Star Traders: Frontiers News

Update #293 follows on after Update #300 (what madness is this, it's April Fools!) with a major quality of life upgrade for combat captains, a powerful balance improvement for mission runners, new content for the crew barks system and fixes for Blade Dancer and the Templar storyline. We're hard at work again, knocking off the major quality of life and rebalance requests from the community. If you are enjoying the improvements, please take a moment to leave a review, post some feedback or share our game with a friend.

[h2]What’s the latest on Cyber Knights?[/h2]
Earlier this year, Cyber Knights: Flashpoint’s private alpha test went live for our Kickstarter backers, following the same tried-and-true process we used for Star Traders: Frontiers. With a thousand players 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]Auto-Battle![/h2]
When it comes time for the rapid takedown, we've made a lot of improvements over the last year to help combat captains play faster. An upgraded suite of keyboard shortcuts and the high speed combat option to skip animation and SFX have both helped. But compared to the newest Auto Battle option, these previous improvements are tepid spice beer compared to a heaping spice plate.

Auto Battle --

• Uses the same AI controlling the enemy to control your team
  
• Uses all your Talents, healing and attacks automatically
  
• Resolves combats very quickly, especially when combined with Fast Combat option
  
• Can win easily if you are in a commanding position -- if you outclass the enemy or you've already cleared half the enemy team, Auto Battle will help you mop up. If the enemy is a lineup of E-Techs and Navigators, Auto Battle can give you that rapid takedown experience.
  
• Should be used carefully in evenly matched combats where every decision counts. In closely balanced battles, Auto Battle will duke it out but will not be able to use your team's combat builds as optimally as you could.
  
• Can be quickly turned off - click the toggle to get control again
  
• Will never Surrender and always fight to the death
  
• Is not responsible for deaths to your team members -- Use at your own risk!
• Starts disabled with each new combat. To a void mistakes where Auto Battle runs the first few (woops!) turns of a xeno combat, it always starts disabled
  

Auto Battle always starts disabled and as soon as you engage it your team will take care of the rest. We recommend trying out Auto Battle option in a few safe situations -- when the enemy is down to 2 crew, when the enemy is far lower level than you, when your fighting mostly enemy ship crew boarding -- to see how it feels with your combat crew. The Auto Battle AI uses basically the same AI as the enemy, so it may not be able to use your combat crews optimally, may not buff in the order you like or may heal less than you'd chose to -- etc.

We're excited to hear your feedback -- especially from boarding-heavy captains -- to see how this helps and what we could do to further tune the Auto Battle AI.



[h2]Red Badge Priority Drop[/h2]
With Update #293, Reputation mitigation Talents like the Diplomat's "Adept Mediation" or Spy's "Stealth Op" will activate before the Bounty Hunter's more generalist "Red Badge". This is a boon to captains who specialize in these skill-focused Talents, enabling you to save your Red Badge for a later mission step that might not have Stealth or Negotiation options.

The Bounty Hunter bearing an Edict has always been able to use Red Badge to reduce Reputation loss on any type of mission step in urban zones (not Exploring). Historically, it always went first. Many captains found this to be a disadvantage to the newer Rep mitigation Talents and we've finally caught up with the change that activates Red Badge always as a last resort.


[h2]Clarified Ritualized Retreat[/h2]
We have fixed the description of the Blade Dancer's "Ritualized Retreat" Talent to be much clearer about what Black Market cards it can protect against -- that is, only cards that include "Cargo Lost" in their title specifically. It does not protect against encountering hostile security squads.

[h2]New Barks -- Thanks Twitch![/h2]
In a recent Twitch stream on our Twitch channel, Cory hung out and chatted and gathered awesome suggestions from the community to improve and add to the already huge set of barks in the game. Another 20 entries were added for specific Traits.

[h2]v3.2.37 - Rapid Takedowns[/h2]
- Enabled hotkey and button to toggle auto-combat in Crew Combat (AI will resolve for you)
- Added button to toggle fast combat in crew combat
- Added 20 new barks for crew Traits
- Adjusted order of Mission Rep Loss mitigation Talents -- Blood Badge will run AFTER other specific Skill (Stealth, etc) Talents
- Corrected description of Blade Dancer's "Ritualized Retreat" Talent to only cover Cargo Lost cards
- Fixed bug allowing reclaiming (and then using) Templar gear

One of the things we’ve always been quietly proud of in Star Traders is the wide variety of faces available within the game.

But even before we added official modding support to the game, some of the first unofficial mods were graphics replacements players created to further customize the game’s character art or add in their own faces & clothes. Now with fully-supported Steam Workshop modding available, it’s even easier, more reliable, and we’ve seen some modders getting pretty creative with it.

