Star Traders: Frontiers News

Update #183 brings a series of new features to the starport and exchanges on grav worlds to help established merchants, prize ship hunters and captains of all type get their void-faring work done faster and easier. We've also made a pile of changes to improve the October Community Challenge which put some odd strains on the game!

If you're enjoying the pace of updates, please leave a review!


Update #183 includes some fixes and balance changes specifically aimed at making this month's community challenge more playable. The community challenge -- linked below -- involves surviving 14 years with only Officers and your Captain on board the ship, in honor of Firefly's 14 awesome episodes and their tight knit group.
October Community Challenge: Firefly Tour

Update #183 reduces the minimum head count required for Orbital Ops to 5 which makes this far more achievable with officer-only setup. We've also fixed a bug with the screen locking up on orbital missions if you have less than the minimum head count on board. Finally, we fixed a bug we had never seen before -- the "chain of Storytellers" in which one Storyteller could boost another Storyteller's Morale who would in turn boost another Storyteller's Morale ... its not something you'd ever see in a larger crew but it was causing some occasional issues for this popular challenge!


The Exchange and Black Markets now have a new fire sale button! The "Sell All" button will sell all goods that can be sold in the current market at a profit. The button is not picky about how much of a profit, so be sure to check the totals displayed in the table before clicking -- even a few credits will get a cargo row tossed into the fire.

However, for most trading this is a welcome addition to speed up the pace of cargo hauls! Thanks to the players suggesting it and enjoy!


Ships parked in dry dock have long had the disadvantage that they could not be repaired. This could create some challenging situations for launching them as sometimes their officer cabins or barracks could be so damaged that your current crew couldn't transfer over for a valid launch event! Now, you can repair local dry docked ship in the starport by swapping into their repair list. Use the white arrow button in the repair box in the zone to open the repair detail and you'll see a list of any dry docked ships there. Swap in and repair! This can also help you net a better price when selling a ship, as component damage tanks the resale price of a vessel.

We've also made some improvements to how certain classes of story missions are set to expire -- specifically those by Calagan Faen and the Arbiter. In both cases, now as the Eras roll by and major political events happen if the mission is still pending as an offer from the Contact it is immediately expired. However, if you've already accepted the mission then it will not expire out from under you suddenly.


- Added "Sell All" button to Exchange and Black Market which makes all profitable trades in a single click
- Added ability to repair locally Dry Docked ships in the starport
- Improved story handling of expiring missions for Calagan and Arbiter Brokstrom -- better cleanup for mission offers and no clean up for missions in progress
- Fixed crash for Community Challenge "Firefly Tour" to prevent possible crash during Paying Wages
- Reduced minimum head count required to engage in Orbital Ops and orbital missions to 5
- Fixed bug causing game freeze when attempting an Orbital Ops mission with less than minimum head count
- Added note to all orbital operations (Spy, Blockade, Patrol, Salvage) that 5 is the minimum head count required
- Improve new Trait mutation paths for even better results, fixed bugs causing some characters to get Trait overflow

Update #182 is almost entirely dedicated to Traits and Contact Traits with a massive addition of 15 new Traits, one new Contact Trait and further refinement and deepening of all Trait mutation systems. With this big addition, we're excited to finally be marking some of the content items off the dev roadmap -- having now exceeded 210 Traits, we've cleared the "+100% Traits" goal that we put up for Trait expansion.

This doesn't mean that more Traits aren't coming, but we're getting close to knocking down a number of these categories (+33% Jobs and Talents is next).

If you enjoy the constant updates and new free content, please leave a review and tell a friend!


Update #182 comes loaded with new Traits, many of them inspired by or directly suggested by the community. A big thanks definitely goes out to @DrSpendLove for suggesting at least half of these! We've got -- Ace Pilot, Bad Eyes, Bloodstained, Bulky, Daredevil, Diggermind, Fast Talker, Flexible, Lonehawk, Maimed, Surehand, Self-Taught, Wayfarer, Well-Rounded!!! That's quite the list and its a mix of good and bad Traits to enjoy.

Ace Pilot, Daredevil and Lonehawk are specifically craft pilot focused, so watch for these when considering your choices on carriers.

We've also spent some time tuning and refining the Trait mutations, creating more links between Traits and game events and preventing odd Trait crosses. With this update and the new additions, we've added more strong faction-links to Traits -- meaning Traits like Diggermind are most prevalent on Javat where existing Traits like Spatial are most likely to appear in Alta Mesa crew. We've improved the list and added more to further differentiate the factions over the course of your crew's Trait evolution.

If you end up with Bad Eyes from exposure to Radiation or Maimed after falling under xeno claw, you can visit Chaesin and Gestalt clinics -- they can help recondition these Traits out.


