Star Traders: Frontiers Update #37: Landing Protocols

[fallen]

The proper landing protocols are needed now as we are coming into the final approach for the v2.1.x family of development. We're about to set this spaceship down in a big cloud of dust. Then our combat team is going to come piling out and lay siege to v2.2.x with gusto. We've gathered a combat team with Traits like Brute, Merciless and Savage to make sure that we get off to a great start.

This release includes a big blast of lore in the 30+ page lore book as well as a new set of Talents that finish every Job in the game except Pilot's last 2 Talents. It's an exciting milestone and opens the door to future jobs!

Wiki and Lore Book

With this release we've wired up the links from the in-game menu to the Star Traders: Frontiers Lore Book and the game's WIKI. For ease, the links are included below.

Lore Book

Wiki

Engineer Talents

All the Rank 8 and 11 Talents for Engineers have arrived with Update #37, filling out a really interesting arc in this character's arc. A highly trained Engineer becomes a science and research officers in their later levels, gaining additional Experience for the crew as they encounter space anomalies (Radiation and Ion Storms), xeno and wilderness exploration.

Exchange and Black Market

For some time, there hare been issues in the Black Market and Exchange where Talents weren't firing properly when on cooldown. We've rebuilt the Talent processor in these screens and now your Talents will always fire, albiet only one per trade. Big $50,000 trade talents get a shot to fire first, and if they don't then the rest of your Talents get a shot. If a Talent like Market Confidant does not run (because it fails its 10% + Charisma check) then another Talent will still get a chance to fill in.

As a big buff for Smugglers, we've knocked Illicit Notoriety down to a Rank 1 Talent as well as adding a Slippery Trader Talent which helps Smugglers handle Trade Bans and Wars better than other, more above-the-board traders.

Missions Expire

If you ignore a mission for its entire duration twice over (31 weeks x 2 = 62 weeks ignored) then mission will now naturally expire. This kind of behavior is not a good way to make friends, and you will suffer Reputation loss with both your Contact and their Faction for failing to deliver.

Notably, this Reputation damage is worse than just fessing up to your mistake and Dismissing the mission yourself. You'll still take Rep damage, but its less.

v2.1.15 - 2/18/2018

- Link to Wiki and newly published Lore Book added to the in-game menu
- Added new Engineering Talent at Rank 8 - "Stormhunter" is superior Radiation Storm protection with XP bonus
- Added new Engineering Talent at Rank 11 - "Perilous Study" grants XP bonus when encountering xeno ships
- Added new Engineering Talent at Rank 11 - "Unforeseen Discovery" replaces Explore card with XP bonus card
- Added new Smuggler Talent at Rank 5 - "Slippery Trader" reduces Rep Penalty for trading into Ban or War Conflict
- Reduced Rank of Smuggler Talent "Illicit Notoriety" from Rank 5 to Rank 1 - Black Market boosted!
- Added note to Exchange screen including negative Rep threshold (-28) from Trade Ban / Conflict
- Fixed all issues with Exchange and Black Market Talents not firing when they should
- Added new wild environment artwork for ocean worlds
- Missions now fail after 200% of their deadline has expired causing Rep Loss -- Dismiss is better
- Improved ordering of Talents in combat encounter/victory screens, card games -- highest Job Rank Talents first
- Fixed minor UI bugs in crew detail when using next / previous
- Improved scaling for 1280x1024 resolution