and new weapons package. Boasting 11 small, 9 medium and 5 large slots, this Cruiser could soak up additional millions to be fully upgraded as a legendary Bounty Hunter's personal flagship or the death barge of a roaming Steel Song assassin.


[h2]Scavenger Retrofit[/h2]
A big thanks to the community from bringing this up and discussing it -- how to best build a Scavenger captain. To assist with this, we've made one of the recommended changes which is to add Repair to the list of Skills that a captain can increase in their character creation template. Enjoy those extra bonuses in Talents and Orbital Salvage!

The second change will come with the addition of Orbital Salvage missions, which require mission cards which will adjust their starting Traits. But that is for another day, another update!


[h2]12 New Components[/h2]
Update #230 was not shy about adding new components and #231 cranks it up another level with a full set of 12.

First, we've added a fourth tier of the Water-Fuel Reclamation systems, once again Javat-only. This component adds less fuel than the WFR 3 but trades that for a +1 Engine Safety bonus. For those ships looking to travel safer, farther, this is a worth consideration.

Carriers have long had a gap in their ability to build out a heavily focused set of components to empower their activities. You needed to install launch bays and hangars, but the rest of the build was in your crew and Talents. With Update #230, we began addressing that with a carrier-focused bridge and two new powerful launch bays but Update #231 kicks open the door to ultra carrier builds with the addition of Joint Precision Launch Systems 1-3 which each add craft boost bonuses to any and all launched craft. These bonuses stack, adding to Craft Damage, Hit % and Boarding rolls and so now a carrier has a whole new option for how to invest their small slots. Every carrier build needs some, how many will you install?

Some Star Traders aim to travel far but others aim to travel *fast*. For those speed demons of the void, we've released a series of new Performance Hyperwarp Drives that all reduce the time taken in making hyperwarp jumps from 25% for the lowest mass drives to 12% for the highest mass drives. These drives trade higher fuel burn for their speed but over the longhaul, they'll help you scoot across the galaxy -- and especially large maps -- much more efficiently.


[h2]Cyber Knights: Flashpoint[/h2]
While we are hard at work supporting the Star Traders: Frontiers roadmap, we've been developing our next game for going on 2 years now! If you like our style of endless updates, new features and content, wishlist it today! Cyber Knights is a tactical RPG that plunges you and your team of hackers, mercs and thieves into the neon-soaked future of 2231. Hire the right team under the crumbling New Boston Zone and mix stealth, hacking and combat skills to claw your way to the top of the criminal heap.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1021210/Cyber_Knights_Flashpoint/

[h2]v3.0.109 - 10/7/2020[/h2]
- New captain templates can now include Repair Skill bonuses for jobs like Scavenger
- New Ship: Neutiquam Cruiser (Steel Song, 6000M Attack Cruiser)
- New Ship: Tempus Freighter (De Valtos, 8000M Long Range Hauler)
- Added 8 new Performance Hyperwarp Drives that reduce jump time by 12% to 25% based on ship mass in trade for higher fuel costs
- Added 3 new Joint Precision Launch System components to provide craft boost for carriers in small slot - stack for ultra carrier
- Added new Javat-only Water-Fuel Reclamation 4 component in medium slot with +1 Engine Safety but lower fuel bonus
- Defense Pattern Matrix 4 rebalanced to grant 6% defense instead of 5%
- Fixed AI issues with: Reach Carrier, Azurite Cruiser, Larimar Battlecruiser

Update #230 launches can be installed at a starport near you in the form of a heap of new exciting ship components that roll out 3 completely new types of effects not previously available through any component. We've also further improved the recently released high level Capital Bridges with these new effects, fixed the launch-preventing bug with the Pallas Freighter and trained the enemy AI ship builder on even more components.

[h2]New Effects[/h2]
With Update #230, ship components can now do some even more exciting things! While your Void Engine sets your Safety Rating, other ship components can now add bonuses (or, in the future, reduce) that up to a maximum of +6 Safety. This can help you offset riskier engine choices.

Second, ship components can now reduce the amount of time spent in hyperwarp jumps. Each jump has its own defined length which you can see relative to other jumps on the galactic map. All in all, these traveling events can add up to a lot of time and ship components are now capable of increasing or reducing that traveling time with ship components to a maximum of -50%.

Finally, to assist with carrier builds we've added a effect dubbed Craft Boost that allows the capital ship to increase the Damage, Hit % and Boarding rolls for all launched craft. The carrier's capital ship systems can now help increase the effective aggressive features of all craft it has launched.


