Star Traders: Frontiers News

Update #171 rolls out with some exciting new changes to how Contact Traits can affect Missions, a second round of QoL improvements to Mission offers, sharpening the teeth of all crew and ship danger cards in operations, better weighting for xeno-related missions and more!

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


Contact Traits have gained some new teeth with Update #171. Unknown Traits can now keep some of a Contact's true agendas hidden until they are known. The first type of Trait-Mission relationship like this is in the Cult Leader Trait, the Xeno Obsessed Trait and the Collector Trait.

Much like recruit bonuses from Traits which only function when the Trait is known, these Traits now add special types of Missions once they are known. Once your Contact has let you in on the secret that he or she is dabbling in a cult, they're willing to start asking you to help them with that secretive side of their life. In this case, a new Mission is available that will ask you to gather Terrox Artifacts through xeno ship combat, exploring, salvaging or however and stash them on a wilderness world for the Contact's agents.

This new branch of the Contact Trait hidden impacts has a lot of potential and we can't wait to see more Trait-Mission combos added over the coming updates!

Finally in other xeno-related news, we've also adjusted the weighting on the Xeno Hunter mission giver to make it more likely that the focus will be on missions to hunt down and destroy xeno.


Across the board, the cards that warn of ship or crew danger have gained in power in both Orbital Ops and Exploration. These cards can be at times easy to avoid if you have enough of the right Skill saving Talents on hand. But now, they have some more serious teeth and if you fail to save them you're going to feel it. A few fails in these common cards can send a crew back to a landing zone for some R&R. These changes help shift more value into the ship components that can pull the teeth out of these cards by mitigating crew and ship damage in ops.


Based on feedback from players (thanks @gravling) we've doubled down on the improvements to the mission offering screen. It now shows the total jumps and offered price of the mission, as well as the distance of the first jump. If the mission is one-way, meaning that all of the jumps lead to a single destination and there is no return trip, this is also noted in the mission offer. These extra details in the summary will help players stay out of the extended mission description. We'll keep grinding on improving this section as we go!


We've updated the rules for Trade Permits in Trade Alliances and fixed a long time bug. The bug was allowing honoring of permits up to grade 4 when the rules stated only grade 2. We've met in the middle here, allowing Trader Permits to honor up to grade 3 and fixed an issue with the logic on grade 1 permits always being counted as 2.


We've made some important tweaks with Update #171 to specific missions and stories. We've fixed a faction mismatch in the "Smuggler Snatch" Mission. We've also doubled the timeline for the "Call of the Strong" Mission, basically making Commander Axeil far more patient.

And of course, a lot more. Check out the full release notes below!


- New Contact Trait specific Mission Types - Stash Xeno Artifacts
- Contacts with "Cult Leader", "Xeno Obsessed" and "Collector" Traits may ask you to find xeno artifacts for them, if you know the Trait
- Introduces new "hidden agenda" missions pattern based on Trait knowledge
- Improved mission offer display to show both total mission jumps and price as well as distance to first step
- Mission offer summary now calls out missions that are one-way -- you jump out to the destination but are not paid to return
- Improved power of Trade Alliances and Trade Permits -- factions will now honor up to grade 3 Permits
- Doubled storyline timeline for "Call of the Strong" storyline
- Improved faction targeting and description of "Smuggler Snatch" mission type
- Adjusted penalty to selling price on indie worlds to be -10%
- Improved the weighting of Xeno Hunter mission types to focus more on xeno
- Increased danger from Crew / Ship Danger rolls in Orbit and Exploration
- Fixed bug with "Bandit" Trait allowing more than 3 character Traits to jack the bonus above 30%
- Fixed some Salvage cards that were not reporting loss of Rank/Permit/Edict due to Rep loss
- Clarified time required to remove Trait through Contact Trait Reconditioning Service
- Fixed bug where a anti-xeno Mission might be shown as assigned against another faction
- Fixed Rare Trade Good counter in character template creation when selecting contacts
- Fixed Crew Combat log bug that caused initial target's defensive stats to be printed for every target in AOE attacks
- Fixed display bug showing negative ship component damage under some circumstances

Update #170 rolls out with a big focus on captain's quality of life in ship status and while planning how to upgrade your ship. These changes are a continuation of work we began last week and improvements that have been requested by different players. We're happy to deliver more ship component icons as well as visually marking the level of all tiered ship components directly on the icon!

A huge thanks to everyone posting feedback, suggestions and reviews!


Whenever you're looking at a ship component that has a level as part of its description, you'll now see that level in roman numerals over the icon, easy to read and see at a glance. This is a huge help in being able to visual share a ship design. It is also even more important when browsing component lists within the starport.

Along with this, we've done some name standardization to be sure that any component which is part of a tiered setup (1 to 4, etc) has the level in its name (Pilot Assist Module 1).


We've also added a new set of component icons for the different modules of your ship -- differentiating Armor-focused components, Shield-focused components, those types of seals and plating for orbital ops and ship combat, as well as spike modules. We've also added icons for the exo-crawler exploration components and differentiated Warhammer and Behemoth Void Engines.


