Star Traders: Frontiers Update #65 Blockade Runner
May 16, 2018 13:20:06 GMT -5
Cory Trese, strega, and 2 more like this
Post by fallen on May 16, 2018 13:20:06 GMT -5
Update #65 is a sprawling beast. As it should be, it took a few days to get this one right! The log is long, so we'll dig right in below. Pass the spice plate, spacer, and enjoy the news.
As a reminder to everyone, we've stickied a thread about how your saved games are never invalidated by updates. We want to make sure that message is heard loud and clear! Because there are going to be a lot more updates
steamcommunity.com/app/335620/discussions/0/2828702373001373670/
Fade to Black Forever
For any late game Captain suffering the bug where the game goes into a loop of fading in and out of a black screen ... your game is now fixed! Very sorry for the bug!
Running Blockades
With this release, we've made running blockades more fun, rewarding and risky. We've also opted the Pirates and Xeno Spores Rumors at the system level into this same system.
First -- these three rumors make it harder to land on these worlds. Every time you land on any system, you make a piloting test. If that test fails, your landing is interrupted by a ship encounter. As these are Pilot Skill tests, most often a saving Talent picks up any failure. With Update #65, we've introduced the catch that you can't use a saving Talent for running blockades or when there are pirates. 25% of the time, you can't use a saving Talent to avoid xeno spores either. Be careful!
However, the rewards are rich! In the case of any of the three rumors (Blockades, Pirates, Xeno Spores) you can gain Reputation with the local faction at 1 Rep point per $1,000 credits of a sale into their Exchange. Their economies are hurting and they need the cargo, so you can make big Rep gains by chasing these rumors.
For those faction loyalists coming to help, if you have Permit 2 or Edict 4 or higher, you can gain even more Rep for bringing cargo down.
Small and Agile Hulls
The Blockade Runners update includes 5 new ship hulls, increasing the ranks of options and unique builds available for smaller ship Captains. This update also includes the very exciting Scout Command Bridge -- a small component that can house 3 officers. Because Bridges are locked components, only ships that start with a Small Bridge component can use the Scout Command Bridge, but it gives a critical efficiency improvement to smaller ships, freeing up slots for other components or weapons as well as packing the utility of a usually much larger component into a small slot.
Vulture Liner
This 4 Officer cruiser has the largest base fuel capacity of any 3400 Mass hull. Lightly armored but heavily armed, the Vulture uses a Scout Command Bridge to pack the firepower of a 5000 Mass with the speed and agility of a 3400 Mass.
Allistar Liner
This 4 Officer Liner is a natural upgrade for any Captain using the Scout Cutter. Heavily armored, well shielded and very fast, the Allistar Liner takes full advantage of it's compact Scout Command Bridge to pack value into an efficient package.
Bolt Raptor
This 5 Officer Raptor class is an assault ship designed for use by Faction raiders and privateers. Using only Reinforced Officer Cabins and a Scout Command Bridge, the Raptor has strong armor and shielding as well as large base fuel capacity.
Dart Liner
This 5 Officer cruiser has the heaviest armor of any ship currently available. Combine the massive base armor and shielding with a Scout Command Bridge, Reinforced components, armored bulkheads and a battle-ready Chaser engine and you'll have this hard to kill, high speed, armored dart.
Galtak Heavylift
This release included some necessary balancing adjustments to the Galtak Freighter as a starting ship. The Galtak Heavylift is the new-old Galtak Freighter in all of it's OP (and too pricy for starting ship) glory.
Ship Buff Rebalance
A number of the ship escape and move Talents have seen a small rebalance this update. Those Talents that are obviously for going forward -- Perfected Approach, Acrobatic Drive, Barrel Roll -- all now include Escape chance reductions. The Fast Escape buff has gained some +Armor and the Sharp Steering Talent is rebalanced to focus more on bonuses to changing rangine that escaping.
So Much Else
There are so many other great things in this update. We've extended some of the rumor blocks -- preventing Quarantine for much longer. We've rebalanced the mission generation in regards to length to provide better variety of mixed-length missions. We've fixed a ton of Trait mistakes or missing text. Rep values are now displayed in your Quad map hovers. It goes on and on -- this one is full of catch up fixes!
v2.2.59 - 5/15/2018
- New 2400 Mass Ship: "Allistar Liner"
- New 3400 Mass Ships: "Bolt Raptor", "Dart Liner", "Vulture Liner"
- New 5000 Mass Ships: "Galtak Heavylift"
- New Type of Ship Component: "Scout Bridge" holds 3 Officers for better component efficiency
- Rebalancing updates for Galtak Freighter, Scout Cutter
- Ship Repricing and Balancing Update for all ships
- Increased the difficulty of running Blockade Rumors to land on the planet and take advantage of economic boosts
- Balanced Reputation rewards for Blockade Rumor, Added rewards for Xeno Spores and Pirate Fleet
- New Bonuses for Exchange Trading into Rumors for Permit 2+, Edict 3+ and Rank 2+
- Increased duration that Quarantine and Civil Unrest are disabled at the start of the game
- Added new 5/10 year reduction (-50% chance) for Civil Unrest / Quarantine Rumors
- Fixed long standing issues with Contact Link generation being too picky
- Adds Reputation display to hovers in Quadrant Map
- Fixed two crashes in Cargo Hold -> Intel Records & fixed bug with scrolling
- Crippling Dread debuff caused by boarding cannot be remove by crew purge Talents
- Fixed many small text issues with Trait descriptions
- Xeno encounters causes more Morale loss to fewer number of crew
- Ship Buffs Perfected Approach, Acrobatic Drive, Barrel Roll all reduce Escape chance
- Ship Buffs Fast Escape gains +Armor %, Sharp Steering reduced Escape bonus
- Improved Smuggler Talent "Slippery Trader" to reduce more rep during trade Conflicts
- Fixed bug with Intel Records with no Origin planet (Victory Intel Talents)
- Fixed Reputation labeling issue on Prize Ship Talents in pre-use screens
- Fixed issue with looping "fade to black" on landing
- Improved balance of Mission generation in regards to distance
- Improved messages in ship encounters about reputation loss and bribe
- Fixed issue with Commercier missions requiring resources required on site
- Fixed Reported Crashes! Thanks for pressing report <3
