KickStarter Star Traders: Frontiers - space sandbox game by Trese Brothers

[normie]

plz stop

Update #317: Battlecarriers in the 9000s

It's Update #317 with a new Mass 9000 ship, autocannon rebalances, new Oribtal Salvage card (watch out!) and more. Starports all across the galaxy have started on hulls for the new Acheron Battlecarrier, so start saving, captains.

A huge thanks goes out to all of the community members posting on the forum, helping new players, and sharing their thoughts in reviews. We're excited to keep Star Traders: Frontiers growing with new content and additions, so you're loving the 300+ free updates be sure to drop a review and tell a friend.

What’s the latest on Cyber Knights?
Throughout the last year, we’ve been running Cyber Knights: Flashpoint’s private alpha test for Kickstarter backers, following the same tried-and-true process we used for Star Traders: Frontiers. With 1,000 in the game now, development pace has picked up and we’re marching to the launch pad to release to Steam Early Access, so make sure you’ve wishlisted (and followed!), or join us for behind-the-scenes discussion and development snapshots in our Discord.

New 9000 Mass Battlecarrier
The Acheron Battlecarrier is a sprawling ship weighing in at 9000 Mass and kitted out as a battle-hardened carrier perfect for taking on Jyeeta xeno carriers head-to-head. It boasts best-in-class maximum craft defense at 78% and a unusual slot configuration that preferences Small (15) and Large (8) sized slots over medium (8). With 7 officers and 42 crew, it can sustain 5 craft and is a new contender in the most expensive and largest weight class for ships.

We'll keep the Acheron in player's only hands for a bit and shake out any balance issues before considering letting high level captains on high difficulty take this thing for a spin!

M101 Autocannon Update & Xeno Autocannon
We've applied a fix to bring the venerable M101 Tracker Cannon up to the level it needs to be to stay competitive with other autocannons, granting it a +3% Craft Defense.

On the enemy's side, the L2 Terrox Xeno Autocannon has also gained a +3% Craft Defense, making their close-in short range ships more challenging to fight with carriers. The miasmatic death haze that floats close to the hull of the Terrox Spines makes it hellish for any wing pilot to come that close to the hull!

New Salvage Card and Updated Weights
A new "Reactor Accident" card has been added to Orbital Salvage with a nasty -5 weighting. Take your time considering if you want to prioritize knocking this card out of the hand because it can leave your engine in a bad way, which can both cause heightened combat risk as you limp back for repairs and a hefty repair bill to boot.

We've increased the weight of the "Web of Conspiracy" card, fully doubling it, as the card has so many cool permutations and after-effects that are great in the galactic simulation.

AI Captain + Crew Build Improvements
With Update #317, we've tweaked the appearance rates for the Caliga Vindex and Shizari Huntress to make them less common opponents. We've also fixed a longstanding bug that was allowing the AI to promote too many officers on the Caliga Vindex for an unfair advantage.

v3.3.41 - 5/13/2023
- New 9000 Mass Battlecarrier, the Acheron
- Balanced "M101 Tracker Cannon" adding +7% Craft Defense
- L2 Xeno Autocannon adds "Miasmatic Death Haze" granting +3% Craft Defense
- Added a new "Reactor Accident" Salvage Result Card (-5)
- The "Web of Conspiracy" Card is now twice as common (because it is fun)
- Reduced chance of Caliga Vindex and Shizari Huntress enemies spawning
- Fixed too many enemy officers spawning on Caliga Vindex
- Fixed performance issues on huge maps with large numbers of living Contacts

 

[Major_Blackhart]

I'm impressed they're still adding to the game, but what about their new one?

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/335620/view/3864716013082924421

Update #335: Storied Career
New medium slot torps, exciting changes to Engine and Morale Dmg in ship combat, better enemy ship AI and more

Happy New Year, captains! It's going to be another eventful one in the void as we cruise past the #335 Update mark. Update #335 brings new medium sized torpedo weapons, more exciting rules for Engine Damage for aggressive attack strategies, improved rules for Morale Damage when hits target Bridge and Engine, big updates to how enemy ship captains pick their ship weapons in combat and a big sweep of price raising for late game components.

If you've enjoyed just a few free updates or hundreds of updates over the years, we hope you'll consider leaving a review and sharing Star Traders: Frontiers with a friend!

Torp Power
With Update #335, we've rolled out three new medium slot Torpedoes that all pack a massive punch. These high-level medium slot torps make torpedo boats with a wider variety of designs viable into the late game as you finally have options at level 7, 8 and 9 for your medium slots. Get more Void Shielding because these torps can hit very hard and beware that late-game enemy captains may also employ the Mk3-Gamma, Torpedo Mk3-Delta and Torpedo Mk4-Ultra.

