Update #321 continues the Summer Sale 50% savings and brings two new powerful rank 15 Talents to core jobs on your ship. Along with the recent Talent upgrades, we've upgraded the AI's weighting and decision tables when planning its own Talent strategy for ship captain and officers. We've also highlighted a few awesome mods from the workshop with Update #321 and fixed all reported typos and crashes.

A big thanks goes out to the community who helps us keep improving Star Traders: Frontiers. If you like the pace of free updates, be sure to drop a review!

We always love seeing how many of you have pieced together the lore of Star Traders from the stories within, and enjoy the flavor of this universe your Captain is a part of. In our next game, we’re telling a very different sci-fi story but with the same depth we bring to all our worlds. Check out the dark-future feel of our upcoming cyberpunk heist RPG, and wishlist it today!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1021210/Cyber_Knights_Flashpoint/


With Update #321, we've added to new rank 15 Talents to round out the Pilot and Soldier Jobs. The new Soldier rank 15 Talent "Still Standing" is a powerful turtle buff, capable of giving a Soldier a last-stand chance against deadly enemies. Granting massive defensive bonuses in trade for the majority of their Turn's Initiative, Last Standing can be used to make Soldier a defensive bulwark or to desperately try to hold until a Combat Medic can apply healing.

Pilot's rank 15 Talent "Engage Fighters" trades accuracy and Damage against capital ship in order to significantly buff both offensive and defensive capabilities against fighters. If you're facing an overwhelming Jyeeta swarm or just pesky boarding shuttles you can't allow to close, Engage Fighters may be able to give you a quick turn-around to gun down the incoming. Engage Fighters obviously works best when paired with weapons ready for the job, like Autocannons.


As more and more Talents and strategies are added to the game the enemy ship and crew builder has a evolving task of trying to pick the best Talent set for its captain and officers. We've updated the rules and weights to pick Talents in order to take into account some of the new Talents as well as adjusting meta conditions. In addition to being more interested in picking up recently added Talents, the AI has 3 new options to try to for different Talent strategies which we believe can lead to more dynamic ship enemies - both in ship combat and if you attempt to board.


We're always very pleased to see how the Steam Workshop -- which was a very late addition!! -- for Star Traders: Frontiers has continued to grow and how many players are using and trying out the variety of mods available. We wanted to take a minute in this Steam Summer Sale update to highlight a few!

The Spy Pack 1 features a bevy of new spy features -- a new spy focus ship, new faster engines, buffed Diplomats and Spies and most notably an all new Spy-focused storyline.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2578776840&searchtext=

If you're looking for more face variety, the Playable Contacts Head Pack brings 24 of the Contact heads into the game as playable heads, letting you pick from some of the coolest and favorite Contact heads for your captain, crew and officers.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2936075922&searchtext=

The most popular mod, @davea's No More Mass Reducers component adjusts how Mass is calculated in the game to remove it as a consideration when designing ships, as well as all titular Mass Reducer components from the starports.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2492139496

If you haven't checked out these or other cool workshop items, take a look!

- New Rank 15 Pilot Talent: Engage Fighters
- New Rank 15 Soldier Talent: Still Standing
- Improve Enemy Officer & Captain Talent Selection Logic
- Fixed reports typos and crashes

Update #320 comes along with the Steam Summer Sale and the best discount of the year. Save 50% to step onto the bridge of your own Star Trader's vessel and ply the void, to serve the factions, seek your fortune or plot your own course. With this latest update, we've added 2 new rank 15 Talents for the esteemed medical jobs - Combat Medic and Doctor. We've also tuned up the rule set around anti-weapon ship boarding Talents, fixed some bugs with character cosmetics and some issues that could occur in 2 of the 5 branches of the Pit Fighter V storyline.

If you're enjoying the updates, be sure to tell a friend and leave a review!

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 a demo posted up for Steam Next Fest still freely available to play, development is continuing at a high pace and we are layering on polish as we 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.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1021210/Cyber_Knights_Flashpoint/





We've improved the rules for boarding victory Talents that specifically target and disable enemy ship weapons. If these Talents are unable to target at least one weapon to destroy -- usually because the ship's weapons are already offline -- then they will refuse to active, won't go on cooldown and will not consume one of your 2 boarding talent slots.


