Star Traders: Frontiers News

Captains, you've seen it in the Star Traders updates for a long time now, and it's finally arrived! Cyber Knights: Flashpoint - our squad tactics heist RPG - launched on Steam today! 🎉🎉🎉 It's our first 3D game and a big step up for our studio; we'd love for you to check it out.

Like Star Traders: Frontiers, Cyber Knights is an in-depth RPG with a ton of replayability, endless character build possibilities, and a contact system that expands even further on the traits, reputation, and living web of influence and relationships that you can impact.

Come take a look and see if Cyber Knights' smart turn-based tactics, heist strategy layer, and unique 23rd-century cyberpunk looks fun to you. If it's not your style of game, no worries, even just spreading the word about it helps support us and the possibilities for Star Traders' future.



We're looking forward to a great Early Access where player ideas and feedback shape the game every bit as much as they did Star Traders. And don't worry, we might be fully-focused on Cyber Knights' launch right now, but we'll be back with more for Star Traders: Frontiers too.

You've lived long sailing the stars with us. Now come live fast and die young running these cyberpunk streets.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1021210/Cyber_Knights_Flashpoint/

It's Update #325 for Star Traders: Frontiers with some new QoL features requested by the community! This week, we've added new quick randomization options to new game to help you find your perfect Captain persona, added a confirmation button to ending the turn without any action in Ship Combat, saved Mutinied captains from themselves and fixed a number of hot-topic reported bugs.

If you like the pace of updates, please take a minute to leave a review, share the game or just post some feedback! Feedback goes straight into updates :D


[h2]New Game Randomize[/h2]
With Update #325, you can now rapidly randomize your Captain's name and appearance. The randomization will keep to regular outfits (without mix-and-match legs and torso) and currently does not add any accessories. Personally, I'm loving this new addition as a way to find a cool looking and sounding new captain with some speed clicking.

Let us know how it works for you! Should we add it to the main roster as well?


[h2]Skipped Turn Confirmation[/h2]
In ship combat, if you happen to hit End Turn without putting in any orders -- no Talents used, no weapons fired, no craft launched and no move orders issued -- you'll get a once per combat confirmation dialog to ensure you really want to skip out. If you do choose to continue anyway, we'll leave you alone and not ask again. If you want to correct a mistake, then the confirmation will reappear if the mistake is made again.

Thanks to the community for always pressing us to improve the game!

[h2]Captain Mutiny Talents[/h2]
There was a bug with Captain Mutiny Talents that was counting Captains out of using their own Talents to quell mutinies if their Morale was very low. That is a lot less fun for Pirate captains and the like! This is now resolved and your Captain will always be able to use their anti-Mutiny Talents regardless of their low Morale. A captain never joins against themselves in a Mutiny ... and if they do, they've got bigger problems.

[h2]Nine Blade Cut Debuff[/h2]
There was an issue where Nine Blade Cut's debuff was getting cleared by Talents that remove Buffs. This is now resolved.

We also fixed a bug with Disarming Sabotage not finding weapons in some cases.

[h2]v3.3.59 - 8/27/2023[/h2]
- Added button to randomize captain name in new game
- Added button to randomize captain outfit in new game
- Added confirmation dialog if you take now action (talent, weapons, craft, move order) in ship combat (confirm only once)
- Fixed bug that would prevent a low Morale Captain from using Talents during Mutiny
- Fixed bug allowing Nine Blade Cut debuff from being removed from enemy
- Fixed issue with Disarming Sabotage always reporting that there are no enemy weapons

It's Update #324! Not quite an orbital disaster but it sounds pretty cool. We've got some awesome improvements, tuning and fixes in this update as well as a reminder about the 5 year anniversary stream too. So -- if you like the pace of updates, please tell a friend, post some feedback and be sure to leave a review!

[h2]5 Year Celebration Reminder![/h2]
Time flies like a starship, Captains. This month we're celebrating 5 years of Star Traders: Frontiers!

Mark your calendars for TONIGHT, August 10th, 9pm EDT. We'll be live on Twitch with the Trese Brothers (including a special appearance from youngest brother Martin!) for a community hang-out and celebration stream on Twitch: https://twitch.tv/TreseBrothers

[h2]What’s the latest on Cyber Knights?[/h2]
Throughout the last year, we’ve been running Cyber Knights: Flashpoint’s private alpha test for Kickstarter backers, following the same tried-and-true process we used for Star Traders: Frontiers. Now, with a live demo up on the Steam page, we're cranking up to finishing pace and we’re marching toward the Q4 launch pad to release to Steam Early Access, so make sure you’ve wishlisted (and followed!), or join us for behind-the-scenes discussion and development snapshots in our Discord.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1021210/Cyber_Knights_Flashpoint/

[h2]Orbital Disaster[/h2]
When different types of Salvage Rumors start on a system, the local Contacts can gain or lose Influence. Orbital Salvage Rumors that can cause Influence bonuses include those like Orbital Constructions, Abandoned Military Station and others. We have now pushed Orbital Disaster Salvage Rumor correctly into the camp that harm local Contact Influence - a good change to help keep the simulation fair and clear, especially as this is a Rumor that can be bought by aggressive Contacts on their action.

