Star Traders: Frontiers News

While we released 3 sizeable patches in the wake of Update #187, our first big update following the BROOD milestone is #188, Gundecks Roar. In this update, we've made some more important improvements to the new Brood era, improved the warning you get before encounter jyeeta, added a rank 15 Gundeck Boss Talent, improved autocannons against craft, and added 5 new craft defense and attack related components, and as always, more too. Check the full release notes for everything!

If you're enjoying the pace of updates and the new major expansion pack, please sure to leave a review and tell a friend.


With Update #188 we've addressed the two biggest pieces of feedback from the player-base for Brood -- the jyeeta carriers are a surprise and you needed more time to defeat the era. For the first, we've now added a discussion between your officers and the captain about the known aspects of jyeeta that make them so challenging as soon as the era starts -- consider it a better pre-warning. Second, if you're getting involved in the jyeeta era, following the story and knocking down the brood score, you are constantly extended the timeline you have to defeat the era. The more you're involved, the more time you get. For those who want the era to end as quickly as possible so you can get back to peaceful trading, don't get involved!

We've also added a correct story mission objective to help you find the Brood quadrant as soon as it starts. Or, you can always check the Rumors screen to see the current Era and plot a waypoint.


The Gundeck Boss has gained a new rank 15 Talent to help eviscerate incoming craft with a +50% Damage bonus only to craft and a +10% craft hit chance. While it needs to be paired with other craft accuracy components or Talents, the massive Damage bonus can let you really light up incoming bombers and interdictors!

In addition, we've modified Autocannon rules to ensure that if you are fighting at close range with an enemy they will fire at craft on either side of the screen -- either those that have closed on your ship or those sticking close to the enemy ship, where before they only fired on those that have closed. This gives your ACs an entire additional turn to fire at craft if you can close on the enemy carrier, increasing the value of the strategy of getting close. Of course, watch out because the enemy ACs have the same rules now too.

Quick note on the enemy -- the AI controlling craft is now smarter about launching craft and will avoid launching too many defensive interdictors once you are inside of torpedo and missile range.


Five new ship components have been added with this update, all enabling more focused anti-craft ship builds. The Railtrak Guidance Matrix 3 and 4 are going to further improve your ability to take out enemy craft before they reach you. You can only pick up the RTGM 4 at a Steel Song starport though.

The C-Tak Interceptor System 3 and 4 give the reverse, increasing your defenses and ability to avoid incoming craft and bombing runs. The CTIS 4 is only available at Zenrin starports though.

Finally, we've added a Thulun-only Reactive Hangar Bay which is a way to gain additional % chance to dodge craft attacks. This modified hangar has defensive systems for the ship while still housing a craft. However, you'll have to trade the Armor or Shield or your Reinforced or Shielded Hangar Bays for it.

Finally, with Update #188 we've made some needed balance changes to defensive and offensive components in regards to +Initiative buffs. Defense Pattern Matrix ranks 1 through 3 have had their +Initiative bonus removed. They are still amazing even without it. Defense Pattern Matrix 4 retains an Initiative bonus, but it has been lowered to a +1. Finally, we've added +Initiative bonuses to aggressive Targeting Matrix components ranks 2 to 4. As bonus Initiative determines who fires first and therefore who gets Crippling Effects or knocks out enemy components, we're going to ensure these types of bonuses are found mostly on offensive ship components in future additions and balance updates.


Ships are expensive and the discounts against them can really add up quickly. For a long time, Contacts and Talents could each provide a 15% discount. With this update, we've finally reduced that discount to 10% for either. While this hurts, it is a needed balance for the price of ships, resale rules, and to help ensure the differentiation between hull prices is enough.


While we still have a lot of work to finish out the Star Traders: Frontiers development roadmap, we're excited to be coming out of the pre-production phase on our next game and ready to share. In Cyber Knights, you are the razor-sharp leader of a covert merc company operating in the New Boston Zone in 2231. Built around a core of turn-based gameplay featuring stealth, hacking, ambushes, firefights and complex missions, Cyber Knights weaves the human story of your team, their loyalty and their sacrifice in a dehumanizing cyberpunk world.