Thanks to everyone reporting errant issues within the game's many storylines. With this Update, we've fixed a bug in one of the five possible branches you can hit in the Pit Fighter V storyline -- all depending on who hates you the most -- which could lead to early expiration of the rest of the missions. If it was Char's agents, then you might end up in a horrible unfair rush to reach the fourth and final round.

In a follow-up to last update's new character outfits, we've fixed some issues with hats and helmets not interacting with other choices correctly.

- New Rank 15 Doctor Talent: Medical Reset
- New Rank 15 Combat Medic Talent: Flechette Rounds
- Fixed issue with "Disarming Sabotage" and "Behind Enemy Lines" firing without functioning enemy weapons to target
- Fixed issues with most recently added flight helmet and full helmet
- Fixed bug in Pit Fighter V storyline if attacked by Char's agents, could expire too early

It is Update #319! We've got 2 new character outfits and have completed some important work to make it easy to access the 15th small ship component on your Acheron Battlecarrier (or any ship that a modder adds who has 14+ small ship components!). As always -- huge thanks goes out to everyone playing, posting feedback and especially leaving a review!

Our next title will be out later this year and we're excited to share a demo in Steam Next Fest this year - we hope you'll check it out, wishlist and follow. All the same deep systems, extreme replay and maniac update styles you've come to expect and love!

Explore the dark future of 2231 as you run your crew of underworld mercenaries, pulling off high-stakes heists you choose from faction power players to survive. Cyber Knights wraps a world full of consequential story choices and character development around an extensive core of classic and new tactical RPG mechanics.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1021210/Cyber_Knights_Flashpoint/


It's always a joy to find some art time to sit down and work on new outfits for Star Traders: Frontiers. I'm very excited to have finished this pairing - both dapper, cool and stylish looks. Is this a space diplomat or a soldier who just knows how to dress?

And of course, you can mix and match these outfits to great effect with all of the other outfits in the game.


With the release of the 9000 Mass Acheron Battlecarrier, we introduced the first ship into the game that had 15 small ship components. While this worked nicely in ship upgrading and if you use the tabular style of viewing components in ship status, it was not visible in the grid mode. We've now ensured that component is visible, just scroll down!

The ability to now scroll the main ship status also helps with a few other overflow issues that have cropped up throughout the game. Those ships with lots of special effects from their ship components could possibly have that content run off the bottom of the screen and that is now resolved.

This also means that modders now have the ability to add beyond 14 small components (up to 28 should work ːsteamhappyː) to the game now.

As ship component prices shift through rebalances, we're always keeping an eye on ship prices and working to keep the buy and sell economy working nicely, even including all the discounts you can earn from contacts and talents. We've adjusted and raised a few ship prices to help keep these prices in line with the rules.

- Added 2 new outfits
- Allow scrolling of main ship status screen to view any overflow of ship effects, components
- Fixed small component display for Acheron Battlecarrier to show 15th small component correctly
- Adjusted/raised some ship prices to avoid resell possible loops
- Fixed reports typos and crashes

Welcome to Update #318! News from the starports is that the Acheron Battlecarrier was over Mass 9000 and needed its design tweaked a bit to fit the proper Hyperwarp drive. We've also redesigned the Wolf Vector, the sleek and deadly 3400 Mass ship and raised its officer cap to an amazing 6. Spy Wars have more impact on Contact services, the Zendu Deathward is even harder to find, and we fixed the Mac OS fullscreen / resize window issues

Captains, we are thrilled to announce that our next sci-fi game, Cyber Knights: Flashpoint, will be including the upcoming Steam Next Fest, the free online demo festival running from June 19th - 26th. We hope you'll take a break from your ship's bridge to plug in and join us in New Boston, 2231 for an RPG experience offering a mix of stealth, combat and hacking.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1021210/Cyber_Knights_Flashpoint/

We've been battling the latest mac OS update Ventura which caused some havoc to our aging game engine (sometimes hard to believe, 318 updates = game published in 2017!) and its ability to fully support mac OS. With Update #318, we're aiminng to put those issues behind us. Internally on our test sets of hardware, this patch fixes all of the reported issues. :fingerscrossed: we'll be waiting to hear from you!

The Acheron Battlecarrier had a issue with the wrong hyperwarp drive plus being over Mass if it had the right one. We have now reconfigured any new Acheron you purchase at the starport to be all setup correctly.

We are still pending the fix to allow you to view and modify the 15th component without switching to the list view. If you want to upgrade the 15th small component for now, you just need to swap over to list view.


