Happy New Year, captains! It's going to be another eventful one in the void as we cruise past the #335 Update mark. Update #335 brings new medium sized torpedo weapons, more exciting rules for Engine Damage for aggressive attack strategies, improved rules for Morale Damage when hits target Bridge and Engine, big updates to how enemy ship captains pick their ship weapons in combat and a big sweep of price raising for late game components. If you've enjoyed just a few free updates or hundreds of updates over the years, we hope you'll consider leaving a review and sharing Star Traders: Frontiers with a friend!

Torp Power

With Update #335, we've rolled out three new medium slot Torpedoes that all pack a massive punch. These high-level medium slot torps make torpedo boats with a wider variety of designs viable into the late game as you finally have options at level 7, 8 and 9 for your medium slots. Get more Void Shielding because these torps can hit very hard and beware that late-game enemy captains may also employ the Mk3-Gamma, Torpedo Mk3-Delta and Torpedo Mk4-Ultra.

Early Engine Dmg Rule Rebalance

In a small but important change for some strategies, we've revised the special rules around Engine Damage in the first 3 Turns of ship combat. There has always been a protection for the player's engine against becoming immediately disabled before Turn 3. Some of these protections were extended to the AI ships as well in ways that made certain hyper-aggressive strategies (ALL the Gravity Cannons, Turn 1!) less effective. We've adjusted the rules on the AI's side without touching the player side rules to allow for these cases and don't punish hyper-aggressive strategies or force them to wait until Turn 3 to truly unleash their power. A big thanks to the players posting feedback and sharing data on these strategies that helped us craft this fix.

Bridge and Engine Hits Morale

If a ship or crafts weapon attack hits the Bridge or Engine, there is now up to a 30% increase in damage to the crew's Morale. Taking hits to these critical components shakes up the crew as they know the ship is in direct danger of failing to function and therefore losing to the enemy. This change can help accelerate and make more meaningful the ship combat defeat rule that can cause an enemy ship to surrender by Morale loss.

Ship Captain AI Improved

We've updated a number of important AI templates, rules and decision points as they relate to ship weapons. We updated some of the rules and decisions for torpedoes as to what other components to pair them with the for the maximum effect. For those enemies you find hanging at long range and trying to rain torp-hell down on you, be sure to pick your fights, close, or take them out fast with your own long range fire or craft. We've also helped the enemy ship builder balance better between Torpedoes and Missiles to ensure they have good coverage at a wide set of ranges. Finally, the enemy ship builder was not making great choices about when and where to attach Gravity Cannons to their ships, and we've improved the entire set of thinking. These highly devastating weapons can punch a hole in your hull if you're not careful, so keep an eye out for newly configured enemy mid to large class ships. With so many weapon's related changes, we also touched on one ship class specifically to make sure the AI ship builder would be making the best decisions -- Broadsword Class. If you see an enemy captain swinging around the edge of a moon in one of these, just be sure you're on your best behavior.

Component Repricing

With over 700 components and steadily growing, sometimes prices slide out of band and we need to come back through and revise some things. With Update #335, we've completed a necessary price raise for a number of components, better matching price to performance. The prices for the M115 Twin Autocannon, Fuel Tank 5+, Cargo Hold 6 and Armored Cargo Hold 6 have all been directly increased. In addition, the all high level Coatings have had their prices increased to better achieve the progression into such high power defensive components.

Want to help shape our next game?

So many of our updates for Star Traders are based on feedback from you all. But there are limits to what we can do in a game 5 years after its release. Our new tactical heist RPG, Cyber Knights: Flashpoint, is evolving fast in Early Access, with plenty of room for content ideas and shifts in gameplay based on what early players are finding fun. Join us to make this game another one youll be enjoying for years to come. https://store.steampowered.com/app/1021210/Cyber_Knights_Flashpoint/

v3.3.81 - 1/2/2024

- Three new size 2 torpedoes Torpedo Mk3-Gamma, Torpedo Mk3-Delta, Torpedo Mk4-Ultra - Increased the Morale damage from direct Bridge Hits by 30% - Direct hits to Engine can now cause Morale damage for effected crew - Revised engine damage rules for early combat, to make aggressive attack strategies more viable - Post-boarding Bridge hits are now more effective vs all AI, Xeno included - Updated AI for the Broadsword Class - Retrained AI torpedo strategy with new improvements - Improved AI ship architect's weapon selection logic for missiles and torpedoes - Fixed issues with AI not correctly using Grav Cannons - Increased the price of M115 Twin Autocannon, Fuel Tank 5+, Cargo Hold 6 - Armored Cargo Hold 6 - Completely repriced high level Coatings