With Update #182, we've added the 60th Contact Trait -- Hunted. A Contact who perhaps has had a brush with death or assassins in the past can't shake the feeling that someone is gunning for them. Hunted Contacts hire out Bodyguards, avoid violent missions and offer cheaper pardons.

In addition, we've pushed more rules about Pardon pricing to Contact Traits -- Traitor and Corrupt Contacts are willing to take lower price Pardon offers as a form of bribes while Greedy Contacts always charge more.


We've made some nice improvements to desertion this update. First, we've increased the maximum bonus that a veteran's tenure can provide from 25% to 35% -- their weeks and years on your ship will now make them even more resistant. Combined with other factors (landing on a world that doesn't match their faction, on a world that is a syndicate when they are a clan or just landing somewhere indie) your vets can reach over 100% resistance to desertion.

Another important note about desertion -- the new Wayfarer Trait can cause some issues with Officers. Those Officers who have Wayfarer gain +4 Wisdom by they are also wanderers and seekers and are willing to jump ship if their Morale is low, even when they are Officers. Otherwise, Officers never desert. So, be sure to know your Officer's Traits.

We've also fixed a bug that cause the Ship Skill Pools to not correctly update after desertion was prevented by Talent or Trait.


- Added 15 new Traits (Ace Pilot, Bad Eyes, Bloodstained, Bulky, Daredevil, Diggermind, Fast Talker, Flexible, Lonehawk, Maimed, Surehand, Self-Taught, Wayfarer, Well-Rounded)
- Added more strongly faction-linked Traits for newly recruited crew (Javat to Diggermind, Alta Mesa to Ace Pilot, as well as others new and old)
- Added more Trait mutation paths from ship and crew combat results
- Added new Trait "Surehand" which can grant Gunnery Skill Bonus up to +12
- Maimed and Bad Eyes can be healed by a mix of Chaesin and Gestalt Reconditioning
- Added new Contact Trait "Hunted" with cheaper Pardons, less violent missions and Recruits Bodyguards
- Updated Contact Traits Corrupt and Traitor to charge less for Pardons while Greedy charges more
- Fixed issue with some bonus Skills from officers not appearing in Ship Status / Logs (from Neverlost, Spatial)
- Increased maximum desertion resistance bonus that a long tenure on the ship can give a crew member by 10% up to 35%
- Fixed bug with Desertion prevention Talents and Traits not always causing Ship Skill Pools to refresh properly
- Corrected inconsistency in Born Hunter Trait description

While we are still hard at work on Star Traders: Frontiers dev roadmap -- with another big Era release and major milestone coming this month -- we are very excited to preview our next project -- Cyber Knights RPG.

It is early -- we're deep in pre-production -- but want to share the exciting news (outside of our Patreon who have been watching for a while).

Cyber Knights invites you to lead your shadow company of mercs through the New Boston Zone in 2231, testing not only your skill and what you'll compromise to make it big but also your loyalty to each other and how much you're willing to sacrifice. Built on a core of turn-based gameplay featuring stealth, hacking, ambushes, firefights layered over merc company management, base building and criminal networking, Cyber Knights weaves a sharply human story in a dehumanizing cyberpunk world.

So, while it is early, if you like are enjoying Star Traders: Frontiers, like our style of games or love our dedication to updating and expanding our games, sign up to get the call!

In the meantime, enjoy some concept art and tell a friend! Cyber Knights RPG is coming.

Update #181 arrives to close out September and helps us preps for a really big October. With this release, we've added new character outfits, are nearly done rebalancing all of the Risk and Reward factors in the operations, pushed in some important ship component improvements and have done another round of minor improvements to the quad map and star atlas. From here, we have a few more big quality of life focused releases coming up before we drop the later October update that will close out the v2.6.x family of the dev roadmap with a bang, a boom and a scream in the void (new xeno, new era, new Job!).


While most of the outfits in the latest additions have all been matched, we've added two unique outfits today with Update #181. Before you get your pitchfork, these outfits were suggested and detailed by some of our Patreon supporters (https://patreon.com/TreseBrothers). If they're popular, we'll look into making a matched set for each but these are additions thanks to our awesome patron crew who support us every day.

First up, we've got a space-punk swordsman and second up we have a sleek and simple fashionable attire suitable for captains, diplomats, merchants and also I am betting that works for assassins too. You try and tell us what you think, captains!


We've been gathering feedback and input on the new Risk and Reward rebalance and by and large are very happy with the new results. We've continually rolled out new sets of Risk and Rewards for a new type of operation each update for the last few updates, to be careful not to upset everything at once. Still, everything in the orbital and ground ops just feels better now, and the feedback is good so we are marching forward! Spy has now had its Risk and Reward math, all reported bugs fixed and all oddities about really high Skill pools causing unpleasant results are resolved.