Coming to KickStarter in Feb 2020, sign up to get the call and alerted about free first day rewards, discounts and more! We're gathering the most crackpot amazing alpha team ever and we hope you'll join us.


- Participating in the Jyeeta Brood Era extends the storyline timer, giving more time to succeed
- Added mission objective to make it easier to find the Jyeeta Brood Quadrant
- Added officer warning about the dangers of fighting jyeeta carriers and strategies you might consider
- Added rank 15 Gundeck Boss Talent "Take Down" grants +50% damage to craft and +10% to hit craft
- Autocannons firing at range 1 or 2 will now fire on craft near their own capital ship if no enemy craft have closed yet
- Improved AI intelligence about launching interdictors when they cannot intercept torps or missiles
- Added Railtrak Guidance Matrix 3 and 4, grade 4 is Steel Song only
- Added C-Tak Interceptor System 3 and 4, grade 4 is Zenrin-only
- Added Thulun-only "Reactive Hangar Bay" giving some ship defense against craft while docking a craft
- Removed +Initiative bonus from Defense Pattern Matrix 2-3, reduced DPM 4 +Init bonus, added +Init bonuses to Targeting Matrix 2-4
- Reduce cool down on Gundeck Boss Talent "Dead Eye" and Explorer "Tag the Beast" to ever 3 weeks
- Reduced maximum price reduction for Contact's "New Ship" discount to 10%, maximum Talent discount to 10%
- Increased some ship prices purchased at the starport
- Improved limit on appearance of Jyeeta Brood Era to make sure it cannot show up unfairly early
- Fixed miscounted cargo in the "Stockpiled for Riches" mission involving weapons stashes
- Fixed hovers with some Jyeeta rumors missing description

The BROOD has been awoken in this major new expansion pack which includes a extremely challenging Story Era, the new Gundeck Boss Job and invites enemy captains to command carriers and launch squadrons of attack craft.

With the drop of this major expansion, we're inviting new captains to come sail the quadrants and save 35%. If you're enjoying the game and the continuous stream of major expansions without any DLCs, please take a moment to leave a review or tell a friend. If you're new to the frontiers, post your comments, feedback and suggestions to the discussion board or join us on our Discord where there is a great community to help!


To avoid spoilers, we won't say much about the ancient, slimy, snaky void-slug evil that has slept since the time of Shalun. The BROOD Story Era will start during the 3rd or 4th Centuries with a series of introductory stories. No matter how old your game is, it will start if you play for a few years -- as always we work hard to make sure veteran captains can keep enjoying new content without any restarts.

Prepare your ship, sharpen your blades, load up on hexshell. This one won't be easy, captain.


Enemy captains now have the fully operational battle carriers! High level human captains of certain professions like Military Officer may challenge you in the void, ready to launch interdictors, bombers and boarding shuttles against you. And, the jyeeta race is well known for its craft swarms. In both cases, it is time for your captain to consider some changes to ship weaponry, ship components, Talents and even perhaps Job distribution on the boat. Consider the % to hit craft when picking ship weapons, as you'll want to blow the enemy craft out of the sky before they reach you. Take another look at Autocannons. Consider of the C-Tak and Railtrak Guidance components that play double-duty on your ship, or Pilot Assist Modules which help your capital ship evade bombing runs. Finally -- most ship Jobs already provide Talents with capability to jam, disable or debuff craft, and now a new specialist Job has arrived as well.


The new Gundeck Boss Job brings a strong anti-craft capability to any ship, combining the sensibilities of a quartermaster with the skills of a gunner. Stalking the gundecks, the boss roars orders, pinpoints targets and rallies morale in ship combat. Adding Gunnery, Intimidate and Repair, the Gundeck Boss is a great cross-Job for a ship officer but can make for a powerful stand-alone crew member. Even on a small ship, the Gundeck Boss can make a big impact versus carriers.


