Star Traders: Frontiers News

Update #179 brings another wave of improvements to enemy ship selection, a rebalance of all the risk and reward factors for Exploring and Patrol, as well as adding all the missing operation Talent sections to the Talent Manifest (Explorer, Black Market, Salvage). We've also pushed more powerful and varied effects into Rumors, Military Rank and high Rep with factions.

As we start the march to the next major Story Era and Job milestone, we're hammering away on quality of life, systems balance and community suggestions. So a huge thanks to everyone posting feedback, suggestions and bugs!


We used Update #178 as a release and testing ground for the new rewrite of the enemy AI ship selection. This let us test out the new system, gather data and we had to hotfix a critical bug. Now that everything is confirmed working, with Update #179 we've revved the engine and actually applied gasoline. Boom! The enemy ship AI has a better sense of progression and has more than 100 more options across the board through the tiers of levels and with different captain types. We're eager to hear feedback from the player base, but we've taken this very important project slowly in multiple stages to ensure that this part goes smoothly and leads to a more balanced, fun and challenging experience for all captains at all difficulties.


With Update #179, we've completed a rewrite of the Risk and Reward factors of Patrol and Exploring. The factors remain unchanged -- Explorer, Tactics, Danger, etc -- are all still what derive the % for Common, Good and Rare rewards, for example, but the math to combine all those factors has been adjusted to better take into account the large swing of scale of these values as well as the modifiers of Rumors and Conflicts.

This also addresses some issues that were reported about the values oddly shifting as certain Skill Pools got very high as well as some oddities with high Danger planets not being dangerous enough. They're dangerous, we fixed that!

One of the dangerous improvements to Explorer is that system-wide Ion Storm and Meteor Storms now increase Exploration risk of ship and crew damage.


We've now added the 3 missing sections to the Talent Manifest to cover all the wide variety of Talents for Explorer, Salvage and Black Market. Each major Talent type has its own section, making it easy to check on your crew's prowess within any given specialty operation and the cool down status of these Talent groups.


We've added more effects to high Reputation, high Military Rank and recruiting Rumors.

First up -- very high Rep Captains can gain additional bonus levels recruiting anyone from a zone with Starport 8 or higher. These bonuses can be especially significant when combined with other Rumors and factors -- starting at 500 (+1 non-combat), 800 (+1 all), 1100 (+2 combat, +1 all others), 1400 (+2 all) and 2100 (+3 all).

Next up -- Permit Rank 4 and Military Rank 13 and higher both have gained additional bonuses to their recruit types. For example, Permit 4 now gives +2 level bonus to Smugglers.

Spice Festival, Academy Graduation and Mercenary Rumors also all got their level bonuses boosted, giving even better options for spice hall and contact recruits.

With all the changes, the new theoretical maximum for a recruit is now level 16, but it would take a lot of work and the right Rumor conditions!


- v3 of rebalanced enemy AI ship selection -- now with more than 100 ship AI
- Improved Risk and Reward factors weights for Explorer including all zone stats, Rumors and other influences
- Improved Risk and Reward factors weights for Orbital Patrol including all zone stats, Rumors and other influences
- Very High Rep Captains (Star Hero and above) increase bonus Recruit Levels from affiliated Starports of Rating 8 and above
- Increased Recruiting Level Impact of Rank 13, Mercenaries, Graduation and Spice Festival Rumors
- Revised some negative Trait mutation tables to better match each event's theme (void, wilderness, spice, piracy)
- Ion Storm and Meteor Storms now increase Exploration risk of ship and crew damage
- Fixed bug where a Military Officer might be sailing a Xeno Spine ship (oops!)
- Fixed bug that allowed xeno ships to surrender due to Morale loss in certain situations
- Fixed occasional crash in UCF Founding cut scene

Update #178 follows on the coat tails of the HIGHFALL expansion with all new improvements to the enemy AI ship selection logic as well as a wave of new ships showing up in the hands of enemy captains. We've also fixed a pile of issues with Buried Demons and the HIGHFALL story Eras, some typos and label mismatches and rebalanced a few ship components.


We've focused on this major change for this update, as we have completely rebuilt and rebalanced the enemy AI's ship selection logic. The first and foremost benefit of this is that enemy captains have far more variety available to them in their ship selection. This has not only increased the variety you'll see in lower levels, but granted higher level captains access to more powerful ships later in the game. Finally, this will further improve the appearance of faction specific ships, making it all the more likely that an enemy captain will be flying one of these rare hulls.

As with many of the big improvements we've been making to the AI stack, this has its roots in adding carriers to the enemy's arsenal. Another big notch ticked for that project!


