Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader

[Unhelpful Contrarian]

almost lost my first combat

► Show Spoiler

Yes, I have the xeno with me. It's a sanctioned xeno.

Good to see you having picked the best RT portrait, the Martin Sellnerius Navy Officer

Yep mind to ,although I used the crime lord origin.

[rusty_shackleford]

base game is quite good, dlc stuff gooder

[rusty_shackleford]

from the equipment, environmental assets, sounds and OST

I'm pretty sure the music actually changes if you talk to Weisz, the organ stops playing. [edit] yeah, it does

[Boontaker]

Act 3 is a bit of a ***** if you don't have a combat focused main character. I'm playing an support officer build, it's extremely strong with a party but weak without.

Spoilers with some helpful information for non combat rogue traders

► Show Spoiler

In act three you get forced to lose all equipment and play with reduced party members for a few tough combats. Depending on which companions you take with you on a mission that comes right after your coronation at the end of act 2.

Take abelard, Argenta, pasqal, yrilet with you on this mission so you get them to help you as soon as possible

.

[Yankee Zulu]

Me playing Act One of an Owlcat game: “This is awesome!”

Me playing Act Four of an Owlcat game: “Please, let this torment end.”

What you’ve got to understand about Owlcat is that they make games with a ridiculous amount of ambition that they’re not capable of following through on. They offer hundred-hour RPG campaigns, where the first fifty hours are glorious and the last fifty hours are incredibly sloppy. They offer incredible build variety, but have no ability to balance combat. They offer fascinating story hooks, but then deliver terrible pacing and unsatisfying conclusions. It all starts huge and bombastic and ends in a buggy, amateurish mess. It’s just how they roll!

Still, they have some die-hard fans, and I’ve devoted over 200 hours to their games despite their major issues. The sheer depth of what’s on offer is an attraction all of its own, and though I’d never recommend the Pathfinder games to anyone due to how janky and hostile they are, I can’t deny that my old-school tabletop campaign sensibilities are always drawn in by what Owlcat attempts. It’s a huge pity that they can’t manage adequate quality control.

Rogue Trader falls to the Owlcat curse in Act 3 (or 4, depending on who you ask). Combat balance devolves badly, hinging on bosses with bloated stats or one-round blitzes. The pacing becomes terribly slow, and the story hinges on laughably choreographed betrayals. Rather than slog through stuff that wasn’t appropriately playtested or bugfixed, I just restarted and played through the first two acts again. It can only be described as half-baked.

Which is a real shame, because Owlcat once again demonstrate that they understand setting, environment and tone like few creators out there. This is one of the most immersive and exciting looks into the 40k universe we’ve ever had, with an array of fascinating characters and locales brimming with potential that is never fully realized. Without proper direction, all of this hard work building up a narrative just dissipates, fading into the background while you fight yet another trash pack.

At this point, it’s not enough to say “Well, it’s an Owlcat game, this is just how they make them”. They’ve received mountains of feedback on these exact issues and they keep insisting on releasing products that are, frankly, unfinished. Then they patch, usually with a series of targeted nerfs, because making sure that nobody has any fun in a singleplayer game is somehow more important than properly balancing encounters or pacing a campaign. If this is how they make them, they should make them different.

[Reichspepe]

from the equipment, environmental assets, sounds and OST

I'm pretty sure the music actually changes if you talk to Weisz, the organ stops playing. [edit] yeah, it does

The music in the DLC is excellent, very fitting and feeling like a natural part of the overall soundtrack.

[Luckmann]

I really wish we could've gotten an Astropath instead of the Navigator chick. It would've fitted the whole idea of seeing auras and whatnot so much better, too, since they literally perceive things through the warp, whereas Navigators need to keep their third eye closed unless they feel like ripping a bulkhead and turning everyone into mutants.

[rusty_shackleford]

really, really don't care for any of the "puzzles"(?) that require you to time running thru areas, the controls aren't meant for it and the characters control like ****

[UltraFan123]

I don't care about Owlcat puzzles in general.

[rusty_shackleford]

rather regret not making my character a psyker tbh, it's an origin that is essentially an archetype unto itself

[Brother Michael]

rather regret not making my character a psyker tbh, it's an origin that is essentially an archetype unto itself

Yes, but that also requires you to build around it to the exclusion of your other archetype as far as I know (they updated the balance a few times since I last played).

If you look ahead in the perks to the Exemplar archetype, you can become an unsanctioned psyker once your unlock that archetype.

[Boontaker]

rather regret not making my character a psyker tbh, it's an origin that is essentially an archetype unto itself

Late game you can become a psyker if you want to, although you won't get enough talents to be a true psyker.

Psyker protagonist seems to be the best option IMO, so many builds benefit from psyker. Plenty of good psyker only equipment and story too.