With the BROOD expansion, we've closed down the entire v2.6.x family of the roadmap, adding the promised 7th story Era and the jyeeta xeno species in a single blow. We've also completed our goal to add +33% new Jobs and Talents and +50% new Contact types and services after the game's release, which means we're starting to tick off some of the big boxes in the Content Expansion Goals as well.


While we still have a lot of work to finish out the Star Traders: Frontiers development roadmap, we're excited to be coming out of the pre-production phase on our next game and ready to share.

In Cyber Knights, you are the razor-sharp leader of a covert merc company operating in the New Boston Zone in 2231. Built around a core of turn-based gameplay featuring stealth, hacking, ambushes, firefights and complex missions, Cyber Knights weaves the human story of your team, their loyalty and their sacrifice in a dehumanizing cyberpunk world.

Coming to KickStarter in Feb 2020, sign up to get the call and alerted about free first day rewards, discounts and more! We're gathering the most crackpot amazing alpha team ever and we hope you'll join us.


- Added 7th Story Era: Jyeeta Xeno Brood Awakens!
- Added new anti-craft "Gundeck Boss" Job!
- Enemy captains may now fly carrier ships including the dreaded Jyeeta Xeno and their swarm
- All new simulation rules, Rumors, Conflicts, and Contact actions/mutations during this new period of galactic threat
- Added new Era-specific Echoes that forever change the simulation due to the 7th Era
- Added 4 new Era-specific Rumors which can affect entire quadrants, systems and wilderness zones and multiple Rumor echoes which can appear anytime after Era
- Added 1 new Era-specific Contact Type, the controversial Xenologist, who will also echo and appear after Era
- Added 5 Era-specific Contact creation rules to seed the Era new blood
- Added 4 Era-specific special cargo rules for Spies, Merchants, Smugglers and Pirates
- Added 5 Era-specific Explorer cards which can also echo and appear anytime after Era
- Added 6 Era-specific Orbital Ops and Salvage cards which can also echo and appear anytime after Era
- Added new Era-driven ship encounters and mechanics when meeting the Jyeeta xeno in the void
- Added 13 new Era-specific crew barks for different Rumor typess
- Added new Rare Trade Good, Jyeeta Artifacts
- New Spice Hall recruit of Xeno Hunters during Jyeeta Spore system Rumor
- Rippling effects of story choices made all the way back in the first Era bearing fruit
- Added new Contact type "Fleet Commander" offers high rank and edict, pardons, ship upgrade discount, recruits Gundeck Boss
- Renamed Contact Trait "Naval Vet" to "Wing Vet", added new "Naval Vet" Contact Trait
- Contacts with "Naval Vet" Trait gives more weight to Faction Rep, has +1 bonus level to Recruits, and Recruits Gundeck Bosses
- Increased duration of Navigator's "Fast Getaway" Talent to 3 turns from 2
- Buffed Battle Prow 1, 2 and 3 components with improved Electronics and Boarding Bonus
- Rebalanced Military Officer's "Incite Victory" Talent
- Fixed bug with Sell All sometimes still selling "F" demand resources
- Fixed issues with total component counts sometimes reporting incorrectly in starport
- Fixed issues with Awards -- Survivor III, Navigator I, II and III
- Fixed issues with some enemy Talents showing up in the player's log

v3.0.3 - 11/5/2019
- Fixed crash when purchasing new craft for your carriers
- Fixed crash on some Brood Era missions offered by Fleet Commanders
- Fixed issue where Explorer "Dredge Artifacts" Talent could be used on any type of ship
- Fixed issue where Xeno Hunter "Macabre Harvest" used against Jyeeta would produce Terrox Artifacts
- Fixed crashes with Consolidation Era missions offered by UCF contacts


