Star Traders: Frontiers News

The Summer of Star Traders isn't over yet! This is our 9th update since we opened the doors for the Summer event and we're excited to say - it's been so much fun, we're going to keep on rolling into the Autumn of Star Traders. While Update #353 is a Bomber-focused rebalance and bug fix, we've got some exciting things coming up so stay tuned.

[h2]Our new game is more than halfway through Early Access![/h2]
Cyber Knights: Flashpoint, our stealth & squad tactics heist RPG, launched into Steam Early Access in late 2023 and has received over 135 updates! Does that sound familiar to any other (space captain) game you love? Cyber Knight's features even more in-depth character builds, turn-based stealth & combat, and a major evolution on the Star Trader's story engine that selects storylines and weaves different members of your squad and contacts into them in dynamic ways that we never achieved with STF. We hope you'll come check it out or wishlist it to give it another look when the game launches!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1021210/Cyber_Knights_Flashpoint/

[h2]Bomber Meta Rebalance[/h2]
We've rebalanced many of the ranges in Bomber damage, straightening out some odd bends and crooks in the progression. We've widened up the range of the damage dice rolled for bombs, pushing for more impact from buffing Talents in order to get the most optimal bombing runs. Some later game bombers have also had their Radiation Damage buffed.


[h2]Scraping off the bugs[/h2]
A big thanks goes out to players continuing to report bugs here on Steam and through other channels. Star Traders: Frontiers continues to draw new captains to the void and with each new play through, we can still find little things that can improved or fixed.


This update fixes some ship combat logs that were sometimes showed giant negative numbers (-135810933181) instead of the actual dice rolls (22 Strong Dice) which could occur if the enemy captain or officers used Talents like Blood Game.

We've fixed a possible crash in the defeat screen if the enemy Captain tried to use a Prize Ship talent to claim your ship in the case of your captain's death or defeat.

We also fixed a few mixed up values and hovers in the craft screen - either purchasing or reviewing them - where the Radiation and Void Damage hovers could flip or where the minimum Rank shown for craft purchases could just end up being the wrong value in longer craft lists.

Thanks to all of our players, we've got more coming in the Summer of Star Traders!

[h2]v3.3.121 - 9/13/2024[/h2]
- Rebalanced Small Craft Bomber Damage, Damage Ranges, Radiation Damage Ratios (human+xeno)
- Fixed Radiation and Void Dmg hovers showing incorrect rules in craft list
- Fixed AI ship boarding messages and rolls when AI uses boarding Talents like Blood Game
- Fixes defeat screen crash where the AI would attempt to seize a player's ship as a prize ship
- Fixes issues with Minimum Rank and Small Craft Purchases (Display & Rules now match)
- Fixed reported bugs and crashes

From the wastes we have returned, Star Traders! Some late summer vacation put a pause on Star Traders: Frontiers updates for a minute but we're back in the spice hall and let's keep this ride going. Let's check out what we've got in Update #352!

[h2]Updates for All![/h2]
Cyber Knights: Flashpoint, our stealth & squad tactics heist RPG, launched into Steam Early Access and how is marching to Update #132 and a major milestone MAGNITUDE v2 today as it battles through its ambitious public roadmap. In celebration of the big milestone hit, the entire Steam catalog including Star Traders: Frontiers and Cyber Knights: Flashpoint are on sale this week.

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]New Dragoon Missile Launcher[/h2]
With Update #325, we've released a new Dragoon is small slot level 9 missile launcher. As the highest level small slot missile around, it has a solid 80 Radiation Damage and a big boost for regular ship damage that lets it beat out both the Valkri and Gargoyle missiles for sheer crushing power.


[h2]Improved Crew Dmg / Morale Dmg during Travel & Landing[/h2]
With this update, we've completed a full review of travel and landing saves for Ship Ops, Electronics and other Skills that are used. We found a few places where the math - which is taking into account a lot of factors like crew size, component complexity, Rumors, etc - could get extremely spikey and produce unfairly large damage results for both health and Morale.

These issues were especially caused by bad Rumors. Bad, bad Rumors :D

We've smoothed these over to reduce sudden spikes. In other advice, be sure to have enough Saving Talents, ensure that you have highly skilled crew to work your specialized ships (keep your Skill Saves well above 100%!) and where possible keep all soft skills (Doctor, Command, Intimidate) above the head count of crew on board.