[h2]Two Annexes[/h2]
The Engineering and Navigation Annex have been added in Update #230. Both are medium slot components that provide space for a single officer but also some very powerful bonuses, including Skill points. The Engineering Annex adds +2 Safety Rating and is great for ships that are trying to travel long distances. In addition, the Engineering Annex provides a constant protection against Morale damage over time effects. The Navigation Annex reduces hyperwarp jump time by 15% as well as hyperwarp jump cost by -10 fuel.

The Engineering Annex is Zenrin only while the Navigation Annex is to be found in Alta Mesa starports only.


[h2]New and Updated Bridges[/h2]
Update #230 adds a new Scout-Vanguard Bridge 5 which compares well with the 3 recently added Scout 5 options -- Skirmisher, Hauler and Stealth. For those small ships that want to adjust their component builds away from craft defense, the Vanguard provides a major 30% to Evade Craft Attacks, fully double what the Scout-Skirmisher 5 provides in exchange for its Accuracy bonus and some Armor and Shield. You can only find this extreme craft defense bridge for small ships in Steel Song starports.

Update #230 has also modified the Capital Carrier Bridge 5 to include the all new Craft Boost bonus. This powerful bridge for large-scale carriers adds +12% to the Damage, Hit % and Boarding for all aggressive crafts. It is a new must-have component for those captains looking to built ultra-carriers.

Finally, we've updated the Compact Capital Bridge 4 to include a +1 Safety Rating as well to go along with its significantly lower Mass and solid Skill bonuses, making it a possible contender for the slot for non-combat captains.


[h2]Battle Launch Bays[/h2]
Before Update #230, the highest level launch bays -- the Advanced and Hyperion -- both provided massive Fuel bonuses to help offset the carrier's consumption but did little to support aggressive craft activity. Now, a level 3 and level 4 combat focused launch bays have been added. the Battle Launch Bay at level 3 is available only from De Valtos and is extra shiny with its best in class +15% Craft Boost.
The highly sought after and highly expensive Warhawk Launch Bay could be made by none other than Alta Mesa boasting a +8% craft boost and housing 1 officer. If combined with the Capital Carrier Bridge (as it should be!) these could net a 20% to 27% Craft Boost bonus, making your very larger, very expensive carriers even more deadly.

[h2]AI Training[/h2]
We've worked on training up the enemy AI ship builder on a few additional types of components to help round out their ships, including C-Taks, better use of Fuel Tanks, upgraded Battle Bridges and Mass Dampeners.

Finally, we fixed the Pallas Freighter's bug being 1,000 Mass over at purchase time. If you happened to buy one of these broken ships, sorry you have to keep it (or sell it). Only new ships coming off the line are fixed.


[h2]Cyber Knights: Flashpoint[/h2]
While we are hard at work supporting the Star Traders: Frontiers roadmap, we've been developing our next game for going on 2 years now! If you like our style of endless updates, new features and content, wishlist it today! Cyber Knights is a tactical RPG that plunges you and your team of hackers, mercs and thieves into the neon-soaked future of 2231. Hire the right team under the crumbling New Boston Zone and mix stealth, hacking and combat skills to claw your way to the top of the criminal heap.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1021210/Cyber_Knights_Flashpoint/

[h2]v3.0.107 - 9/30/2020[/h2]
- Added 3 New Ship Component Effects: increase Engine Safety, reduce Hyperwarp Jump Time, Craft Boost adds Dmg, Hit % and Boarding to all launched craft
- New Zenrin-only Component: Engineering Annex, medium slot for 1 officer adds +2 Safety Rating and other bonuses
- New Alta Mesa-only Component: Navigation Annex, medium slot for 1 officer reduces Hyperwarp Jump time and other bonuses
- New Steel Song-only Component: Scout-Vanguard Bridge 5 provides +30% to Evade Craft Attacks and other bonuses
- New De Valtos-only Battle Launch Bay trades lvl 3 Advanced Launch Bay's fuel for +15% Craft Boost, combat focused launch bay
- New Alta Mesa-only Warhawk Launch Bay trades lvl 4 Hyperion Launch Bay's fuel for +8% Craft Boost, combat focused launch bay
- Improved Capital Carrier Bridge 5 to include +12% Craft Boost bonus, powerful bridge for large-scale carriers
- Improved Compact Capital Bridge 4 to include +1 Engine Safety bonus
- Fixed issue with Pallas Freighters starting 1000 Mass over
- Enemy AI ship builder is more capable at using C-Taks, Battle Bridges, Fuel Pods and Mass Dampeners

Update #229 had to come in a bit of a rush because map gen v2 tried to escape the lab in Update #228. We're pushing this update to directly address these issues as well as include some new ship components and some bug fixes to orbital ops.