[h2]Early UCF Rumors Peace[/h2]
We have added a rule change to the simulation to further improve the dynamics of the interstellar Rumors during the Early Coalition Era when Contacts attempt to create damaging Rumors. In the simulation in general -- when taking their action, Contacts can attempt to purchase damaging Rumors against other Contacts they hate (example -- Aetaan Char is in the simulation attempting to Civil Unrest the Faen homeworld due to her extreme hatred).

During the Early Coalition Era, there is now a voting mechanism where other Contacts may deny the Rumor action after it has already been paid for. This results in the Rumor not being created and the aggressive Contact losing the Influence they put on the table for the action in the first place. This helps create a relative but fragile time of peace during the Early Coalition Era.


[h2]Gear Buffs[/h2]
Two sets of combat gear -- the Paladin's Chain and Watchdog Whisper -- both have gained buffs to their stats to help push them more into the forefront of their respective categories. In addition, we've added to the respective Attribute bonuses for the Wing gear GAATSO Interlink and Vrax Harness, as it always helps for your Wing pilots to have slightly sharper Attributes along with their Wing-focused traits, gear and Talents.


[h2]More Xeno Protections[/h2]
We're on a bit of a rip making sure xeno don't slaughter early game captains unfairly. We've added another round of protections to prevent xeno rumors from being generated in certain ways that were letting them slip past the existing filter. Even less xeno Rumors should escape the lab in the early game but they are really hard to keep locked up -- so you might still see some!

[h2]Other Fixes[/h2]
We've adjusted the weighting in enemy captain ship designer to reduce the likelihood of Caliga Vindex and Shizari Huntress ships appearing as they were both a little overweight for fairness and pushing other ships into the margins.

Finally, thanks for reporting bugs, typos and all the rest!

[h2]v3.3.55 - 8/9/2023[/h2]
- Orbital Disaster rumors now damage Contact Influence rather than increase it
- Contact AI purchasing Rumors during UCF Era revised to use simulated votes (hurts aggressive Contacts)
- Buffed Paladin's Chain and Watchdog Whisper (Crew combat gear)
- Buffed Attribute bonuses for GAATSO Interlink and Vrax Harness (Fighter Pilot gear)
- Reduced chances of Xeno Rumors occurring early in the game
- Reduced rate of enemy Caliga Vindex and Shizari Huntress spawning
- Minor performance support patches, fixed reported crash & text bugs

We've joined forces with two other indie studios to offer a new Steam bundle for players who love to dive deep into a game: Endless Adventures - Deep & Replayable RPGs.



In the now 5 years 🎉 since Star Traders: Frontiers' release, we've heard from so many of you that ours is a game you enjoy coming back to time and time again, creating new captains, outfitting entirely different ships, trying playthroughs with new goals or creative challenges. To this day we continue to update the game with new content, and opened up a new frontier of possibilities for player-created content with modding support added last year.

Wildermyth is another highly-replayable game we've admired since its release for its innovative procedural generation storytelling system, storybook-come-to-life style, and character legacies. Our shared tabletop RPG inspirations couldn't be more clear, and their many clever systems for creating unique characters and stories on every playthrough are very well executed.

Vagrus: The Riven Realms is another game we've been impressed by; this time for the sheer amount of hand-crafted content in its vast, dark-fantasy setting. Star Traders players will find lots of similarities in Vagrus' caravan premise, from the many options for who you recruit to travel alongside you, to the total freedom you have in how you choose to make your way in its detailed world.


If you're a bargain-hunter, you should know:

• With this bundle, you'll only pay for the games you don't already own.
  
• The bundle discount stacks with individual game sale discounts, so you'll often be able to find this bundle at a great price.
  

Hope you'll enjoy checking out these award-winning RPGs! Please spread the word: if you're a player who loves getting lost in a game — vast worlds, extensive character build variety, tons of ways to play — these three RPGs are for you.

https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/33786/

Time flies like a starship, Captains. This month we're celebrating 5 years of Star Traders: Frontiers!

Mark your calendars for August 10th, 9pm EDT. We'll be live on Twitch with the Trese Brothers (including a special appearance from youngest brother Martin!) for a community hang-out and celebration stream on Twitch: https://twitch.tv/TreseBrothers

Last year, we asked you to share a favorite moment or memory, and used them as part of our commemorative 4-year anniversary image.

This year, we want to hear about (and see screenshots of!) your favorite captain and your greatest achievement in game with them! A legendary set of salvage gear? A stash of horded Vudka the size of a small moon? A black market trade route that puts the Kessel Run to shame?

Whatever your best achievement may be, share your captain screenshots and stories in the Trese Brothers Discord #stf_5_year_celebration channel by August 8th for a chance to be featured in a special way in the 5-year anniversary celebrations.

Thank you all for the fun, the support, the reviews, the memes and the memories. I know we're talking a lot about our next game these days, but we're looking forward to the new possibilities it will bring for Star Traders as well. And with all the new players that keep coming to Star Traders: Frontiers, it's still got more life (and updates!) ahead.

Join us on the 10th for a fun celebration!