- Improved ship component display for shopping, sharing and planning
- Added new component icons for Armor components, Shield components, exo-crawler, Behemoth and Warhammer void engines
- Added new component icons for operations seals and protectors, spike modules
- Added level tag to all icons for all ship components in sequences (Fuel Tank 1 to 4, etc)
- Improved consistency of naming of ship components, especially those in a sequence (Pilot Assist Module 1)
- Fixed reported issues with Mission jumps
- Clarified rules for Rank / Permit / Edict loss in the Contact details panel

Update #169 comes hot on the heels of the last one due to a bug in th emission jump calculations on some platforms. This is now fixed with Update #169, but a few other nice improvements got caught up in the net and are ready to ship! So we ship!


This patch includes a reduction of the chance of Trait mutation for some very common activities like visiting a doctor in the landing zone, making a hyperwarp jump or ship encounters that end in a draw. This will help further balance the traits of crew to be about more interesting events like emergency HW jumps, ship victories or exploring wilderness zones.

We've also completed a pass to tie more Traits to more mutation events, improving on the concept that your actions directly drive and develop the type of crew that hangs around you.


We've added a number of new entries to the captain's log with Update #169. These include reaching major level thresholds with your captain -- 20, 30 and 40 -- as well as promoting officers or dismissing crew. In addition, we've added more story event logs which help tie together the arc of a story when you are looking back over your captain's log.

We've made additional balances to the Dart Jammer, Degla Megalift, Skylift Carrier which is an on-going process as we are balancing out ship components and crew/cabin masses.


- Fixed reported issues with Mission jumps
- Improved variety of traits in motivation engine / mutation rolls
- Reduced Trait mutations from Doctor, Hyperwarp, Combat Draw
- New Captain Log Entries for Promoting Officer, Dismissing Crew Members
- New Captain Log Entries for reaching Level 20, 30, 40
- Added new story event logs for major story events like second Arbiter mission
- Fixed icon for Defense Pattern Matrix
- Ship Balancing for Dart Jammer, Degla Megalift, Skylift Carrier

Update #168 rolls out in the heat of the end of July, bringing another new ship, a major redesign to the Sword Cutter, improvements for some faction-specific ship components and some major player-driven improvements to the mission offer and current mission lists. We're also grinding through some balance tasks across all of the card games.

If your'e enjoying the game or the pace of updates, please consider leaving a review and telling a friend!


The Victus Interceptor is the premier construction template for the fifth generation Juror class solar yacht. The Victus is a sleek, efficient vessel with very flexible operational capabilities for a ship of its mass. The hull's architecture is was planned to save mass and hull at every step which makes two small craft bays possible.

Boasting a famous knife-like design and a bold black-and-red color scheme, the Victus is a favorite of those captains who love to terrify their opponents. Access to the ship requires the Warmaster unlock.


With Update #168 we've made some very helpful improvements to the Mission offer and current list of Missions. First, we've removed all inconsistencies between the two screens. There were fields (price and distance) that were not shared cleanly between the two -- now they are all. Also, we've ensured the price and distance calculations for each mission include the sum total of all steps. If the missions summary on the left states "2 jumps" it is correctly counting the 1 jump there and the 1 jump back. Once the mission is accepted, you'll see the same summary in the current Missions list.


With some great input from the community, we've made some changes to ship components -- thanks @peterbbesen! The Mass on Zenrin-only "Armored Officer Suites" has been fixed to 225. We've added Void and Radiation resistances to both the Cadar Shielded Barracks 4 and the Alta Mesa Reinforced Fuel Pod to set them apart from stock options. The Alta Mesa Reinforced Fuel Tank (medium) has also gained a small Fuel bonus as well as some Pilot and Electronics Skill Pool bonuses to help stay competitive.


Across the wide world of operations, we've made a ton of changes. Many are for the moment in the form of higher XP bonuses for critical actions, like ending or reducing Rumors timeline (Quarantine) or for the card that uncovers a new Rumor. In the Black Market, learning a new Contact or uncovering a new Rumor will also yield higher XP rewards.

If you're salvaging, the time and fuel cost of crew risk cards has gone up.

We've also made some Rumors more impactful on the Black Market -- the Ion Storm system Rumor and Civil Unrest zone Rumor now make the Black Market significantly easier to reach.


- New Ship: Victus Interceptor (3400M, Warmaster Unlock)
- Improved Mission offer and accepted missions list -- correct jump count and price always shown on both, local missions marked as such
- Redesigned and repriced Sword Cutter from 800K to 480K
- Improved Cadar "Shielded Barracks 4" with Void and Rad Resist
- Improved Alta-Mesa only "Reinforced Fuel Tank" with +2 Pilot, +2 Electronics and +4 Fuel
- Improved Alta-Mesa only "Reinforced Fuel Pod" component with Void and Rad Resist
- Fixed incorrect Mass on Zenrin-only Armored Officer Suites medium component
- Changed classification of Kloxian Reaver and Cognisense Balm
- Orbital Ops: Increased XP bonus for ending a Quarantine Rumor by 100%
- Orbital Ops: Increased XP bonus for reducing a Quarantine Rumor by 50%
- Orbital Ops: Increased XP bonus for uncovering a Rumor by 20%
- Increased Turns and Fuel used when Crew are injured during Salvage operations
- Black Market: Increased XP bonus for uncovering a Rumor by 200%
- Black Market: Added major XP bonus for uncovering a new Contact
- Reduced Crew morale loss during Black Market failures by 20%
- Civil Unrest Rumor now makes Black Market access considerably easier
- Ion Storm Rumor makes Black Market access considerably easier

Update #167 is rolling out during the Steam Space Exploration Sale where you can save 33% on Star Traders: Frontiers. The frontier awaits, so get in here or help a friend find their way to the bridge!