So creative… we may have gotten a little jealous. Seeing modders getting a chance to put a whole new spin on the game, from tributes to other franchises to rebalances that create new playstyle opportunities… not to mention all the straight-up improvements some modders are claiming… “Improved Ship Combat Icons,” “Sound FX Overhaul,” “Larger Cargo Holds” …this is what comes from creating a Captain simulator, everyone thinks they can run the ship better. ;)

So, we dug deep into our graveyard of code fragments, searching for a half-finished time-travel wormhole we’d written off all the way back in Early Access as too dangerous to complete, and let our wounded pride throw caution to the solar winds. Why a time travel wormhole, you might ask? Because how else in the midst of Cyber Knights development, spring travel, and 😱 tax season were we going to find the time for this: a full faces revamp featuring entirely new*, 100% original** crew art now available to you within the game.



We asked Andrew to art better this time, and boy did he! While the original faces were a collaboration between Andrew as Creative Director and our professional art team partners, the revamped crew faces are a fully in-house effort only "lightly" inspired from their original work, and we think you’re going to love the results.



Each face features:

• 20-50% more pixels
  
• fine-tuned adjustments to key facial features
  
• bold new interpretations of classic sci-fi tropes
  
• exciting speculative guesses at alternate evolutionary possibilities
  
• increased immersion through stronger representation of the effects of centuries of drinking the water-fuel
  

Okay, so you’ve hopefully figured it out by now, but if not: April fool’s! This is not a real game update.

…

…

…

…

BUT IT IS A REAL GAME MOD! 😮😁😮😁😮😁

If you want to, you can actually play with these ludicrous, outlandish, unexplainable, sometimes unfortunate faces, by playing the mod version of the game and adding our new mod, Star Derps. All 100+ of the crew faces have been replaced with new versions. Try it out, you might even find a few you’d like to grab from the modded spritesheet and add into a less outrageous mod of your own.

For-real props to all our modders, who have created some truly fun stuff for the game. Check out the other mods now available for Star Traders and leave some comments to encourage them to make more, and dive into the Making Mods section of the wiki to learn how to make your own.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2787587653&searchtext=

Update #292 was born directly from a lively and productive conversation here on the Steam boards about the System Atlas and its display of accurate or inaccurate trading conditions. While we were in there, we added some clarifications to the in-game text about the thresholds at which trading into certain rumors -- Trade Blockade and Embargo -- can yield Reputation bonuses. And to make it look good, we also dressed Update #292 in a new helmet and awesome translucent visor to boot.


[h2]Help Us Support Ukraine[/h2]
My brother Cory and I have worked closely with amazing partners in Ukraine to dream, design and create the art for our next game Cyber Knights: Flashpoint over the past 3 years. Over the years, our partnership has grown to friendship as we spent countless hours working with these wonderful and talented people.

The entire Trese Brothers team is worried for our friends, their children, their families and their country. They need our prayers, our monetary support and our voices raised in solidarity. Their country and millions of refugees are in desperate need of food, water, shelter and medical supplies. We hope you will join us in giving to some organizations trying to ease the suffering in Ukraine.

Here are a few options:
Ukrainian Red Cross Project HOPE Docotrs without Borders

[h2]Cyber Knights: Flashpoint?[/h2]
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. The private alpha is in full swing with over a 1,000 players, so get your cyber ready.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1021210?snr=1_2108_9__2107


[h2]System Atlas Gets Lively[/h2]
This update brings a major upgrade to the way the Star Atlas displays buy and sell information for places you've visited. It's something we've been tinkering with ideas for for a while, and recent discussions in the community helped us prioritize pushing this through to completion. Thanks all for the feedback!

Previously, the Star Atlas would display supply and demand information based on the system type, zone type and economic rating. This gave players a good "usual conditions" benchmark for what they could expect to buy & sell in different zones, but was frequently mistaken for a live display of current prices. Without additional tracking on your own, it could be difficult to remember as you made numerous trades along a route where your last trades had left demand for certain goods, or where there was still an affordable supply of another.



Now we've made it so that the Star Atlas remembers and displays supply & demand information unique to each zone, based on your last visit to that zone. Your crew logs the local pricing to the ship's data cores each time you depart, where it will remain "fresh" for up to half a year (21 weeks). After 21 weeks, the Star Atlas will revert back to showing an estimate for that zone, with a helpful reminder displayed that the information may be inaccurate as you haven't visited that location in a long time.



This is a big boon for traders executing shorter trading trips and triangles and greatly reduces the need to check and double-check economic conditions before leaving port. May your trades glitter!


