With Update #150, we're rolling out the fourth new story since we entered the v2.5.x development roadmap family, as well as new art, a major improvement to craft attack plans, a major improvement to how starport repair handles craft, new combat log entries for crew deaths and death saves, some component improvements, a new way to get a Quartermaster recruit and a huge pile of community-driven bug fixes.

It's another day, another update full of goodies! If you enjoy the relentless pace of new content, new improvements and seeing what you suggested make its way into the game, please tell a friend and leave a review to help Cory and I keep it up!

Most recently, we added a storyline that could result from a unique card in Explorer mini-game. Now we've added a storyline that can be triggered by hitting a unique card in the Patrol or Blockade mini-game whenever a "Trade Blockade" Rumor is active. Trade Blockades are especially profitable opportunities for smugglers, but with the system so full of naval vessels trying to keep anyone landing with marketable goods, it is also a very risky time. Sometimes a Smuggler just needs a hand!

With Update #150, we've increased the pace of both Shuttles, Bombers and Interdictors as they finish their flight plans. Previously, after making their attack or boarding run, craft would take an entire turn to retreat to the space near their own capital ship. Then, they would spend an entire turn landing. The swifter flight plans change combines these two turns into one -- on the turn after making their attack run or boarding, the craft will return to their capital ship and land in a single Turn. It's a 20% increase in speed and your ability to deliver crushing blows to your enemy with your craft!


Before Update #150, when you went to repair a craft, its damage, time and cost were all tucked under the Hangar in which it was docked. This led to some confusing values and when combined with a bug about repair time and cost, made for a real mess. With Update #150, we've split craft out into their own rows so that their individual cost is very clear. This also allows you to separately repair the hangar, launch bay or craft if you have limited time or budget. Finally, we fixed a bug with the repair times of craft that were making them additive instead of only using the longest repair time, and therefore making repair times far too long.

Craft will cost both less time and credits to maintain and now it should be very clear what you're paying for. We also fixed a bug with discount Talents that could result in a situation where the starport refused to take your money or repair anything.


We're always working to add more character to the card mini-games and with this update we've added 4 new art boards to make the explorer and orbital ops mini-game cards stick out more -- covering cards like Lost, Smuggler Cache, and Rare Trade Discovery.


All fatal wounds are now logged directly into your ship combat log. Those that are prevented by Death Saves are marked with the Death Save and those that result in a final death are also include. We're conitnuing to work on improving the availability of the captain's intel on this screen and in the log and this is another great step forward. A big thanks to the players suggesting it.

Quartermaster recruit availability keeps coming up! We're working on improving it, and we're looking across the entire game to do so. With this update, we've added QMs to the list of possible crew or officers that can be rescued from a Distress Signal card in any of the orbital operations.

We've also improved the stats and cost of the Alta Mesa fuel components and fixed a bug that allowed them to count as cargo holds.

If you're looking for a Micro Launch Bay, it now appears in the small craft filter in starport correctly.

And so many other smaller items, see the full list below!

- "Smuggler Escort" unique card story vignette can now appear in orbital Patrol Blockade during a "Trade Blockade" Rumor
- Risky opportunity to rake in big profits and make a new black market friend
- Added 4 new art boards for wide variety of card rewards -- time lost, smuggler cache, rare trade goods cache, story cards
- Major bomber and interdictor improvement - all attack flight plans are 1 Turn faster, craft now retreat & land in the same turn
- Improved starport repair list to include a separate row for any damaged craft so that its cost is clearly separate from hangar/launch bay
- Improved combat log for small craft death saving Talent "Recovery Pod"
- Added death save and death of any crew during ship combat directly to the combat log for easiest checking
- Increased fuel allocation and price of Alta Mesa Reinforced Fuel Tank and Reinforced Fuel Pod
- Added Quartermaster to the type of crew or officers who can be rescued from orbital ops "Distress Signal" card
- Fixed issue allowing Alta Mesa Fuel Pod and Fuel Tank to count as cargo holds
- Fixed issue with craft buffing Talents causing Interdictors to stay out longer, fixed bug with Mechanic's "Peak Reactor Burn"
- Fixed issues allowing Wing Tech "Hangar Triage" Talent to repair craft more than described
- Fixed disconnect with Repair discounts in starport that could lead to inability to repair in very niche cases
- Fixed bug with starport repair times for craft causing sum of repair time as opposed to taking longest
- Fixed "Craft" filter in starport replace component to ensure "Micro Launch Bay" is visible
- Fixed bug where Xeno Hunter "Macabre Harvest" could used after defeating Troy 'The Blade' Circin
- Fixed incorrect flag with universal pardons you can't afford
- Fixed bug allowing Indie contact to be created during Orbital Salvage
- Fixed missing SFX for Wing Commando's "Knife Work" Talent
- Fixed placement of some ship combat UI elements on large screens

Update #149 comes hot on the heels of #148 and issues in the final set of changes to the base Jobs that have been in planning and testing for a while now. In addition to Navs gaining some Command, both Gunners and Navs have gained a new saving Talent as well. We've improved the ease of finding the "Xeno Ruins" story, rebalanced new ship component, improved details on 2 crew combat Talents that nuke enemy Morale and fixed a host of community reported issues.

