Update #272 rolls out a nice set of small polishing improvements to the core game and another set of improvements to help the mod creators working on everything from story to new ships. With Update #272, we've improved the balance of how often the new missions appear and added new logs and hovers to ensure that Medical Rating is given its full due.

Mod Creators, last chance to get in beta!

The mod creator's beta has been chugging along for almost two months and we are now closing in our early August launch date. Modders have cooked up some amazing things that will get featured in the first weeks – rebalance mods, changes to ship design, new ships, flying xeno ships (!!!) and the first story mods are now under development! If you want to join the beta and get something in under the deadline to get featured in our mod launch celebration, now is the time. All the steps to join up are posted on the Steam group, so sign up today and let's create together.

What’s the latest on Cyber Knights?

Development on our next game, Cyber Knights: Flashpoint, proceeds apace. We’re currently working toward the private alpha test for Kickstarter backers, following the same process we used for Star Traders: Frontiers. But you can view the latest updates on the CKF Steam page (make sure you’ve wishlisted and followed!), or join us for behind-the-scenes discussion and development snapshots in our Discord.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1021210/Cyber_Knights_Flashpoint/

Medical Rating

Medical Rating can be very helpful on a ship as a supporting stat for your Doctors and Combat Medics, but it is used in unique ways compared to many of your other ship stats. Its important role in traveling events was not clear enough in the game, so with this update we've improved the hover in Ship Status describing Medical Rating and also clearly labeled its effect on Doctor Skill travel events in the travel log. We'll even included it here – each point of Medical Rating adds +3 Standard Dice to your Doctor Skill traveling tests, where your crew and officer's Doctor Skill adds +1 Strong Dice per point. For ships of any size, Medical Rating is a big help to pass these tests, especially for larger ones.

For all the rest of Medical Rating's far reaching effects, check out the wiki:
https://startraders.fandom.com/wiki/Medical_Rating

Mission Rebalance

The missions added in Update #271 were using the new system available to the modders. We have now rewritten that system to be more flexible and also rebalanced it to prevent these missions from appearing too heavily in the rotation. Specifically, in this case, "Nomadic Defender" and "Mercantile Negotiation" will appear less often, especially in the early game.

Fixed Logging

We've cleaned up 2 small logging issues – where Spice Hall would mislog the Morale bonuses for Libertine Trait and where a Contact would fund a Spice Festival Rumor but the log would report it was Mercs. A huge thanks to everyone watching the game's simulation so closely and reporting these minor, but important, issues! Every bug must die :D

v3.1.77 - 7/17/2021

- Improved mission weighting of new mission "Nomadic Defender" and "Mercantile Negotiation" to be more in line with other similar missions
- Improved log for Doctor traveling events to highlight the value of Medical Rating for saves
- Improved tooltip on Medical Rating, stating that it adds exactly +3 standard dice to Doctor travel saves per point
- Fixed spice hall log issue with Libertine Trait printing incorrect Morale bonus
- Fixed Zone News log issues misreporting a Contact funding a Spice Festival Rumor as a Mercs Rumor