Update #362: Cloaking Arc Wrap

Star Traders! We are back once again with yet another fantastic update for everyone's favorite space trading game that is called Star Traders. With Update #362, we've added some new art, finished up the arc of work on Cloaking components and chased down bugs and QoL issues reported by the community.

Thanks to every captain for playing and sharing the game with a review!

[h2]Want to help shape our next game?[/h2]
So many of our updates for Star Traders are based on feedback from you all. But there are limits to what we can do in a game 6 years after its release. Our new tactical heist RPG, Cyber Knights: Flashpoint, is evolving fast in Early Access, with plenty of room for content ideas and shifts in gameplay based on what early players are finding fun.

Join us to make this game another one you’ll be enjoying for years to come.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1021210/Cyber_Knights_Flashpoint/


[h2]New Contact Art[/h2]
We're always loving the chance to roll out some new artwork, so we dug deep in the archives and found these 4 Contacts who have been waiting to roll their dice and see if they can climb to the top of the grav heap. Welcome 4 new contact faces!


[h2]Further Work on Cloaking[/h2]
This week we found and fixed several bugs we created last week with our changes to the cloaking system. We've updated all of the effected code, and now cloaking bonuses and rolls are correctly applied across the entire spectrum of ship encounters. Xenos, Jyeeta, Bounty Hunters, mysterious Voidships, etc -- they're all now correctly effected by cloaking.

We have also increased by maximum Cloaking to 65% -- stacking those components is hard and we want to give a strong, but balanced, result. This is only a 5% total change and based on our current evaluation, we don't expect it to rise gain.


[h2]Mutiny Weight Reduction[/h2]
With further analysis, we've followed up our previous reduction in Mutiny weights by reducing it again by 3%. This is the wrap up for a fix we started a few weeks ago and helps manage the Mutiny rates. We all know it is "fun" to have a Mutiny, but it is not fun to have 4 while you are turning to get to a nearby port :D


[h2]Initiative rebalance[/h2]
We have recently introduced some new components that add Ship Combat Initiative, which is responsible for determining which attacks and weapons go first. Some bugs crept in related to player builds with very high (more than +10) Initiative. If you were seeing the opposite effect for very high Initiative builds - that you're suddenly going last!?!? - we have a fix for you!


[h2]Contact Network's Bonus[/h2]
Fixed an issue where Contact Network card was only introducing the main Contact with a Reputation Bonus, instead of giving a Rep bonus to the entire network. This is a boon to the card as you will now learn about multiple Contacts and have a head start with some of them.

While testing this out, we also found a very rare case in which the Contact's links were all remote and would not be introduced correctly. That is now fixed too!

[h2]v3.4.19 - #362: Cloaking Arc Wrap [/h2]
- Added 4 new Contact faces
- New Component: Cloaked Launch Bay
- Increased maximum Cloaking effect to 65%
- Fixed Cloaking interactions with Era-specific encounter tables
- Reduced chance of Mutiny during Low Morale events by additional 3%
- Fixed bugs caused by large Ship Combat Initiative Scores
- Buffed and fixed "Uncover Contact Network" (+5 Explorer Card)