v3.0.5 - 11/6/2019
- Gai Cluvere now offers Brood Era related missions correctly
- Fixed bugs with Smuggler Chekha's "Stockpiled for Riches" Mission - steps will now create stashes
- Fixed crashes with dialogs at Fleet Commander headquarters
- Fixed bug with "UNKNOWN ACTION TYPE" showing up for some Talents
- Fixed bug with "Sell All" threshold resetting sometimes
- Fixed missing bonuses on Cadar-only Battle Prow 4 and Battle Prow 5
- Fixed some bugs in Explorer and Mission flavor text generator
- Fixed bugs with hovers in Galaxy and Quadrant maps
- Fixed bug with Talent Manifest "locking up" buttons at bottom of screen

v3.0.7 - 11/8/2019
- Jyeeta Balancing and Ship Updates
- Added new smaller/intro Jyeeta Ship "Infector"
- Added new smaller/intro Terrox Ship "Terrox Dart"
- Added "Sale Report" to any transaction made by Sell All to give specific details of all sales and profits
- Improved difficulty scaling for AI Small Craft Attacks
- Improved difficulty scaling for Jyeeta Xeno Craft
- Fixed names of Jyeeta ship components for better combat logs
- Fixed bug with some boarding Talents incorrectly reporting type of killed Jyeeta targets
- Fixed bug in Exchange "Sell All" that could sometimes refuse to sell or sell an item below minimum
- Fixed bug preventing Dredge Artifacts from working on xeno of either type
- Fixed bugs in Options screens
- Fixed some missing Brood Era flavor text and crew barks

v3.0.9 - 11/10/2019
- Jyeeta Balancing and Ship Updates
- Added new smaller/intro Jyeeta Ship "Infector"
- Added new smaller/intro Terrox Ship "Terrox Dart"
- Added "Sale Report" to any transaction made by Sell All to give specific details of all sales and profits
- Improved difficulty scaling for AI Small Craft Attacks
- Improved difficulty scaling for Jyeeta Xeno Craft
- Fixed names of Jyeeta ship components for better combat logs
- Fixed bug with some boarding Talents incorrectly reporting type of killed Jyeeta targets
- Fixed bug in Exchange "Sell All" that could sometimes refuse to sell or sell an item below minimum
- Fixed bug preventing Dredge Artifacts from working on xeno of either type
- Fixed bugs in Options screens
- Fixed some missing Brood Era flavor text and crew barks

Update #186 rolls out the last pack of critical changes before the next major milestone -- rebalancing some aspects of ship combat, improving the AI's Job/Talent training routine, improving high level ship weapon components and tweaking some of the cards related to fighting xeno and harvesting artifacts.

Following this update, we're marching straight for the next major milestone which will include a new era, new xeno type and enemy carriers! If you're enjoying the pace of constant updates, be sure to leave a review and tell a friend!

You can see some of the "making of" the Jyeeta xeno race on YouTube. This time lapse video compresses a multi-hour animation session into a few minutes.
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]


We've made some important changes to the meta around boarding defense and ship weapon Gunnery requirements that may impact your ship builds.

First -- we've changed the rules for boarding defense. In the past, Boarding Bonus was directly applied to your boarding defense which means a ship built to board is also excellent at defending against boarding. With this shift, we've reduced the Boarding Bonus contribution to boarding defense by 50%. Without a doubt, this is most likely to help the AI. Most players who are boarding have already figured out how to get 100% boarding success where the enemy who attempts to board fails more than 50% of the time. This change should make Bounty Hunters, Pirates and other boarding aggro enemy captains more fun and challenging.

Second -- we've increased the Gunnery Skill Pool requirements for many ship weapons above level 4 from anywhere from +1 to +8 points. Overall, this pushes the Gunnery Skill Pool higher which may require you to adjust your crew compositions to find additional Gunnery Skill, depending on how many high level weapons you have on board. However, it will also increase the accuracy of these weapons and impact the AI's interest in having higher Gunnery Skill.


