Welcome back to the spice hall again, captain. Come, sit a while and let me tell you a story of another update for everyone's favorite Star Traders game, Star Traders: Frontiers. Did you know its the Summer of Star Traders? This update brings a new ship, new Explorer and Salvage cards and some rebalancing of the Explorer's probability tables. The Black Market "New Trait" card has also been adjusted, so let's dig in!

If you're enjoying the summer of updates, please let us know, post up things you'd like to see included and be sure to tell a friend and leave a review!

Our new game has started Early Access!

Cyber Knights: Flashpoint, our stealth & squad tactics heist RPG, just launched into Steam Early Access! Featuring in-depth character builds, turn-based stealth & combat, and an all-new story engine that selects storylines and weaves different members of your squad and contacts into them based on how you’ve played.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1021210/Cyber_Knights_Flashpoint/

New Ship: Paladin Crusader

Update #347 adds a new ship design that was provided by a Captain with extremely high Reputation, Dr. Spendlove. We did our best to lovingly translate his design into the starports around the galaxy. The Paladin Crusader is an upgraded take on the Paladin Defender, a common ship for early game Star Trader Captains.

The Paladin Crusader is unique among the 5000 Mass ships, featuring a 6th Officer slot and an additional small compartment tucked below the Void Reactor's cooling fin array. While the Crusader is more expensive than the Defender, it will offer more flexibility and a better path to a high Mass late game, if the Captain can afford the Crusader's premium price.

New Explorer Cards

Update #347 adds 2 new cards which are the start of a series of additional Reward and Risk cards that have been designed and are scheduled to be added to the game throughout the Summer of Star Traders. The cards in this new series will be hybrids – combining two previously distinct Reward cards into one blended and connected card. Hybrid cards, both Rewards and Risks, will be considerably more rare than normal cards but add fun variety.

The "Stash of Secrets" card leads the Captain to sealed vault from the early days of the Founding. The card generates Intel Records based on the early days of the Quadrant's colonization, bonus Experience for the Crew and the chance of rolling a cool new Trait for one of your Crew.

The "Uncover Rumors" Explorer card leads the Captain to a connected web of Rumors, spread across the Galaxy. Sniffing at the web of secrets and rumors that link Contacts and Factions, the Captain is able piece together clues and discover two or more Rumors. The Captain and Crew receive an Experience bonus based on the number of linked Rumors discovered. Rumors recently purchased by a Contact will be the most likely to discover with this card.

The new "Influence Bust" Salvage card (a -5 Risk card) fuses two fun mechanics – Influence loss and Rumor degradation – into a single thematic event. A disaster of a card that can only appear in Orbital Construction Salvage decks, this one can get Contacts killed, end Conflicts, or send the Orbital Construction project to salvage and end the Rumor all together.

Trait Black Market Cards

We received some helpful feedback that the list of Traits in Black Market's trait card was a little too similar to the ones granted by other game's Trait cards. After some analysis, we agree – this could be better. The Traits granted from Black Market are now more thematically aligned with the Crew's intimidation of the local FDF and fearless flaunting of standard Faction protocols.

We are in the process of making a set of updates to the Explorer game's card weight list that will help increase the variety of hands, provide more differentiation between high and low risk zones and respond to Rumors more dramatically. This update includes some early work on this project, and rebalances dozens of card weights in the Reward and Risk decks. Explorer already feels better!

More AI Ship Types

We also gave the AI some new ships and are still testing our new Xeno Ship. It came out of the egg a wee bit too stronk, so we're trying to reign it in a little bit before it escapes into the Quadrants.

v3.3.107 - 7/10/2024

- New Ship, "Paladin Crusader" (6 officer, 30 Crew, 5000 Mass)
- New "Stash of Secrets" Explorer Card
- New "Uncover Rumors" Explorer Card
- New "Influence Bust" Salvage Card (Orbital Construction)
- Improved "New Trait" card in Black Market
- Rebalanced card weights for Explorer decks
- We gave the AI some new ships to play with (new Xeno ship next update, brace yourselves)