Update #110 comes after a weekend break and delivers on new content, balance tweaks and new achievement rewards. We've included a new faction specific ship, new starting profession, new starting contact and some improvements to Talent rules. Enjoy! Thanks to all of our players leaving reviews and telling friends about Star Traders: Frontiers -- Cory and I thank you.
Zenrin Trader
Update #110 adds a new faction-specific ship to the Zenrin fleet: the Arcanum Freighter. This new freighter is a lightly armored, long-haul cargo transport that excels at safe and efficient operation. Built in the tough and focused Zenrin-style, it comes with multiple reinforced components, a barracks ready to hold its full 30 crew and an impressive 135 base cargo capacity.
As usual, the AI hasn't been given access to this ship, but will in future updates.
Unlockable Requests
We had some great requests from within the community this week for new unlockable content -- specifically the starting profession Commander and a starting Contact who can hire out Pirates. We're excited to deliver both and to send big thanks to all the community members sending in suggestions! The "Faction Defender" achievement now unlocks Commander and the "Privateer" achievement now unlocks a new Contact type, Blackheart.
Of course, Blackhearts -- retired privateers -- will appear in new games and be generated in all games regardless of the achievement, they're just locked as a starting option. They're very useful in their ability to deliver variety -- offering low grade Ranks, Edicts and Permits as well as Pirate recruits and Combat Armor for sale.
Talent Balance and Improvements
With this release, we've made some changes to the rules for a few Talents to help improve their utility, limit unfair use and fix bugs.
In Black Market Talents, we've renamed "Word in the Hall" to "Underground Whispers" and made it an active Talent. Now, it removes a risk card and replaces it with a friendly Rumor card. It won't help you get into the market, but it can sure help you dodge that Confiscate card! Second, we've fixed the issues with Illicit Notoriety that were preventing it from working on some of the cards that granted you access to the markets. Finally, the Threatening Entry card -- an Intimidate check to gain entry to the black market -- now has the chance to boost you up to a access level 3, as if you had a rank 3 permit.
Second, we've improved the ruleset around "Strict Search" and "Rigorous Search". Both now cannot be used more than twice in a single encounter with a Smuggler. However, in both cases, the Talent is more likely to uncover hidden cargo, even in the case where the enemy cargo hold seems full.
Finally, "Bold Statements" now gives Rep to the correct Faction for Trade Bans.
Continued Orbital Balancing
There will be a long road of small tweaks to orbital salvage balance until its a perfectly tuned system. In this release, we've downgraded the max of the credit reward cards you could score. You can still get the big bonuses from Traits, Talents and Components, so rely on those to get big credit hauls. Second, we've tweaked the Trait mutation paths throughout the system, more fairly applying new traits in both negative and positive events.
v2.4.11 - 10/17/2018
- Achievement "Faction Defender" now unlocks new starting Profession: Commander
- Achievement "Privateer" now unlocks new starting Contact: Blackheart
- New Contact type "Blackheart" is a retired privateer, recruits pirates, offers low level rank/permit/edict and sells armor appears in all games
- New Zenrin faction-specific ship "Arcanum Freighter" (Mass 5000, 5 Officer, 135 Cargo)
- Arbiter's Story Missions "Seating an Emissary" and "United Defense Force" no longer canceled at end of era in which they originate
- Black Market Card "Threatening Entry" improved to allow access level 1 to 3
- Fixed issue preventing Talent "Illicit Notoriety" from sometimes not adding +1 access level to Black Market access
- Changed Talent "Word in the Market" to replace a risk card with a Learn Rumor card in Black Market, also renamed "Underground Whispers"
- Fixed issue with "Bold Statement" Talent giving Rep bonus to the wrong faction
- Fixed balance issues with "Strict Search" and "Rigorous Search" - can only be used twice, more likely to turn up hidden cargo in Smugglers
- Fixed issue with boarding right before some ship combat victory conditions creating incorrect game score
- Reduced Orbital Salvage credit rewards for good and rare cards
- Rebalanced Orbital Salvage Trait mutations for Crew Danger, Fatal Accident and Rich Salvage