Warhammer Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader Pre-Release Thread [GAME RELEASED, GO TO NEW THREAD]

[hivemind]

Pozfinder*

t. seething demon

 

[Fedora Master]

I dont care about D&D and never even saw any of Owlcat´s previous releases. I care about 40K PnP systems and I play the Alpha. I post my impressions on that basis. Also I like CYOA, space combat and colony management I have seen so far.

Well you'll be in for a rude surprise if you never experienced late game Owlcat

 

[Vermillion]

Considering Navies come from noble houses with equal or more power than Rogue Trader's ones, doing that should put you into a risk. Similar case with the niggres 'path, who is also essential for comms unless you have an offscreen spare somewhere.

I can do it because the Navigators had a number among them that just tried to kill the heir of their House. I can do whatever I want to them because the previous head was paranoid and equipped the entire house with a kill switch which now resides in Cassia. I can get away with it because their house is in decline and the Koronus Expanse is cut off from the rest of the Imperium. Also the unsanctioned Psyker is not used for comms, she's a Diviner, not a telepath. She also lacks the bond with the emperor and is overall useless for the job of astropathic communication. She is pretty good at summoning daemons larping as Theodora onto your ship, nearly sparking a civil war among your crew. She's also good at letting literal daemons of Tzeentch talk through her to mock you. The game stresses that she is a liability and gives you multiple chances to kill her after her first personal quest. Again, Theodora kept her around because she's a heretic.

 

[Tomas]

I just finished the Janus story/planet and without any spoilers let's just say it was awesome. Only the ending could be little more fleshed out.

Now changing topics and warning *SPOILERS* below.

I wonder if anyone has insights how to fight the first boss (the chaos machine on the void ship wreck). Every time the boss is attacked, he retaliates twice against random party members. Only way to not get hit is to have high dodge. It seems the counter attack triggers regardless if the boss is attacked in melee, ranged, indirect or psy. So entire party other than high dodge characters go down - it is not a problem now but could be in the full version with permanent injuries added in.

My second question is the space combat is very hard. I won only the first tutorial, and tried and failed the next two where I was outnumbered and outgunned. It seemed that may be the fights were winnable but would take a lot of time and damage on my ship. Can the fights be won, and do you get any other reward beside xp for winning?

 

[Vermillion]

I just finished the Janus story/planet and without any spoilers let's just say it was awesome. Only the ending could be little more fleshed out.

Now changing topics and warning *SPOILERS* below.

I wonder if anyone has insights how to fight the first boss (the chaos machine on the void ship wreck). Every time the boss is attacked, he retaliates twice against random party members. Only way to not get hit is to have high dodge. It seems the counter attack triggers regardless if the boss is attacked in melee, ranged, indirect or psy. So entire party other than high dodge characters go down - it is not a problem now but could be in the full version with permanent injuries added in.

My second question is the space combat is very hard. I won only the first tutorial, and tried and failed the next two where I was outnumbered and outgunned. It seemed that may be the fights were winnable but would take a lot of time and damage on my ship. Can the fights be won, and do you get any other reward beside xp for winning?

Just use military Excellence Heroic Feat and kill it with a burst of Bolter/autogun fire using the controlled burst ability and Overwhelming Firepower Strategy to increase your attacks even more.

Autogun gets 6 attacks with controlled burst, Pasqal strategist can add 4 more with overwhelming firepower. Military excellence negates the BS penalty and makes all 10 hits automatically score righteous fury (critical hits). You can remove almost all of its HP with this volley and a properly built Rogue Trader can have maximum dodge. You then finish it off with all the single shots military excellence will allow, then use run and gun to get a second burst fire off on it. Near guaranteed kill in one round. The rest of your party should be spread out so they can only be killed one at a time and they should focus down the Servo skulls first, then the Servitors. If your RT isn't a gunner, use Argenta, doesn't change the strategy much. Gunner is actually OP right now, followed by Heinrix's fighter class. Cassia can potentially let you deal increased damage with her lidless stare.

You can place your companions in good positions for the boss before you talk with the Tech Priest.

You can win all the ship fights, some fights are meant that you survive a number of rounds with infinite ships appearing. As you get ship XP your crew will unlock new ship actions that will make combat significantly easier. Eldar love Topedoes but otherwise aren't much of a threat. Dark Eldar are invulnerable until they take an action and have deadly prow attacks. On the flipside they have no shields and die quickly when exposed. Pirates are like you, strong broadsides, weak fronts. However they can warp jump. You generally want to place yourself behind the ships or force them to waste a turn getting into a firing arc with you. Always spam torpedoes, Argenta can give them a second turn and sometimes it's better to have the torpedoes explode for AOE damage than do a direct hit.

