Star Traders: Frontiers Update #60: Underworld Royalty

[fallen]

First off, a big welcome to all of our new captains joining up this weekend! Welcome to the frontier. We're here on the boards all the time, so please post questions, feedback and suggestions! We're pushing updates every 2 - 5 days, so things are moving fast. We strongly believe Early Access should be a time of constant improvement and include a very active community feedback loop, so strap in and let's go! Also, if you're just joining up, please note that all saved games are ALWAYS compatible with new updates. We would never release an update that breaks saved games.

Update #60 rides into battle with a new story arc, new Contact Traits, new Mission types and exciting balance updates to lower Mass Void Engines. We're now in the hunt to wrap up the v2.2.x family quickly with the next Era and then all weapons systems will be targeted on the final milestone of v2.3.x and fighters. Launch all zigs!

Crowned Smuggler Arc

The newly added story arc allows you to join in the ambitious schemes of a Smuggler, Fixer or Spice Runner after the start of the Early Coalition Era. He or she has some big plans, so clear your schedule and see if you can help them achieve infamy and riches in the criminal underworld! You'll need to hit at least +10 Personal Rep first.

Contact Traits

Just like with your crew, you need to learn your Contact's Traits. More and more of the positive effects of Traits are being locked if you do not know the Trait. All the Recruit Traits work this way for Contacts, and now we've added a new killer Trait called "Talent Scout" which increases recruit levels by +2. But -- you need to know the Trait! So, dig in and get to know your Contacts. Get some Talents to help and work closely with them. Remember that general interactions where you spend money with a Contact always give you a small Charisma-based chance to learn a Trait, so even without Talents, focusing on using a Contact's services can help you get there.

Reputation Balance and Logging

With Update #60, we've relaxed the faction rules about holding high level Permits and Edicts. You now need at least -2 Rep in a single event to lose your Rank 4 Permit and -3 Rep in a single event to lose any Edict. If you're using the right set of Talents (Signature Jammer, etc) you can be far more successful holding on to these higher level Permits and Edicts.

We've fixed issues where Rep loss was not being logged correctly in ship victory and defeat, and an issue where Trade Bans were not actually causing Rep loss.

Big Smuggler Missions

A few new type of high tier smuggler missions have been released today where you're going to be asked to gather upwards of 100 of a resource type to a wilderness stash. Where many stash missions can be finished in a single focused delivery, these are going to be a bit heftier and their pay and duration takes that into account.

Also, we've made some slight adjustments to extend the duration of all standard missions.

v2.2.49 - 5/4/2018

- New story arc "Crowned Smuggler" starts with Fixer/Smuggler/Spice Runner after Early Coalition Era begins
- Displaying Quadrant Rumors in the Quadrant Map
- New Contact Trait "Talent Scout" adds +2 Levels to any Recruits if Trait is known
- Buff to 2400 and 3400 Mass Ship Engines (3 RP Move, 2 RP Move Battle Engines)
- More positive Contact Traits have their effect only if the Trait is known
- Unknown Trait names are no longer displayed in Mission Offer screen
- Added 3 new stash mission types for Smugglers
- New Huge Stash missions require massive hoards of resources with extended duration/payment
- Extended standard mission duration
- Fixed issue with Trade Bans not causing Rep penalty
- Fixed mismatch in Military Rank titles in Faction Politics list
- Added Skill and Ship pool tooltips to Recruit screen
- Added Flag tooltips in mission offer and detail screens
- Updated Talent description of Orderly Drop and Sure Landfall, costs 1 Turn / 1 Fuel
- Fixed issue with Whisper Personal Defense gear (level 2)
- Improved Reputation Loss logging in Ship Combat Victory (thanks J4J)
- Improved Reputation Loss logging in Ship Combat Defeat (thanks MintDragon)
- Rebalanced Reputation Loss for Permit removal to -2 minimum
- Rebalanced Reputation Loss for Edict removal to -3 minimum
- Fixed Trade Alliance for News text formatter and Contact actions

[athios]

we've relaxed the faction rules about holding high level Permits and Edicts

Thank you!

Talent Hunter is very cool. Great idea.