Thanks to everyone for sharing feedback, posting suggestions and bugs! If you're enjoying the game and the relentless pace of updates, we hope you will take a moment to post a review!


We've moved quickly after Update #148 to finish the remaining rebalances to the base Jobs that were planned. With Gunners gaining a pool of Tactics over Ship Ops, they've helped add additional attack and range change dice to every ship in the galaxy. Now, with Update #149, we're finishing this sweep by splitting the Hyperwarp Navigators Tactics Skill into Command and Tactics. With Command taking their secondary Skill slot, Navs are now more helpful in defense and escape during ship combat while still retaining some value in range change and attack. Of course, their actual Navigation Skill plays a larger role if the ship is at long range in every type of maneuver.

On the bridge of a ship, your hyperwarp navigators often work together as a team, plotting and pathfinding through the void. They carry an important burden -- keeping the entire ship on course -- and it is especially heavy when they are called on to navigate a hyperwarp gate. And so, the voice and opinions of a Navigator are respected among the crew as everyone knows that their lives are in their hands at some point during the journey. And so, Command fits as a perfect secondary Skill for the Navs.


The final additions in this rebalance are two new Talents -- a Tactics saving Talent for your Gunners at rank 1 and a Command saving Talent for your Hyperwarp Navigators at rank 11. These new Talents provide new options for covering these critical Skill saves with protective Talents. The new "Bullseye Certainty" is the first saving Talent for Gunners, helping them fill a more rounded out role within the ship and the rank 11 "Pathfinder's Lead" makes Navigators one of the most unique and highly demanded Jobs in having a whooping 3 saving Talents.

All of the changes to the Gunner and Navigator Jobs have some subtle impacts to the ship combat meta which will play out in the following weeks. Excited to hear everyone's feedback about these changes to the ability to get Tactics and Command dice pool through standard crew.


We've fixed two issues with crew combat Talent descriptions missing an important clause that they nuke enemy Morale. Both Commander's Scorn and the Combat Medic's Toxin Terror were missing these clauses. They reduce the target's Morale by 10 + Intimidate or 10 + Doctor respectively.

We've adjusted the Xeno Ruins story to be easier to find, now allowing it to also turn up during wilderness zone "Discovery" Rumors as well as the quadrant-wide "Artifact Finds".

The Plague Ward component was a bit OP and has been re-tuned with changes to its Medical Rating, cost and jump cost.

Wrapping up some late arrival craft bugs, we've fixed an issue with how Interdictor Buffs were being wrongly applied to the ship instead of launched craft as well as resolving an issue where certain enemy AI types refused to shoot at craft. This new round of fixes is bringing us much closer to the carrier AI being released.

We've also fixed bugs with Slippery Trader, Winning Compromise and Loyalty Rousing.

- "Xeno Ruins" explorer unique card story vignette can now appear during "Discovery" wilderness zone rumor as well as quadrant "Artifact Find"
- Rebuilt Hyperwarp Navigator Skill progression to add Command as a secondary Skill and bump Tactics to tertiary -- more valuable in defense and escape
- Added new Command Saving Talent for Hyperwarp Navigators at rank 11
- Added new Tactics Saving Talent for Gunners at rank 1
- Tweaked progression of Tactics for Gunner Job to start slower
- Adjusted price, medical rating and jump cost of "Plague Ward" component
- Added important missing description to Combat Medic's "Toxin Terror" and Commander's "Scorn" both cause (10+Skill) Morale Loss
- Fixed bug preventing enemy ship from firing on small craft with certain weapon types
- Fixed issue with "Tip of the Spear" and "Screening Swarm" causing the buffs to be transferred to the capital ship instead of craft
- Fixed bug preventing "Winning Compromise" and other price increasing Talents from firing reliably
- Fixed bug with Commander's "Loyalty Rousing" Talent causing it to heal more Morale than described
- Fixed bug allowing Smuggler's "Slippery Trade" to fire even if Rep loss was 0
- Fixed bug preventing credits display from updating immediately upon selling a ship in Dry Dock
- Fixed missing skill listing in Spice Hall Recruit

With Update #148, we've rolled out another new way for storylines to filter into the sandbox of Star Traders: Frontiers. Now with storylines capable of coming out of specialized and unique card draws, we've cracked open a whole new frontier. In addition, we've made a major shake up to the Gunner Job by introducing Tactics as a secondary Skill, improved the power of bombers weaponry and added new ship components. Along with the new ship components, we've rolled out the first Era-locked ship component. Another new frontier ready to be explored, ship components are ready to be unlocked by story events and Eras.

This is another big one with a lot of exciting twists so check out the full release notes below. If you're enjoying the pace of updates, new content and new stories (3 stories, 3 updates back to back!) please leave a review and tell a friend.

