Universal Star Traders: Frontiers (by Trese Brothers)

Discussion in 'iPhone and iPad Games' started by BigDich, Jan 30, 2019.

  1. fallen

    fallen Well-Known Member

    Lol woops, as I mentioned it was a really rough draft, I forgot 4X Empires!

    0 AE - Farfallen Rim quadrant is founded (the quad from Star Traders RPG)
    6 AE - Star Traders 4X Empires starts as new each new quadrant is founded
    12 AE - Cirm quadrant is founded and Templar Battleforce starts
    35 AE - Templar Assault starts, though this game jumps all over the first century AE depending on mission
    53 AE - Star Traders RPG starts
    212 AE - Star Traders Frontiers starts after all the quads have been reunited
     
    Gwarmaxx likes this.
  2. fallen

    fallen Well-Known Member

    Major new update adds the Xeno Hunter Job and a TON of other nice things :D The fully annotated release notes are on our forum (here and here).

    What's New
    - Added new Job: the dreaded Xeno Hunter! Some inner demon drives these madmen and madwomen to seek out the xeno
    - 16 new Talents to hunt the xeno in space and on land and to join crew combat from the back ranks
    - New high difficulty starting profession, Captains can elect to be Xeno Hunter by profession
    - 2 New Captain-only Traits for Xeno-Hunter: Inner Flame and Dread Legacy
    - Now featuring 28 Jobs and 13 starting Professions
    - Retired Xeno-Hunters Contacts now recruit Xeno Hunter crew and officers
    - Contacts with the Xeno Obsessed Trait also recruit Xeno Hunter crew and officers, more likely to give Explore or Xeno missions
    - Greatly improved prompts in Ship Combat Victory over Xeno to help captains achieve best rewards (Loot > Destroy > Salvage)
    - Fixed issue where sometimes Mission Accept Talents would not fire
    - Increased Ballistic Soak of armor by roughly 4-6%
    - Reduced Piercing values for LMGs and HMGs, reduced Damage and Crit bonus for Full Auto Talent by 5%
    - Fixed bug that caused -Init Debuffs to knock enemies out of Init Penalty
    - Fixed bug allowing "Influence Conflict" card to be drawn in Orbital Salvage even without a Conflict
    - Fixed typos in dialog and tooltips (thanks for reporting!)
    - Added new rank 15 Mechanic Talent "Flawless Reset" removes from 1 to 3 debuffs from enemy ship based on Resilience roll
    - Improved enemy ship AI's Talent intelligence when picking Talents to use
    - Better control over ship component repair, mid-battle healing and morale restore, engine protection, purging crippling effects
    - Fixed issue where enemy AI would incorrectly use Twitch Surge when attempting to flee
    - Reduced highest range Armor buffs in gears and Talents (Fading Shot, Infliction Rage, Unstoppable Force, Resolute Hound, Unfailing Stand, Cadovast Weave all reduced to 20%)
    - Increased Xeno Hunter's "Launch Grenade" Talent to 16 Inititiave cost
    - Fixed bug preventing Xeno Hunter's "Macabre Harvest" Talent from working on Mission combats against xeno
    - Fixed bug where enemy AI in crew combat would incorrectly use Talents that require but end Stealth Mode
    - Officers in new games have set Skill bonuses, all RNG removed (Doctor's have +4 Doctor, +2 Evasion, etc)
    - Fixed bug where Prime Pilgrimage Missions could route to starting world (Mok Prime to Mok Prime)
    - Fixed click through and scroll issues with crew combat selection screen when detail pane is shown
    - Fixed story bugs with Nikolai
     
    JasonLL, NyxTowa, desito and 2 others like this.
  3. fallen

    fallen Well-Known Member

    [​IMG]
    With Update #135 we're rolling out a hotly requested high speed combat option, two new Talents to help captains who are trying to escape enemy targets, a change to ship combat that buffs the Armor/Shield meta and new rules to help Contacts focus their missions on their zone of influence. Not to mention a ton of bug fixes, small tweaks and improvements!

    Let's get started!

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    Fast Ship Combat
    For those players who want to move quickly, feel comfortable already with the combat system or who have put in 400+ hours -- the new Fast Ship Combat option may be perfect for you. The GIF above shows an entire turn of combat elapsing in a flurry of traded shots, damage values, misses and critical hits. With this option enabled, you can move through ship combats much more quickly than before, well over double-speed. Of course, if you missed any detail you really need to see the Combat Log has it all there for you.

