Update #32: Weaving Era Storylines
Following on the release of the first Era, we're continuing the pressure on storyline, UIs and content to wrap up v2.1.1. Eras are unique periods in the galaxy's timeline, in which both the rules of the sandbox and contact motivations all shift as well as a time to tell special the stories of the Star Traders. You can see this in action through the Arbiter's storyline where you can drive the birth of the Era, and now with Update #32 we're expanding that content to include new inter-era storylines.
New Era Storyline
Each Era will be populated with story arcs that fit specifically within its framework. The new "Rabble Rousers" arc may be introduced through a Contact you know, and will give more perspective on the ongoing turmoil that the grav society is going through during the Second Founding.
Each era will include story arcs of different lengths. With this newest storyline, we've introduced a new method for connecting your known contacts to storylines -- matching an era, contact and contact traits together to provide matching storylines. This will allow us to drive storylines through more of the contacts you know and link the storylines, and their associated risks, into your existing network.
New Talents
We've added 3 new Talents this release to continue rounding out the Jobs that still have unfinished Talents. Both the Quartermaster and the high rank Crew Dog gained a Talent to help purge crew crippling effects like Crew Panic in ship combat. Each purge Talent also comes with a useful buff that lasts a few turns, especially valuable is the Quartermaster's ability to protect against crew damage.
Military Officers gained a new ability to increase Ransom profits in ship combat victory.
We're down to a final Crew Dog Talent, 2 Pilot Talents and 3 Engineer Talents and we'll have reached full coverage. At that point, we'll start looking at filling in a few more or adding new Jobs altogether!
HUD and UI Improvements
Cranking through the list of major HUD improvements, we have now added the Crew List button to the main HUD. You no longer need to go into the main Ship Status to reach Cargo or Crew -- the three are now completely separate.
The starport ship upgrade screen now highlights prices of components you can't afford in red for quick association.
We've fixed the annoying issue with your credit count not refreshing properly after a Mission is completed. Enough people reported "credits gone missing" and we were able to track this down.
v2.1.5 - 2/7/2018
- Added new Second Founding storyline, 'Rabble Rousers' narrative
- Crew List button now available on main HUD - single click to get to leveling
- Added new Military Officer Talent at Rank 8 - Honorable Ransom, increases ransom profit
- Added new Crew Dog Talent at Rank 11 - Veteran Clarity for ship combat
- Added new Quartermaster Talent at Rank 11 - Regimented Order for ship combat
- Ship upgrade listing now highlights component prices you cannot afford in red
- Improved ship combat victory messages in regards to rules for pirates and smugglers
- New Game Template description of Contacts includes specific recruit type
- Fixed credit refresh issue after running mission
- Cargo button or H key toggles in and out of cargo screens
Jump. Its good enough to risk meeting one or two sharks.
Don't remember seeing it as an option earlier.
I thought the same about Darkest Dungeon - played 25-30 hours in EA, but when it was released I didn't manage more than 5 hours, never finished it and don't think I'll go back.
the new art they've released for contacts in recent updates is far better, I hope they go back and redo the characters with the same artist
Update #33: Skipping off the Void
February 10 - Trese Brothers
Another big update is welcoming Star Traders: Frontiers to the weekend. We're still grinding out enhancements on the v2.1.x family of the roadmap and adding polish to areas that have needed it. We owe a huge thanks to all of our captains who are leaving reviews to power more updates, sharing the game with friends and posting feedback to the boards, our forums or joining us in Discord.
Load the Cargo, ye Crew Dogs!
Update #33 introduces a fully functional cargo hover to the newly enabled cargo button. Hover over the cargo counts to see a full list of your current cargo, counts, Faction ownership and indicators of permit and legality. We've also wired up the hotkey 'H' to open the cargo hold and close it as well. Update #31 brought the cargo within a single click and now Update #33 reduces it to a hover.
Ship Combat Upgrades
The ship combat event log now includes entries for all Crippling Effects. In the screenshot above, you can see exactly which weapon attack caused which Crippling Effect. Our ship hit with a Hellfire Torpedo which caused Electrical Fires but the enemy struck back with their Firestorm Torepdo which caused Aftershocks debuff in return.
We're pressing forward with upgrades in both crew and ship combat to increase the enemy's strategic intelligence as well as crew and ship building capabilities. The enemy Captain is now better at organizing the crew that they are sending into boarding attack or defense combats. Getting the right fighters in the right slots helps the crew combat AI execute in a more deadly fashion, so be ware.
We've enacted some re-balancing on long ranged weapons -- Torps and Missiles -- to make them more sensitive to being fired outside of their optimal ranges. In addition, Torps trade some Standard Damage for higher Crippling Chance.
Why Not - A few More?
We've reinstated the rule that a mission that will require a Passenger or a Prisoner requires your ship to have a prison cell or a passenger cabin. Too many captains were accepting these missions without realizing the requirement. You won't be blocked by conflicting "potential passengers" but you need at least one of the mission components installed to get started.
If you're getting Critical Hits in Crew Combat -- expect a damage spike! Raising your Tactics Skill for extra Crit Chance % and watch the damage fly.
Thanks to everyone for the great feedback! Check the full list below for all the items and be sure to leave a review!
v2.1.7 - 2/9/2018
- Added hover to Cargo button in the bottom left - hover to see the contents of your hold
- Improved Critical Damage for crew combat critical hits
- In Ship Combat, Crippling Hits are now shown in the turn events, linking each weapon attack to each crippling effect
- Rebalanced Crippling Chance / Standard Damage / Critical Chance of Torpedoes and Missiles
- Torpedoes and Missiles are less accurate when fired outside of their optimal range
- Better honored understaffed rules during ship combat - keep your crew staffed!
- Improved AI's ability to organize combat team during boarding
- Accepting a prisoner or passenger mission requires at least a prison cell or passenger cabin on ship
- Rumor icon now updates on Orbit screen if the rumor state advances on orbit/landed screen
- Improved Reputation loss / gain logging in Ship Victory
- Artifacts gathered during Exploring are properly set as Xeno Faction
- Fixed issues with scrolling through Talents and Weapons in Combat going partial rows
- Black Market opens with sell and properly shows your cargo
- Fixed story issues with looping reward for capture of Jarrek Moon
- Fixed map seed issues
