Star Traders: Frontiers News

What better way to welcome a 30% off deal for Autumn Sale than to launch update #306! Yes, that's update 3-0-6. A huge thanks to the community on Steam and Discord. for all the feedback and help improving the game and welcoming new captains to the void. If you're enjoying the game and the pace of updates, please take a moment to share it with a friend and post a review!

With Update #306: Zucho Mil, we've added a new story event that will usually occur in the second half of the 3rd century AE and makes a new grade of craft available as well as adding a new orbital operation card.

[h2]What’s the latest on Cyber Knights?[/h2]
Earlier this year, we launched Cyber Knights: Flashpoint’s private alpha test for Kickstarter backers, following the same tried-and-true process we used for Star Traders: Frontiers. With 1,000 in the game now, development pace has picked up and we’re on the long march to release on Steam, so 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]Zucho Mil-Accords & Grade 8 Craft[/h2]
Following on other major Trade Alliance events, the Zucho Mil-Accords features a triple military Alliance event and usher in an era of grade 8 craft. These most powerful new craft to hit starports are available through Syndicate channels only as these factions harden their stance against the Great Houses and Clans late in the third century AE.

Visit De Valtos for the newest Frostburn VX6 interdictor, Cadar with the Poseidon heavy bomber and Rychart with the Swordbreaker XV shuttle for daring boarding operations.


[h2]New Risks Arise in Orbital[/h2]
Late in the third century, it becomes more and more common for the factions to illegally deploy anti-ship mines in orbit to prevent piracy, protect salvage sites and try to ward off spies. Even those valiant militants patrolling to protect the void are at risk. The most famous of all types is the Zucho Anti-Ship Mine which begin to appear after the triple Alliance during certain types of Rumors including Terrox and Jyeeta Xeno rumors, Pirate and Solar War Conflicts.

In additional, some types of Rumors -- both good and bad -- have become less likely to be ended early during Conflicts. The chance of any card that reduces Rumor duration such as Salvage or Blockade of cards that can reduce Salvage and Quarantine Rumors is now reduced during Conflicts.

We've also addressed the recently reported crashes so a huge thanks goes out to everyone helping surface these issues.

[h2]v3.3.13 - 11/23/2022[/h2]
- Added new story event -- Syndicate Zucho Mil-Accord -- which creates a triple military Alliance and releases grade 8 craft
- New Interdictor: Frostburn VX6 (grade 8; De Valtos)
- New Shuttle: Swordbreaker XV (grade 8; Rychart)
- New Bomber: Poseidon Heavy (grade 8; Cadar)
- After Zucho Mil-Accord, Zucho Anti-Ship Mines appear as Orbital Risks during Xeno, Jyeeta, Pirate and Syndicate Wars
- During Conflicts Orbital Rumors will draw 50% fewer Rumor Duration Reduction cards
- Minor performance improvements, fixed reported typos & crashes

Welcome to Update #305, which adds new planetary artwork and a new set of late-game story events that further reward your story choices, show technological advancement in the factions and introduce unique components and Contact types.

We're also excited to share the November community challenge - it's a Pirate's Life (For Me!) - join in the fun and the silly hats!
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/335620/view/3376037401308938450

[h2]Want more Trese Brothers sci-fi?[/h2]
We always love seeing how many of you have pieced together the lore of Star Traders from the stories within, and enjoy the flavor of this universe your Captain is a part of. In our next game, we’re telling a very different sci-fi story but with the same depth we bring to all our worlds. Check out the dark-future feel of our upcoming cyberpunk heist RPG, and wishlist it today!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1021210/Cyber_Knights_Flashpoint/


[h2]Post Consolidation / Dissension Tech Progress[/h2]
On the far end of the Consolidation / Dissension Era, there is already a story event in which a specific faction -- based on your actions or inaction -- gains a new technology that enables a powerful and unique ship component. As the years grind by and you continue to ply the void, these research advances are now allowed to further progress and in time, a second story event will occur which further improves the ship component category where the faction focused their advances -- Alta Mesa on the Battle Bridges, De Valtos on ECCM Screen Matrix and Thulun on Interlocking Sensor Matrix. Each component is the pinnacle of its chain of components and worthy of their high price tag.

I'll skip further spoilers about the Era and the involved choices, but it is a new story event, ship component and even -- a new Contact type.