With a new redesign, the Wolf Vector has joined the S-tier of ships as the sole Mass 3400 ship to offer a full set of 6 officers. Any new purchase of a Wolf Vector will offer this sleek new configuration, boasting a new engine, major upgrade to its components and a price tag boost to almost $2,000,000. If you've bought a Wolf Vector before it is unaffected by the changes.

We wary if you bump into an enemy captain flying a Wolf Vector, they also get these changes! You might be surprised by just what type of punch the 3400 class ship can throw!


We're always looking for new ways to interconnect systems. The more recently added Contact service to sell Rumors is a powerful angle for certain types of captains. Now, if the contact's faction are involved in a Spy War, there is a discount on all sales of rumors.

- Redesigned "Wolf Vector" 3400 Mass (now S-tier, 6 officer)
- Contacts receive discounts on Rumor purchases during Spy Wars
- Fixes Hyperwarp Drive on "Acheron Battlecarrier"
- Rare Relic, Zendu Deathward (Level 10) is even more rare
- Performance improvements and rendering fixes
- Fixes a data synchronization bug when hyperwarp gates were very close to planets
- Fixes fullscreen and resize window bugs in Mac OS X builds

Captains, we're excited to announce Cyber Knights: Flashpoint will be included in the upcoming Steam Next Fest, an online demo festival running June 19th - 26th.

This will be the first new demo we've offered for the game in over a year, and it's the first big milestone on our road to release later in 2023. 🎉 All of the game-shaping feedback our alpha players have given us, all of the new design & UX work to make this our best-looking game yet, and several features even our alpha players haven't seen yet are all waiting for you to try.

• Your first big heist to pull off! Find out how our turn-based squad tactics plays. See if you have the skills to use creative stealth, a variety of weapons, and the turn order itself to accomplish objectives in each map and get your crew out alive.
  
• Six squad members in your roster; each brings a unique set of talents to your crew. In the full game you'll have opportunities to recruit new members, as well as access to multi-classing, extensive skill trees, weapon modding, cybernetics -- everything you need to build out the perfect squads for your playstyle and the needs of the jobs you're taking on.
  
• A glimpse of your main character's origins as a Cyber Knight. These elites of our dark future's underworld are rare and highly sought after. Knights have capabilities no one else in this world does -- but it comes at a cost.
  
• A first look at your safehouse; in the full game you'll have access to base-building features to expand this underground hideout, providing more opportunities to upgrade your team and expand your capabilities to take on bigger jobs as you make a name for yourself.
  
• A preview of the choices you'll need to make in this shadowy world of mercenaries, secrets, and cyberpunks. How far will you go for a chance at a better life? What are you willing to risk for the extra credits or knowledge that could make a big difference for your crew? Who will you stay loyal to? Who can you trust?

We'll be sharing some lore, extras, and maybe even some dev streams over the next couple of weeks. Join our Discord or follow @CyberKnightsRPG on twitter to stay in the loop.

We can't wait to show how far the game has come. While we're still hard at work fine-tuning and polishing the full game ahead of our Early Access release, it's already a thrill to offer the best-looking and most advanced set of tactical combat capabilities we've ever featured in a Trese Brothers game.

Especially if you're new to our games, as you try the demo we want you to know we are listening to feedback! We're active every day in the Steam forums and in our Discord, and we love making improvements and additions based on player feedback. This demo isn't just an opportunity for us to show the game off; it's your opportunity to make a mark on it.

We'll see you on June 19th! If you haven't already, wishlist & follow Cyber Knights of course! <3
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1021210/Cyber_Knights_Flashpoint/

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.

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.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1021210/Cyber_Knights_Flashpoint/


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!


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!


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.

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.

- 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

Hello, Captains. It’s time for another STF challenge. Loyalty is important and in this challenge you will be fiercely loyal to two contacts of your choice. How will you help them meet their goals? How will you crush their enemies and those who work against them?



As always there are a few requirements for this challenge, including for the first time in a Community Challenge a specific map seed to use for your playthrough. The requirements for this challenge are:

• When you pick your two contacts to champion, Faen cannot be one of them.
  
• Drive your reputation to -100 of lower with all other contacts. It may not be possible to fully meet this requirement due to faction politics, but the goal is to get all other contact reps as low as possible.
  
