Star Traders: Frontiers Update #46: Echos of War

[fallen]

Even 500 years later, the reverberations of the Guild War are still felt within the Star Traders society. It defines their heroic ideals, their fierce independence and their very concept of law, tradition and government. Update #46 honors those heroes with a big boost to the Gestalt tradition as well as a host of improvements, balance tweaks and fixes and preparation steps for some of the really big updates just around the corner.

Thanks to all of our Captains who are supporting the game with reviews and by telling a friend! Your support helps us keep this pace as we chase the final nail in the v2.1.x family (the Faen!) and push forward into v2.2.x!

Gestalt Technologists

We're starting off a drive of new features, improvements and services for Contacts by putting some focus on the Gestalt Technologists. Known as a secretive medical tradition, the Gestalt grew out of a combat medic unit hardened and trained in the decade long siege of Rypok 4 in the Guild War. They played an indispensable role during the Guild War and since the end fo the Exodus have championed many medical advances, new augmetics, life extending technologies and cutting-edge vat-grown application.

Gestalt are the first group of Contacts to get a special set of character art. For new games and newly created Gestalt, they will only use faces that are match the Gestalt tradition of face marking. Gestalt face tattoos originated during the Guild War. During those years, the Gestalt combat medics were targeted constantly by Guild assassins. As a matter of pride, the Gestalt identified themselves to their would-be killers by taking facial markings. While thousands of Gestalt Technologists died on the front lines of the Guild War, the demand for their skills helped the order grow regardless.



We've also added 2 standard contact faces to the rotation and updated a few of the existing ones.

Trait Mutation and Ship Defeat

Traits already mutate today on the actions your captain and crew take. As you take each type of action, different mutation pathways are tested. If you explore enough times, expect to see Adventurous and Wanderer Traits appearing. With Update #46, we've added some new mutation paths covering ship defeat and very bad things that can happen in orbit such as meteor storms or fatal accidents. Neither of these new pathways are good, so expect your crew to have potential negative mutations in these less than good moments.

We've also added a Morale penalty for being defeated in ship combat. It is a small bug meaningful ding to the crew Morale.

Crew Combat Prep

A big rebalance is coming to Crew Combat soon. In preparation for that, we're working through a punch list of needed features.
First, Heavy Armor has now gained an Initiative penalty. You get the extra stopping power, but pay the cost in moving a little slower.

Second, we've separated buff, gear and debuffs handling of Melee and Ranged damage. Now, Swordsman buffs and gear only add to Melee Damage, while Soldiers buff Ranged Damage. Some debuffs specify which Damage type is being targeted, but most affect "All Damage" to ensure they are useful as possible.

Third, you can now see if a weapon or armor was auto-assigned from your weapons locker or was picked by hand. This helps you keep an eye on your crew EQ assignments and opens up the next logical step -- a button that lets you revert to auto-assignment.

Maintaining Rank, Permit, Edict

If you are above Rank 11, Permit 2 or Edict 4 you will lose a rank whenever you suffer Rep loss with that Faction. Therefore, if you have high Military Rank you can't offend the faction in the least bit without losing a Rank.

This has always been the case -- but now these occurrences are clearly logged to the Event Log! This is going to be great and really help cut down on confusion about disappearing Permits!

v2.2.15 - 3/21/2018

- Added 6 new Gestalt Contact character faces (new games and new contacts)
- Added 2 new Contact character faces
- Expanded hover tooltip on map to include Starport, Trade Law
- Crew Combat Attacks / Buffs / Debuffs / Gear -- separated Melee and Ranged Damage bonuses
- Heavy Armor now incurs Crew Combat Initiative penalties
- Weapons and Armor now indicate if Auto-Assigned or Picked from Weapons Locker or from Inventory
- Balancing Ship Combat Defeat with new Morale Loss mechanic
- New Crew Trait mutation paths for Ship Defeat (Disgraced, Looted, Searched)
- Improved logging for lost Rank, Permit and Edict caused by Alliances or Rep loss
- New Crew Trait mutations for Meteor storms, "Time Lost" and "Fatal Injuries" cards
- Travel Events: slightly reduced the RNG in Ship Damage to make results more consistent
- Added missing back button to contact mission offer screen
- Improved Calagan and Valencia's start and end of Duel reactions
- Fixed issues with 'Lightbow Raptor' ship and Officer Cabins
- Fixed issues with 'Reinforced Structures' upgrades and damage during combat
- Fixed issues with recruiting Story Crew/Officers with a badly damaged ship
- Fixed hover tooltip to prevent overruns
- Fixed typos and crashes

[LordofSyn]

Wow.

[fallen]

[athios]

Funny, I was just thinking this afternoon about putting in an RFE regarding Meteor Storms. I think I only encounter one every 10 years or so...

By the way, in case you didn't know, the high-level Blade that you can buy from Contacts is actually worse the Blade in the Weapons Locker 4. This is contrary to the case with all other equipment.

[Cory Trese]

Yep -- aware on both cases.

Meteor Storms are not that rare, but every player's experience and record keeping varies.

Keep in mind that the ERA system may have big impacts on MSR, you might even see the early game use of them as a gentle introduction to the mechanic.

Stay tuned. keep in mind that we are in "Early Access"

[drspendlove]

Making the trade level visible via hovering over a planet was a huge help for me. Thank you very much!!

[fallen]

Great to hear!