 

[Cryomancer]

Any psyker walktrough?

 

[Parsimonious cook]

I just finished the Janus story/planet and without any spoilers let's just say it was awesome. Only the ending could be little more fleshed out.

Now changing topics and warning *SPOILERS* below.

I wonder if anyone has insights how to fight the first boss (the chaos machine on the void ship wreck). Every time the boss is attacked, he retaliates twice against random party members. Only way to not get hit is to have high dodge. It seems the counter attack triggers regardless if the boss is attacked in melee, ranged, indirect or psy. So entire party other than high dodge characters go down - it is not a problem now but could be in the full version with permanent injuries added in.

My second question is the space combat is very hard. I won only the first tutorial, and tried and failed the next two where I was outnumbered and outgunned. It seemed that may be the fights were winnable but would take a lot of time and damage on my ship. Can the fights be won, and do you get any other reward beside xp for winning?

The boss you mention is indeed hard, IIRC it doesnt retaliate if you attack him from the rear, though perhaps I am missremembering here.

The space combat is very much doable, I never lost one. The key is to learn to maneuvre in a way that lets you use as many weapons per turn as possible, avoid enemy torpedoes (best done by getting close to them when they launch as they turn very slowly) and hit with your own. Also dont underestimate the skills in space combat, all of them are useful.

 

[Tomas]

I just finished the Janus story/planet and without any spoilers let's just say it was awesome. Only the ending could be little more fleshed out.

Now changing topics and warning *SPOILERS* below.

I wonder if anyone has insights how to fight the first boss (the chaos machine on the void ship wreck). Every time the boss is attacked, he retaliates twice against random party members. Only way to not get hit is to have high dodge. It seems the counter attack triggers regardless if the boss is attacked in melee, ranged, indirect or psy. So entire party other than high dodge characters go down - it is not a problem now but could be in the full version with permanent injuries added in.

My second question is the space combat is very hard. I won only the first tutorial, and tried and failed the next two where I was outnumbered and outgunned. It seemed that may be the fights were winnable but would take a lot of time and damage on my ship. Can the fights be won, and do you get any other reward beside xp for winning?

The boss you mention is indeed hard, IIRC it doesnt retaliate if you attack him from the rear, though perhaps I am missremembering here.

The space combat is very much doable, I never lost one. The key is to learn to maneuvre in a way that lets you use as many weapons per turn as possible, avoid enemy torpedoes (best done by getting close to them when they launch as they turn very slowly) and hit with your own. Also dont underestimate the skills in space combat, all of them are useful.

Thanks, I thought the boss occasionally did not counter attack but did not know why - so the back attack could be the answer. I'll try the ship battles again.

 

[razvedchiki]

can you raise any troops at your colonies?

 

[Vermillion]

can you raise any troops at your colonies?

Not really. Some planets produce people as a resource and some colonies can be upgraded to produce weapons as a resource. Occasionally you get a Colony upgrade that could be summed up as raising an army, or you could receive a trade deal (check your journal) which you can choose to do that requires a certain amount of people and weapons and can be summed up as you raising an army. There is no army raising like WoTR though. Likely when we get out of Alpha, they'll introduce more random events that can hit the colonies and will appear during warp transition. You already can get events like Janus developing a new strain of mutant human and the game will ask you what to do with them.

 

[razvedchiki]

who defends the colonies against attacks then?

 

[Reinhardt]

i hope i can go full scourge and purge

 

[Parsimonious cook]

who defends the colonies against attacks then?

There are security points among other things that the colonies can produce, but I havent seen an event in which a colony would be attacked as of yet - IMO this aspect will either be handled as a COYA event or the system for it isnt implemented yet.

 

[Cryomancer]

Can I go full chaos?

 

[Reinhardt]

yes, victor, they will add pronouns for you to chose.

 

[Storyfag]

Can I go full chaos?

Victor, oh my dear Victor...

THIS

is the Immortal God-Emperor of Mankind, and you want to serve the Chaos Gods instead?

 

[Reinhardt]

it's victor, he's waiting for slaanesh brothel to pay up for sex, like he did with lich.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Can I go full chaos?

Go ahead.
I got your back.

 

[Koolz]

Holy Shit how about that survey! I only did some of it just to let them know about my thoughts on music, placement, visuals, and space battles. I said I can't play the game.

But seeing as I have watched someone play the whole game....


Tone and writing for this Alpha is really good.

One wonders just how serious they will take peoples opinions on making the game bit more dark and have little more bite.