• This specific map seed must be used: st-v02-28-12-95189000

Some ideas for what we’d love to see:

• Screenshots of your chosen contacts, your reputation screens
  
• Stories of how you built up your chosen contacts and the challenges of having (and making) so many people very angry at you
  
• Your strategies for hitting the reputation requirements, choosing your particular contacts
  
• Any other creative ways you want to share to tell us about the risks and rewards of being fiercely loyal: memes, interpretive dance, gifs, etc

No matter what you choose to share, please include one screenshot of your reputation screen showingn your chosen contacts and all of the people you've made very, very unhappy.



We’ve opened up a discussion here on Steam in the General Discussion forum for aIl of your posts. If you post on the discord, post in the #faction_champion_challenge channel found in the STF category.

Good luck, Captains! Choose your friends wisely!

It's Update #316 with some new deadly enemy captain + ship combos, a new round of variations to how Xeno will build their ships, new gear and even better Contact death logs. The pre-Summer scramble has dragged our usual update schedule a bit, but we're excited to be getting back to the update roadmap here!

If you are enjoying the pace of updates and new free content, be sure to drop a review and post some feedback! We're always here and listening.

We always love seeing how many of you have pieced together the lore of Star Traders from the stories within, and enjoy the flavor of this universe your Captain is a part of. In our next game, we’re telling a very different sci-fi story but with the same depth we bring to all our worlds. Check out the dark-future feel of our upcoming cyberpunk heist RPG, and wishlist it today!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1021210/Cyber_Knights_Flashpoint/

Newly trained captain AI have taken command of some powerful ships -- the Dreadnought Battlecruiser and the Shizari Huntress. These new enemy challengers will show up in the later stages of the game and their captain's have new upgrade plans for them to ensure they are as threatening as they sound. If you encounter such a ship in the void, be sure to check your scopes, consider your options and choose wisely.


In this update, we've spent some hours digging into the rules and decisions by which Terrox and Jyeeta Xeno build their ships. It was a good opportunity to check the systems against current human AI as well as the latest technologies available to you, the human Star Traders. This review has led to some exciting improvements that should help create a wider variety of xeno ships including a better mix of weaponry and defensive components.

With Update #316, we've added 2 new high level pieces of gear - the Edgebane Tincture and the Bexian Synthserum. Respectively at level 8 and 9, these are not likely to be easy to find and will require multiple runs into high risk Orbital Salvage operations to turn them up.

Also, the Zendu Deathward has bee reduced in level from 10 to 8 in order to make it appear more frequently in Salvage loot drops.


Some new rules have been added to extend Contact's lifespans on worlds with either high Spice rating or high Military Rating. For those on high Spice rating worlds, the natural lifespan has been extended even farther. For those on high military worlds, they have gained a higher chance to be able to resist an attempt by an enemy Contact to have them killed by assassins.

In addition, we've increased the variety and clarity of the death reasons that are included in Contact's death log, specifically if they were killed by some kind of violence or faction violence. We hope you enjoy these tidbits of information which can offer glimpses into the game's simulation as well as provide key details to your story as you sail the galaxy.

- Newly trained AIs using Dreadnought Battlecarrier, Caliga Vindex and Shizari Huntress
- Reduced 'Zendu Deathward' Gear from Level 10 to Level 8 (more frequent drops)
- New level 8 Gear 'Edgebane Tincture'
- New level 9 Gear 'Bexian Synthserum'
- Revised some aspects of Xeno Ship Combat AI to add variety
- Contacts on zones with higher Spice Rating live even longer
- Contacts on zones with higher Military Rating more resistant to Assassins
- Added more descriptive "death reason" to Logs for Contacts that died in Faction violence
- Fixed a bunch of reported crashes, thanks for sending those

Update #315 rolls out a list of community-driven enhancements. A huge thanks to everyone posting their feedback, frustrations and questions to the Steam forums and to Discord to help us keep improving. This update has an especially helpful update to Mission icons as well as a key refinement of the ship comparison report that was throwing many players and selling them on their engine superiority when it might not really be the case. Here's Update #315, let's check it out!

I'm sure when we get to Update #400, you'll know that we're serious about this game :P

After five years of updates, Star Traders has received a lot of love, long past release. To keep it going, Andrew & I rely on two things: reviews for this game, and wishlists for our next! Reviews for Star Traders keep the game visible on Steam, please write a few words for us if you have a minute.

