Star Traders: Frontiers Update #254: Diplomat's Pact

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This week's update adds a new Talent, improves the placement rules for starting Contacts and then hits on 10 big feedback points from within the community this week. After last week's big update and sale, we'd like to welcome all new Captains to the void! We hope you're enjoying the pace of updates and new content. Let's dig into the details here --

Speaking of new, new new -- if word hasn't trickled down from the tippity top of the New Boston spires, leaked below the streets and drip-drip-dripped into your safehouse, we're here to tell you about our upcoming turn-based cyberpunk heist RPG. Cyber Knights: Flashpoint will be coming to Steam in 2021 and mixes stealth, hacking and tactical combat with deep RPG elements and a unique heist system for missions. The wishlist button is calling your name, Knight.
store.steampowered.com/app/1021210/Cyber_Knights_Flashpoint/

Vindication Pact

This week we heard a (funny?) story of the plight of Diplomat who was about to get spaced if they could not help their Captain find a way to afford a high value pardon. The story came with a great request for an improvement -- to cover Pardon's with a discount Talent. We were happy to oblige and save the poor diplomat's life! Or, at least the captain has promised not to space them until after the pardon is paid. Given the captain's temperament, I imagine the Diplomat is going to have to keep earning his seat -- but that is up to all their other great Talents.

The Diplomat's new rank 8 Talent, "Vindication Pact" helps cut down on the price of pardons by their Negotiate Skill, up to a maximum of 30%. Depending on how egregious your crimes have been, that can be a lot of money!

Starting Contacts Pile In

The rules for starting Contact placement on maps have always given preference to keeping your first Contacts spread across different zones. However, on some maps that led to some of the 3 starting Contacts who are designated to be local to your faction and starting quadrant having no place to live. Which meant these Contacts were getting the boot to nearby quadrants and other factions, which conflicted with the template you had established.

We've rewritten the rule to allow these 3 "local" Contacts to pile up. If absolutely needed, they will all pile onto the same zone even. However, the new game placement rules now keep the promise set by your template -- all "local Contacts" are just that.

And More Community QOL

This update is full of QOL improvements coming straight off the Steam boards. A huge thanks to everyone posting there with feedback, bugs and balance improvements.

Even though you were being charged, ship's with hull damage in dry dock were not getting their hull repaired. This is now resolved so your ship can be pristine and ready to launch.

A certain set of factors -- including a 10 Danger world and the custom team build with a rare Bodyguard and Sniper combo -- made the Yalto Thulun battlegroup unfairly OP. We've now made some balance changes to bring it back in line on lower difficulties.

There were 22 places in orbital operations where interactions with Indies might report Rep gain or loss incorrectly. Fixed!

The new flight helmet had some issues -- for some heads the hair could stick out the back and it was too picky about removing eyewear. you can now have either eyepatch while wearing the helmet.

Finally, we fixed a pile of reported typos, a few crashes from reports, clarified the Doctor "Medical Ward" Talent to remove an misleading phrase of "advanced medical facilities" (it just means ship's Medical Rating) and resolved a few places where mousewheel scrolling wasn't working as expected.

v3.1.35 - 2/21/2021

- Added new rank 8 Diplomat Talent "Vindication Pact" reduces price of Pardons up to 30% maximum
- All "local" starting Contacts are all placed in starting quadrant, even if there are 2 to a zone
- Improved balance of Yalto Thulun's battlegroup
- Fixed issue where hull on drydocked ships was not being repaired correctly
- Fixed issues with orbital operations logs when encountering Indies and Rep loss
- Fixed issue with hair sticking out the back of flight helmets
- Flight helmets now allow eyepatches
- Clarified "Medical Ward" Talent's description
- Fixed issues with mousewheel scrolling in all card games, recruit screen
- Fixed typos and reported crashes