One of the biggest exciting changes in Update #148 is the ability for story cards to appear in the card mini-games. The first example of this is in Explorer where a "Artifact Find" Rumor at the quadrant level can cause a chance for a story card, "Xeno Ruins" to appear within the hand. If you draw the card, it will open up a new storyline, new story rewards and the chance to meet a mysterious character. The storyline comes with potentially 2 unique gear rewards, both at level 6 and the high risk challenges to earn it.

Now that the system is in place for story cards to appear in certain circumstances, we're eagerly eyeing Spy, Patrol, Blockade and even Black Market for the next round of story arcs.


With Update #148, we've made a significant change to the Gunner Job. Long relegated to Gunnery and Ship Ops, Gunners now bring Tactics to the table as their secondary Skill and push Ship Ops down to tertiary.

Immediately, this may mean that some ships and crews may need to consider how to make up for the lost Ship Ops Skill, but as Jobs like Electronics, Mechanic, Wing Tech, and Quartermaster all provide it this is the less impactful part of the change. In order to balance this best for starting ships, the first 2 ranks of E-Tech Job has reduced a point of Electronics (4 instead of 5 now) for Ship Ops (2 instead of 1 now).

More importantly, Gunners now bring both additional bonuses in Standard Dice to both ship combat accuracy and ship combat range change. Gunners now join Jobs like Military Officer, Hyerpwarp Navigator, Pilot, Commander and others who can all help build up this critical Skill pool. In total, for the ship meta this change empowers attackers and puts more pressure on full defensive builds.

Across the board, bomber craft have gained additional minimum Standard Damage for their bombs as well as a 5-10% increase in Crippling Effect chance. This was a request made by the AI in training ;)

Time for more boom!


This starting ship received a small change around its weapons build out and saw a weapon dropped for a Fuel Tank. It now boasts some amazing off-the-starport-deck fuel range to better match its description.


The first ship component to be directly linked to an Era, the Plague Ward is a specialized advanced medical ward with bonus shielding and the ability to keep a quarantined prisoner. Now that we have finished the work to enhance the ship component system and the AI ship builder to respect story-triggered ship components, we're going to be rolling out a lot more of these. Future components will be linked to eras, storylines and even provided as rewards to storylines.

We've added 2 new faction specific Mass Reducer 4 options with this release -- a Pilot focused one from Alta Mesa and an Electronics focused on from Thulun. If you have the bank roll, these will be interesting options in the later game.

In addition, we've made some price changes to the high end Sensor Arrays.

Finally, the Accuracy % bonuses for Targeting Matrix have been raised slightly to help meet with Gunners increase in Tactics.

- Added new Exploration story vignette - Xeno Ruins story card can appear in Exploration when a quadrant-wide "Artifact Find" Rumor is on
- Risky opportunity to rake in big profits and make new allies
- Includes two new pieces of unique story reward gear
- New unique card-game storylines can now be started from any card game under special circumstances -- more coming!
- Rebuilt Gunner Job Skill progression to add Tactics as secondary Skill and bump Ship Ops to tertiary -- more valuable in combat but need other Ship Ops sources
- Tweaked Electronics Tech rank 1 and 2 to have 4 Electronics and 2 Ship Ops helping low level crew staff ships better
- Clarified Gunner's Talent "Disarming Sabotage" to clearly stated "disables highest level enemy weapon"
- Increased base Damage and Crippling Chance % of all Bomber attacks
- Added new "Plague Ward" ship component which becomes available during the Plague Era -- high medical, bonus shielding and holds 1 prisoner
- Enhanced story and era system will now be releasing new technology, ship components and craft based on story events regularly
- Added new Thulun and Alta Mesa variations on Mass Reducer 4 -- slightly more mass reduction, bonus Electronics/Pilot
- Increased Accuracy % bonus for Targeting Matrix 2, 3 and 4
- Increased price of high end Sensor Arrays
- Modified "Frontier Liner" starting ship to have more balanced weapon set and additional Fuel Tank
- Craft type filtering in starport (bomber, shuttle interdictor) now works as 'OR'
- Added final captain's log entry with reason for captain's death
- Fixed price of Advanced Medical Clinic

Update #147 continues to release new and unique story bounty hunters onto the galaxy as well as improving balance, rules and logging across the game. For those aggressive captains making enemies, beware as a new famous assassin may come calling with your death warrant in hand. A huge thanks to everyone posting suggestions and issues -- this release includes a huge package of community-driven enhancements.

With Update #147, a second unique story Bounty Hunter may be sent after you by an enemy Contact. We've adjusted the rules on how, when and which Contacts can afford story bounty hunters with this release, simultaneously expanding and limiting the scope. We've restricted the type of Contacts who can hire such Hunters to those with a higher power position, so you won't see a Spicetender hiring Troy 'The Blade' Circin. On the other hand, we've improved the proc gen rules that allow these story Hunters to be hired, so you are more likely to see them in your games as we understand they were not appearing promptly for some captains.

