Star Traders: Frontiers Update #32: Weaving Era Storylines

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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.

v2.1.3 - 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