Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader - a new cRPG from Owlcat Games

[alice_ashpool]

Ok, it's good.

 

[alice_ashpool]

The changes that have been made from alpha to beta and all for the better imo. It's still a half complete game with lots missing obviously (character creator is good but half complete). I am enjoying combat more, though it's hard to tell if that is because I have not played the alpha in a while! Changes to classes are good: adept especially has been major buffed it seems. No longer do I want to just be a boring soldier. Psykana is in the game in limited form too.

Graphically it looks pretty pasty, however, performance is much better than WotR on my hardware, so kudos for that owlcat.

 

[alice_ashpool]

So far I have played through the prologue 3 times. Encountered a few minor bugs: mostly to do with graphical effects persisting around characters and items not working (typical owlcat stuff) and one game breaking bug where you could sequence break yourself out of being able to progress. Not bad.

I really like the prologue though I feel the direction could be tightened up as far as the set goes: things are a bit pasty, and things like characters pivoting on the spot, moving slowly, that sort of thing I feel would add to the whole experience. Dialogue probably won't change but it would benefit from a sense of tightening to meet the urgency of the situation. A perennial issue with the intersection of: narratively urgent situations x dialogue trees.

 

[alice_ashpool]

I think the biggest issue with the combat right now is the calculations for ability and the lack of tracking: you can pick lots of modifying abilities to your ability which do things like "When you use X it gives 5+2x(perception bonus)% to critical hit chance" but these additional modifiers a 1: not displayed on the original ability so its hard to keep track and 2: difficult to compute when comparing what to chose at level up.

 

[alice_ashpool]

I forgot to ever post about my thoughts on the RT beta properly, but the real deal comes out Dec 7th, so hold on to your bolters.

 

[Antimatter]

Happy release day!

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1732802483477512655

 

[mlnevese]

Rogue Trader comes with its own version of Unity Mod Manager. If anyone wishes to mod the game, just uncompress your mod to this path:

%LocalAppData%Low\Owlcat Games\Warhammer 40000 Rogue Trader\UnityModManager\

 

[alice_ashpool]

Its got some bugs but its everything I wanted. I wave my arms and everything around me bursts into flames. Gearing up to reach Planck temperature.

 

[alice_ashpool]

Great, now I'll spend the rest of the day suppressing bad puns about ability cooldowns.

So how about what you initially disliked about combat, like uninspired arena-style battlefields and too few too simple abilities? Has that evolved, or are you still too early in the game to judge?

The abilities have been much improved. There's so many "feats" that it's great.

 

[alice_ashpool]

But everything else pales in comparison to the tone. It's so on point, you wander in feeling like the most dangerous thing that ever lived. Lesser creatures fall over themselves to say how amazing you are. Rulers of entire planets give you things. You are the main character.

 

[alice_ashpool]

A sniper who can see the future, a sister of battle who immolates everything in her path, a loyal seneschal with biceps of steel, a woman who can kill people by looking at them with her freaky forehead eye, and a cybernetic priest walk into a bar.

 

[alice_ashpool]

I restarted

 

[alice_ashpool]

Playing a Telepath now, because it synergises better with Leader archetype. Pyro is cool but you really want to be in the thick of it, so it would probably be better as a hybrid melee-psyker.

 

[Cahir]

Played the game a couple of hours this morning for the first time and I figured, I'll share some very early thoughts:

What I like so far:

• Deep and rich lore - I don't know much about WH40K (contrary to WFRP), only some basic stuff, but this is so far the most impressive part of the game. The done is grim and dark, as I expected it to be. The game is also quite brutal (with some nice finishers).
• Quite interesting character development, with a lot of variety that comes from home world, origin and archetype selection. Allows to create some unique builds.
• Some interesting characters, both recruitable and non-recruitable. So far I met Abelard, Idira and Argenta. It's too early to judge them, but so far so good.
• There is an absurd amount of text to read, but surprisingly I haven't got tired of reading after a couple of hours, because it was all interesting. Usually I lose patience after a couple of hours and need a break. Haven't had that in Rogue Trader yet.

What may be problematic later:

• Combat - I don't mean the combat itself is boring, but rather... there is a lot of combat and most encounters involve significant number of mob enemies, that can be killed with one shot. Combat isn't difficult (so far) on Daring, but encounters are long, because of the sheer number of enemies. I fear that may cause weariness after a while.
• Even if all the dialogue and descriptive text is fun, sometimes I feel, that it's unnecessarily bloated and could be squeezed a little. The weariness may hit me after a longer period.
• Gameplay complexity - it reminds me a little of Pillars of Eternity, with convoluted mechanics, fortunately it's much better explained, so at least I have a clarity what's what, even if the there is a ton of modifiers, stat dependencies and the involvement of calculator is mandatory, to squeeze the most out of your build. It's also a lot of dependencies, where one feat improves the effect of the other feat. I have a hard time to plan a good build because of that.