    We've also improved the display of critical hits! You'll now see "-102 Crit!" floating above the hit and the text itself is scaled up to help it pop. It's a glorious moment, as long as you were the one scoring the hit!

    [​IMG]
    New Talents
    We've added a new early and a new late-game Talent -- a rank 1 Gunner Talent and a rank 15 Engineer rank 15 Talent. Both are geared toward helping players who are trying to Escape challenging combats and both take a very different approach to getting there.

    The new "Elusive Barrage" from your Gunners gives you a debuffing attack that reduces the enemy's Accuracy and Range Change. As all Range Change and Escape rolls are opposed, it is critical not only to buff your own scores but also to debuff your enemy to ensure that they score less successes on their part of the dice roll. Elusive Barrage is great paired with any other Escape Talent like Bolt or Fast Getaway, or the new Engineer Talent.

    The new Engineer Talent "All the Power" dangerously reroutes the ship's power into the void engine to enable a rapid escape. The Talent comes with some drawbacks -- reducing Shield and causing internal component damage, but the bonuses to Escape and Move are high -- very high. Having a high level Engineer on your crew to help perfect the power balance on your ship has new appeal -- especially for those looking to dodge battle in the void.

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    Armor/Shield Meta
    With Update #135, we've opened up a new frontier for Armor and Shield within ship combat. Based on your ship's base Armor and Shield, plus any Armored or Shielded components you've installed, you can reach a maximum of 60% Armor or Shield. Now, with Update #135, your Talents that buff Armor and Shield can still be useful even if your ship is built to soak up the hits. While 60% is still the maximum for each in ship build, your buffs can now raise Armor and Shield all the way to 75%. This enables new strategies and synergies between ship class, component build outs and the right crew to build ships that rely more on soak than previously possible.

    Not that getting hit with a void-cutting Torpedo is ever going to be nice ...

    Contact and Conflicts
    We've made a major improvement to all Contacts' interest in Conflicts -- now Contacts will avoid Conflicts that are really out of their scope of interest or influence. For example, a Merchant will not engage in a Solar War nor send you on missions to destroy enemy ships during one. Nor will a Smuggler get involved in an Alliance.

    This lack of ability to ignore Conflicts has led to many of the odd Missions situations that Steam players have been asking about -- if my Smuggler is *supporting* this Alliance, why is he asking me to sneak illegal packages into their zone? Well ... because he is a Smuggler! That's what he does.

    We've added the exact details of which Conflicts mission-givers ignore to the wiki -- https://startraders.gamepedia.com/Mission_Types

    v2.4.83 - 2/16/2019
    - New Feature: Fast Ship Combat resolves turns very quickly
    - Added new rank 1 Gunner Talent "Elusive Barrage" reduces enemy Range Change and Accuracy -- perfect Talent to debuff enemy as you try to flee
    - Added new rank 15 Engineer Talent "All the Power" which routes all Void Engine power into escape attempt but causing internal damage and reducing shield in the process
    - While ship Armor and Shield maximum from base plus components is 60%, Buffs can now raise Armor and Shield to 75%
    - Critical hits in ship combat are now shown as "-120 Crit!" during combat
    - Contacts no longer give Missions related to Conflicts out of their zone of interest -- Smugglers ignore Trade Alliances, Merchants ignore Solar Wars, etc
    - Increased price of Inferno Torpedo (small slot, level 5) and Torpedo Dual-Laced Array (small slot, level 7)
    - Fixed balance of off-hand short blades at level 6 and 7, reduced some of their stats
    - Fixed issues with some Explorer cards and other Talents that could generate Terrox Artifacts that were Independent Faction
    - Corrected bug that was showing all Introductions to be 1 jump farther than they were
    - Fixed bug preventing Contacts who got the "Learn Salvage Rumor" from a Trait from appearing in contact filters
    - Fixed bug causing Crew List sort memory to get wiped if you sorted Starport upgrade components
    - Fixed mission bug where Rep loss could be shown with xeno faction
     
    Ijipop, adin, JasonLL and 6 others like this.
  4. subgenius

    subgenius Well-Known Member

    May 30, 2014
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    Just wanted to post again to say I’ve already sunk dozens of hours into this thing with no end in sight. Amazing game, and the best space sim on the platform to date.