With this update, we've made some major rebalances to the pricing system of missions to ensure that single-stop and short jump missions to increase their minimum prices, added a pile of new helpful icons for different ship components, rebalanced some of the ships affected by the Mass reduction of cabins and barracks, added 2 new Contact Traits that allow specialist recruits and made some improvements to Black Market Traits that will help smuggling access to more common.

If you enjoy the pace of updates, please tell a friend and leave a review!


An important balancing upgrading has come to Mission pricing to help ensure that shorter missions, very far away missions and missions that only involve one step are all fairly balanced in price, as well as valuable throughout the life cycle of a long captain's career. In general, this is going to appear as a bump to many mission prices and a focus on making individual steps worth their jumps.


We're returning to ship component icons this week to inject a new level of variety and clarity to their visual style. We've added new icons that separate Officer Cabins from Barracks, as well as a new icon to separate Combat Hyperwarp Drives from traveler and base drives. Also, all Mass reduction components now have their own icon. Finally, we've split the boosters into 4 categories -- those that lead with high Pilot, those that lead with high Navigation, those that are aggression focused and then all others (often Electronics-high).

This is a great new start that makes looking at a ship build far more interesting and communicative as well as helping to make the shopping experience more visual and easier to sort through.

However, we are just getting started. Future updates will feature the component's level as part of its icon, so seeking out level 4 pilot modules will be something you can start to do without reading any text and only looking at icons. With this, we are also planning on buffing the Starport component filters to be more clear, breaking them out into much more functional silos, where "Ship" filter today groups together a very wide range of types, we will see that split out into 3 or 4 new filters to make shopping faster and easier.


Two new Traits have arrived for Contacts -- a "Decorated Vet" who was a hero in some Solar War sometime in the past as well as an "Unscrupulous" Contact who doesn't really care how it gets done, just wants the rewards.

Decorated Vets put more weight on Faction Rep, pay better for Missions, but most importantly, offer Military Officers recruits!

Unscrupulous Contacts raise the price of all of their services, may enable the Black Market and most importantly, offer Smuggler recruits!


With this update, we've added clarification to the Trait text for all Contact Black Market Traits. A single Black Market Trait is not enough to always enable to the Black Market, which we've now made clear in the Trait description. It is only when a Black Market Trait is combined with certain types of Contacts (a Greedy Merchant or an Unscrupulous Spice Trader) that the Black Market becomes available via a Trait.

We have also improved the rules so that *any* Contact who has 2 Black Market Traits -- the Unscrupulous Greedy Prince -- will open Black Market access, making it a little easier to find Black Markets across the galaxy even with Contacts where you might not normally suspect it.



After the Mass reduction to all barracks and cabins last update, we are coming through with a large sweep to effect some additional ship balance and remove any Mass reduction components deemed no longer needed on ships. With this update, we've made changes to the Vulture Liner, Fallen Carrier, Dragoon Cruiser, Lightbow Raptor, Longbow Cruiser.

We've also caught up to the faction-only Mass reduction components and improved them to match the core set. The Hawk Mass Reducer 4 (Alta Mesa only) and Lion Mass Reducer 4 (Thulun only) are both far more interesting and attractive now within their class.

We fixed a bug with the Shielded Officer Suites where their Mass was too high for the group.


- Improved base price and duration calculations for all Missions to avoid some missions coming out with far too low pay
- Added new component icons for Officer Cabins, Combat Hyperwarp Drives, Mass reduction comps, Pilot boosters, Nav boosters, aggressive boosters
- Ship balance improvements for: Vulture Liner, Fallen Carrier, Dragoon Cruiser, Lightbow Raptor, Longbow Cruiser
- Improved balance of Hawk Mass Reducer 4 (Alta Mesa only) and Lion Mass Reducer 4 (Thulun only)
- Added new Contact Trait "Decorated Vet" increases weight of Faction rep, +10% mission pay, recruits Military Officers
- Added new Contact Trait "Unscrupulous" increases cost of services, recruits Smugglers and may enable Black Market
- Clarified rules for Black Market Traits -- these Traits combine with certain Contact Types and Traits to possibly open Black Market (but not always)
- Removed limitation on Black Market access -- any Contact with combo of Unscrupulous, Greedy, Corrupt, Underworld can grant access
- Fixed incorrect Mass on Shielded Officer Suites medium component
- Fixed incorrect Void Engine name in main ship status screen