Update #147 continues to release new and unique story bounty hunters onto the galaxy as well as improving balance, rules and logging across the game. For those aggressive captains making enemies, beware as a new famous assassin may come calling with your death warrant in hand. A huge thanks to everyone posting suggestions and issues -- this release includes a huge package of community-driven enhancements.
New Story Vignette: 'The Blade'
With Update #147, a second unique story Bounty Hunter may be sent after you by an enemy Contact. We've adjusted the rules on how, when and which Contacts can afford story bounty hunters with this release, simultaneously expanding and limiting the scope. We've restricted the type of Contacts who can hire such Hunters to those with a higher power position, so you won't see a Spicetender hiring Troy 'The Blade' Circin. On the other hand, we've improved the proc gen rules that allow these story Hunters to be hired, so you are more likely to see them in your games as we understand they were not appearing promptly for some captains.
While I won't go into it any farther, the famous bladesman and assassin, Troy 'The Blade' Circin is now on the list of story Hunters who can be hired to exact deadly retribution justice. He comes along with an opportunity at unique story reward weapon.
Expanding Talent Manifest
We fixed a few bugs in the Talent Manifest and also added a new section dedicated to Travel and Hyperwarp that includes Meteor, Ion and Radiation storms, landing Talents and Jump Talents. We've got a great list of suggestions from players on this front and will keep working to add more here!
Disappointed Pirates
With Update #147 we've made some important changes to how looters handle your surrender in ship combat. There are 4 notable cases -- you've surrendered to a looter and are (1) covered by a Trade Alliance, (2) covered by your own Trade Permit, (3) have loot to steal or (4) have an empty cargo hold. Each case is now handled separately and has better weighted results. Surrendering with under a Trade Alliance or with a Permit results in far less Morale loss while surrendering with an empty cargo hold results in more as the frustrated looters take some of their anger out on your crew.
Crew Combat Balance
A few important changes to crew combat have bee included in Update #147. Fortitude has always played a large role in damage soak, reducing incoming damage by 50% of your Fortitude as a %. So, 20 Fortitude chopped 10% off all incoming damage. Now, if an attack is Piercing, your Fortitude reduction is cut down to 25%, so in the example you'd only reduce damage by 5%. Then of course, Armor is added to that to get the final soak %.
We've fixed Sniper Talent "Bullet Trace" to make it clear that it removes enemy buffs. Now it looks even more appealing :D
All Sniper Rifles have gained a small bump in Piercing %.
Contact Trait Talents
Unfortunately these Talents were broken recently. Now, they are all working again as of this release, including Talents like "Close Observation".
On the Contact front, we've increased the chance to learn Contact Traits if you have more than 100 Personal Rep with a Contact. That close of a relationship, it is hard to hide anything.
If a Contact has no more Introductions to give, a note has been added specifically stating that. Also, UC Contacts no longer offer the Prime Pilgrimage Mission in error.
We've fixed a ton of other things -- so check out the release notes for every detail. A huge thanks to everyone posting :D Some of these fixes are from threads in late 2018, so we're "cleaning up" as they say.
If you enjoy the updates and the new content, please tell a friend and leave a review.
v2.5.21 - 5/7/2019
- Added new Bounty Hunter story vignette - the famous assassin Troy 'The Blade' Circin comes hunting with a Death Warrant
- New unique story reward and weapon available
- Removed proc gen conditions that reduce chances Contact would send story Bounty Hunter (instead of standard BH)
- Adjusted rules so that only more powerful Contacts can afford to send story Bounty Hunters (no Spicetenders, etc)
- Added "Travel and Hyperwarp" section to the Talent Manifest with a quick look at these Talent types
- Surrendering to Pirates (looting) without cargo causes more Morale loss, surrendering with Trade Permit or Trade Alliance less
- Corrected text formatter for Sniper's "Bullet Trace" Talent to clearly indicate that it removes enemy Buffs
- Further increased Piercing % of all Sniper Rifles
- Piercing hits now reduce Fortitude reduction to damage to 25% Fortitude (instead of 50% Fortitude)
- Applied same strict sorting rules to Talents displayed in Ship Encounter, Draw and Victory to ensure does not change as they are used
- Increased chance to learn Contact Trait once your Personal Rep with a Contact goes above 100
- Fixed bug with "Close Observation" and other Contact Trait discovery Talents
- When a Contact can offer no more Introductions this fact is added to their service offering
- Coalition Contacts will no longer give "Coalition Pilgrimage" mission in error
- Ensured best ops ship component (Mechi-Reaper, Multi-Signal Array etc) is always used first in ops card games
- Fixed bugs with Soldier Job at rank 29 and 30
- Fixed bug allowing Talents that increase price to run on story missions offered at $0
- Fixed bug allowing Templar Pirates to appear during Orbital Salvage operations
- Fixed bug with E-Tech's "Signature Jammer" Talent sometimes firing when no Rep to reduce
- Fixed bug preventing proper mousewheel scrolling in New Ship, New Craft and Drydock screens
- Fixed story bug where Kaewall and Torca conversation would occur even if their mission is canceled