[h2]New Visor and Helmet[/h2]
Update #292 adds a new translucent visor, interjecting display over reality to help combatants and ship crew alike do their daily tasks. Looking cool, looking blue. We've also added a new helmet, hitting the milestone of 15 total hat/helmet options. Perfect for some of the combat armors, this helmet is for battle-hardened combat crew or your wing pilots.



[h2]Trading Rumor Clarifications[/h2]
With this update we have improved the data displayed in the Exchange if you are making a sale and the Trade Blockade or Embargo Rumors are active. The messages there now include the specific threshold of sale value (for example, $1,500 for Embargo) before any Reputation bonuses can be gained. Small sales will not move the Rep needle, which is now nicely messaged in game.

[h2]v3.2.35 - 3/23/2022[/h2]
- Added new helmet and new pair of translucent eyewear for characters
- If zone has been visited within 1/2 a year, Star Atlas supply / demand data is accurate
- Star Atlas supply / demand data will include cargo types that are not being bought or sold due to lack of supply / demand
- Clarified rules for Rep bonuses when trading under Rumors "Trade Blockade" and "Embargo" in game

Update #291 brings some important upgrades to the power levels achievable through Contact recruiting, fixes screen display and resolution for smaller resolution monitors, adds an important option for anyone playing on the Steam Deck and drops one more Talent into the oh-so-useful Talent Manifest.


[h2]Help Us Support Ukraine[/h2]
My brother Cory and I have worked closely with amazing partners in Ukraine to dream, design and create the art for our next game Cyber Knights: Flashpoint over the past 3 years. Over the years, our partnership has grown to friendship as we spent countless hours working with these wonderful and talented people.

The entire Trese Brothers team is worried for our friends, their children, their families and their country. They need our prayers, our monetary support and our voices raised in solidarity. Their country and millions of refugees are in desperate need of food, water, shelter and medical supplies. We hope you will join us in giving to some organizations trying to ease the suffering in Ukraine.

Here are a few options:
Ukrainian Red Cross Project HOPE Kyiv Independent

[h2]Cyber Knights: Flashpoint?[/h2]
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. The private alpha is in full swing with over a 1,000 players, so get your cyber ready.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1021210?snr=1_2108_9__2107


[h2]Steam Deck Screen Size Option[/h2]
In the last update, we made some changes to the screen resolution detection to better cater to the Steam Deck hardware. It had some unexpected consequences for players on lower resolution monitors. We've addressed that in Update #291, by rolling back to the old resolution detection and adding an option in the Options menu for "small screen display". If you're playing on a Steam Deck (lucky you!), toggling this option on and you may find the game's interface better caters to the smaller screen. May you like it the big screen way too -- you get to pick!


[h2]Contact Recruit Levels ^^[/h2]
With Update #291, we've made some significant upgrades to the Contact Recruiting service. All the numbers got bigger! To help Contacts provide better recruits into the late and mid game, we've upgraded their service to recruit character levels at 2X the Contact Service level which ranges from 1-8. So, instead of base levels for your characters from 1-8, you can now range from 1-16 (level 1 still recruits level 1).

In addition, we've bumped the bonuses of passing Eras from +10 over all of the Eras in the game to +12. Therefore, late game Contacts in the final Era will be offering level 28 Officers and Crew recruits, not counting any Edicts, Military Ranks, Permits, Traits or Rumors that may further increase those values.

To even out the big new improvement to Contact recruiting, the minimum thresholds for Effective Rep and Influence have been significantly raised as well as the Personal Rep and Credit cost of recruiting. Truly high-end recruits are costly, especially if you are considering cycling through a few to look for the best Traits and Attributes, but as always -- compared to Spice Hall or Conscription -- they do have the best Traits and Attributes!


[h2]Talent Manifest[/h2]
If you see a Talent missing from the manifest, please report. Thanks to a report, we've now added Sample Analysis to the on-landing Talent stack in the manifest for those adventurous spirits seeking Scientific Intel.

[h2]Mission Updates[/h2]
Thanks to reports from the community, we have also fixed a number of issues with different missions. Some missions that failed to mention the name of the destination zone in their text have been corrected and other places were Prisoners were being transported and there were missing nouns in the mission options have also been fixed. Big thanks to everyone reporting issues!

[h2]v3.2.33 - 3/15/2022[/h2]
- Improved Contact Recruit services across the board to recruit higher level characters (service level x 2)
- Increased Credit, Personal Rep Cost and thresholds for Effective Rep and Influence on all Contact Recruit service levels
- Added Scientist "Sample Analysis" to Talent Manifest
- Fixed multiple missions that failed to list destination zone names in text
- Fixed issues with Prisoner missions where there was missing nouns in mission options
- Fixed issue with lower resolution screens converting UI to Steam Deck UI, added option to play in small screen mode