Nitpicking (aka nothing to worry about, just elevated standards involved)

• After playing fully voiced games lately (hello BG3), the fact that RT is not fully voiced over bugs me. There is quite a good amount of voice lines, but most of them are not. It will take some time for me to adjust to that. Voice actors did a nice job, but again after experiencing a stellar performance of BG3 actors, this feel like a step back.
• The characteristic, cartoonish visual style takes away a bit from the grim and dark tone of dialogues and location design. It didn't bother me in Pathfinder games, which I find having slightly better visual style. The art style in RT feels a bit "sterile", without a claw.
• Music... just is. Doesn't bother me, but I barely give it more thought. It's also very safe, not memorable, but good enough to play a role in the story.

Overall, I enjoy the game so far, although I find the beginning of the story in WoTR more interesting. But, color me intrigued. Definitely will carry on, to see how the story goes.

 

[alice_ashpool]

I have found that combat is much better than I remember. Now that doesn't mean it is "ideal" but there have been considerable improvements. The mechanics are omplex but that's part of the fun, I feel like I'm learning and it is very obvious that on restart I am much more powerful.

Managed to wreck Aurora fight on the 4th attempt on Hard, despite having some amalgamated traumas on 2 characters. Cassia is really 20/10 character. Blasted him down with 5 back to back "Held in My Gaze" once MC leader proc'd Finest Hour.

Currently level 16 Leader Telepath + Pyromancer.

 

[mlnevese]

Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader - Warhammer 40000: Rogue Trader Patch 1.0.1 - Steam News

Lord Captains, our first large patch is live! We’ve done our best to address some of the most annoying issues, and intend to release a couple more patches in December. Check for up-to-date information on known issues and upcoming patches. Highlights The host now shares their DLCs with the...

store.steampowered.com

 

[alice_ashpool]

Patch is good, game has declined somewhat in chapter 2. Classic Owlcat.

 

[Cahir]

Played Rogue Trader for a couple of hours today. Here are some more thoughts about it. I thought directly comparing it to another Owlcat game, WoTR, would be fair.

• Overall reception: Rogue Trader seems lesser in scope than WoTR and with less complex when it comes to dialogue choices weight. There was an enormous amount of impactful story choices in WoTR, branching out many times, which was a lot of fun. Rogue Trader seems a lot less complicated in that (so far) and dialogue choices seem to have very clear outcome, lacking the element of surprise. It's not necessarily a complaint, as WoTR could be overwhelming to some players, also from a narrative and story point of view.
• World and lore: This is by far the strongest element of Rogue Trader, especially if you like grim and twisted settings. I dare to say, I like it even more than in WoTR, which had a rich lore and was great in world building.
• Combat: It's surprisingly simple, when it comes to core mechanics, what makes it complicated are feats. Owlcat tends to tie feats with core abilities, which requires some thought during building your character. For example, Feat X increases damage dealt by Ability A and Feat Y enhances the effect of the same feat differently. It's a difficult game, but not as complex as Pathfinder games.
• Exploration: Much simpler than WoTR. Locations are simple, you can hardly find secret spots, again, this is where the game screams "lesser in scope", comparing to WoTR. Having said that, locations are well done, Owlcat captured this grim feeling of WH40K setting very well. Visual style is a bit cartoony, but it's full of details and beautiful.
• Writing style: Really well done, it is not much worse of such giants like Planescape: Torment or Disco Elysium. I read every bit of every dialogue or book in the game, which, especially when it comes to book, is rare.
• Itemization: Not bad, but not great either. There are a lot of junk items, but not only junk, with literally no description. Very lazy from Owlcat. It looks as if they were run out of time and left it as a placeholder.

Overall, I'm having a great time with Rogue Trader so far. I actually like, it's not as grand in scope as WoTR (which can be overwhelming).

 

[mlnevese]

Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader Dev Discusses Future Plans And Cut Content

The Executive Producer of Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader claims that the studio has "several interesting ideas" beyond current announcements.

exputer.com

 

[mlnevese]

Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader - Update 1.0.93 is live! - Steam News

Lord Captains, update 1.0.93 is live! Mac and both consoles are expected to receive the same patch within about ~24 hours. This time we've addressed a few progression blocking bugs, including non-starting cutscenes, and fixed some incorrectly functioning abilities. We've also dealt with some...

store.steampowered.com