Meanwhile, wishlists for our upcoming cyberpunk heist RPG help us plan for the studio’s future (which includes future Star Traders games 😉). If turn-based squad tactics, creative stealth & hacking, and a unique 23rd-century dark future world sound like your thing, add to your wishlist today!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1021210/Cyber_Knights_Flashpoint/


Cargo and Stash Missions now display the required cargo icon above the mission step! This is a huge help for everyone doing these types of missions as you can both skim the mission with overall less reading but you're less likely to accidentally buy the wrong cargo as well. Thanks to everyone making these great suggestions in the community!


The ship encounter report about the enemy ship mistakenly used the regular math (that which is appropriate for big dice pools like Attack and Defense) when discussing your Engine's Agility and Speed stats. We've now made significant improvements to the comparison of Engine stats so that the displayed bonuses are very specific and match the game rules exactly as you'd find them on the wiki. This should be a big help in understanding how your Engine stats affect your outcomes and when you truly outclass an enemy or not.


With the help of some sharp players, we discovered a rare issue where enemy craft pilots on a Flight Plan could be forced into boarding crew combat defending their ship. This case where they were in 2 places at once is unfair and problematic -- because after the combat they are dead but ... flying a craft?

The fix is simple - to remove them from the list of viable defenders during a boarding operation!

There were some inconsistencies in post-combat Talents being overly available during post-boarding -- where Macabre Harvest and Genetic Sequencing could appear unfairly even if the character who owned them was not in the boarding party and the boarding did not occur at range 1. We have now fixed Post Boarding Talents to ensure that the list is always accurate to who was in the party, reducing these unfair advantages. Your Scientist and Xeno Hunter are going to have to work harder for their Intel and Artifacts!

At the same time we also resolved an issue where the Scientist's Genetic Sequencing might not always create Scientific Intel after xeno battle.

And finally, we have added a missing SFX to Shock Trooper's "Stand Strong" Talent -- that's nice.

- Cargo and Stash Missions now display the required cargo icon above the mission step
- Improved Ship Encounter comparison of Engine stats (Speed/Agility) to be very specific about game bonuses
- Added missing SFX for Shock Trooper's "Stand Strong" Talent
- Fixed rare issue where enemy craft pilots on a Flight Plan could be forced into boarding crew combat
- Fixed issue with Genetic Sequencing not always creating Scientific Intel after xeno battle
- Fixed Post Boarding Talent inconsistencies where Macabre Harvest and Genetic Sequencing could appear incorrectly

Update #313 rounds out some of the orbital Salvage loot tables, improves one of the heroic allies you can get in the game, adds a new rare Zendu relic and fixes some pesky numbers (wrong numbers, not right numbers) in the recently updated Contact Death captain's log entries.

Thanks to everyone posting feedback and suggestions, from the big to the small!

We always love seeing how many of you have pieced together the lore of Star Traders from the stories within, and enjoy the flavor of this universe your Captain is a part of. In our next game, we’re telling a very different sci-fi story but with the same depth we bring to all our worlds. Check out the dark-future feel of our upcoming cyberpunk heist RPG, and wishlist it today!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1021210/Cyber_Knights_Flashpoint/

If you reach the rare air of the late era epic boss battles and find yourself side by side with a Templar Leviathan, know that its armor is stronger with higher Hardness and Ballistic % to help is soak up Damage and live up to its place in the lore.


To further balance out the loot tables within the orbital Salvage operation, we've added 3 new defensive mid-level gear. These are more common to find with regular Salvage Gear cards, making the Dermlink Weave, Orgin Plate, Inkscale Mesh all pretty good options to perhaps replace expensive gear you might have instead purchased at from a Contact.

The Zendu Deathward is a rare find when Salvaging but its powerful bonuses will help any who bear it stave off deaths and pass those cursed Death Saves.


Some of the Contact Death logs were including some really weird numbers. Some were really big, some were really small, all of them were wrong. We've fixed it! Thanks to everyone report this issue.

- Buffed Templar Leviathan's armor (Exemplar Command) Hardness, Ballistic
- Added Medical Relics (Level 4) Dermlink Weave, Orgin Plate, Inkscale Mesh
- Added Ultra Rare Relic, Zendu Deathward (Level 10)
- Clarified Contact Death Log Entries
- Data handling performance improvements, fixed reported typos & crashes