    One thing that isn’t clear to me however, is how do you know which ship upgrades are available at any given port? It seems random to me and involves a bunch of trial and error to find the upgrades I want, but I’m sure there must be a method to the madness.
     
  5. gvegas66

    gvegas66 Active Member

    Jan 11, 2017
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    Awesome updates! Any news on opting for the full in flight messages on larger screens?
     
  6. fallen

    fallen Well-Known Member

    Glad you are enjoying the game! Visit any starport and use the Filters in the top right hand corner. You want to set "Ignore Mins" and "Any Faction". This will show ALL upgrades available regardless of condition. Then, you can see things like "Requires 10 Starport, 10 Military, 10 Economy" for upgrades that aren't available locally where you are, or the faction flag over their icon.

    Let me know if that helps!
     
  7. fallen

    fallen Well-Known Member

    As you can see, we are updating the game often and with a lot of improvements. Full in flight messages are on our list and pretty high priority. However, as a team of 2 people with a lot of things on our high priority list (cloud save, etc) I can't commit to any date or ETA.

    We'll keep improving!
     
  8. GeothermalMC

    GeothermalMC New Member

    Feb 18, 2019
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    #108 GeothermalMC, Feb 18, 2019
    Last edited: Feb 19, 2019
    How can you complete delivery quests? I just started the game and took the One-Way Shipper quest (to deliver a data cube to a nearby planet). I've landed there, but I can't figure out how to complete the quest.

    Update: I started another save and figured it out (saw that I could tap on the Missions/Contacts page), but for some reason I’m still not able to complete the quest on my first save (it says that “We have neither contacts nor missions here”). Any thoughts on why this might be happening?
     
  9. subgenius

    subgenius Well-Known Member

    May 30, 2014
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    Yep, that works perfectly! Totally clear now how the availability logic works. It's really great that all these filter and sorting options are available in all the menus, but I need to remember to approach the game more like a PC title than a mobile one in terms of interface complexity. I can imagine it is a bit of a leap for users that aren't prepared for that kind of experience, but once you're into it (and hopefully playing on something big like an iPad pro) it's fantastic.
     
  10. subgenius

    subgenius Well-Known Member

    May 30, 2014
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    Best guess is you didn't fully accept the quest on your first save. I've made that mistake before after requesting a quest and just starting out without either clicking the Accept of Waypoint buttons in the quest giver's menu.
     
  11. vonknut

    vonknut Well-Known Member

    Dec 5, 2013
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    Big fan of heroes of steel. Downloading as we speak.
     
  12. fallen

    fallen Well-Known Member

    Big thanks for your support! :D

    New update is prepping back at HQ even now
     
  13. DzrtFox

    DzrtFox New Member

    Feb 20, 2019
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    I've been a long-time lurker in these forums, but I finally created an account just to get on here and say that this is one of my favorite games right now, regardless of genre or platform. I've sunk dozens of hours into it already, and I'm still finding new things to see and do. It may be the most addictive game I've ever played (and I've played a lot of games!) :)

    If you have any interest in RPGs, strategy games, or space/sci-fi games (and possibly even if you don't), I HIGHLY recommend this one! You won't regret it!!

    PS It can be a little bit overwhelming when you first start up, but the wiki at https://startraders.gamepedia.com/Star_Traders_Wiki is very useful -- particularly the guides under "New Players".
     
    fallen, Wrath and JasonLL like this.
  14. fallen

    fallen Well-Known Member

    [​IMG]
    Update #136 continues the hunt to perfect the game's balance, expand the possible builds with ship components and prepare for the coming release of fighters/carriers. We've rebalanced some of the existing medical components as well as added anew exciting hybrid component that can house an officer, the Medical Clinic. Two balance changes have been made to ship combat Talents, we've expanded the abilities of the Salvage Bay component type and made some changes to ship status to better display bonuses.

    If you're enjoying the updates, the balance tweaks and these nice quality of life changes, please tell a friend and leave a review!

    [​IMG]
    Medical Clinic and Bays
    Two new large slot medical components -- the Medical Clinic and Advanced Medical Clinic offer the unique bonus of being able to house an officer. While clearly it is expected that you're doctor will leave in those quarters, if there is no ship's doctor than probably your Soldier, Xeno Hunter or Spy will set up shop in their (i.e. its a standard officer's cabin). However, its the first large slot beyond a bridge that offers this capability while also provide some powerful Medical Rating and some good Skill Pool bonuses.

