Star Traders: Frontiers News

Update #256 is an unexpected detour into an important system within the game. With a very timely and well-put post, @davea pointed out an area where we could massively improve the experience for new and veteran players through making the game's auto-trainer for Talents smarter. We took a quick break from our progression on Conflicts toward Conflict Score missions to improve the auto-trainer for the good of every captain across the expanse.

As always, a huge thanks to everyone posting feedback and helping us share the game through reviews.

[h2]Mac Big Sur and Linux Support Improvements[/h2]
This update also includes major upgrades to our SDKs, Steam libraries and other parts of the internal system to improve support for the latest versions of Mac OS and Linux distros -- such as Big Sur.

[h2]What’s the latest on Cyber Knights?[/h2]
Development on our next game, Cyber Knights: Flashpoint, proceeds apace. We’re currently working toward the private alpha test for Kickstarter backers, following the same process we used for Star Traders: Frontiers. But you can view the latest updates on the CKF Steam page (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/

^ Experience E in the Frontier Liner
[h2]New Game and Auto-Train Talents[/h2]
Talent training has come up on the Steam forums in many ways over the years, with many players needing to receive the advice from the veteran captain community to train up on Skill Saving Talents. But, the credit is owed to @davea for asking just the right question to set off this chain of work and key improvements to the game that every new captain will feel.

The auto-trainer for bot the new game and the button in the crew manifest have had their priorities reworked significantly. The changes are all about acquiring up to a threshold of Skill Saving Talents before any other Talents are considered. if possible, the 3 or more are acquired in every core ship Skill and at least 1 is acquired in social skills.



This leads to dramatically better starts on every difficulty. In my last test on Normal, my captain who started in a Frontier Liner with E experience escorted the Arbiter, then took the mission to Faen court and to the Highwind wreckage and returned to Calagan Faen with only 2 traveling skill failures without having to do any manual Talent training.

^ Smuggler Template ^ Explorer Template ^ Pirate Template ^ Bounty Hunter Template

[h2]Job Skill Priority[/h2]
When reviewing different Jobs, you can now see the true list of primary, secondary and lower Skills. At early levels, this can sometimes be misleading, where Spy starts with +2 Stealth and +1 Electronics but eventually ends up with higher Electronics than Stealth as the Job progresses. For Jobs like Saboteur this can also be helpful as you don't see that you will train in Pilot Skill at all in the first level.

To help reinforce this priority, the Job skill bonuses are now ordered by primary, second, etc -- so Spy reads +1 Electronics, +2 Stealth, +1 Pistol in order of primary, second, tertiary skills.



[h2]And More[/h2]
Along with the work on the Auto-Trainer we also hammered out some other fixes from the Steam boards. We fixed an issue where the Templar Militant wasn't offering his unique brand of Trait Reconditioning but instead offering Chaesin's list. We also fixed some issues with ship component types disappearing during starport shopping and Talent descriptions and icons after use.

[h2]v3.1.39 - 3/8/2021[/h2]
- Major improvements to new game Talent training logic to better prioritize Skill Saving Talents
- Improved crew list Auto-Train to better prioritize Skill Saving Talents
- Job Listing now includes Primary, Secondary (etc) skills in order for each job
- Specific bonuses for a job level are now ordered by this primary, secondary ordering
- Linux and Mac Big Sur platform support improvements
- Fixed issue with Templar Militant Trait Reconditioning not matching advertised list
- Fixed issue with Wing Leader and Saboteur Talent descriptions
- Fixed issue with preview of new ship Component List being empty, launch capability being incorrectly listed
- Fixed issue with "Offensive" ship component subcategory sometimes disappearing

Update #255 introduces a major new way for Merchants and other traders to get involved in Trade Ban, Trade War, and Trade Alliance Conflicts. We've also made some major QOL improvements to crew combat's log and hover, fixed two longstanding bugs with craft and hammered out some more requests coming in from the community. Thanks for all your support and if you like the pace of updates, be sure to leave a review.

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 2021 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.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1021210?snr=1_2108_9__2107


[h2]Trade Conflicts[/h2]
Every type of Conflict has its angles for you to get involved and tip the scales in the favor of one faction or another. Blockading and merchant hunting has long been the angle for Trade Wars and Trade Bans but with Update #255 we've opened up a new attack vector -- legal trading at the Exchange! Any time you make a trade over $5,000 that violates a Trade Ban or Trade War, your action can cost you Rep but will also support the opposing faction in the Conflict and increase their Conflict score by 1-4 points. In addition, any $5,000 or higher trade in an Exchange with two factions in a Trade Alliance supports the local faction and increases their economic power within the scales of balance of that Trade Alliance. The politics of the Star Traders are petty and feudal -- someone always emerges the victor, even in Alliances.