Early Engine Dmg Rule Rebalance
In a small but important change for some strategies, we've revised the special rules around Engine Damage in the first 3 Turns of ship combat. There has always been a protection for the player's engine against becoming immediately disabled before Turn 3. Some of these protections were extended to the AI ships as well in ways that made certain hyper-aggressive strategies (ALL the Gravity Cannons, Turn 1!) less effective. We've adjusted the rules on the AI's side without touching the player side rules to allow for these cases and don't punish hyper-aggressive strategies or force them to wait until Turn 3 to truly unleash their power.

A big thanks to the players posting feedback and sharing data on these strategies that helped us craft this fix.

Bridge and Engine Hits Morale
If a ship or crafts weapon attack hits the Bridge or Engine, there is now up to a 30% increase in damage to the crew's Morale. Taking hits to these critical components shakes up the crew as they know the ship is in direct danger of failing to function and therefore losing to the enemy. This change can help accelerate and make more meaningful the ship combat defeat rule that can cause an enemy ship to surrender by Morale loss.

Ship Captain AI Improved
We've updated a number of important AI templates, rules and decision points as they relate to ship weapons. We updated some of the rules and decisions for torpedoes as to what other components to pair them with the for the maximum effect. For those enemies you find hanging at long range and trying to rain torp-hell down on you, be sure to pick your fights, close, or take them out fast with your own long range fire or craft. We've also helped the enemy ship builder balance better between Torpedoes and Missiles to ensure they have good coverage at a wide set of ranges.

Finally, the enemy ship builder was not making great choices about when and where to attach Gravity Cannons to their ships, and we've improved the entire set of thinking. These highly devastating weapons can punch a hole in your hull if you're not careful, so keep an eye out for newly configured enemy mid to large class ships.

With so many weapon's related changes, we also touched on one ship class specifically to make sure the AI ship builder would be making the best decisions -- Broadsword Class. If you see an enemy captain swinging around the edge of a moon in one of these, just be sure you're on your best behavior.

Component Repricing
With over 700 components and steadily growing, sometimes prices slide out of band and we need to come back through and revise some things. With Update #335, we've completed a necessary price raise for a number of components, better matching price to performance.

The prices for the M115 Twin Autocannon, Fuel Tank 5+, Cargo Hold 6 and Armored Cargo Hold 6 have all been directly increased. In addition, the all high level Coatings have had their prices increased to better achieve the progression into such high power defensive components.

Want to help shape our next game?
So many of our updates for Star Traders are based on feedback from you all. But there are limits to what we can do in a game 5 years after its release. Our new tactical heist RPG, Cyber Knights: Flashpoint, is evolving fast in Early Access, with plenty of room for content ideas and shifts in gameplay based on what early players are finding fun.

Join us to make this game another one you’ll be enjoying for years to come.
v3.3.81 - 1/2/2024
- Three new size 2 torpedoes Torpedo Mk3-Gamma, Torpedo Mk3-Delta, Torpedo Mk4-Ultra
- Increased the Morale damage from direct Bridge Hits by 30%
- Direct hits to Engine can now cause Morale damage for effected crew
- Revised engine damage rules for early combat, to make aggressive attack strategies more viable
- Post-boarding Bridge hits are now more effective vs all AI, Xeno included
- Updated AI for the Broadsword Class
- Retrained AI torpedo strategy with new improvements
- Improved AI ship architect's weapon selection logic for missiles and torpedoes
- Fixed issues with AI not correctly using Grav Cannons
- Increased the price of M115 Twin Autocannon, Fuel Tank 5+, Cargo Hold 6 - Armored Cargo Hold 6
- Completely repriced high level Coatings

 

[Major_Blackhart]

Impressive

 

[Desiderius]

Just picked this up in package deal with Wildermyth for my kids.

Is it any good?

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Just picked this up in package deal with Wildermyth for my kids.

Is it any good?

Dunno how old your kids are, they might find the utterly open ended nature overwhelming. You might have some fun with ship and crew building, but I'd be (mildly) surprised if this sustains your interest over a long period of time.

 

[Desiderius]

Wildermyth is for the kids. Was asking about this game for me for now.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Wildermyth is for the kids. Was asking about this game for me for now.

Well that clears it up.

 

[Damned Registrations]

Wildermyth is for the kids. Was asking about this game for me for now.

I think it's a great game, but it's definitely got some noob traps. I personally like playing on roguelike mode and figuring things out as I go, but you might want to play with saves to avoid getting eaten by a grue, or check the wiki before getting started to get an idea of how to build an effective crew/ship.

Don't pay attention to the unlocks; the ships are all irrelevant and only a few of the contacts are useful, and only then for doing weird starting builds after you're bored with the more normal ones.

Last tip; pay careful attention to events and reputation. This is not a game you can play carelessly, ignoring trade blockades or fighting ships in the wrong areas can make you an outlaw in so many places the game becomes unplayable. On the flip side, taking advantage of those can make you a beloved hero everywhere that can get away with murder.

 

[HeatEXTEND]

Is it any good?

It's no Space Rangers but is fun enough to shit away at least a dozen hours, LARPing advised, might get boring quickly just going by the numbers.