[Boontaker]

Chaos psyker seems like a sick build, the chaos items I am coming across are broken if you can get them working

[rusty_shackleford]

There's a lot of attention to details with regards to reactivity, big and small.


the dialogue is fairly good too, can't say I find myself often wanting to ask or do something that isn't there

[Boontaker]

I wish I went dogmatic for my first playthrough. I wanted to use all the companions and see as much content as possible though so I went iconoclast. Just doesn't feel very heroic

[Luckmann]

Stop it, guys, I said I wasn't going to play this again until December, at which point there's also supposed to be another DLC, and I want to hold myself to that, but you keep getting me kinda psyched.

[Unhelpful Contrarian]

Stop it, guys, I said I wasn't going to play this again until December, at which point there's also supposed to be another DLC, and I want to hold myself to that, but you keep getting me kinda psyched.

There isn’t snowball chance in hell of Owlcat releasing the second DLC expansion in less then two months.

[rusty_shackleford]

I think with the DLC they realized a lot more should be happening on the ship itself, which I prefer. It's not like it's a dinky ship, it's basically a mobile town.

[rusty_shackleford]

(Basically the only gripe I have is the Master at Arms black lady cringe 2024 character looks-wise and mixed-gender human enemies/soldiers, which is nu-40k. But that's beating a dead horse and will hopefully be corrected by a mod eventually)

she's also related to a noble family that's part of the story, they'd have to be changed too

[rusty_shackleford]

much like star wars without jedis, wh40k is more interesting without spess muhrines

[TheEmptyRoad]

much like star wars without jedis, wh40k is more interesting without spess muhrines

► Show Spoiler

You can get one in Act 3

► Show Spoiler

He’s a ******* Space Corgi too. I honestly would have been happier with ANY other Chapter save maybe the Ultrasmurfs

[rusty_shackleford]

oh… I see… act 3

hm
might stop playing
I know it's just going to get worse from here on

it's just railroaded dialogue dumps about stupid **** I don't care about(stupid space elfs)

[rusty_shackleford]

can't understand what went through the designer's head
"hmm, this is a 40k game about being a space merchant prince… let's put you in a space elf fantasy realm"

40k is 98% stupid ****, just stop using the ******* ******** setting, this always happens

and people wonder why I despise 40k

[Luckmann]

much like star wars without jedis, wh40k is more interesting without spess muhrines

► Show Spoiler

You can get one in Act 3

► Show Spoiler

He’s a ******* Space Corgi too. I honestly would have been happier with ANY other Chapter save maybe the Ultrasmurfs

What grinds my gears is that they could've just made their own ******* chapter, or gone with FFG's Storm Wardens that have cause to be in the region. Big props for it not being Ultrasmurfs, but Space Yiffs are also (unfortunately) meh. For fucks sake, at least go with successor chapters. One of the defining traits of WH40k used to be "It's a big galaxy", and when they abandoned the setting and created nu41k, they basically made it capeshit in space.

[rusty_shackleford]

I was going to write a long post, but I deleted it and this is my summary:
they tricked me into playing a wh40k mod for wotr

[Reichspepe]

oh… I see… act 3

hm
might stop playing
I know it's just going to get worse from here on

it's just railroaded dialogue dumps about stupid **** I don't care about(stupid space elfs)

I get why people don't like the Commorragh part, but I think it's fun and really atmospheric

[Unhelpful Contrarian]

oh… I see… act 3

hm
might stop playing
I know it's just going to get worse from here on

it's just railroaded dialogue dumps about stupid **** I don't care about(stupid space elfs)

I get why people don't like the Commorragh part, but I think it's fun and really atmospheric

Act 3 in Rogue Trader is all the worst aspects of Pathfinder:WOTR Act 4 dial up to 11.

[Luckmann]

oh… I see… act 3

hm
might stop playing
I know it's just going to get worse from here on

it's just railroaded dialogue dumps about stupid **** I don't care about(stupid space elfs)

I get why people don't like the Commorragh part, but I think it's fun and really atmospheric

I HAVE SOARED ABOVE COMMORRAGH, AND SEEN SUCH THINGS

[Brother Michael]

I thoroughly enjoyed Commorragh. Yes, I was playing an officer (it wasn’t max difficulty thoughbeit). The marine is also pretty cool imo, doesn’t act like a human and is much more Viking than wolf.

[1998]

oh… I see… act 3

hm
might stop playing
I know it's just going to get worse from here on

it's just railroaded dialogue dumps about stupid **** I don't care about(stupid space elfs)

I get why people don't like the Commorragh part, but I think it's fun and really atmospheric

Act 3 in Rogue Trader is all the worst aspects of Pathfinder:WOTR Act 4 dial up to 11.

And that's when I dropped it. I am usually pretty good at finishing games, but they really seem to actively discourage people to do so.