Star Traders: Frontiers Update #89: Bleeding Edge

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Welcome all new captains, the frontier awaits! Thanks to everyone who has stepped onto the bridge of their spaceship and given the order to rise up into the void. We've had a banner weekend here and are now ready to get back to business of expanding and improving the game. This will be Update #89, and it's a dozy. We had 88 updates in Early Access and in order to be able to reference updates ("we added that in update 62") we're not going to reset the count.

Also, we'd like to dedicate this update to everyone posting feedback and leaving a review. It wouldn't be so awesome without your help!

Bug Fixes and Patches

We have fix a huge pile of bugs. Too many to list in the change log, though we have listed the most important ones. We've fixed a set of story bugs, including the fact that for some players, the vatborn boss was not appearing.

Military Targeting Headset

First up, we've added new eyewear accessory. This military targeting headset might include a vision kit or a link to your firearm to enable targeting assist. It looks good on soldiers, it looks good with hats, it looks good when you're winning too.

New Intel Trait

In the great game of the factions, intel can be king. For those Contacts who don't naturally offer to buy Intel, we've now added a new Contact Trailt: Data Hound. Any Contact with this Trait has a voracious appetite for Intel and will buy it at a +15% price. We've also adjusted the Techno Addict Contact Trait to grant a +10% Intel price bonus as well. In both cases, you only get the bonus if the Contact Trait is not hidden.

Diplomatic and Stealth Missions

We've heard a lot of great feedback in the last 5 days and are moving quickly on as much of it as we can. Update #1 includes 2 new Talents -- one for Diplomat and one for Spy -- that allow these professional negotiators or professional sneaks to reduce Reputation loss when doing missions of their specialty. The Spy's Stealth Op Talent will reduce Rep loss if you use the Stealth Skill to complete the mission while Diplomat's Adept Mediation reduces Rep loss if you use Negotiation in a legal fashion (not bribery). We've also adjusted how the Pirate Menacing Demeanor Talent works so that it only grants Rep loss in a similar fashion -- any time you use Intimidate or bribery during a mission.

Barks and Stories

A shout out to the community bark thread here on the forum -- we've leveraged those suggestions to add another 50 barks to the game, short commentary given by the crew whenever encountering a rumor. We've also loaded another big batch of legendary stories from our KickStarter backers into the stories told in the spice hall -- hover over storyteller alerts to see the extended versions!

Bugs that Rebalance

We have made two important bug fixes that are going to cause balance changes for players. We fixed a bug in orbital ops (spying) that was allowing the use of over 100% Skill dice. This was much to the players advantage and ship damage and crew damage cards are going to be more dangerous now. We also fixed a bug in ship combat Talents that restore HP and Morale which was causing them to fail to heal the most wounded first. So, this fix is greatly to the player's advantage.

v2.3.31 - 8/6/2018

- Added new eyewear accessory, military targeting headset
- Added new Contact Trait "Data Hound" always buys Intel, +15% Intel Price -- only if Trait is known
- Contact Trait "Techno Addict" adds +10% Intel Price -- only if Trait is known
- Improved many descriptions in ship encounters to make Reputation rules and impacts clearer
- Added new rank 5 Spy Talent "Stealth Op" which reduces Reputation loss from Missions completed with a stealthy action
- Added new rank 5 Diplomat Talent "Adept Mediation" which reduces Reputation loss from Missions completed with a diplomatic or negotiation action
- Rebalanced Pirate Talent "Menacing Demeanor" to only reduce Reputation on Missions completed with intimidating or bribing actions
- Improved use of Talents during missions -- one bonus Talent (increase Rep, etc) and one mitigation Talent (reduce Rep loss, etc) can activate
- Added 50 crew barks about Rumors from the Steam community suggestion thread
- Added another round of KickStarter "Join the Lore" stories and legends in to storytellers in the spice hall
- Improved slider in Exchange Buying to be more clear about available resources
- Added Gear Type (offensive mod, defensive mod, personal enhancer) to the display and reclassified some gears
- Coalition Founder Achievement now immediately fires on 3rd prince mission, improved description of "Plague Breaker" unlock for clarity
- Enabled Refuel white popout button to open subscreen even when no fuel is needed to toggle auto-refuel
- Reduced cooldown time for Talents discovering hidden Contact Traits to 18 weeks (Shrewd Dealings, Expose Quality, Close Observation)
- Rebalanced all cooldowns for Talents related completing mission steps
- Fixed many story bugs, including vatborn monster not appearing
- Fixed Smuggler's Cache card under-reporting size of discovered stash if increased by Talent
- Fixed bug where "Unstoppable Hunt" was using the last explorer count, preventing further exploration and your reroll
- Fixed bug where "Terrifying Extortion" was allowing you to loot the same cargo twice
- Fixed all ship combat Talents that heal HP or restore Morale to ensure they help the crew members most in need
- Fixed bug where orbital ops (spying, etc) were using Skill values over 200% of the ship's pool
- Fixed bug where unknown Rumors were visible in Star Atlas
- Fixed minor bug with Talents occassionally re-sorting in the mini-games
- Fixed issues with M3400 Hyperwarp EFF drive
- Fixed typos, thanks for the reports!