Star Traders: Frontiers Update #148: Xeno Ruins
May 10, 2019 21:00:19 GMT -5
strega, grävling, and 3 more like this
Post by fallen on May 10, 2019 21:00:19 GMT -5
With Update #148, we've rolled out another new way for storylines to filter into the sandbox of Star Traders: Frontiers. Now with storylines capable of coming out of specialized and unique card draws, we've cracked open a whole new frontier. In addition, we've made a major shake up to the Gunner Job by introducing Tactics as a secondary Skill, improved the power of bombers weaponry and added new ship components. Along with the new ship components, we've rolled out the first Era-locked ship component. Another new frontier ready to be explored, ship components are ready to be unlocked by story events and Eras.
This is another big one with a lot of exciting twists so check out the full release notes below. If you're enjoying the pace of updates, new content and new stories (3 stories, 3 updates back to back!) please leave a review and tell a friend.
Xeno Runs Card Story
One of the biggest exciting changes in Update #148 is the ability for story cards to appear in the card mini-games. The first example of this is in Explorer where a "Artifact Find" Rumor at the quadrant level can cause a chance for a story card, "Xeno Ruins" to appear within the hand. If you draw the card, it will open up a new storyline, new story rewards and the chance to meet a mysterious character. The storyline comes with potentially 2 unique gear rewards, both at level 6 and the high risk challenges to earn it.
Now that the system is in place for story cards to appear in certain circumstances, we're eagerly eyeing Spy, Patrol, Blockade and even Black Market for the next round of story arcs.
Gunner and Combat Meta Shifts
With Update #148, we've made a significant change to the Gunner Job. Long relegated to Gunnery and Ship Ops, Gunners now bring Tactics to the table as their secondary Skill and push Ship Ops down to tertiary.
Immediately, this may mean that some ships and crews may need to consider how to make up for the lost Ship Ops Skill, but as Jobs like Electronics, Mechanic, Wing Tech, and Quartermaster all provide it this is the less impactful part of the change. In order to balance this best for starting ships, the first 2 ranks of E-Tech Job has reduced a point of Electronics (4 instead of 5 now) for Ship Ops (2 instead of 1 now).
More importantly, Gunners now bring both additional bonuses in Standard Dice to both ship combat accuracy and ship combat range change. Gunners now join Jobs like Military Officer, Hyerpwarp Navigator, Pilot, Commander and others who can all help build up this critical Skill pool. In total, for the ship meta this change empowers attackers and puts more pressure on full defensive builds.
Destructive Bombers
Across the board, bomber craft have gained additional minimum Standard Damage for their bombs as well as a 5-10% increase in Crippling Effect chance. This was a request made by the AI in training
Time for more boom!
Frontier Liner
This starting ship received a small change around its weapons build out and saw a weapon dropped for a Fuel Tank. It now boasts some amazing off-the-starport-deck fuel range to better match its description.
Plague Ward and Other Components
The first ship component to be directly linked to an Era, the Plague Ward is a specialized advanced medical ward with bonus shielding and the ability to keep a quarantined prisoner. Now that we have finished the work to enhance the ship component system and the AI ship builder to respect story-triggered ship components, we're going to be rolling out a lot more of these. Future components will be linked to eras, storylines and even provided as rewards to storylines.
We've added 2 new faction specific Mass Reducer 4 options with this release -- a Pilot focused one from Alta Mesa and an Electronics focused on from Thulun. If you have the bank roll, these will be interesting options in the later game.
In addition, we've made some price changes to the high end Sensor Arrays.
Finally, the Accuracy % bonuses for Targeting Matrix have been raised slightly to help meet with Gunners increase in Tactics.
v2.5.23 - 5/10/2019
- Added new Exploration story vignette - Xeno Ruins story card can appear in Exploration when a quadrant-wide "Artifact Find" Rumor is on
- Risky opportunity to rake in big profits and make new allies
- Includes two new pieces of unique story reward gear
- New unique card-game storylines can now be started from any card game under special circumstances -- more coming!
- Rebuilt Gunner Job Skill progression to add Tactics as secondary Skill and bump Ship Ops to tertiary -- more valuable in combat but need other Ship Ops sources
- Tweaked Electronics Tech rank 1 and 2 to have 4 Electronics and 2 Ship Ops helping low level crew staff ships better
- Clarified Gunner's Talent "Disarming Sabotage" to clearly stated "disables highest level enemy weapon"
- Increased base Damage and Crippling Chance % of all Bomber attacks
- Added new "Plague Ward" ship component which becomes available during the Plague Era -- high medical, bonus shielding and holds 1 prisoner
- Enhanced story and era system will now be releasing new technology, ship components and craft based on story events regularly
- Added new Thulun and Alta Mesa variations on Mass Reducer 4 -- slightly more mass reduction, bonus Electronics/Pilot
- Increased Accuracy % bonus for Targeting Matrix 2, 3 and 4
- Increased price of high end Sensor Arrays
- Modified "Frontier Liner" starting ship to have more balanced weapon set and additional Fuel Tank
- Craft type filtering in starport (bomber, shuttle interdictor) now works as 'OR'
- Added final captain's log entry with reason for captain's death
- Fixed price of Advanced Medical Clinic