[Aesop]

Looks great. Really like the locking of traits in contacts. More incentive to explore and get to know your contacts. Only problem is I have to wait 3 days to try it all out.

[drspendlove]

Crowned smuggler arc doesn't seem to finish properly. Upon returning to the contact after finishing 5 missions, he simply disappears, never to be seen again. I would give moar detail, but I'm on mobile atm.

[fallen]

May 7, 2018 19:59:31 GMT -5 drspendlove said:

Crowned smuggler arc doesn't seem to finish properly. Upon returning to the contact after finishing 5 missions, he simply disappears, never to be seen again. I would give moar detail, but I'm on mobile atm.

Weird. We'd definitely need more details. I will play through the finish of the arc a few more times tonight, but this has been tested on every platform here.

I would suggest checking your spice hall news to see if you can spot the fact that someone else killed him or he aged out. The simulation has no mercy on your Contact if you aren't keeping his Influence up.

[Aesop]

Is faction rep a factor for him? When I did this arc there appeared a "Civil Disorder" rumour on the planet. I could talk to him again after it finished, but the quest arc seemed to have fizzeled out and the rumours he promised to make happen, never happened.

[fallen]

Aesop - he is a standard contact so Rep and Influence and are important. There aren't any specific requirements for his story other than what he shares with you.

Of course, there is a timer. And it sounds like that may be the problem.

Did he just stop talking to you about it or he converted to Smuggler Prince but did not start the rumors?

[fallen]

May 8, 2018 4:38:48 GMT -5 Aesop said:

Is faction rep a factor for him? When I did this arc there appeared a "Civil Disorder" rumour on the planet. I could talk to him again after it finished, but the quest arc seemed to have fizzeled out and the rumours he promised to make happen, never happened.

Dramatically slowed down the timer -- from 5 years to 12 years now.

[Aesop]

Hi,

SPOILERS

I'm trying to remember exactly. This is how I remember it:

I did one large stash mission for him. He then told me he was going to influence two worlds. There were corresponding rumours with the story book tag in the mission log - when I went into his dialogue he had a speech about being patient.

After completing the first story mission he had other missions, but none were marked with a story bookmark and I didn't bother completing them.

Eventually he no longer gave that speech about patience, the rumours had disappeared and nothing else happened. I've just gone into the game, and he's not a Smuggler Prince and seems to be just a normal contact now. He has 75 rep with the faction.

Not sure what I did wrong? Doesn't matter to me, just enjoying the game, but was curious what I missed.

[fallen]

Aesop - ok, thanks for explaining. You needed to do 5 of the missions he offered under his one goal "Crowning Plan".

That sounds like the missions you ignored. I can see that perhaps we should mark those as story missions? He tries to be clear about it in his dialog.

[Aesop]

I did pay note to the text, but must have missed that bit. I just assumed those missions weren't relevant without the bookmark and I just needed to wait for the rumours to be enacted.

Just for consistancy would be could to have those marked as story.

Thanks for clearing up.

[daveal]

I haven't triggered this yet, but I agree that requirements to progress on plotlines should be clear. If that guy is sitting there quietly until you happen to raise his influence to a breakpoint, then many players may get confused about how to trigger it.

[fallen]

May 8, 2018 12:54:17 GMT -5 daveal said:

I haven't triggered this yet, but I agree that requirements to progress on plotlines should be clear. If that guy is sitting there quietly until you happen to raise his influence to a breakpoint, then many players may get confused about how to trigger it.

Nope, nothing like that going on.

[fallen]

May 8, 2018 12:41:10 GMT -5 Aesop said:

I did pay note to the text, but must have missed that bit. I just assumed those missions weren't relevant without the bookmark and I just needed to wait for the rumours to be enacted.

Just for consistancy would be could to have those marked as story.

Thanks for clearing up.

I'm on board with that, can upgrade them all to marked as story.

[daveal]

Thanks for marking those missions as story. Is it possible to also have a better indicator for story buttons in the contact screen? I made a first time player mistake, which others may make. I didn't notice that button text and I kept failing to advance the plot at all. I was only clicking his mission button, and he kept giving me generic missions.

imgur.com/7Of4X2F