With Update #181 we improved the Valkri Missile Pods, the level 8 ship weapon. For that price tag, they needed to pack a bit more punch and accuracy. We've also added Ship Ops requirements to every Prisoner Cell and Passenger Cabin. This helps bump the Ship Ops pools on ships that may be investing heavily in Missions and is overall a definitely improvement for captains across the void.


We're bringing in new suggestions from the community every week and this week we picked up a few more related to the Star Atlas and the main star map hovers. We've added Trade Permit values to the hovers over zones so you don't need to remember whether or not you have a permit with a faction when shopping on the map. Also, we've added the phrase "trade law X" to the searchable term -- while it isn't perfect it can help when you're looking for some specific trading zones.

We've got a few more great requests this week about QoL in these areas and are looking forward to rolling in more community feedback in the next updates!

Thanks to everyone leaving a review and especially to our Patreon supporters.


- Added 2 new character outfits suggested by Patreons -- sleek and stylish outfit and gray and space-punk swordsman
- Improved Risk and Reward factors weights for Orbital Spy including all zone stats, Rumors and other influences
- Improved balance of level 8 ship missiles, Valkri Missile Pods
- Added Trade Permit level with faction to hover over systems on the quadrant map
- Added minor Ship Ops Skill requirements to Passenger suites of all kind and rebalanced Ship Ops requirements for Prisoner cells
- Fixed bug that allowed some non-local starting Contacts to end up on Indie zones
- Added searchable string "trade law X" for all visited zones in the Star Atlas
- Fixed issue with incorrect jump count shown when navigating to distance quad from Star Atlas
- Fixed mobile issue where too many Contacts could run off screen

Update #180 comes burning out of the system, opening up the frontier for traders, pirates and anyone traveling the void's lanes. With a major new filter in the Star Atlas, a new unlockable ship for purchase, further extension of the new enemy ship selector and a full rebalance of Blockade's risk and reward system, Update #180 full of improvements requested by the community with solid adds of new content.


The new star atlas jump filter allows you to populate the Star Atlas with zones that are outside of the currently selected system. The default comes up only showing the local zones, but if you want to cast your net wider, you can pull down the filter drop down and pick any range up to 4 jumps distant, and these zones will load in.

This will greatly increase the number of potential zones shown, as even using the 1 jump filter will pull zones from any quad within 1 jump -- which might be 1 to 4 new quads on the regular. So, it is very important to use additional filters and search to narrow down the list.

For example, look for any wilderness zone within 1 jump. Or, search for any zone that "sells explosives" within 3 jumps. Or search for a "mining" zone within 4 jumps. You can peruse what the galaxy has to offer with new ease!

Sorting by distance can be a big help to keep things useful.


Locked behind the Master Explorer unlock, the Azurite cruiser is 7000 Mass class combat vessel coming off the starport shelf with many upgraded components including multiple Shielded and Reinforced types of components, Deflector Array 4, upgraded weapons and more. Also promising the best-in-class base Armor for a 7000M ship and with the highest medium slot count of 10 and still packing 11 smalls -- the Azurite stands out as combat ready but also prepared to be retrofitted for many other types of duties.

The AI isn't yet flying the Azurite but will get the option soon.


The same major rework coming through Explorer and Patrol has now touched down in Blockade. All of the underlying math to determine Risk and Reward from your crew's Skills as well as all of the local factors from Danger to the zones' Economics, Starport and Military have been fine tuned and improved. We've also made a second pass on Patrol, tweaking a few things and make it even better.

You'll really feel the benefits of Patrolling and Blockading at ripe systems and can feel the pain of doing it in the wrong places even more clearly.


We've also jammed a pile of community requests and reported fixes into this release.

A long running issue that allowed some of your starting Contacts to end up in Aetaan Char's faction has been resolved.

We've further expanded the AI's ship selection routines, spicing up Pirates and Military Officers with a few more options.

We've added some missing tooltips to the crew list screens and to craft during ship combat. Finally, we've fixed some issues with hanging story objectives in some branches of the new Era content.


- Star Atlas now supports jump filter, allowing viewing of systems outside of the currently selected quad, up to 4 jumps
- New Ship: 7000M Azurite Cruiser (Heavy Combat Ship)
- Unlock Azurite Cruiser with Explorer II
- Permanently fixed all occurrences of starting Contacts being in Aetaan Char's faction
- v4 of rebalanced enemy AI ship selection -- now with more than 110 ship AI
- Revised and Updated Patrol risk and reward weights based on player feedback and results from v2.6.13
- Improved Risk and Reward factors weights for Orbital Blockade including all zone stats, Rumors and other influences
- Improved hovers for Small Craft in Ship Combat
- Improved missing tooltips on Crew List / Trait List / Talent Manifest screens
- Fixed hanging story objectives that could be left during Buried Demons story branches