[h2]Map Gen[/h2]
Changes in prep for map gen v2 in Update #228 and caused a rolling set of bugs with generating new maps under this release. Update #229 resolves all of these issues and puts us back on track to release map seeds v2 soon.

[h2]Rank 5 Components[/h2]
With Update #229, we've added a new set of ship components for your high level ships and especially for capital ships with large bridges.

The Shielded Barracks 5 joins the fun with space for 36 crew and 4 Shielding points in trade for 5 Jump Cost. It can be a nice way to stack up your shielding so you can focus other components elsewhere if you can manage the credit and fuel cost.

Three new types of Capital Bridges have joined the fray -- the Freighter, Carrier and Compact version. The Freighter variation includes bonus cargo and fuel capacity while reducing jump cost and is of course, controlled by Clan Moklumnue. The Carrier Capital Bridge is built exclusively by Alta Mesa with best in class Electronics and Navigation. And finally, the Compact Capital Bridge is available from Clan Zenrin at a reduced Mass of 480 for those capital ships looking to allocate their mass elsewhere. To be completely honest, the Compact and Carrier bridges are casualties of the fast release cycle to fix the maps issue here. Neither are done and both will be improved to be specific to their niche in the next update.

Sold only by De Valtos, the Fuel-Cargo Hold 5 offers 35 cargo and 135 fuel storage. For a much higher price tag, it offers the best in class fuel and cargo storage for those ships that can dedicate large slots to it.

[h2]Orbital Ops[/h2]
We've fixed a bug with how Salvage worked over indie planets where there is no local faction. This removes the issues with the "Faction Rep Bonus" card which had no where to stash the bonus Rep, as indies do not do Rep. We've also improved the card iconography to include better icons for cards that grant Experience.

[h2]v3.0.103 - 9/17/2020[/h2]
- Fixes bug with map generation
- New Components: Shielded Barracks 5, Capital Freighter Bridge, Capital Carrier Bridge, Compact Capital Bridge, Fuel-Cargo Hold 5
- Fixed Orbital Salvage “Faction Rep Boost” Over Indie Planets
- Fixed incorrect icons on some Experience granting cards

Update #228 reaches the version number 3.0101, indicating 50 releases in this family (that is, 3.0.x). However, we're very excited to share that this release family is sun-setting with 3.1.x coming in fast. On our Trese Brothers Twitch development livestream last week, Cory debuted a major map preview feature we are buttoning up which allows you to check out maps you are making in the new game before you play which is a key feature of map seed version 2. We're also now getting to a point where we will be sharing map seeds v2 on Twitch and the big release of the new system is coming in just around the corner.

In the mean time, v3.0.x still has some life in it! We're finishing balancing out engines stats as well as introducing new exciting build potential for how to setup your ship operations crew by introducing a slew of new saving Talents. Update #228 also includes Gravcannon updates, changes to 1080p resolution options, upgraded stat display when shopping for ship components and fixes for Traits that should never proc together on the same character, so for everything check the full release notes

You may already be following us on Facebook and on the @TreseBrothers twitter, but we're now sharing news, sales, gameplay vids, guides & tips from the forums & discord, streams, memes, and more on Star Traders' own twitter account: https://twitter.com/StarTradersGame


[h2]Improved Crew Builds[/h2]
In response to some great community feedback, we're beefing up the availability of saving Talents for core ship Skills. With Update #228 we've focused on Ship Ops and Electronics, adding 3 new saving Talents for each Skill to different ship operational jobs. These new saving Talent options greatly expand the viable types of crew you can assemble to cover the needs of a ship's Skill Pools and saving Talents. You'll still need core crew, but you've got more room to include specialists who can help cover those spots.

First, the Crew Dog has gained additional utility by gaining an Electronics saving Talent at rank 8 to add to their Ship Ops saving Talent at rank 1. In addition, Engineers and Wing Techs have both gained an Electronics save at rank 8.

Second, to help augment the available Ship Ops saving Talents offered by Crew Dogs and Quartermasters, we've added the Talent type to 3 new Jobs -- Mechanic, Gundeck Boss and Wing Tech. Wing Techs get access to the Talent first at rank 5 while both Gundeck Boss and Mechanics need to reach rank 8 before they can lend a guaranteed saving hand to Ship Ops.