[h2]New AI Ships in the Mix[/h2]
We've also finished testing the AI ship builder capabilities for a number of new hulls - including the Vengeance Class Mk3, Wolfpack Interceptor, Paladin Crusader and Voracious. While it is nice that you can now use Prize Ship to capture these ships as your own, it is important to be wary of enemy captains who are flying these recently released hulls as they are doing pretty interesting things with them.

Finally, we've added a new AI variation for the Terrox Deathspear which can help the AI turn it into an even more deadly boat.

[h2]Re-balanced 2 Railguns[/h2]
We tweaked the balance on the Seraphim Railgun and the Daystar Railgun to ensure that they fit into the mold of the weapon class and are appropriate in stats for the small and medium slots. Be sure to check them out as you consider your next ship build.

v3.3.119 - 8/26/2024
- New Ship Weapon: Dragoon Missile Launcher (medium slot)
- Improved rules for Crew Damage and Crew Morale Damage as a result of Rumor, Travel or Landing tests
- New enemy AI for "Vengeance Class Mk3" + "Wolfpack Interceptor" + "Paladin Crusader" + "Voracious Class" + "Terrox Deathspear"
- Reworked "Daystar Railgun" Ship Weapon (small slot)
- Buffed Seraphim Railgun Array (medium slot)
- Fixed reported bugs and crashes

Captains, come sit at the spice hall and hear a tale of powerful carrier ships, highly trained wing crew and large hangar bays worth their weight in credits. It's another update in the Summer of Star Traders series which introduces 3 new Hangar Bays and fixes an issue with the recently released Large Hangar Bay and further improves Alta Mesa's position as the best-in-class when it comes to craft.

Thanks to everyone who has supported our efforts on Star Traders: Frontiers these six years! Yes, six years of updates, we launched in August of 2018 ːsteamhappyː


[h2]Large Hangars Redux[/h2]
In the last update we made a mistake with the Large Hangar bay. Sometimes when you work on a sprawling game for 6 years, you can forget the limits in certain subsystems. Currently, Hangar bays are limited to 1 craft only, and so our release of Large Hangar bay taking more than 1 craft was not supported under the game's current rules and UI.


[h2]Hangar Bay Annexes[/h2]
Annexes are types of components that offer regular bonuses for that component type as well as an additional cabin for an officer. Now you have option to pack in an officer cabin into a large slot. The Shielded and Reinforced Hangar Bays offering these annexes are massive bulwarks, offering powerful Shield or Armor ratings as well as the living quarters for the Wing officer (we assume!) and their craft.


[h2]Alta Mesa Warhawk Large Hangar[/h2]
Not to be outdone when it comes to hangars, Alta Mesa's large slot Warhawk Hangar Bay offers the super-annex option, including space for 2 Officers and 1 Craft. If your carrier can spare 2 large slots to the Warhawk series, you're S-tier all the way with Alta Mesa.


[h2]Alta Mesa Improvement[/h2]
Not to be outdone when it comes to craft, we've increased the bonuses across the board for the Alta Mesa Warhawk Launch Bay, ensuring that it is one of the best launch bay options you can find.

We've also fixed reported typos and other text errors - thanks to everyone for their attention to detail when reporting bugs.

[h2]v3.3.117 - 8/12/2024[/h2]
- Revised 'Large Hanger Bay' to hold 1 Officer, 1 Craft and Fuel
- New Ship Component: Large Shielded Hangar Bay (1 Officer + 1 Craft + Armor)
- New Ship Component: Large Reinforced Hangar Bay (1 Officer + 1 Craft + Shields)
- New Ship Component: Warhawk Hangar Bay (2 Officers + 1 Craft, Alta Mesa Only)
- Buffed Alta Mesa only Warhawk Launch Bay (Increased Bonuses)
- Fixed typos and text errors

Many welcomes, Star Traders! Come in, come in, the spice hall awaits you.. Pull up a seat, grab a spice plate and recline a while as we share the latest and greatest news from the Frontiers. Today's update continues the Summer of Star Traders update series and is focused on carriers, small craft and ship components -- with the usual mix of fixes for your reported bugs and typos that have still, to this day, somehow evaded detection.

