The major milestone TERROX unleashes new and wicked forms of the Terrox xeno into the galaxy at large. While the xeno still haunt only the dangerous wilderness and mostly gather around Rumors of their presence, encountering them will bring a less predictable challenge each time. With Update #122, we've expanded the Terrox ship and crew combatant variations, added new Talents for the Bounty Hunter and Assassin and continued the pressure on improving the balance and focus of crew combat meta as we have done over last few releases.

Another Strike Against v2.4.x

As we shared when Star Traders: Frontiers launched out of Early Access, we're just getting going. Frontiers is already huge and sprawling experience, but we have exciting plans to keep expanding it aggressively as we have shared in our development roadmap. The TERROX milestone is the second major delivery in the v2.4.x family and leaves just one more Era and Job to go before we transition into the long awaited v2.5.x family.

Terrors of the Void

The Terrox xeno have always been the death lurking at the edges of known space or terrorizing shipping lanes under an ill-omen Rumor. But, when you have had to face them they have always stuck in the lane -- deadly but consistent and without much variation. The TERROX release brings new angles to these deadly adversaries. Some of additions are worse, some are easier but all of them provide more options, more variation and demand more of your captains to survive. First, we've added 2 new types of Terrox ships -- the Terrox Spine is light and fast ship which may be more difficult to escape but is less of a threat to fight head on. As the Eras march on and the threat level of the Frontier's difficulty curve reaches a certain threshold, you will also start to encounter the Xeno Heavy Cruiser -- bigger, badder and packing even more firepower than the original cruiser. Of course, it is also much slower and easier to escape. Second, in addition to adding 2 new ship hulls, we've expanded the Terrox component catalog to allow their ship builder AI to exercise more options and controls to move them about in their lane, and so new options emerge, fast and deadly, long range, short range, armored boarder.
Third, we've created full blown unique Jobs for the crew combat xeno with as much detail as any human Job. These two new Jobs are for the Hunter (already seen) and Scittering (brand new) and comprise all new fighting abilities, buffs and debuffs that make fighting xeno up close even more dicey. As we continue to push forward after the TERROX milestone, we'll see even more unique crew combat Jobs appearing. For those players who have enjoyed Templar Battleforce, you'll recognize the Scittering and you'll certainly also know the next set of additions as well. https://store.steampowered.com/app/370020/Templar_Battleforce/

New Talents

With Update #122, we've added a new Bounty Hunter and Assassin Talent. For Bounty Hunters, we've added a boarding victory Talent that unleashes their Intimidate Skill against the enemy crew, causing major Morale damage. For Assassins, we've connected them more closely to death warrants by giving them a Talent that discounts the purchase of Edicts. Because once you carry an Edict, you have access to the best assassination jobs! In another big boon to Bounty Hunters -- Red Badge Talent now works on wild zone missions!

Crew Combat Changes

We're now pressing forward with a series of changes that will push the crew combat meta into an even better place, building on the success of the ELDER Initiative system. Recently, we've increased the Deflection values of all armors in order to make the Piercing values of weapons and Talents more meaningful. With Update #122, we've reduced high Accuracy bonuses on Talents that have another primary purpose in order to make Buffs and Gear more important. The specific Talents that had their high Accuracy bonuses reduced are: Suppressing Fire, Burrowing Shots, Skewering Thrust and Bullet Trace. Also, to help simplify the Resistance meta for special damage types, we've rolled the resistance stat for Fire, Plasma and Radiation into a single value: Energy Resist. Bleed and Poison have stayed as their own entities with Damage and Resist stats. This will become more important as we keep charging into new xenoform types, weapons and gear. We've fixed a few things -- improving the duration of Soldier's Covering Fire Buff from 2 to 3 and we've fixed the combat log misrepresenting Plasma Damage from Talents.

What's Next?

With another major milestone knocked down, we're onto the final item in the v2.4.x family -- a new Era and a new Job. You might be able to guess that both are going to be related to xeno in their own way. The Job will be Xeno Hunter and I won't spoil the era! And then, yes on to v2.5.x we will go!

v2.4.45 - 12/20/2018

- Xeno Terrox variety arrives in deadly expansion -- new ships, new xenoforms, new Talents - Added 2 new xeno ship types - the Xeno Spine (light and fast) and the high level only Xeno Heavy Cruiser (heavy and mean) - Added more xeno ship components, more builds and variation in ship and crew - New fast and deadly Terrox xenoform in crew combat: the Scittering (as seen in Templar Battleforce) - Added 22 new unique and powerful crew combat Talents for Xeno Hunters and Scitterings -- debuffs, radiation, poison and bleeding! - Improved xeno ship and crew combatant animations - Added new rank 5 Assassin Talent "Silent Executioner" reduces the price of Edicts by 10% + Stealth Skill - Added new rank 8 Bounty Hunter Talent "Cold-blooded Threats" -- reduces Morale of 3 enemy crew after boarding victory with up to 40 + Intimidate Skill - Bounty Hunter Talent "Red Badge" now works for missions in the wilderness - Collapsed Resistance for Fire / Plasma / Radiation into a single Energy Resist stat for all Traits, Talents, etc (Bleed and Poison still separate) - Fixed issue for crew combat log that was not causing Plasma Damage Talents to properly log their special damage - Reduce excessive Accuracy bonuses for Attack Talents (Suppressing Fire, Burrowing Shots, Skewering Thrust, Bullet Trace) -- improving the value of buffs, buffing attacks and gear - Improved duration of Covering Fire's buff from 2 to 3 Turns - Fixed Retired Exo-Scout Contact type to hire Explorers - Adjusted story mission timers to be more aware of distance to mission target (such as Prime Pilgrimage) - Fixed issues with Valencia being unwilling to come aboard your ship after you talk to Calagan Faen about it - Improved iconography within the landing zone