[h2]New Research Lead Contact[/h2]
A new unique Contact will appear with the story event -- and this Research Lead has a great set of services, makes for a very powerful ally in a starport and recruits Pilots and a powerful secondary Job depending on the faction they are due to story choices. As some of the factions continue to develop their power centers around the Coalition, their research arms continue to break out ahead of the competition.

[h2]v3.3.11 - 11/24/2022[/h2]
- Added new "Distant Glacier" Ice World outpost image
- Added story event post Consolidation / Dissension, further research progress for factions
- Meeting unique and powerful contact "Research Lead"
- Gain access to new high-level component based on Era choices
- Added new component: Alta Mesa stands to gain Battle Bridge 4
- Added new component: De Valtos can gain ECCM Screen Matrix 6
- Added new component: Thulun can gain Interlocking Sensor Matrix 6

As Update #304 installs itself into your local starport with some important component rebalances and a host of new high-level components to shop, we're also excited to share the November community challenge - it's a Pirate's Life (For Me!)
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/335620/view/3376037401308938450

Check out the full details of the update below and a huge thanks to everyone sharing the game, leaving a review and posting feedback and suggestions onto the Steam boards.

[h2]Our upcoming heist RPG is on the way![/h2]
Right now ~1,000 of the Kickstarter backers for Cyber Knights: Flashpoint have access to the game’s private alpha and are giving us great feedback as the game gets closer to Early Access. We also have some public demos on our roadmap for events coming up this fall. Make sure you’ve wishlisted and followed Cyber Knights for news and a special discount when it’s released!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1021210/Cyber_Knights_Flashpoint/

[h2]New Garden Outposts[/h2]
The worlds of the Star Traders scattered across the quadrants are many, and we're excited to add two more art boards for landing zones to Garden world outposts.

[h2]Sensor Arrays Rebalances and Gain Lvl 5[/h2]
With Update #304, we've revisited the catalog of Sensor Arrays and made some adjustments to ensure their progression is clearly expressed. Sensor Arrays provide more consistent bonuses across their progression from rank 1 to 4 and their installation and repair times are also correctly aligned with other small slot components.

In addition, a new 5th rank Sensor Array 5 has come online granting best in class Navigation and attack bonuses as well as and matched Electronics with Sensor Array 4.

The requirements for starports that can install Signature Dampeners have also been increased a bit as part of this rebalance.


[h2]Orbital Scoop 5[/h2]
The estimates for all Orbital Scoop components were slightly too high and have been adjusted for this update. This should help prevent players from expecting more during fuel returned during Orbital operations. A good thing, now there is an Orbital Scoop 5 component that can provide the best in class scooping for your reduced fuel cost. Install a few of these for free ops!

[h2]Small Slot Medical Options[/h2]
A new small slot Advanced Medical Chamber has joined the family and offers a superior +3 Medical Rating though it comes with neither Armor nor Shielding bonuses. The Shielded Medical Chamber now adds +2 Jump Cost to help keep it balanced within the small slot medical component options and keep it fairly weighted against the Reinforced Medical Chamber.


[h2]Advanced Hangar[/h2]
In another win of a long run of wins for carriers, the Advanced Hangar Bay is now for sale in Thulun starports across the galaxy. Built for those captains looking to take an aggressive stance, the Advance Hangar Bay provides a place for a craft, bonus fuel and aggressive bonuses against enemy craft.

[h2]Ship Repricing[/h2]
With the changes to components and all the adjustments to costs over the last few months, we've taken a moment to correct some ship prices. The Caliga Vindex has been raised to $2.1m credits and the Shizari Huntress has gained a much needed bump to $1.2m. These changes match up to the components installed on the hulls and ensure prize ship and resale prices provide fair values in the starport market.

[h2]v3.3.9 - 11/3/2022[/h2]
- Added two new "Valley View" Garden World outpost images
- Added new component "Advanced Medical Chamber" (Size 1)
- Added new component "Sensor Array 5" (Size 1)
- Added new component "Orbital Fuel Scoop 5" (Size 2)
- Added new Thulun component "Advanced Hangar Bay" (Size 2)
- Added Hyperwarp Jump Cost to 'Shielded Medical Chamber'
- Rebalanced Sensor Array 1-4
- Fixed issues with Orbital Fuel Scoop Estimates
- Adjusted ship prices for 'Caliga Vindex' and 'Shizari Huntress'

[h2]End of Challenge Wrap Up[/h2]
(original challenge description below)

Ahoy, Captains! These last couple of months it’s been all about plundering your way through the galaxy while avoiding walking the airlock in our Pirate’s Life Challenge. You all have been *ahem* “acquiring” loot, conscripting crew, and wearing the best of pirate fashion!