While I won't go into it any farther, the famous bladesman and assassin, Troy 'The Blade' Circin is now on the list of story Hunters who can be hired to exact deadly retribution justice. He comes along with an opportunity at unique story reward weapon.


We fixed a few bugs in the Talent Manifest and also added a new section dedicated to Travel and Hyperwarp that includes Meteor, Ion and Radiation storms, landing Talents and Jump Talents. We've got a great list of suggestions from players on this front and will keep working to add more here!

With Update #147 we've made some important changes to how looters handle your surrender in ship combat. There are 4 notable cases -- you've surrendered to a looter and are (1) covered by a Trade Alliance, (2) covered by your own Trade Permit, (3) have loot to steal or (4) have an empty cargo hold. Each case is now handled separately and has better weighted results. Surrendering with under a Trade Alliance or with a Permit results in far less Morale loss while surrendering with an empty cargo hold results in more as the frustrated looters take some of their anger out on your crew.

A few important changes to crew combat have bee included in Update #147. Fortitude has always played a large role in damage soak, reducing incoming damage by 50% of your Fortitude as a %. So, 20 Fortitude chopped 10% off all incoming damage. Now, if an attack is Piercing, your Fortitude reduction is cut down to 25%, so in the example you'd only reduce damage by 5%. Then of course, Armor is added to that to get the final soak %.

We've fixed Sniper Talent "Bullet Trace" to make it clear that it removes enemy buffs. Now it looks even more appealing :D

All Sniper Rifles have gained a small bump in Piercing %.


Unfortunately these Talents were broken recently. Now, they are all working again as of this release, including Talents like "Close Observation".

On the Contact front, we've increased the chance to learn Contact Traits if you have more than 100 Personal Rep with a Contact. That close of a relationship, it is hard to hide anything.

If a Contact has no more Introductions to give, a note has been added specifically stating that. Also, UC Contacts no longer offer the Prime Pilgrimage Mission in error.

We've fixed a ton of other things -- so check out the release notes for every detail. A huge thanks to everyone posting :D Some of these fixes are from threads in late 2018, so we're "cleaning up" as they say.

If you enjoy the updates and the new content, please tell a friend and leave a review.

- Added new Bounty Hunter story vignette - the famous assassin Troy 'The Blade' Circin comes hunting with a Death Warrant
- New unique story reward and weapon available
- Removed proc gen conditions that reduce chances Contact would send story Bounty Hunter (instead of standard BH)
- Adjusted rules so that only more powerful Contacts can afford to send story Bounty Hunters (no Spicetenders, etc)
- Added "Travel and Hyperwarp" section to the Talent Manifest with a quick look at these Talent types
- Surrendering to Pirates (looting) without cargo causes more Morale loss, surrendering with Trade Permit or Trade Alliance less
- Corrected text formatter for Sniper's "Bullet Trace" Talent to clearly indicate that it removes enemy Buffs
- Further increased Piercing % of all Sniper Rifles
- Piercing hits now reduce Fortitude reduction to damage to 25% Fortitude (instead of 50% Fortitude)
- Applied same strict sorting rules to Talents displayed in Ship Encounter, Draw and Victory to ensure does not change as they are used
- Increased chance to learn Contact Trait once your Personal Rep with a Contact goes above 100
- Fixed bug with "Close Observation" and other Contact Trait discovery Talents
- When a Contact can offer no more Introductions this fact is added to their service offering
- Coalition Contacts will no longer give "Coalition Pilgrimage" mission in error
- Ensured best ops ship component (Mechi-Reaper, Multi-Signal Array etc) is always used first in ops card games
- Fixed bugs with Soldier Job at rank 29 and 30
- Fixed bug allowing Talents that increase price to run on story missions offered at $0
- Fixed bug allowing Templar Pirates to appear during Orbital Salvage operations
- Fixed bug with E-Tech's "Signature Jammer" Talent sometimes firing when no Rep to reduce
- Fixed bug preventing proper mousewheel scrolling in New Ship, New Craft and Drydock screens
- Fixed story bug where Kaewall and Torca conversation would occur even if their mission is canceled

Update #146 starts to walk the path of the v2.5.x family of the development roadmap -- it will be story heavy, bringing all sorts of new tales, vignettes and Eras to the frontier. With Update #146, we've added new character faces, a new type of vignette focusing on an enemy Contact and their bounty hunters, improved the standard behavior of enemy Contacts who send bounty hunters, rebalanced Talents and Contact rules, made some quality of life changes to all card game operations and fixed some bugs to boot.

If you're enjoying the updates, please leave a review and tell a friend!


With Update #146, we've added two new female faces to your crew roster. You can see them above in our animation environment, getting ready to be loaded into the game.


The new Aurelius Hunter vignette launches with #146 and lays out a model for future Bounty Hunter stories to overlay on top of the existing Contact and Hunter simulation.

First, we've improved the visibility of the spice hall news entries when a Contact does send a Bounty Hunter after you. These are now visible galaxy-wide, regardless of the quadrant you and the Contact are in.