Better to give them examples they may check out and see for themselves what would improved space battles and visuals as a tone for Warhammer Lore.


We shall see...

 

[Cryomancer]

hey will add pronouns for you to chose.

I hope that they don't do it.

This ideology is a plague and don't help with accessibility. IDK about Slavic languages, but Latin based languages are very gendered and localization thanks to this woke BS becomes much harder. Now imagine Yeomi Park, an North Korean refugee which speaks English as her third language and suffered a lot seeing an woke upper middle class Kwan citizen crying in tears cuz she said the wrong pronouns...

is the Immortal God-Emperor of Mankind, and you want to serve the Chaos Gods instead?

Freedom. And if Tzeentch will win, so is better to be in the winning side.

Jokes aside, this is a owlcat game, in WoTR, Liches gets to do shit like reanimate a zealot crusader which invaded your ziggurat. Good guys get trannies, equality cultists, hippies and so on. So, I imagine that full chaos will be the superior experience but I probably will gonna play multiple times.

slaanesh brothel

Nope. The thing which I desire to the most in this game is to commit an Orc genocide

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

But here is another question. Can an non psyker becomes a psyker by mutagenics, making an pact with a Tzeentch cultist or shit like that? IDK much about Wokehammer lore.

 

[Storyfag]

Can I go full chaos?

Go ahead.
I got your back.

That's what the Commissar said!

 

[Storyfag]

And if Tzeentch will win

If.

But here is another question. Can an non psyker becomes a psyker by mutagenics, making an pact with a Tzeentch cultist or shit like that? IDK much about Wokehammer lore.

If the non-psyker gets a the psyker mutation, sure. Tzeentch pacts allow one to become a sorcerer, which is different than psyker but grants access to similar powers.

 

[Parsimonious cook]

Article on Drukhari, ie Dark Eldar: https://roguetrader.owlcat.games/news/en/18

EVIL INCARNATE
DECEMBER 20, 2022
Drukhari and their society


“The Drukhari see the other inhabitants of the Galaxy as little more than cattle, livestock that can be brought to bay or slaughtered at any time. Their fodder, however, is not meat and muscle, but the anguish and despair of the weak.”

— Inquisitor Lord Czevak

The Drukhari that feed on the suffering of others are the darkest branch of Aeldari, an ancient and technologically advanced race. Their ancestors ruled the stars long before Mankind first ventured outward from Terra, and over long millennia the ennui of their vast lifespans led them to ever greater acts of depravity and violence. Now, from the vast nightmare city of Commorragh nestled in the black heart of the Webway, the Drukhari launch their raids on the worlds of realspace, slaughtering to sustain their withered souls and gathering up terrified victims to take back to their morbid torture chambers.

Commorragh lies in the depths of the Webway, named by many in fearful whispers as the Dark City. Commorragh is to the greatest megalopolises of realspace as a soaring mountain is to a mound of termites. Its dimensions would be considered impossible if they could be read by conventional means, its population greater than that of whole star systems. Although called a city, Commorragh is more akin to a vast collection of satellite realms linked by myriad portals and hidden pathways, its far-flung nodes spread throughout the arteries of the Webway like a malevolent virus. While inside that Labyrinth dimension the gap between each sub-realm can be crossed with a single step, Commorragh’s clustered concentrations are in reality scattered across the galaxy, in some cases thousands of light-years apart.

Though the Dark City is a self-contained realm, hidden from the eyes of those outside the Webway, the Drukhari have a constant need to send their warriors on campaigns of slaughter. Only by launching massed raids across the galaxy can they feed their insatiable hunger for suffering, and secure the prisoners and resources that allow Commorragh to thrive.

To the sadistic Drukhari, the sweet fruit of horror is as pleasing as the caress of a razored blade across soft flesh. They relish breaking the bodies of their captives. Still, they prize even more highly the process of crushing their victims’ spirits, for nothing is more gratifying to the denizens of the Dark City than securing utter dominion over those who have resisted them. They drink in every nuance of woe until their captives gibber and plead for death – mercy the Drukhari are famously slow to grant.
The warriors of the Drukhari are tall and lithe without exception. Their alabaster skin is almost corpse-like in its pallor, for there is no true sunlight within their shadowy realm. Their athletic physiques are lined with whipcord muscle, honed and enhanced until they are superior even to those of their craftworld cousins — the Asuryani — for the warriors of Commorragh prize martial prowess most highly. But their magnificence is only skin deep — viewed with the witch-sight, Drukhari are repugnant monsters, eternally thirsting for the anguish of others in order to fill the aching void at their core.



