FAQ

This is a community FAQ for Star Traders: Frontiers.

= Game Setup =

Game does not load?
1. Use the steam interface to verify the integrity of game files. (Steam library page, right click game, properties menu, local files tab).

2. If you have a Realtek audio driver, disable it in the Windows device manager. If the game now loads, try switching to a generic windows driver or update to the latest Realtek driver.

3. Sometimes Steam fails to install MS Visual Studio C++ Runtime 2012 x86. Download and install the x86 version:

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=30679

4. Make sure that your Anti-virus software has not quarantined, contained, or blocked the application. You should white list it and/or make sure it is labeled as safe.

5. If the game is loading enough to show its crash reporter, be sure to send a crash report with your email address in the details field.

Where are my saved games?
Your saved games are stored locally on your computer at a location outside of your Steam install folder. You can see the standard paths below. This location allows you to uninstall STF without losing any saved games. These are also the folders that you could add to Dropbox to do your own cloud save until that feature becomes available.

Windows: %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\StarTradersFrontiers

Mac: ~/Library/StarTradersFrontiers/

Linux: ~/.config/startraders2/

Do updates ever invalidate saved games?
We keep getting questions about updates and whether or not they require a restart. We'll keep working to broadcast this -- no update *ever* requires a restart. We would never release an update that invalidates any saved game -- that would be terrible thing to do and be completely unacceptable! Of course, some features and story content may not be available if you have a saved game in the later years, but there is no forced restart, ever.

I cannot see the mouse over the game -- what should I do?
This is generally caused by having Windows mouse trails turned on. Turn them off while playing and you should be all set.

= Getting started =

How do I follow the Prince Faen story line?
After you meet the Arbiter and discuss with Prince Faen, you can pursue this story line by clicking on the narrative button, not the mission button:



I agreed to some work; why don't I have a mission for it?
After you've verbally agreed to a mission from a storyline character, it will appear in their mission list (on the left-hand side) with a slightly different hue than the normal missions they offer. You'll need to navigate to their mission menu to accept this special mission, similar to how you would accept a regular mission not preceded by a special story-dialogue.

How do I complete a mission?
Once you have traveled to a system where you can complete a mission, there will be a mission completion button in the lower left of the screen:



Some missions require landing on a planet, and there may be more than one planet to land on. Look for the red bullseye icon to see which planet to land on; then click the mission completion button.



Can I cancel a mission once I've accepted it?
Yes. It comes at a price in reputation with the Contact as well as the faction of the Contact, but is better than simply letting the mission expire. See Missions for details.

Why do I get negative reputation from interacting with ships?
In the lore, the factions are all hostile to each other, and faction members share information. When you are contacted by ships of a new faction, especially military officers and zealots but even merchants and pirates, they do not trust you. They will request to board and inspect your ship. If you grant the request ("surrender") they will inspect, and if there is nothing suspicious you can continue on your way. If you deny the request ("retreat") then they will inform their faction that you are acting suspiciously and should not be trusted. This is what negative reputation with a faction represents. You must actively gain trust of a faction to gain positive reputation. You have a separate reputation with each faction; in most cases, you will be friendly with 2-3 factions after doing some missions, and 1-2 factions may be suspicious of you based on your actions or decisions.

Even pirates belong to a faction and have the same ability to inspect or report you. Historically, this is closer to "privateer" than "pirate". Independents of any type, including pirates, are the only ones who cannot reduce your reputation with a faction based on your conduct.

If you are in a quadrant whose owner is hostile to you, pirates and bounty hunters will be happy to accept contracts from that faction to attack you. This can happen even with pirates and bounty hunters of your own faction. If you fight, the pirates or bounty hunters will be just as happy to report you to their faction as hostile. As with any other encounter, to avoid negative rep, you can bribe them to not report you, or invest in talents which decrease encounter hostility.

Why does submitting to inspection lower my crew's morale?
Submitting to inspection means your crew's bunks are tossed as they are searched for contraband, the crew are intimidated or even roughed up a little by the imposing crew, and some of your crew might disagree with your decision to submit to another vessel. Crew on a ship have their own opinions about how things should be done; the captain stilling the engines and letting another crew come on board feels like an invasion -- crew members don't like it.

However, the amount of morale lost is actually very small. Usually it is about 25 morale lost. This is spread across your entire crew. So if you have a crew of 30, most of them will lose a single point of morale and a few will be unaffected. This is almost never a big deal. There is a small chance that some of your crew will be emotionally impacted by the event in the long run and may gain a negative trait from surrendering (submitting to inspection) too often. This is a larger problem than the scant morale loss. All the same, submitting to inspection is often the correct move versus more powerful vessels, or when your ship is damaged to the point of not being fully combat ready. In the early game, submitting is often a good idea when the only alternative is fighting or losing reputation by refusing to submit to inspection or bribing your way out of the inspection.

If this reputation loss versus submission still seems off-putting, consider the analogy of sailing a vessel through international waters. If you approached the claimed naval territory of the United States of America, and were hailed by a ship belonging to their coast guard who requested you submit to a "routine inspection", they aren't going to smile and wave while you hurriedly zoom off in the opposite direction! Star Traders, in a far more feudal and petty society are even to the point of imposing their will outside of their own declared regions of the void.