Second, it is possible that a Contact who hates you will hire out your Death Warrant to a famed Bounty Hunter! Beware of the heir to the Aurelius bloodline of Hunters, she may come knocking holding a death warrant with your name on it.

While only Aureilus Hunter has been added at this time, this new type of story vignette opens up a bright (and dangerous) future for Contacts to be able to send other famed hunters after you to gain their revenge.

With Update #146, we've modified both the Bio-Poison and Smoke Bomb grenades to allow use from slot 2, making them better in line with other grenades a more versatile for their high Initiative cost.

We've improved the missions to faction Prime worlds when they are assigned by another High Prince. We've also improved the logging about Contacts who are angered by your hostile missions, in addition to those directly affected.


We've made a few nice changes in Update #146. First up, a strict sorting is now applied to the Talent list in all card game ops, including Explorer, Salvage, etc. This means that Talent list will never suddenly re-order when you finish using one of the stacks.

Second, Hyperwarp Jumps now include a short blurb about the readiness of your Navigation and Hyperwarp Jump efficiency Talents. You can see -- right before making the jump -- if you're covered.

We've fixed a few issues with the new Talent Summary screen, fixed a bug that prevented Captain from training as a Wing Tech, and fixed a loophole that allowed you to escape hostile story military captains using the Stiff Salute Talent -- that was never intended!

Thanks to everyone for leaving a review.

- Added 2 new character faces
- Added new Bounty Hunter story vignette - heir to the Aurelius bloodline comes hunting with a Death Warrant
- New unique Bounty Hunter storylines can start when Contacts with negative Rep send bounty hunters (instead of standard BH)
- Improved visibility of Contacts sending standard BHs after your Captain, now always visible in any Spice Hall News, regardless of quadrant
- Rebalanced Combat Medic "Bio-Poison Grenade" and Assassin "Smoke Bomb" to be used at slot 1 or 2
- Improved Mission type of diplomatic envoy to faction Prime world when given from a High Prince or Princess
- Improved display of Contacts angered by your actions during missions
- Improved faction of recruits for any United Coalition Contacts -- recruits are now of the local faction
- Prevented any re-ordering of Talents between runs of card games (Explorer, Black Market, Orbital Ops)
- Hyperwarp Jump now includes notice of readiness of Navigation Skill Save Talent as well as HW efficiency Talents
- Fixed issue where "Stiff Salute" could be used to dodge story Bounty Hunters
- Fixed issue where "Flash Charge" Talent was counted as "Skip Off the Void" in Talent Summary
- Fixed issue that prevented Captain from training in the Wing Tech Job

With Update #144 we unleashed the trained military eye of the Star Trader captain to gain comparison details against any other ship met in the void. With Update #145, we're turning to the captains' seasoned and veteran Commanding Eye. With a glance over the crew, the captain can see what Talents are missing, what is needed and where the risks are. Update #145 adds a major new screen, the Talent Manifest as well as improving Interdictor logic for defense plans, fixing Alliances in Patrol, the endless spice vaccum that was Ill-Tempered crew at Rychart Spice Halls and improving new game contact summary.


The Talent Manifest can be accessed from the crew list and provides a quick way to see many of the major Talent groups within your crew, the number of Talents you have in these groups and whether or not they are on cooldown.

As seen above, the first major group is Skill Saving Talents which covers the 12 Skill Saving Talent types. In that screenshot, you can see a starting Captain with 3/3 Electronics Skill Saves (3 Talents ready, none on cooldown) as well as 0/1 Command Skill Saves (1 Talent on cooldown, none ready) and no Tactics Skill Save Talents.

The same pattern is repeat for the second most important Talent group, Encounter Talents, listing the different Talents at ready to help manage encounters with Pirates, Military Officers, Bounty Hunters or any type of captain. Then the list moves down to Crew and Starport management from there.

This new Talent Manifest gives you a quick way to check your crew and Talent setup at any time -- at the start of the game, when leveling or after losing a few crew for any reason.

We've added the first 4 major groupings and will be excited to hear suggestions from players about other ones we should include.

We've made 2 changes to the Interdictor defense plans, both in their benefit. First, Interdictors only leap to action when a torpedo or missile is going to directly hit their capital ship. This changes the order of logic and prevents them from wasting their block against a potential miss. This does mean that sometimes Interdictors will sit idle during a turn if the enemy ship is firing wildly. Paired with this, we've ensured that Interdictors will land at the expiration of their flight plan. In some situations (if the capital ship closed range after launching them), they would simply stay launched all battle.


We've improved the handling of Alliances and Trade Alliances during the Patrol orbital op. These will now be far more interested to hunt, as you will gain a small Rep bonus with the other faction in the Alliance or Trade Alliance. We've fixed the bug where this could cause a loss of a Permit and now added a very awesome incentive to Patrol on Alliances.

With the May Community Challenge on to go from a small ship to a 8000 Mass plus ship with only a Prize Ship Talent, we've done some work to improve the description of Prize Ship Talents to make sure their limitations are know. Also, as always check the right hand bar of the Talent screen to see all of a Talent's rules.

