Update #273 launches from the starport with 2 new powerful options for officer's annex in the medium slot, a major upgrade to Smuggler's ability to flaunt Trade Conflicts in the Exchange, better duration for all Intel gathering missions, Talent icon upgrade and improved error handling for new game templates (thanks mod team!). If you're enjoying the pace of updates and new content, remember to tell a friend and leave a review!

Speaking of new, new new – if word hasn't trickled down from the tippity top of the New Boston spires, leaked below the streets and drip-drip-dripped into your safehouse, we're here to tell you about our upcoming turn-based cyberpunk heist RPG. Cyber Knights: Flashpoint will be coming to Steam in 2022 and mixes stealth, hacking and tactical combat with deep RPG elements and a unique heist system for missions. The wishlist button is calling your name, Knight.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1021210/Cyber_Knights_Flashpoint/

No One Saw That Trade

Smugglers have always been the kings and queens of the Black Market, but their ability to break the law in the Exchanges has been limited. Now, we've upgraded their "Slippery Trader" Talent to enable it to completely remove any Rep loss from trading into a Trade Conflict, where before there was a minimum of -1 Rep loss always. Knowing the right things to say, the right people to find in any Exchange, you can feed the economic demand and avoid your dings. Merchants on the other hand can continue with "Bold Statements" to lawfully trade and gain Rep bonuses with the faction they are supporting.

Warden and Tactician Come to Roost

Two new officer annex have been released in Update #273 giving even more ways for you to hybridize your officer space into other duties as well. Both Annex are medium slot components which provide a single officer living space along with another set of powerful bonuses.

Sold only by Steel Song, the Warden's Annex includes a small prison cell for 1 prisoner who needs to be closely watched as well as minor boosts to Armor and Medical Rating.

Sold only by Thulun, the Tactician's Annex can provide a ship with powerful offensive and anti-craft capabilities, with +10% Accuracy, To Hit Craft and Damage, as well as +10% Craft Evasion. It's perfect for a Gundeck Officer, Commander or other military-minded officer. The presence of such a hardened position on the ship also helps reduce Morale loss.

Intel Mission Duration

While many types of missions receive different levels of duration boosts, thanks to come of the modding creators in the beta, it came to our attention that that the Intel gathering missions – faction, Conflict and Science – all lacked an appropriate bonus. These self-directed missions can take a lot more time than a normal mission and often don't have the type of mufti-step traveling requirements that buoy many mission durations. With Update #273, we've added a healthy bonus to the duration of all of these missions and will keep an eye on them to see if more is needed.

Orchestrated Salvage

This Talent is now appropriately colored to match with other Talents that destroy the enemy ship, as this is a key choice that removes other options like refueling and conscription.

Template Error Handling

Thanks again to the mod team, we've found and fixed some error handling holes in the New Game template system. Malformed template files, invalid template files or those with professions that are not in the game (added by mod, removed by mod) could all cause crashes or strange behavior in the system. We've hardened this component now in prep for mod release and for anyone sharing templates with friends!

v3.1.79 - Update #273:

- Improved Smuggler Talent "Slippery Trader" to be able to completely avoid Rep loss in Trade Conflict, used to preserve minimum -1 Rep
- Added Steel Song-made Warden's Annex, new medium slot component that holds one officer and one prisoner
- Added Thulun-made Tactician's Annex, new medium slot officer cabin granting accuracy/defense against capital ships and craft
- Clarified bonus for Engineer Annex, maximum Engine Safety Bonus is +6 no matter which components you get it from
- Increased Mission duration for those missions related to gathering Intel of any type
- Updated icon from "Orchestrated Salvage" icon to match ship destruction color schemes
- Improved error handling with New Game templates is JSON config file is missing or contains invalid syntax (hand-edit)