    We've also rebalanced Medical Bays, Medical Chambers and Combat Hospital Ship to increase the variety among the set with better Skill Pool, Armor, and Shielding options.

    Salvage Bays
    The Salvage Bay components can really rake in some cash and they have new opportunities to do so now. Previously only effective when doing orbital salvage, Salvage Bays now add their bonus to salvaging destroyed ships as well, just like Vulture Trait. To balance out this change, however, the % bonus to profits have been reduced across the board by 30%. Still, they are far more versatile, useful in more situations and stack great with ship salvage Talents or xeno hunting!

    Talent Balance
    To push the Gunner's rank 1 Talent "Targeting Lock" into a better unique positions, we've changed its -10% Armor to -10% Defense. If you're locking on with your targeting systems to ensure they can't escape, it always helps to get in a hit too! We've also slightly reduced the debuff from Bombardment, taking its drop on negative enemy Accuracy from 20% to 15%.

    [​IMG]
    New Fields in Ship Status
    Your ship status screen now includes details on buff and component bonuses including Range Change, Critical %, Void Res and Damage, Shield, Armor, Defense, Accuracy and more. This includes the bonuses you may gain from installed components as well as the bonuses you can garner from buffing (or being debuffed!) in ship combat.

    [​IMG]
    To help further clarify some of the rules of the game, we've started adding a second section to some of the game's hovers. In the above example, you can see the first changes to Shield and Armor display which note that while your ship hull and components can take the bonus to 60% the maximum for buffs is 75%. We're working our way through different tooltips in the game to ensure all the rules are expressed in them especially these clauses with extra detail.

    v2.4.85 - 2/20/2019
    - Rebalanced Medical Bays, Medical Chambers and Combat Hospital Ship Components
    - New Medical Clinic Ship Components (Medical Rating + Officer Cabin)
    - Improved Gunner's Talent "Targeting Lock" now causes -10% Defense instead of -10% Armor
    - Reduced "Bombardment" debuff to enemy Accuracy to 15% from 20%
    - Added buff and debuff fields like +Accuracy %, +Dmg, Critical % to ship status
    - Improved hover support to express special game rules
    - Improved 'Salvage Bay' Component Text and Balance (Orbital and Salvage)
    - Fixed issue with "Soul Piercer" Xeno Hunter Talent not adding Attribute bonus
    - Improved Story Officer Nikolai Ramius' character Traits
    - Fixed text overlaps and formatting issues
     
    DzrtFox likes this.
  15. fallen

    fallen Well-Known Member

    Many thanks for the compliments and glad you are enjoying the game so much :D It is deep, there is lots to discover for sure. When you think you've found it all, try a new captain profession!

    Thanks for posting the wiki - amazing community resource

    Hope you'll leave a review on the app store.
     
    DzrtFox and athros like this.
  16. ioso

    ioso Well-Known Member

    Jul 6, 2017
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    Hey guys, do you have a ETA for Cloud sync maybe?
     
  17. fallen

    fallen Well-Known Member

    Sorry as a 2 person team, we have a rule not to do ETAs.
     
    athros and ioso like this.
  18. psj3809

    psj3809 Moderator

    Jan 13, 2011
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    Any chance of a way of increasing the font size ? I play this on my ipad and love it, would really like it more if i could play it on my iphone xs. Wonder if you could have a setting to increase it (sorry i know its not that easy !). Really love the game so would like to play it on my mobile more.

    Amazing game though 5/5 for sure
     
  19. pathogen541

    pathogen541 Well-Known Member

    Jun 19, 2016
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    I’m playing Star Traders and Templar Battleforce in turn right now (by the way: Templar Battleforce is sick af. Over watch FTW.) anyhow.... when are we gonna get a Templar class huh????? COME ON. YOU KNOW YOU EFFIN WANNA. Could you IMAGINE the enemy crew when they see a LEVIATHIN in the boarding crew?!?! OMFG ROFFLE BRB NAPALM LANCE.
     
  20. ioso

    ioso Well-Known Member

    Jul 6, 2017
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    Big respect, didn`t know you were a 2 person team. Maybe you could tell if it will be happen in the near future? If not it`s ok
     

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