With Update #144 we unleashed the trained military eye of the Star Trader captain to gain comparison details against any other ship met in the void. With Update #145, we're turning to the captains' seasoned and veteran Commanding Eye. With a glance over the crew, the captain can see what Talents are missing, what is needed and where the risks are. Update #145 adds a major new screen, the Talent Manifest as well as improving Interdictor logic for defense plans, fixing Alliances in Patrol, the endless spice vaccum that was Ill-Tempered crew at Rychart Spice Halls and improving new game contact summary.
The Talent Manifest
The Talent Manifest can be accessed from the crew list and provides a quick way to see many of the major Talent groups within your crew, the number of Talents you have in these groups and whether or not they are on cooldown.
As seen above, the first major group is Skill Saving Talents which covers the 12 Skill Saving Talent types. In that screenshot, you can see a starting Captain with 3/3 Electronics Skill Saves (3 Talents ready, none on cooldown) as well as 0/1 Command Skill Saves (1 Talent on cooldown, none ready) and no Tactics Skill Save Talents.
The same pattern is repeat for the second most important Talent group, Encounter Talents, listing the different Talents at ready to help manage encounters with Pirates, Military Officers, Bounty Hunters or any type of captain. Then the list moves down to Crew and Starport management from there.
This new Talent Manifest gives you a quick way to check your crew and Talent setup at any time -- at the start of the game, when leveling or after losing a few crew for any reason.
We've added the first 4 major groupings and will be excited to hear suggestions from players about other ones we should include.
Interdictor Defense
We've made 2 changes to the Interdictor defense plans, both in their benefit. First, Interdictors only leap to action when a torpedo or missile is going to directly hit their capital ship. This changes the order of logic and prevents them from wasting their block against a potential miss. This does mean that sometimes Interdictors will sit idle during a turn if the enemy ship is firing wildly. Paired with this, we've ensured that Interdictors will land at the expiration of their flight plan. In some situations (if the capital ship closed range after launching them), they would simply stay launched all battle.
Alliances and Patrol
We've improved the handling of Alliances and Trade Alliances during the Patrol orbital op. These will now be far more interested to hunt, as you will gain a small Rep bonus with the other faction in the Alliance or Trade Alliance. We've fixed the bug where this could cause a loss of a Permit and now added a very awesome incentive to Patrol on Alliances.
Prize Ship Talents
With the May Community Challenge on to go from a small ship to a 8000 Mass plus ship with only a Prize Ship Talent, we've done some work to improve the description of Prize Ship Talents to make sure their limitations are know. Also, as always check the right hand bar of the Talent screen to see all of a Talent's rules.
We've fixed a bug where the Zuden Techno Trade Concords were accidentally adding an Objective called "Grounded Star Trader." If you have it, just pick Actions > Cancel Mission to make it go away.
Finally, we've added Rare Trade Goods and the sale of weapons/armor/gear to the new game contact summary screen.
If you're enjoying the upgrades, please leave a review and tell a friend!
v2.5.17 - 4/28/2019
- Added new Talent Manifest which gives a summary of your crew's most important Talents, whether they have them or not and their cooldown status
- Quickly check your Skill Saving Talents, Ship Encounter Talents, Crew Management Talents and Starport Talents from the new Talent Manifest
- Talent Manifest is available from Crew List, next to Trait List
- Improved Interdictor torp and missile defense to be able to ignore misses, only blocks attacks that truly hit
- Fixed issue where Interdictors on defense flight plans with nothing to block would stay launched forever
- Improved handing of Alliance and Trade Alliance Conflicts during Patrol - patrolling can now grant small Rep bonuses with other faction during these Conflict types
- Improved description of all Prize Ship Talents to be more clear about special requirements (limited ship types by Conflicts, Rank, Edict)
- Fixed issue where Rychart Spice Hall (restores up to 90 Morale) and Ill-Tempered Trait (max 80 Morale) caused an everlasting spicing loop
- Fixed bug where Zuden Techno Trade Concord was adding an objective for "Grounded Star Trader" incorrectly
- Added Rare Trade Goods and Weapon/Armor/Gear Sales to Contact selection summary in new game template
- Fixed issue where starport prevent Hangar upgrade when at max craft count