With Update #186 we've completed the final round of AI hardening before the release of enemy carriers. This update includes improving the ability for captain and officers to balance their Talent selections by upfront planning some of the decisions and needed Talents for their ship type and size. Also, the AI is now putting more weight into higher level Talents to help drive smarter choices and harder to beat strategies.

Another improvement was to avoid too many duplicates of the same Talent. This includes toning down the number of Twitch Surge's that any ship crew will take.


With the new xeno race coming it means a new type of xeno Artifact and Rare Trade Good coming as well. As we're working our way through all those impacts, we're balancing and improving the Terrox ops cards. The reward of the Explorer card "Xeno Spore!" can be improved by Mining Ship Components. In Salvage, "Xeno Assault" has an increased number of artifact rewards if you survive the double stacked xeno fights.

We've also fixed a bug where Traits gained after Crew Combat where not immediately appearing.

Also, finally we've closed the final set of reported bugs for the Buried Demons storyline, including some issues with dialog lying about Trike's final fate.


- Improved intelligence of routine training enemy ship's officers to make smarter Talent selections
- Improved balance of enemy ship's Pilot taking Twitch Surge Talent
- Rebalanced Ship Combat - Boarding rolls to make defense weaker and buff attack bonuses
- Increase Gunnery Skill Pools for most ship weapon's above level 4, increasing ship accuracy as well as Gunnery pool needs
- Adjusted visuals in ship combat to clearly differentiate between captain's ship and craft and the enemy ship (and craft soon)
- Artifact haul for "Xeno Spore!" Exploring card (xeno plus an artifact stash) is now increased by Mining Ship Components
- Increased the Terrox Artifact rewards when fighting xeno in Orbital Salvage card "Xeno Assault!"
- Fixed issues with Traits gained by crew combat victory not appear for a little while or until game reload
- Fixed story bug where dialog would state Trike Zermotte lived when he actually dies
- Fixed crashes in Ship Combat related to Small Craft

Update #185 rolls out with another set of additions -- new Talents, new advantages to old Talents, new Rumor effects and many improvements across the card mini-games and Trait mutation rules for the game.

If you're enjoying the relentless pace of updates, new changes and additions please be sure to leave a review and tell a friend!


Drawing on some inspiration from community suggestions, we've pushed new alternatives for Morale-damaged focused builds into the Talent set for ship combat. Commander has gained a new powerful rank 15 Talent, Warning Shots, which reduces their own damage but debuffs the enemy's move, escape and inflicts nasty Morale Damage every turn.

In addition, Gunner's "Signature Homing" (rank 1), "Targeting Lock" (rank 1) and "Scattershot" (rank 8) Talents have all gained +10 Morale/turn to enemy crew, giving some new and quick options to add Morale damage to your starting and standard builds.

A final new Talent has gone in for Diplomats at rank 11 -- Compelling Conscription -- allows these quick talkers to lean hard on a new conscript and come onto the ship with higher Morale and without any negative Trait mutation.


Rumors that are focused on Recruiting bonuses -- including Mercenaries, Spice Festival and Academy Graduation -- all the now ensure the doors for recruiting at the spice hall are always open. In situations where these Rumors could appear on low starport worlds there was not enough starfaring interest in the zone to drive recruitment. Now, these Rumors temporarily boost that.


Across a number of card game operations and combat scenarios, we've fine tuned and improved the rates for Trait mutation and XP gain.

Traits are slightly more likely to appear now on crew combat victory and slightly less likely to appear on ship combat draw and hyperwarp jump (which are both very common events). We've added new Trait mutation paths for Ship Combat Victory, Craft Destroyed (assuming you survive!) and Craft Landed to help further shape those brave men and women who take to the void in bombers, interdictors and shuttles.

In addition, larger planets now cost more Fuel and Time to land on, so have your Piloting Talents ready.