 

[MadMaxHellfire]

Is it any good?

the problem with this game is balance. it's a rather large game with tons of stuff to do, try, discover... but at some point you realize what's the ideal crew composition with some mandatory professions while others are absolutely terrible. same for weapons. same for activities, some are almost free money, others are too unreliable or dangerous. the worst are the ships: there's an extremely limited amount of them, and then bigger ships are better at everything, they're faster, more agile, and of course tougher and can equip more weapons.
but before you realize all this, you've had tens of hours of fun.

 

[Major_Blackhart]

Honestly. It's a fun little game that gets me going. I sit back and enjoy it still every now and then. I haven't played in a big. Rogue Trader had been hitting my space fix, but I'll come back to this eventually.

 

[lukaszek]

but before you realize all this, you've had tens of hours of fun.

i think its rather better to pick your larp and stick to it rather than trying to minmax.
Imagine your favorite cliche/trope - this game likely supports it!
You can play han solo smuggler with small ship / battle cruiser commander / cpt kirk sex encounters with aliens on the planets and many more!

 

[Major_Blackhart]

Actually a solid LP of this with a defined ending would be a fun experience

 

[jagged-jimmy]

As someone else on the Internet said: replayability is key. Early to mid game is fun. You play your chosen captain style (spy, trader, smuggler, etc.), build and min max the crew. But as soon as you get rich, get the biggest ship and best crew fun starts to fade. So just restart in/after mid game with a different build.

 

[lukaszek]

But as soon as you get reach, get the biggest ship and best crew fun starts to fade. So just restart in/after mid game with a different build.

nah, you get dead set on boarding alien ship and blow it up with small crew.
then you try few more times.
And eventualy you quit, done with the game.

That being said im aware that there are more boarding options now, so maybe its doable

 

[jagged-jimmy]

That is true, fighting aliens is madness in the beginning.
But I am actually playing with an overpowered crew right now, my goal was to dominate aliens in any battle. Shock Trooper does ridiculous amount of damage.

 

[Alpharius]

Someone suggested this, so i probably played it longer than i should have.

My ship & crew was mostly focused on boarding but its just not fun cause the same sequence of actions works pretty much every time. The main issue was not getting blown up in return but with a bunch of pilot assist modules and pilot crewmen + evasion talents it becomes trivial. Also the same setup works just as well for blowing up enemy ships with guns instead of boarding, they just almost never land a hit.

So when ship & crew combat becomes popamole, so does the rest of the game cause all the non-story missions are just there to grind some money for ship upgrades and story missions seem to have dried up pretty fast, or maybe i didn't find the new ones. (Was playing on demanding difficulty.)

So imo its about . Should have dropped it as soon i saw its card based with darkest dungeon style combat. Though at least ship combat is not like that.

Btw i was expecting some kind of big alien invasion era, does it ever happen?

But as soon as you get reach, get the biggest ship and best crew fun starts to fade. So just restart in/after mid game with a different build.

nah, you get dead set on boarding alien ship and blow it up with small crew.
then you try few more times.
And eventualy you quit, done with the game.

That being said im aware that there are more boarding options now, so maybe its doable

Seemed pretty easy compared to landed aliens as long as i bring a medic to finish each fight with full hp and morale. Gets really boring when i have to repeat it like 8 times in a row to kill all the alien crew.
Though maybe you can get unlucky and get like level 40 aliens when your combat team is lvl 25 as it happens on land sometimes.

 

[lukaszek]

Seemed pretty easy compared to landed aliens as long as i bring a medic to finish each fight with full hp and morale. Gets really boring when i have to repeat it like 8 times in a row to kill all the alien crew.
Though maybe you can get unlucky and get like level 40 aliens when your combat team is lvl 25 as it happens on land sometimes.

ive played few years back, i believe there are more boarding options now, even launching small craft to do it.
Before I had to get my small craft to close the distance and board few times. Combat itself was always fine for my spy crew, but my best result was getting blown up after 2nd boarding.
again, i was larping around with smallest vessel type

Btw i was expecting some kind of big alien invasion era, does it ever happen?

dunno how it is now, before it was about checking rumors to see in which system they are present

 

[Alpharius]

ive played few years back, i believe there are more boarding options now, even launching small craft to do it.
Before I had to get my small craft to close the distance and board few times. Combat itself was always fine for my spy crew, but my best result was getting blown up after 2nd boarding.
again, i was larping around with smallest vessel type

I've got two talents for boarding from range 3 though i usually just parked at range 1 in 6k ship.

dunno how it is now, before it was about checking rumors to see in which system they are present

I meant these eras like when you get some global event and it says that someone may have bunch of story missions. The second i've got was coalition established and i've got a mission to transport some diplomat around and then the third was also related to coalition but with no missions.

 

[jagged-jimmy]

There are 2 alien invasion eras. There are 2 types of aliens in the game.
The baddest aliens is era 4 or 5, i think.