This important set of updates invites merchants more actively to the Conflict table and prepares for the next big round of open-ended missions that will be coming to the game -- Conflict missions -- where you will be paid to adjust a Conflict Score by a certain amount by whatever means you can. Having more options will increase the variability of play in these missions, so expect some more Conflict Score angles appearing before these missions slide into your update feed.


[h2]Crew Combat Logs and Hover[/h2]
A special thanks to @Pilda on Steam this week for a spot on suggestion for easy ways to improve the crew combat log. We jumped on the simple suggestion and have much nicer, much more readable crew combat logs coming out this week. Based on everyone's feedback, we'll make further improvements and then ship combat logs will get a similar treatment in the next update.

In a reverse operation, we're working to upgrade crew combat hovers over characters to include the level of detail about your dice pools for accuracy and defense equal to what you can see in ship combat. With this update, we compressed and improved the overall layout of crew combat hovers to prep for this data injection. The biggest improvement this week is if you have a lot of buffs or debuffs going, things should be much more readable.



[h2]Craft Launch and Repair[/h2]
We fixed two important craft bugs with this update -- when you launch a craft an enemy ship now properly interprets this as a hostile move. It is considered as hostile as firing a weapon and reduces the enemy ship's hostility, which will trigger a fight response if they are unable to flee. Second, we fixed a longstanding issue with the Talent "Hangar Triage" which was failing to take Repair Skill into account properly and always only repairing at 10%.

[h2[And a Bit More[/h2]
Thanks to everyone in the community posting feedback, bugs and suggestions. We're constantly tracking and recording everything coming in. This week we hit on a few more smaller items that came through. We caught up on another set of places were Rep loss for Indies was being reported incorrectly -- the Black Market, stealing Fuel and with the Terrifying Extortion Talent. Thanks to everyone dutifully reporting this issue.

We also fixed a bug with Call of the Strong's Russ Axeil where he could end up with 2 Traits that gave a second recruiting option, and based on the order you discovered them you'd only be able to recruit one or the other in the end. This is fixed for all future iterations of Russ.

[h2]v3.1.37 - 3/1/2020[/h2]
- Trading $5,000 credits in violation of Trade Ban or Trade War or into a Trade Alliance increases the Conflict Score of supported faction
- Improved crew combat logs color and formatting to make them easier to read during and after battle
- Improved crew combat hover over characters
- Fixed issue with "Hangar Triage" Talent not correctly taking Repair Skill into account
- Launching craft correctly adjusts enemy ship's hostility
- Fixed issue stating that taking Fuel from a non-Pirate defeated indie ship would cause you Rep loss
- "Terrifying Extortion" Talent no longer reports Rep loss with indies, Black Market no longer reports Rep loss with indies
- Fixed issue with Russ Axeil having two recruit Traits for future captains

This week's update adds a new Talent, improves the placement rules for starting Contacts and then hits on 10 big feedback points from within the community this week. After last week's big update and sale, we'd like to welcome all new Captains to the void! We hope you're enjoying the pace of updates and new content. Let's dig into the details here --

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 2021 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.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1021210/Cyber_Knights_Flashpoint/

[h2]Vindication Pact[/h2]
This week we heard a (funny?) story of the plight of Diplomat who was about to get spaced if they could not help their Captain find a way to afford a high value pardon. The story came with a great request for an improvement -- to cover Pardon's with a discount Talent. We were happy to oblige and save the poor diplomat's life! Or, at least the captain has promised not to space them until after the pardon is paid. Given the captain's temperament, I imagine the Diplomat is going to have to keep earning his seat -- but that is up to all their other great Talents.

The Diplomat's new rank 8 Talent, "Vindication Pact" helps cut down on the price of pardons by their Negotiate Skill, up to a maximum of 30%. Depending on how egregious your crimes have been, that can be a lot of money!


[h2]Starting Contacts Pile In[/h2]
The rules for starting Contact placement on maps have always given preference to keeping your first Contacts spread across different zones. However, on some maps that led to some of the 3 starting Contacts who are designated to be local to your faction and starting quadrant having no place to live. Which meant these Contacts were getting the boot to nearby quadrants and other factions, which conflicted with the template you had established.

We've rewritten the rule to allow these 3 "local" Contacts to pile up. If absolutely needed, they will all pile onto the same zone even. However, the new game placement rules now keep the promise set by your template -- all "local Contacts" are just that.