Kabals
“You think to challenge me, pitiful human? I, the bane of empires, the father of pain. Let me educate you; I need a new pet…”

Archon K'shaic of the Kabal of the Bladed Lotus

In a society as treacherous as that of the Drukhari, a single power-hungry individual soon makes enemies. It is never long before the loner finds a dagger at their throat or feels nerve-searing poison flowing through their veins. Only those affiliated with Kabals enjoy any degree of security; there is safety in numbers, they say, and even in the shadow-haunted twilight realms of the Dark City this remains true. To kill a Kabalite is to commit a hostile action against their entire Kabal. Regardless of status, sect, or species, few Commorrites are prepared to make such an influential enemy without good reason, and those who do must ensure they have powerful friends of their own to protect them against the inevitable retribution.

Competition for Kabalite membership is beyond fierce, despite the varied and often violent initiation rites that must be undergone. The constant supply of fresh aspirants means that the Kabals themselves enjoy a kind of loose immortality. Each has the might to make its displeasure keenly felt should it be threatened or slighted.



Wych Cults
“I stand proudly, here on the stage of the battle, and I welcome all challengers. Do you hear through your thick walls the sounds of your dying comrades? Their pained wails are a thing of beauty, and will accompany me when I leave this place.”

Succubus Reethia Bleek

Commorragh exists in a delicate but well-established balance. Its citizens would gladly stab each other in the back just for the looks on their victims’ faces, for to witness another’s anguish is the only way the Drukhari have left to feed their withered souls. Yet for the ruling Archons of Commorragh to allow the natural bloodthirst of their kin to go unchecked would be to invite catastrophic civil war.
Because of their kind’s unending need to bathe in murderous sensations, the Drukhari have evolved the Hekatarii, known in common parlance as the Wych Cults. Each Wych Cult is a thousands-strong organization of gladiators that put on frequent displays of the most incredible brutality — not only for the edification of the masses but also for their literal sustenance. Such is the scale of the carnage staged by these armies of warrior-athletes that their audiences leave the arena with the glow of well-fed predators. In this way, the populace is kept from full-scale anarchy — at least, those residents of Commorragh wealthy enough to attend the Wych Cults’ nightly performances.



Covens of Haemonculi
A blade to the chest? How pedestrian. We left behind such base concepts long ago, dear heart. Let me introduce you to a far more interesting demise…’
Haemogarch Vant–his, Necromaester of the Dark Creed

The Haemonculi deal in body modification, drug distillation, and beauty elixirs. However, the true source of their power lies elsewhere. Every member of Commorrite society must eventually ask for their help, for the Haemonculi are masters of the flesh, be they alive or dead. Those of a like mind gather together into Covens, and each Coven occupies a vast demesne of cells and laboratories under the core of Commoragh . Here these diabolical figures slice and meld the flesh of those that fall into their clutches, savouring their pain as a gourmet would savour a fine meal.

To the Haemonculi, each foray into realspace is not so much an act of war as an exhibition of their talents. Members of a Coven will compete to create the most pleasingly abhorrent monstrosities in the lead-up to a raid, releasing them upon the foe and watching the results with interest. The Haemonculi consider such competition inspiring, and will offer a heartfelt compliment should their rivals’ creations achieve some especially impressive act of violence.



A Talent For Murder
Countless generations of conflict have ensured the Drukhari’s bodies are even more suited to physical combat than other elements of the Aeldari race, the innate psychic abilities possessed by their forebears have, by necessity, been allowed to atrophy. To channel the energies of the warp within the Dark City would be to invite disaster, for doing so could draw the gaze of the Chaos God Slaanesh, the one the Aeldari fearfully call ‘She Who Thirsts.’ As such, the use of psychic powers is one of the few things forbidden in Commorragh.

Still, collectively, the warriors of Commorragh know all the ways there are to kill the galaxy’s myriad creatures, and delight in perfecting as many as they can.

And soon, mon-keigh, you shall experience it firsthand.

“Spawned in the darkest pits of the universe, the piratical Aeldari are a curse upon all races of the galaxy. For untold thousands of years they have preyed upon us, stealing forth from the shadows and dark places on their raids of terror and violence; massacring or capturing all whose paths they cross. That they are utterly evil and inhuman is without question.”

High Lord Khouron — Imperial Commander of Astherax

 

[Peachcurl]

And if Tzeentch will win

If.

Also, the moment you "win", Tzeentch puts a knife in your back.

 

[Nortar]

Can I go full chaos?

Go ahead.
I got your back.

That's what the Commissar said!

An important correction.