Where are some other good resources to learn more?
There are Let's Play video guides in the guides section:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCddfEMnnruPIPv9jhz-DeJg/videos

Some of the text guides are very helpful:

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1231328006

These recent forum threads have a lot of good tips:

One hundred tips for new players:

https://steamcommunity.com/app/335620/discussions/0/1696040635911128136/

What I wish I knew earlier:

https://steamcommunity.com/app/335620/discussions/4/1727575977527044914/

= About Talents =

How do crew combat Talents respond as characters die?
Talent ranges "compress" as crew die so that backline Talents can always be used.

Let's consider Soldier's Suppressing Fire -- which can fire from slots 4 and 3, like this --

0 0 x x

Where 0 is good and x is can't use.

If one crew dies, the Talent now works like this

- 0 x x

So you can only fire from slot 3 now. If another crew dies, the Talent works like this

- - 0 x

As the Talent "compresses" it is keeping your backline slot (whatever that is) viable.

If you are the last one, its like this

- - - 0

And, even if you are carrying a Sniper Rifle, if you are "back line" and the "front line" at the same time, you can still fire your weapon.

= About Ships =

Where can I find a list of all the ships, and all the ship components?
These wiki pages are automatically generated from the game data, and should always be up to date:
 * Ships
 * Ship Components Reference

Can I remove or add components to a ship?
No, the small, medium and large slots are set by the ship hull and cannot be changed in the ship's super-structure.

Do ship components stack?
Ship components stack, yes. Your combat bonuses, skill bonuses, jump cost -- all stack together to create the final numbers.

In the case of components for operations (card games) only one component can be used at a time. You can get the bonus for Exo Crawler when you draw a resource card and you can get the component damage reduction when you draw a ship damage card, but you cannot get double the bonus by having 2 Exo Crawlers. That said, your Exo Crawler takes damage every time it is used, so if you have 2 you can feasibly Explore longer without going back for repairs. But, 2 operation components with the same effects do not stack.

How do I find the ship I bought?
Ships are stored in Dry Dock on the world where they were purchased. To see the list of ships in dry dock, click on your main Ship Status and then pick the Dry Dock menu. You can set waypoints to any dry docked ship from there.

I upgraded my barracks, why can't I recruit more crew?
A ship's maximum crew is based on your hull type - bigger hulls allow larger crews. To check the max crew for your ship, open the main ship status and look below the slider for crew. Ships have the same limits for maximum officers as well. Installing Barracks or Officer Cabins above these maximums will not increase capacity on your ship.



This page of the wiki lists the max crew, and other details for every ship: Ships

= Later in the game =

Do the story lines continue on their own?
Yes, they do! If you are interested in a story line, you should actively pursue it. Many of the events in the story lines will happen regardless of whether you take interest. You are not forced to pursue the story lines in any particular playthrough. Many games offer this type of branching story content. If you are in the middle of something else more interesting, keep doing that. The story lines are available in any later playthrough.

I had a contact, but he/she has disappeared; what happened?
In the lore, space ship crew live longer than planet bound "gravs". Contacts may age, and die, or die when their faction loses a conflict. If a contact seems to have disappeared, check the Captain's Log, under the Ship tab. You will see confirmation that the contact died, rather than disappearing.

You should also pay attention to the News Feed when you land at any port. There will be information regarding your Contacts political actions and choices, this can also include their associated Contacts actions as well. You will also be informed as to the current state of any story that may effect you, regardless of whether you are actively taking part in those stories or not.

I was working on a mission, and the contact is still there, but the mission is gone.
The story lines do continue on their own, and events can happen to prevent further continuation of a story line. Also, certain story lines have mutually exclusive decision points, where making one decision can prevent another branch of the story line from continuing. In a future playthrough, you can make the opposite decision to see what happens.

Can I reset a crew member's Jobs and Talents?
If you are in orbit or landed on a system, you can Retrain a crew's Talents by using the Retrain option on their Talent selection screen. If you promote a crew to an officer, their primary Job will reset to rank 1, allowing you to retrain all of their Job levels. Otherwise, Jobs cannot be reset.

While exploring, I found resources but where are they?
Next to the explore button at the bottom of the screen is a "stash" button which shows the cargo you have stashed on this planet. Resources go into this stash, which you can pick up now, or any time later. Nobody else can steal them.

However, sometimes the exploration results in a remote stash, which is like a treasure map, guiding you to resources on some other planet maybe a number of jumps away. To view remote stashes, check the stash tab in the cargo page. This will tell you where the stashes can be found and show their contents.

Where can I get more information and tips about the unlocks?
This page lists all the unlocks and has tips for completing the harder ones: Unlocks

If I switch to a new computer, will my Steam unlocks come with me?
If you score an unlock on one computer and it is registered as a Steam achievement, simply open the Unlocks menu on another computer that is logged into the Steam account. The unlocks will be sync'd.