[h2]And More Community QOL[/h2]
This update is full of QOL improvements coming straight off the Steam boards. A huge thanks to everyone posting there with feedback, bugs and balance improvements.

Even though you were being charged, ship's with hull damage in dry dock were not getting their hull repaired. This is now resolved so your ship can be pristine and ready to launch.

A certain set of factors -- including a 10 Danger world and the custom team build with a rare Bodyguard and Sniper combo -- made the Yalto Thulun battlegroup unfairly OP. We've now made some balance changes to bring it back in line on lower difficulties.

There were 22 places in orbital operations where interactions with Indies might report Rep gain or loss incorrectly. Fixed!

The new flight helmet had some issues -- for some heads the hair could stick out the back and it was too picky about removing eyewear. you can now have either eyepatch while wearing the helmet.

Finally, we fixed a pile of reported typos, a few crashes from reports, clarified the Doctor "Medical Ward" Talent to remove an misleading phrase of "advanced medical facilities" (it just means ship's Medical Rating) and resolved a few places where mousewheel scrolling wasn't working as expected.

[h2]v3.1.35 - 2/21/2021[/h2]
- Added new rank 8 Diplomat Talent "Vindication Pact" reduces price of Pardons up to 30% maximum
- All "local" starting Contacts are all placed in starting quadrant, even if there are 2 to a zone
- Improved balance of Yalto Thulun's battlegroup
- Fixed issue where hull on drydocked ships was not being repaired correctly
- Fixed issues with orbital operations logs when encountering Indies and Rep loss
- Fixed issue with hair sticking out the back of flight helmets
- Flight helmets now allow eyepatches
- Clarified "Medical Ward" Talent's description
- Fixed issues with mousewheel scrolling in all card games, recruit screen
- Fixed typos and reported crashes

Update #253 welcomes the Steam Lunar New Year sale with a 35% discount and a pile of new content and community-driven improvements and fixes. Welcome all new captains pouring into the void this weekend and thanks to everyone posting feedback and reviews. We've got a new hat, 3 new character faces, a corrected Peak Velocity Matrix 4 and more!

[h2]For a different flavor of Trese Brothers sci-fi, check out Cyber Knights![/h2]
Our next game, Cyber Knights: Flashpoint is under development. Set in a different universe than Star Traders, we think much of what you all love about STF (a lore-rich world, many ways to play, strong independent spirit, lots of RPG depth) is shared within. Learn more about the Cyber Knights setting on its Steam page, or check out this video showing a ton of art and discussing the game design.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1021210/Cyber_Knights_Flashpoint/


[h2]New Flight Helmet and Faces[/h2]
With Update #253 we've added a new community-requested hat for all characters. The flight helmet is perfect for all the Wing classes, your working ship crew or just anybody who wants the look! We've also added another 3 character face options including 2 beards and a scar. It is always exciting to see some new faces in the crew!

[h2]Peak Velocity 4[/h2]
The PVM 4 came out just last week but had some of its stats wired up wrong. It's now fixed, for the glory of Rychart!


[h2]Boarding Details[/h2]
With Update #253, we've brought the details on a character's Talents up to full parity with what you can see in the status screen -- including the full description, effect and cooldown rules. If you're looking for details while picking crew, just click the >> button to slide out the detail panel as usual.

[h2]Community QOL[/h2]
We're always pulling from the community for requests for fixes and improvements and with Update #253, we hit on some great ones! For those players having the issue where music would reset or stop after ignored combats, it's finally fixed! We've improved some of the missing or incorrect SFX and VFX for crew combat Talents for the Templar and the Jyeeta bosses as well as Interdictor flight plans. Finally, if you revealed a Contact Trait that changed their service offering, the screen used to do a poor job of updating on the fly -- now its smooth and updates immediately without having to exit.

Finally, all carriers -- including Pirates -- will not suicide their Shuttles against you if they lack proper fighting crew. You will no longer find an enemy shuttle packed with whimpering Pilots and E-Techs :D

[h2]v3.1.31 - Update 253: Lunar Slingshot[/h2]
- Added new flight helmet hat -- great for craft pilots, engineering crew, everyone
- Added 3 new character faces - scars, beards, beards!
- Corrected bonuses for Peak Velocity Matrix 4
- Improved display of Talents shown during Crew Combat selection to match Status > Talents
- Fixed issue with some Pirate carriers attempting to board without surviving fighting crew
- Fixed issue with revealing Contact Traits not always refreshing Contact service offerings
- Fixed inconsistencies with Talent SFX and VFX in a few spots in crew and ship combat (flight plans, Templar, jyeeta boss)
- Fixed issues with keybindings on Explorer screen
- Fixes music stopping and starting around ignored combats

Following up on the major milestone event GREAT HOUSES, Update #252 adds new content, improves existing systems, patches up some holes here and there and caters to some of the latest community requests. We're excited to keep cranking out updates as we move through the year, targeting both completing our roadmap and starting the next big thing: modding.