A big thanks to everyone reporting any inconsistencies or bugs with the Buried Demons story and the resulting story Eras that can come out of it. We've been receiving saved games and details from players and have swept the board pretty clean of remaining issues with #178. In this patch, we've cleaned up the last vestiges of some of the major characters (won't name them for spoilers, but you know...) having the opposite reaction to your actions than expected.


- Rebuilt and rebalanced enemy AI ship selection -- captain types have more variety in their ship selection
- Enemy captains gain more access to different and more dangerous hull types as they progress in level
- Enemy captains are more likely to use their faction's unique ships, especially military type captains
- Resolved issues with main characters in Buried Demons having wrong reactions after the Era start
- Fixed label for mass reduction components in ship display and starport
- Fixed ECCM Screen Matrix 3 and 4 Ship Ops level
- Fixed reported crashes and typos -- thanks!

Update #177 follows up on a big week after the release of the Dissension/Consolidation Era with HIGHFALL major milestone. We're working to get back to regular order and quick cycle updates, but still have some patching and clean up to do. Tonight's patch focuses on major improvements to the starport upgrade rules, filters and sorting as well as some important story patches.


Every Star Trader's vessel requires a cargo hold -- at least one, of any size. With Update #177 we've made a rule change that now allows the large Salvage Bay components to count as a cargo hold. These Salvage Bays provide cargo storage and also important bonuses for anyone playing the Salvage orbital op. We've removed the restriction that prevented these cargo-providing components from counting for the rule and have opened up some new and exciting angles for ship design!


The list of specific improvements to filter and sort is pretty long and can be probably summed up in "more filter categories, better filter specifics and better sorting." Overall, its cleaner and easier to use and find what you are seeking, but just try it out and see what you think.

In specifics -- since Salvage Bays are now counting as cargo bays, they appear in both the standard "Ops" filter as well as the "Cargo" filter. We've added both "Offensive" and "Defensive" filters and reclassified the components which fit into these to be clean and clear. This has also meant a lot of shifts about what is in the "Ship" filter, but again its clearer and simpler.
We broke a new filter category "Medical" out from the Crew filter entirely, except if the medical component provides an Officer Cabin it still appears under "Crew". Similarly, we broke out "Mission" from Cargo entirely, splitting off Passenger and Prisoner components. Finally, for filter, the "Small Craft" filter now includes Launch Bays *and* Hangars which it was missing before.

Potentially even more importantly, we rebuilt the default sort in starport upgrade screen to group components together (all Nav Assist Modules together by default) which is a huge boon in finding things faster.


We've patched all the reported story issues -- thanks to everyone for sharing these and especially for sending in saved games. A few crashes were fixed, including those at the end of the "False Trail" mission. We've also fixed an issue where Trike would appear unexpected even though you had made choices that mean he shouldn't be there. A few more bugs were fixed and we'll keep hammering away at any and all situational mistakes we've made until everything is 100% smoothed out.

Thanks for playing and if you're enjoying the game please leave a review!


- Salvage Bay components now classify as Cargo Hold to fulfill the requirement of always having a cargo hold
- Improved, re-categorized and added more starport component filters to make finding upgrades easier
- Salvage Bay components now appear in both "Cargo" and "Ops" filters in starport upgrade
- Added "Offensive" and "Defensive" filters to starport upgrade and reclassified components into "Ship" to simplify search for components
- Added "Medical" filter to starport upgrade for all medical bay and hospital components (separated from Crew)
- Added "Mission" filter to starport upgrade for specific Passenger and Prisoner component types (separated from Cargo)
- "Small Craft" filter in starport upgrade finds both Launch Bays and Hangars -- easier to equip your carrier
- Improved default sort in starport upgrade screen to group components together (all Nav Assist Modules together by default)
- Fixed crash at the end of Arbiter's "False Trail" Mission
- Fixed issue with decision in Trike mission not being correctly remembered later
- Fixed issue with Rep damage not actually processing at the end of one of Buried Demon's choices
- Fixed reported crashes and typos -- thanks!

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The HIGHFALL major milestone unleashes a massive new story addition with 2 new story Eras as well as a new highly defensive fighting job, the dual wielding Bodyguard. This major new story expansion includes a major arc that moves forward the political story of the galaxy, brings new powerful characters to the fore and threatens to upend some of the order you may have helped establish. Please be careful with spoilers within the community, there is some *major* stuff in here!

On top of this major milestone, now is the time to join in and save 33%. If you're enjoying the game and continuous stream of major new updates 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!


With this update we've smashed open the new group of the development roadmap. The first item in v2.6.x has fallen with the release of these two dueling eras and the new combat job.

To see more detail about what is coming next, check out our development roadmap which details the next major features and content expansions as well as our on-going content expansion initiatives.