[h2]Engine Adjustments[/h2]
With Update #228, we've made further improvements to the stats to some engines that needed a little more boost to fit into the new scheme. In order to ensure that Warhammers and Behemoth engines are fairly safe, their Safety Ratings have been increased by roughly +1 across the board from the Mass 5000 to Mass 8000 engines. This removes any 4 Safety Rating engines -- which basically could never find a quadrant with Danger below their engine -- from the game and leaves a minimum of 5 Safety.

For Speed and Agility we've made a few more changes to keep the engines in balance. The Mass 8000 Chase Void Engine has gained +2 Agility to fit correctly into the class scheme. Also, to ensure they live up to their price tag and are competitive with other engine types, the Warhammer Void Engines have gained +1 or +2 Agility across the entire line regardless of Mass and the Behemoth engine line has gained +1 to +2 Speed.

[h2]Grav Cannons[/h2]
We've rebalanced the Gunnery values on rank 7 and 8 Gravcannons. More boom!

[h2]Resolution 1080p[/h2]
If you're playing at 1080p and are finding the text too small (playing on a TV, etc) we've made some changes to allow the UI to scale up to 110% instead of maxing at 100%. Give it a try and let us know if it helps!


[h2]Wishlist that Cyber Knights[/h2]
If you're loving Star Traders: Frontiers, its 228 updates, its constant new features and content or just the style of our studio, then be sure to wishlist our next game, Cyber Knights: Flashpoint. Turn-based tactics lovers and XCOM fans are not going to want to miss this one --
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1021210/Cyber_Knights_Flashpoint/

[h2]v3.0.101 - 9/16/2020[/h2]
- Improved Agility by +1-2 points on Warhammer engine line, improved Speed by +1-2 points on Behemoth line
- Improved Agility on M8000 Chaser Void Engine by +2
- Improved Safety on M5000 to M8000 Warhammer / Behemoth engines by +1
- Added 6 new Ship Ops and Electronics Talents across a wider selection of jobs
- New Electronic saving Talents for Engineer (rank 8), Wing Tech (rank 8) and Crew Dog (rank 8)
- New Ship Ops saving Talents for Mechanic (rank 8), Gundeck Boss (rank 8), Wing Tech (rank 5)
- Increased Gunnery of large slot rank 7 and 8 Gravcannons
- Added combat effects like +Void Res to starport upgrade summary screen
- Adjusted UI Scaling option to allow 110% scaling at 1080p
- Prevented Traits "Rigidly Lawful" and "Spice Addict" from mutating onto same character

Update #227 follows quickly on the heals of #226 because of the "Free Fuel" bug that accidentally slipped through in the last update. We know everyone has been enjoying the free cruiser around the galaxy but we've got to get that fixed with Update #227. To assuage the suffering of once again burning Water Fuel, we've added a killer feature from the community request list -- transferring dry docked ships between zones!

[h2]Transfer Dry Dock Ships[/h2]
If you're buying and outfitting a ship, sometimes you really need it to be in a different zone -- to access faction-specific components or to access higher military or economic ratings. Or perhaps you bought it somewhere with a nice discount but not a nice enough starport to do years of upgrades. Whatever the reason, it has long been a pain to move ships around -- you had to swap to them, fly them yourself and then find another ride (i.e. buy another ship) back to the original ship.

We're excited to announce the ability to transfer dry dock ship across the galaxy with Update #227. You can pay a reasonable fee of $100,000 credits per hyperwarp jump and an extra 11% for each Mass class at or above 6000 Mass.


In order to initiate this ferry service, you must first land on the zone where you dry docked ship resides. Then open the Star Atlas -- from the zone, from the galactic map, etc -- and find the zone you want to transfer the ship to. At the bottom of the zone, you'll find a transfer offer and price. Of course, you must meet the requirements of Military Rank 1 and the zone must have 7 Starport or a rare 9 in the case of Indies. If you can afford the fee, the transfer is made instantly -- basically, as fast as you can fly there the ship will be waiting for you.

To all those captains building out a glorious fleet and asking for dry dock transfer, enjoy!

[h2]v3.0.99 - 9/8/2020[/h2]
- Added new feature: pay to transfer dry docked ship from one starport to another using Star Atlas
- Star Atlas now includes a note about any zone that has a ship in dry dock
- Fixed issue allowing free fuel travel within quadrants for low Mass ships
- Fixed issue where starport repair detail text could still report an incorrect timeline for repairs