If you like the pace of updates and free new content, be leave a review and tell a friend. In the meantime --

[h2]What’s the latest on Cyber Knights?[/h2]
Development on our next game, Cyber Knights: Flashpoint, proceeds apace. We’re currently working toward the private alpha test for Kickstarter backers, following the same process we used for Star Traders: Frontiers. But you can view the latest updates on the CKF Steam page (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]February "Boarding Bosses" Challenge[/h2]
This month's community challenge is an open ended call to share the stories, builds and designs for your best and most legendary boarding combat crews. We're off to a roaring start with some absolute A-teams posted already, sporting amazing gear and even better looks. Join in and bring your #BoardingBosses to the party.
https://steamcommunity.com/games/335620/announcements/detail/3066358039684902746



[h2]Peak Velocity[/h2]
Rychart is bringing the speed with the latest new ship component, the Peak Velocity Matrix 4 which grants a whopping +15 Move bonus, +1 Initiative and +6 Boarding. This faction-specific component is a great addition to any quick moving ship -- for fleeing, boarding or both. We've also tweaked the starport and economy requirements for PVM 3 to ensure they were up to snuff.

[h2]Trade Alliances Respect[/h2]
When you surrender to an enemy ship, their behavior is affected not only by any Trade Permits you hold with their faction, but also by any Trade Permits you hold with factions that are in a Trade Alliance with their faction. We've fixed an issue that was causing Military Officers and Bounty Hunters not to fully respect this rule set with Update #252.

For Pirates, once you reach Trade Permit 2 or higher (or have a Trade Permit with a Trade Alliance partner) they cease to loot your hold altogether, wary of angering their faction. For Military Officers, Bounty Hunters and Zealots they still demand to search your cargo in full. Each cargo is checked against your legal permits with their faction or now (correctly) with any Trade Permit of a Trade Alliance partner. While Pirates leave off at 2, you'll still need correct Permits for every good type if you want to pass through military inspection but with the Trade Alliance rules now properly respected, this just got easier.

[h2]Mutineers Unite![/h2]
While its an ugly moment when the crew rises up against their chartered captain, we still have come around to improving it once again. With Update #252, we've improved the details shared during mutiny -- being more specific about headcounts, Morale thresholds, amount of money offered and the results of a stand up fight (where some crew may die while others will survive by Death Save).

In addition, the mutineers have wised up a little bit. Their paltry demands for a lump sum are no longer so tiny and they may demand up to as much as 5% of your entire credits on hand, depending on just how bold they are feeling and how many are standing against you.

Finally, we've also improved the value of the anti-Mutiny Talents, boosting their basic Morale improvements. Those Talents relying only on Skill -- such as Doctor or Quartermaster -- have upgraded to 20 + Skill Morale. Those Talents that outright kill one of the mutineers (no Death Save!) have upgraded to 40 + Skill Morale. In both cases, if a mutiny is threatening, these Talents are going to feel a lot more powerful as ways to stave it off and worth training.

[h2]Intel Gathering[/h2]
For those captains picking up a lot of Intel through Talents, we've ensured that all event logs related to Intel gathering now clearly list the faction in their top line without a need to hover over the event. We've also flipped the default sort of all places where Intel appears so that it is sorted newest first. We are prepping to add filters to Intel and then Sell All which will give a quick and easy way to offload Intel by filter to Contacts for those master spies who are sitting on big stacks.

[h2]v3.1.29 - 2/6/2021[/h2]
- Added new Rychart-only Peak Velocity Matrix 4, high Movement bonus, more Pilot, gains +Init
- Adjusted zone requirements for Peak Velocity Matrix 3
- Military Officers and Bounty Hunters now correctly respect Trade Permits across Trade Alliances
- Improved Mutiny options and results to be more clear about cost and deaths versus wounded (death save)
- Improved power of all anti-Mutiny Talents to heal Morale, now 20 + Skill base or 40 + Skill for killing a mutineer
- Mutineers wised up -- demand much higher prices for calming (up to 5% of total credits on hand)
- Improved event logs for Intel-generating Talents to always mention faction
- Changed default sorting of Intel lists, newest Intel Records are at the top
- Fixed issue with "Fuel Depot" card in Explorer not correctly saving fuel updates
- Fixed typos and reported crashes