In additional to these changes, we've made a sweep with this release to push all the new ship components that have been added in previous updates into the hands of the enemy captain and ship builder, so keep an eye out for some adjusted or more powerful ship builds, especially at the high level.


[h2]Added New Carrier Components[/h2]
First up, we have two new components that were suggested by players. We're also working on a new starting ship, and in the process of getting it to work we've had to add a new new components. Some of those are going out for testing in this release, some will go out in the next release and the last set will go out in the release after that.


The Reinforced Micro Launch Bay provides a size 1 launching point for your small craft and some additional armor points. This component appears on the new small starting ship and is particularly useful for sub-carriers that are using Shuttles for boarding instead of a mix of craft types.

The 'Large Hanger Bay' was suggested over email and provides a way to store craft in the largest components. Specifically intended for large carriers, the Large Hanger Bay can single handedly manage an entire fighter wing of small craft - 3 craft total.


[h2]Small Craft Adjustments[/h2]
Thanks to eagle-eyed Steam user 'Crim' we've got a bunch of balance adjustments to a number of small craft. Some buffs had been applied inconsistently during a previous balancing pass, and that put a few of the craft's stats pretty far outside the expected progression.

For Faulker D5 and Frostburn VX6 we've increased their speed to match the progression for their type. To bring the Cresent Chaser, Gold Paentra and Feralight MX8 into balance with their level and cost, we've increased their accuracy and agility.

This brings a number of craft that were underpowered for their level into alignment. Thanks, Crim!

[h2]Better Armored Salvage Bay 5[/h2]
To ensure the Armored Salvage Bay 5 is still worth the upgrade, we've increased both its cargo and fuel bonuses for the price it requires.


[h2]Voracious Class for a Steal[/h2]
The Voracious Class was criminally underpriced due to an error in our ship designer which was pointed out on the Steam forum and we fixed that one today. The price tag has jumped up to $950K+

v3.3.115
- New Ship Component: 'Reinforced Micro Launch Bay'
- New Ship Component: 'Large Hangar Bay' (Large Slot, holds 3 Craft as requested)
- Increased Speed for 'Faulker D5' and 'Frostburn VX6' Craft
- Increased Accuracy and Agility for Cresent Chaser, Gold Paentra Mk2, Feralight MX8
- Repriced Ship, "Voracious Class" now sold for between 950k and 1.045M
- Increased Cargo and Fuel Bonus for 'Armored Salvage Bay 5'
- Added three new components to enemy Ship builder
- Fixed text issues and reported bugs

Full challenge write up down below!

Hi Captains! I'm here with our end of the month write up for the mini-map challenge! A lot of you have taking on that tiny little map and the unique situations it created.



Matt gave us detailed write ups about the adventures of their captain and their crew. Captain Billy stayed very busy despite the small map!



Scathe, who's Capain Majara, relied on a lot on diplomacy and trade to navigate through their adventures.

Many of you, including Migal, gave the new Blade Dancer a try on this challenge too, mixing it up even more.

We really enjoyed all of you telling us about your adventures on this challenge. It's always so much fun seeing how you all choose to tackle the challenges and the shenanigans you get up to along the way!

I'll be back soon (a couple months) with another STF challenge, but make sure you join us for our CKF challenges as well if you have both games!

----------------



Hello, Captains. It’s time for another STF challenge. This is the mini-map challenge! How will you play on the smallest of maps with the least sectors? Is it very different from your standard style of play? What choices will you make and why?

This challenge really only has one "rule." That you play on the specific map seed for this challenge. Otherwise, you can play whatever professions, ships, rules, and styles you would like.

The map seed for this challenge is: st-v02-12-2-99475829

It is a 12 sector very small map. Chillbear who suggested it says that it has a very strong starting position for Steelsong.



Some ideas for what we’d love to see:

• Screenshots of your ship, your crew
  
• Descriptions of your strategies approaching such a small map and how they are different from your 'normal' strategies
  
• Tell us about the challenges your faced, particularly those around it being a small map or interesting things that happened
  
• Any other creative ways you want to share to tell us about life in so few sectors: memes, interpretive dance, gifs, etc
  

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


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 #mini_map_challenge channel found in the STF category.



Good luck and have fun, Captains!