- Added new Commander Talent "Warning Shots" at rank 15 - reduce enemy move, escape and crush their Morale
- Added new Diplomat Talent "Compelling Conscription" at rank 11 - pressed crew start with higher Morale and don't gain negative Trait
- Gunner Talents "Signature Homing" (rank 1), "Targeting Lock" (rank 1) and "Scattershot" (rank 8) all gain +10 Morale/turn to enemy crew
- During Mercenaries, Spice Festival and Academy Graduation Rumors, the Spice Hall is always open for Recruiting even if Starport rating is below minimum
- Recovery of relic wargear during Exploration slightly more common, increased during "Gold Rush" Rumor
- Radiation and Molten worlds are slightly riskier for Exploration
- Very Large Planets take slightly longer and more fuel to make planetfall
- Slightly increased Trait Mutation rate for Crew Combat Victory, slightly reduced for Hyperwarp / Ship Combat Draw
- Added new Trait Mutation paths for Ship Combat Victory, Craft Destroyed, Craft Landed
- Very slightly increased Experienced earned in Ship Combat Victory
- Display of ship's offered price added to dry dock sale confirmation dialog
- Fixed missing "Unexpected Revelation" cards in Explorer decks, experience granting card now appears again
- Mechanized enemies no longer Bleed or suffer Poison Damage
- Fixed bug in map hovers where Repair service that was denied by Rep might not show as disabled
- Fixed bug with Hietta Lumotte's court (no longer appears)

Update #184 arrives with continued focus on polishing up the quality of life features, improving the UI and hitting major points of community feedback. As we keep marching to the exciting and dramatic end of the v2.6.x roadmap family, we're focused on hitting all the big points in the quality of life section of our to-do list. We'll be hammering away at this for a few more releases and then we'll be ushering in a new major blast of content!

Thanks to everyone leaving a review and telling a friend.


Immediately a popular feature, Sell All rapidly garnered a lot of smart feedback and suggestions on how to make it even better. Right away, we heard selling everything that was able to turn any profit mean you're incorrectly selling sometimes at F demand for a few credits -- so you have to abandon the button and go back to selling one by one.

Therefore, we have added a Minimum Demand slider which you can raise from F to A+. Any resource that has less than this demand won't be sold when you click "Sell All". Our testing merchants cruised through hours of profitable play without ever having to sell anything manually! This setting is remembered from Exchange to Exchange within your game, so set it where you like it and let it ride!

Also, to avoid nasty or nice surprises, we've added a warning about Trade Ban Conflicts as well as Embargo and Blockade Rumors, which can respectively damage or raise your Rep when trading. These warnings are visible from the Sell All view and can help you avoid mistakes here.

A huge thanks to everyone pouring fuel on the feedback fire for this one.


We've added a helpful confirmation dialog to selling a ship as a few players have been stung by a misclick here. Thanks again to everyone suggesting the little things to make the game even smoother.


Over the last couple of releases, we've worked to revamp the balance of Risk and Reward factors throughout all of the orbital games. We've pushed another set of balancing changes with Update #184 as well as increasing the impacts of the Plague Era and Meteor or Ion Storm Rumors. These dangerous events make this type of activity very dangerous and you should -- more than ever -- consider a lovely spying trip when meteorite storm is whizzing through the system.


- Exchange and Black Market "Sell All" now includes a preference for the Minimum Demand (such as B+) to sell cargo, cargo under this Demand is not sold
- Exchange and Black Market "Sell All" now warns about Trade Bans, Blockade Rumors and Embargo Rumors that might increase or decrease Rep with every sale
- "Sell All" button always appears when opening Exchange or Black Market sale screen
- Added confirmation dialog to Dry Dock ship sales to avoid accidental sales
- Additional balancing and fixes for Risk and Reward factor weights in Orbital Ops
- Increased impact of Plague Era in Orbital Ops (Salvage, Patrol, Spy, Blockade)
- Increased impact of Meteor and Ion Storms on Orbital Ops
- Fixed issues with buttons overlapping in Exchange on for some screen sizes
- Clarified description of some card game Talents
- New SFX for "Meteor Damage" during Orbital Ops
- Additional SFX for Xeno Encounters in Orbital Ops and Explorer