We've fixed a bug where the Zuden Techno Trade Concords were accidentally adding an Objective called "Grounded Star Trader." If you have it, just pick Actions > Cancel Mission to make it go away.

Finally, we've added Rare Trade Goods and the sale of weapons/armor/gear to the new game contact summary screen.

If you're enjoying the upgrades, please leave a review and tell a friend!

- Added new Talent Manifest which gives a summary of your crew's most important Talents, whether they have them or not and their cooldown status
- Quickly check your Skill Saving Talents, Ship Encounter Talents, Crew Management Talents and Starport Talents from the new Talent Manifest
- Talent Manifest is available from Crew List, next to Trait List
- Improved Interdictor torp and missile defense to be able to ignore misses, only blocks attacks that truly hit
- Fixed issue where Interdictors on defense flight plans with nothing to block would stay launched forever
- Improved handing of Alliance and Trade Alliance Conflicts during Patrol - patrolling can now grant small Rep bonuses with other faction during these Conflict types
- Improved description of all Prize Ship Talents to be more clear about special requirements (limited ship types by Conflicts, Rank, Edict)
- Fixed issue where Rychart Spice Hall (restores up to 90 Morale) and Ill-Tempered Trait (max 80 Morale) caused an everlasting spicing loop
- Fixed bug where Zuden Techno Trade Concord was adding an objective for "Grounded Star Trader" incorrectly
- Added Rare Trade Goods and Weapon/Armor/Gear Sales to Contact selection summary in new game template
- Fixed issue where starport prevent Hangar upgrade when at max craft count

Update #144 unleashes the trained and military eye of the Star Trader captain when staring down an enemy ship in the void -- granting both new comparative details between your ship and the enemies as well as highly detailed specs on your own dice pools. In addition, we've enhanced all 3 of the Interdictor defensive launch plans to include a buff as the craft come out of the launch bays, added 4 new wing specialist gear to the Salvage mini-game, rebalanced Ion and Radiation Storm Talents and fixed a whole host of reported issues.

It's Update #144 and its a big one! Let's go!


With Update #144, whenever you encounter a ship in the void you now have easy access to a comparison of your ship versus the enemy. Check the "Ship Report" tab (as shown at the top) to see the run down comparison between the two ships on accuracy, defense, range change, chance to escape, boarding as well as Speed and Agility. A veteran of the void who has seen a thousand ships, even a peaceful Star Trader can gain this quick comparison between two ships with a careful read of the arc scanners.

In addition, this comparison is available mid-battle by hovering over the enemy ship. It updates constantly with the trade of ship weaponry fire and perhaps swings most dramatically with the application of buffs, debuffs and crippling effects.


Above and beyond the comparison with the enemy ship, we've also made the exact dice pools for every ship operation -- attack, defense, range change, escape attempt and boarding -- clearly visible with their totals, broken out stats and Skills that contribute to those totals as well as all applicable bonuses percentages. Hover over your own ship for a wealth of information which also updates with every shot, buff or debuff mid combat!


With this release, we've addressed a gap in the Interdictor support. Their defensive flight plans now include a Buff for either your capital ship or for any launched craft. Each plan's buff is fired as they launch so therefore affects the Interdictor itself if it is a craft buff. With 3 new options now available, you can improve your ship's defense or your launched crafts' offense or defense. Launch more than one defensive Interdictor and watch the buffs stack! Like their cousins the bombers, Interdictors provide another path to use more Talents a turn than you can without craft.

If you are salvaging at orbitals, you may discover one of the 4 new high level gear pieces designed for wing specialist pilots. These new gear can only be retrieved from the orbital operations mini-game, so go hunting!

We've adjust all Contacts who give military missions to do less passenger and diplomatic missions and focus more on kill, capture, destroy. We've rebalanced how Contact Traits affect Faction Reputation weighting and ensured that they stack properly. We've improved the value of all Ion and Radiation Storm Talents -- they can even further mitigate damage.

We've shorted the cooldown for Explorer's "Tag the Beast" by 50%.

A number of craft-related Talents -- Knock from the Void, Ransom Escort -- have been fixed. Also, craft bonus logging was broken and all bonuses from Buffs were not appearing in the logs. They are now!

It's a big one, so check the rest of the release notes for other details!