We’ve really enjoyed reading your stories and have been impressed by your plunder! If you want to catch up on all of the pirating and fun, check out the [url=[https://steamcommunity.com/app/335620/discussions/0/3461606393635113766/]challenge discussion thread and pop into our Discord and head to #pirates_life_challenge.

A few highlights from the challenge:

Shallowrain, for giving us this excellent meme about the best things in life.


Scathe, for giving us all the stats on their career as a pirate, looting over 3700 pieces of cargo and conscripting 15 crew members. Ultimately, Scathe ended up with 6008 pieces of cargo looted!


Matt gave us lots of great stories about their adventures with Captain Michagorov, including surviving a mutiny and recovering through conscription, all while wearing the very important pirate hat!


Great work, Captains! So many of you participated in the challenge, sharing your screenshots, stories and more. Thank you all! Even though the official time frame for the challenge is over, we’d still love to hear about your attempt at this challenge (or any of the previous community challenges) any time!

Stay tuned for future challenges!


Update (11/30/2022) original challenge posted below.

The Pirate’s Life challenge has been a lot of fun throughout November, so we are extending it through early January with some additional challenges. Here are two more ways to challenge yourself while plundering your way through the universe.

1) Be a pirate against only a single faction. Pick one and be merciless.
2) Be a pirate against everyone. Be an indie pirate and go after every faction. How will you make it when everyone is turned against you?

The other requirements for the challenge are listed below and you can, of course, continue to do the challenge as we originally posted it!


Avast ye, Captains. It’s time for the November 2022 STF challenge. Last time, we did a trade focused merchant challenge. This time, though, it’s all about piracy in the Pirate’s Life Challenge. Time to plunder, capture, and steal your way through the universe.

This challenge is very open for how you want to play being a Pirate, but there are a few requirements. The requirements for this challenge are:

• No buying from faction worlds. You can buy from Indie worlds and sell at any world, but as this is a pirate challenge, we want to emphasize plundering and capturing goods from other ships!
  
• 5 of your crew must be conscripted. This requirement will take time to complete, but by the end of the challenge at least 5 of your crew need to have been conscripted from another ship.
  

Some ideas for what we’d love to see:

• Screenshots of your stats on cargo looted and crew conscripted, your crew, your stash of loot
  
• Stories of your conscripted crew and how they became part of your team, your favorite pirating adventure/encounter
  
• Your strategies for being a pirate: how do you find your next target, what do you do with your plundered loot
  
• Any other creative ways you want to share to tell us how you became the universe’s most notorious pirate
  

No matter what you choose to share, please include one screenshot of your piracy stats (cargo looted and crew conscripted)!



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 #pirates_life_challenge channel found in the STF category.

Yarr, it’s time to plunder, Captain! Looking forward to hearing about your adventures and exploits!

After a short break, we're back warming up the update train with Update #303 Patchwork. With a new environmental artboard and some adjustments to the Contact simulation, this minor patch gets things moving again with more to come.

The last community challenge -- Merchant Mogul -- has wrapped up and the team is prepping the next exciting chapter of those challenges, so stay tuned.

Thanks to everyone for the on-going support, sharing feedback and sharing the game!

[h2]New Art Board[/h2]
We've added a new planetary artboard for the icy vastness of iceworld outposts. We've also tweaked and adjusted some of the recently added artboards for color and improved cropping.

[h2]Starting Contact Influences[/h2]
WIth this update, we've tuned a number of Contact starting points for the betterment of the Contact ecosystem. The Retired Bodyguard and Racketeer Contacts have both had their starting Influence values reduced and their action pattern adjusted so that they are better at building Influence over time. On the other hand, we have increased the starting Influence for all Templar Contacts, including the Templar Militant, and also applied an additional Templar-only rule that slows their Influence pace changes, to reflect their Zendu ways.

[h2]v3.3.7 - 10/18/2022[/h2]
- Added new 'Ice Outpost' planet artwork
- Fixed bug with 'Zendu Lineage' Trait
- Adjustment base influence for "Retired Bodyguard" & "Racketeer"
- Revised influence equations for Templar / Templar Militant