The summer heat is on and with it come the big sales! You can save 33% on Star Traders: Frontiers all through the Steam Summer Sale. If you've waited out the first 160 updates now might just be the time to get in on this wild ride across the galaxy at the best discount yet. Or, if you're already running a ship, gift a copy to a friend!

Update #161 brings all sorts of new to the game -- two new character outfits, new art for different types of hexshell and LMGs, a new rank 11 Soldier Talent to target lightly armored enemies, new improvements to the Star Atlas based directly on player suggestions, the final piece of the AI puzzle to prepare for carriers and much more. Read the entire release notes below for all the details!

Paramilitary Uniform

The new paramilitary uniform is a matching uniform that gives the feeling of a light and mobile soldier or perhaps a wing pilot with military training. We're loving the look of this outfit on fighters, wing pilots and even ship ops crew if they have that kind of attitude. It's always exciting to deliver another outfit to the game, with new options for how to style your crew and different jobs.

As shown in the dev roadmap, there are more coming. The roadmap includes our goal of doubling the outfit count and we are about 30% of the way there now with the additions since launch in August.

Star Atlas for Traders

Based on feedback from a number of different players, we've made a set of improvements to the Buy and Sell lists within the Star Atlas to specifically help legal traders work more quickly.

First, we've alphabetized the list. This simple sort can help you find what you're looking for faster. Even better than that, we've tagged every item that is in your cargo hold with a blue highlight. Now with a glance, you can tell if you're carrying the goods that this zone wants to purchase. If you want to know exactly how many of that cargo type you are carrying, simply hover over the item -- you can now see the exact cargo count as well.

Finally, we've made the permit tagging more clear. We've ensured that cargo types requiring permits still show their demand type (A-, etc) as well as the permit. In the tooltip we've included the permit rank required specifically to provide every bit of needed intel possible.

Happy trading, merchants! Thanks to everyone for posting feedback. We hope you enjoy seeing it filter into the game over updates :D

Shrapnel Shell

Soldiers have gained a new rank 11 Talent with Update #161, thanks to @DrSpendLove for the great suggestion. Shrapnel Shell is a perfect attack Talent for a low armored enemy, adding Damage, Critical and Bleeding but also reducing your attack's Armor Piercing by 25%. Not the best against a heavily armored target where the extra damage is going to get soaked up, but very effective against lower armored targets. With a debuff to Parry along with the bleeding, anyone who survives the close-range blast can be mopped up by another team member.

And More

These updates are always deep, so you'll want to check the full patch notes below for every little thing. We've improved the AI's ability to pick a better mix of crew with this update, which is the last foundation piece required to truly prepare them for staffing carriers.

We've also improved the "Deadly Encounter" card in Black Market to note th status of your Life Saver Talents. Also, Troy 'the Blade' Circin's famous Circin Cutter has had its stats bumped.

v2.5.53 - 6/25/2019

• Added new matching character outfits -- paramilitary soldier or wing pilot
• Added new art for lower level Hexshell Rifles and LMGs (Weapons Locker A0 through A3, level 4 from Contacts)
• Added new rank 11 Soldier Talent "Shrapnel Shell" causes deadly damage and bleeding but at significant reduction to Armor Piercing
• Star Atlas now highlights cargo types in the buy/sell list in blue if present in your cargo hold, tooltip lists exact amount
• Star Atlas now lists exact permit level required for cargo types in the buy/sell list in tooltip
• Star Atlas now lists resources available to buy/sell within a zone in alphabetical order for easy reading
• Improved AI's ability to pick ship crew effectively, final prep step for Carrier AIs
• Improved Black Market card "Deadly Encounter" to list the status of Talents that prevent death like "Life Saver"
• Improved stats on "Circin Cutter" blade
• Increased mission payment offers at the end of the "Call of the Strong" storyline
• Fixed incorrect Escape dice value shown in tooltip over ship in combat when at Range 1-3
• Fixed incorrect listing for award "Survivor III" which requires 50 crew battles