- Rebuilt tooltips for capital ships in ship combat to include wealth of additional valuable information
- Hovering over your own ship now displays all important ship dice pools (accuracy, defense, range change, escape, boarding)
- Hovering over the enemy ship now provides a comparison between all important dice pools as to whether or not the enemy outclasses you
- During a ship encounter, check the "Ship Report" for your preliminary comparison between your ship and the enemy's
- Interdictor defensive launch plans "Aegis Pattern", "Screening Swarm" and "Tip of the Spear" correctly apply buffs to ship and friendly craft at launch
- Added 4 new Relic Gear types to Orbital Salvage operations for wing specialists
- Adjusted balance for all Contacts who give Military Missions, will be more patrol, blockade, violence and less passengers
- Improved Contact Traits that change weight of Faction Rep in Effective Rep -- now stack correctly (Well Connected +10% and Warhawk +50% = +60%)
- Resolved bugs with Zunden Techno Trade Concord dialog not appearing in some games
- Craft accrued Maintenance Points are now displayed alongside damage (+1 MP)
- Improved effectiveness of Talents that mitigate damage from Radiation and Ion Storms
- Fixed bug where bombers and interdictors were not applying Crippling Effects when attacking
- Fixed bug where "Knock from the Void" was used by the AI but did not ground a craft
- Fixed Wing Leader "Long Patrol" Talent and "Ransom Escort"
- Fixed issues with Craft bonuses not being included in ship combat logging
- Reduced cooldown of Explorer's "Tag the Beast" to 9 weeks from 18 weeks
- Fixed level inconsistencies when recruiting some Jobs from Contacts with bonuses

Update #143 comes screaming out of the gate with a new Contact service, new types of gear, balance changes, craft Talent fixes and improvements to the ship combat log.

We also want to extend a huge welcome to all the new captains who joined us last week. We've met some of you on the Steam forums and look forward to hearing from more of you. If you're enjoying the game and the pace of updates, please tell a friend and leave a review!


Many of the craft-focused Contacts are now offering a new service -- selling gear specifically for your wing pilots. With slick bonuses to your Hit Chance and Evasion these new gear options are perfect for any officer who is risking it all by piloting a craft. You can find the new gear under the Contacts > Gear Filter as well as just seeking out Contacts like Squadron Mechanic, Flight Academy Officers or Provost or Naval Recruiters.

More options will be coming over time, and it's also rumored across the spice hall that other unique wing specialist gear may have been seen in future Salvage cards.

With INTERDICTION now a week behind us, we're still cleaning up some issues before we release the enemy craft AIs. A huge thanks goes out to everyone who has sent in crash reports and posted to the forums. We had a spike in stability issues right after INTERDICTION and we are excited to see that the crash counts have almost returned to pre-craft levels now! This release will help even more.

We've fixed a crash with the Wing Bomber's Ruthless Destruction Talent. We've also fixed an issue that was causing Ransom Escort not to work in ship combat victory. Finally, with help from @veyer we've tracked down a sneaky bug that was causing Wing Commando boarding victory Talents not to appear as options sometimes.

We've also resolved some issues with the faction of the enemies you fight in the Black Market. The security forces are now correctly factioned.

In ship component land, we've fixed the install time on Interlocking Sensor Matrix 4.

We've improved the combat log entries about closing in, retreating and attempting to escape so that they are more clear about which direction your ship is heading. We've included a third summary line at times to help make the results as clear as possible.

Thanks to everyone leaving a review!

- Added new Contact service to sell "Wing Specialist Gear" -- see your Squadron Mechanic, Flight Academy Contacts, Naval Recruiters
- Now for sale, 7 types of Gear ranging from level 1 to 6 to improve your ace wing pilots
- Fixed Black Market cards for Faction Security providing Indie enemies, now correct local faction
- Fixed crash when using Wing Bomber's "Ruthless Destruction" Talent
- Fixed issue with Wing Commando "Long Range Support" Talent needing an Interdictor instead of a shuttle
- Fixed issue with Wing Commando boarding victory Talents not appearing in some crew-craft setups
- Adjusted text in ship combat log to differentiate between attempted range changes and escapes
- Clarified rules about Trade Permits preventing looting from faction pirates
- Fixed install time on Interlocking Sensor Matrix 4

Update #142 introduces a new lighter carrier build and a very exciting and very powerful enhancement to the Era and story system -- story events of all kinds are now capable of unleashing new ship component upgrades and craft into the galaxy. And with that, grade 6 Craft can become available in all captain's games with the new "Triple Alliance" story event. We've also made some more balance changes to craft, started adjusting more standard ship component prices and stats for the new post-craft era.

If you're enjoying the pace of updates, new content and big changes, please tell a friend and leave a review!

Without further delay, lets look in detail!

We've been working toward this exciting breaking point for a long time. With Update #142, any story event can now impact the availability of ship components and craft. With this update, we've only linked a single story to a single set of new craft, but the possibilities here are clearly very exciting and near endless. New Eras can usher in new advanced components, new story arcs can result in Faction's being able to sell advanced weaponry and more. The ability for the Era and Story system to push the dynamics of the galaxy, as well as your captains ability to have a hand in that, have never been stronger.

For Update #142, the Triple Alliance story event is a quick and interest event that will take place sometime after the Second Founding. It's presents potential for profit for some types of captains as well as the arrival of grade 6 Craft with one new Interdictor, Bomber and Shuttle.

You'll be hearing a lot more about these types of Era and Story driven availability types in releases to come!