This update releases a major wave of story content, major branch points for the galactic story, new characters to meet, new rewards to chase and new challenges to face. This includes 2 new Eras -- Dissension and Consolidation -- which are mutually exclusive in the storyline. Your choices might help drive the galaxy one way or the other. And with each comes a heap of new content and additions to explore -- all new rules for the simulation including 2 new unique Rumors, 4 Era-specific rules for what types of cargo enemy ships are carrying, 6 new Contact creation rules to set the tone of the Era as well as a specialized Conflict setup rules and more. You might see some ship you've never seen before due to these Eras and will definitely meet some all new characters.

Keep an eye out for the "Buried Demons" storyline introduced by Silvaine von Sha to get a start on it. These Eras will only get started if you've already reached the 3rd Century Era, but will appear in any game no matter how far along you are.

In the dept of "even more new stuff" these Eras can also release up to 3 new specialist ship components as story rewards as well as an entirely new tier of ship weaponry!


The Bodyguard Job is now available as the 34th Job of the frontiers. This defensive-focused fighter dual wields pistols and blades while mixing high power defensive buffs with well-aimed disabling hits. Protecting a target is a mix of keeping the enemy off balance and blocking incoming hits. The Bodyguard boasts a truly new Talent type -- Honor Guard which grants an 75% Auto-Block chance to a friendly crew member who is behind the Bodyguard. Each hit that is blocked has a 50% chance of ending the buff, but its a great way for a front-line bodyguard to protect the back-line.

The Bodyguard is also unique in having 4 Skills which stretches his or her Skill set pretty wide -- Pistols, Blades, Evasion and Tactics. Without a doubt, the best Bodyguards will be Officers with complementary Jobs. The Job combinations are staggering and extremely fun to play with -- from the Assassin, Military Officer, Bodyguard to the Spy Bodyguard, Swordsman -- there are too many too count and we're excited to see what you captains cook up!

Bodyguards can also provide life saving Talents to protect other crew and officers and special mission bonus payments for passenger and prisoner missions.

Bodyguards can be recruited from High Princes, Judicial Counsels and Courtesan Contacts.




- Added new pistol-blade wielding "Bodyguard" Job, unique defensive fighter and team defender!
- Added 6th Story Era: either the Era of Dissension or Consolidation
- Choose a side in the growing galactic tension between the UCF unionists and the faction leadership
- All new simulation rules, Rumors, Conflicts, and Contact actions/mutations during these new chapters of the United Coalition
- Added new story vignette to introduce the Era, "Buried Demons" with Thulun Intelligence Officer
- Added 3 new specialist ship components available through story choices and rewards
- Added 2 new unique crew weapon/armors available through story choices and rewards
- Added 2 Era-specific Rumors as Coalition power shifts -- "Anti-Coalition Riots" and "UDF Recruitment Drives"
- Added 4 Era-specific special cargo rules for Merchants, Smugglers and Pirates
- Added 6 Era-specific Contact creation rules to seed the Era new blood
- Added 8 new ship weapons released by the Era progressions -- gear up for advanced warfare!
- Added 3 new major story characters who can have wide impact
- Added new Era-driven ship encounter and mechanics and 2 new Era-driven cards for orbital ops games
- Added 2 special Missions available in different story paths of the Eras, including a chance at a first meeting with legend from Templar Battleforce
- Rippling story impacts can flow into other Eras like the Plague
- Recruit Bodyguards from High Prince, Judicial Counsel and Courtesan Contacts
- Improved Alta Mesa component "Battle Bridge" with Void/Res Resist and +Accuracy %
- Contact Search now picks up Trait-based services like Offer Rumor due to Techno Addict Trait


We've now released Update #176 with some exciting new content and balance work for the Bodyguard. As we want to keep this news item top of our roll, we're just adding it to the bottom here.

v2.6.3 -
- Added 3 new Era-specific missions for Arbiter Brokstrom and other Coaolition Contacts during the Consolidation Era
- New mission types now capable of spawning beneficial Rumors and Contacts such as Starport Boom or UDF Recruitment Drive
- Fixed bugs with bounty hunters sent by Thulun being in the wrong ships / factions
- Adjusted theme of Bodyguard's "Tactical Shove" Talent to push someone back instead of forward
- Bodyguard's "Protective Instincts" on Init Talent can now be used from any slot including 4
- Fixed Bodyguard's "Low Blow" to not give buffs to the attacked enemy
- Adjusted Bodyguard's "Body Shot" to not be useable from slot 3
- Bodyguard's "Hamstring Slice" has debuff slightly reduced, now -2 Init and -10% Damage
- Fixed inconsistencies in Bodyguard's "Screening Fire" buff and upgraded to a 1.5x Initiaive cost
- Fixed extremely short cool down for Bodyguard's "One Step Ahead" Talent
- Added missing description for Bodyguard Job