Update #144 unleashes the trained and military eye of the Star Trader captain when staring down an enemy ship in the void -- granting both new comparative details between your ship and the enemies as well as highly detailed specs on your own dice pools. In addition, we've enhanced all 3 of the Interdictor defensive launch plans to include a buff as the craft come out of the launch bays, added 4 new wing specialist gear to the Salvage mini-game, rebalanced Ion and Radiation Storm Talents and fixed a whole host of reported issues.
It's Update #144 and its a big one! Let's go!
Ship Comparison and Exact Stats
With Update #144, whenever you encounter a ship in the void you now have easy access to a comparison of your ship versus the enemy. Check the "Ship Report" tab (as shown at the top) to see the run down comparison between the two ships on accuracy, defense, range change, chance to escape, boarding as well as Speed and Agility. A veteran of the void who has seen a thousand ships, even a peaceful Star Trader can gain this quick comparison between two ships with a careful read of the arc scanners.
In addition, this comparison is available mid-battle by hovering over the enemy ship. It updates constantly with the trade of ship weaponry fire and perhaps swings most dramatically with the application of buffs, debuffs and crippling effects.
Above and beyond the comparison with the enemy ship, we've also made the exact dice pools for every ship operation -- attack, defense, range change, escape attempt and boarding -- clearly visible with their totals, broken out stats and Skills that contribute to those totals as well as all applicable bonuses percentages. Hover over your own ship for a wealth of information which also updates with every shot, buff or debuff mid combat!
Interdictors Launch!
With this release, we've addressed a gap in the Interdictor support. Their defensive flight plans now include a Buff for either your capital ship or for any launched craft. Each plan's buff is fired as they launch so therefore affects the Interdictor itself if it is a craft buff. With 3 new options now available, you can improve your ship's defense or your launched crafts' offense or defense. Launch more than one defensive Interdictor and watch the buffs stack! Like their cousins the bombers, Interdictors provide another path to use more Talents a turn than you can without craft.
Orbital Relics
If you are salvaging at orbitals, you may discover one of the 4 new high level gear pieces designed for wing specialist pilots. These new gear can only be retrieved from the orbital operations mini-game, so go hunting!
All the Balances
We've adjust all Contacts who give military missions to do less passenger and diplomatic missions and focus more on kill, capture, destroy. We've rebalanced how Contact Traits affect Faction Reputation weighting and ensured that they stack properly. We've improved the value of all Ion and Radiation Storm Talents -- they can even further mitigate damage.
We've shorted the cooldown for Explorer's "Tag the Beast" by 50%.
A number of craft-related Talents -- Knock from the Void, Ransom Escort -- have been fixed. Also, craft bonus logging was broken and all bonuses from Buffs were not appearing in the logs. They are now!
It's a big one, so check the rest of the release notes for other details!
v2.5.13 - 4/25/2019
- Rebuilt tooltips for capital ships in ship combat to include wealth of additional valuable information
- Hovering over your own ship now displays all important ship dice pools (accuracy, defense, range change, escape, boarding)
- Hovering over the enemy ship now provides a comparison between all important dice pools as to whether or not the enemy outclasses you
- During a ship encounter, check the "Ship Report" for your preliminary comparison between your ship and the enemy's
- Interdictor defensive launch plans "Aegis Pattern", "Screening Swarm" and "Tip of the Spear" correctly apply buffs to ship and friendly craft at launch
- Added 4 new Relic Gear types to Orbital Salvage operations for wing specialists
- Adjusted balance for all Contacts who give Military Missions, will be more patrol, blockade, violence and less passengers
- Improved Contact Traits that change weight of Faction Rep in Effective Rep -- now stack correctly (Well Connected +10% and Warhawk +50% = +60%)
- Resolved bugs with Zunden Techno Trade Concord dialog not appearing in some games
- Craft accrued Maintenance Points are now displayed alongside damage (+1 MP)
- Improved effectiveness of Talents that mitigate damage from Radiation and Ion Storms
- Fixed bug where bombers and interdictors were not applying Crippling Effects when attacking
- Fixed bug where "Knock from the Void" was used by the AI but did not ground a craft
- Fixed Wing Leader "Long Patrol" Talent and "Ransom Escort"
- Fixed issues with Craft bonuses not being included in ship combat logging
- Reduced cooldown of Explorer's "Tag the Beast" to 9 weeks from 18 weeks
- Fixed level inconsistencies when recruiting some Jobs from Contacts with bonuses