The Strikecarrier is a fast attack craft optimized for deploying boarding shuttles. Minimally appointed for trading and non-combat patrols, the Strikecarrier is popular with Pirates and Bounty Hunters who want to bring the fight directly to the enemy, often and early. While it lacks Armor to support long engagements and trading pounding barrages of ship weapons, the Strikecarrier is suited for quick wins, devastating boarding runs, and keeping the enemy heavily debuffed.

With Update #142, we've made a few other big changes to the combat and craft meta. To help players who are launching multiple Shuttles a round, we've changed the rules so that only one Shuttle will attempt to board a round. This prevents multiple Shuttles from jamming and resulting in a single boarding, and instead lets you stack Shuttles who will board turn-after-turn.

With all the changes to Electronics place in the ship combat meta, it was only a matter of time before we rebalanced the pricing for Electronics heavy components, including Signature Damper and Sensor Array.

In preparation for the AI's carriers and to help the AI better fight off your carriers, we've improved components like Targeting Matrix to include a bonus to hitting craft.

We've also rebuilt the rules around the cost to repair craft, ensuring that hte cost never exceeds the base cost of purchasing the craft itself.

- New Ship: Strikecarrier (Mass 5000, Fast Attack Carrier)
- Enhanced story and era system to be able to release new technology, ship components and craft based on story events
- Added new story event, the "Triple Alliance" which releases craft grade 6
- Added 3 new grade 6 craft - the Faulker D5 (De Valtos), Red Lion Mk2 (Thulun) and Whiteknife Ultra (Rychart)
- Improved handling of turns where multiple Shuttle craft are waiting to board, now the second Shuttle will wait and board on next turn
- Rebalanced Ship Component Pricing for Electronics heavy components, including Sig Damper, Sensor Array
- Rebalanced some Ship Components to include bonuses to hit enemy craft, including Targeting Matrix set
- Rebalanced and reduce repair cost for all craft
- Added New Rule: Craft Repair cost cannot exceed Craft Cost
- Fixed bug with Combat Medic "Flatline" Talent which removed characters' Buffs
- Improved card rendering for a number of Salvage and Spy cards
- Fixed reported crashes, text issues, typos and minor bugs (thanks, Steam Discussion Forum!)

It feels very good to have come leaping over the INTERDICTOR milestone and finally be back to regular order -- constant, relentless improvement, new features and content. We dropped 2 hotfixes yesterday to address important issues with carriers and craft but now we're back to updates. Update #141 releases a wave of new awesome art for the craft you can get and starts showing off Faction-specific styles. It also adds a new Mass 3400 ship that isn't a carrier, rebalances and increases the counts of slots on the Basalt, Fallen and Harbinger Carriers. Finally, alongside the new art and content, we've got a raft of small balance changes to Talent cooldowns, Initiative costs, handling of missions in friendly territory, and more.

If you're just seeing this update, you should first check out Update #140 for the news of the major milestone INTERDICTION that introduces and details craft -- interdictors, bombers and shuttles!
https://steamcommunity.com/games/335620/announcements/detail/3464866264432530978
On to the details!


With Update #141, we've introduced a wide variety of different craft visuals for shuttles, interdictors and carriers. On the component side, we've fixed the missing +Armor bonus of Reinforced Hangars.

We've also fixed all the reported crashes that came in, so please keep reporting and posting any bugs you find. We've added a protection against launching too many craft at a time on your side (4 max), fixed crashes when attempting to assign pilots and crashes that could sometimes happen when a craft was destroyed in ship battle. Also, we addressed the issue where sometimes "No Pilot" was being incorrectly shown in the Crafts tab of Ship Combat.

Also, a laundry list of Wing Tech, Leader and Bomber Talents all had cooldowns that needed tweaking or fixing. The Wing Commando "Knifework" Talent has been increased to 12 Initiative.


The Wolf Vector launches as an all new Mass 3400 option for those who demand extreme range from their spaceship. Optimized for fuel storage and speed, the Wolf Vector is perfect for a faction's high-value couriers and passengers ships. Sometimes outfitted as a secure luxury cruising yacht this craft is popular among Star Traders who appreciate a fast engine and only refueling rarely.

This ship is a variation of a design found in a player's saved game, submitted to our team. Cory played the game, fell in love with the design and modified it to create the Wolf Vector.

- Added variation of craft art for interdictors, bombers and shuttles
- Increased large, medium and small slot counts for Mace, Basalt and Harbinger Carrier ships (newly purchased)
- Added missing bonus to armor for Reinforced Hangar Bay
- Improved handling of mission failure in friendly territory
- Fixed Talent cooldowns on Wing Bomber's "Synchronized Strikes", Wing Leader's "Ransom Escort", Wing Tech's "Rapid Refurb", "Sharp Wing" and "Emergency Grounding"
- Increased Initiative cost of Knifework to 12
- Fixed logging with craft combat and wing pilot Trait bonuses
- Fixed crash when attempting to assign a craft no pilot
- Fixed crash when attempting to launch 5 craft in the same turn
- Fixed infrequent crash when craft was destroyed
- Fixed bug where "No Pilot" warning was incorrectly being shown for some craft in ship combat