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

[Parsimonious cook]

Alright M80s, time to look at the space combat and other space related stuff - but first lets see the ending of the act I:

The search for Heinrix takes you to an Ad Mech monastery overrun by the heretics who are apparently trying to blow up a relic reactor that is located there. As you make your way through, you encounter a tech priest infested with a schizmatical (another example of good use of the lore - schizmaticals are mentioned in one of the source books for Dark Heresy, they are basicaly malware that can infect tech priests, cogitators, servitors and other machines, really cool seeing such tidbits in the game).

You can approach the situation in several ways...

The tech priest can be saved with a series of successfull skill tests...

... and if you manage it he quickly bro-ups with Pasqual and becomes his assistant on the bridge, while compossing poetry on the side. I am sure he will play some role later on, but lets not get ahead of ourselves.

Once you solve the situation at the monastery, you finaly get to meet Heinrix...

... and it appears that things are finaly settling down. The chaos rebellion seems to be defeated and its leader slain. Time for a little party:

The devs basically decided to recreate the Thracian atrocity from the Eisenhorn books though, so things go to shit rather quickly and the Dark Eldar show up to steal the planet´s sun (!) as well (this is obviously a main story related stuff). Party is over and you find yourself in some deep shit. Time to leave.

As you fight your way to the space port through several fairly intense encounters, things get even worse though:

This is a huge difficulty spike right here. In the alpha I didnt see the chaoz space muhreens as too much of a threat (high level characters + high level gear), but here (at least on Core difficulty) things get realy baaaad. At this point I had two chain swords, a bolter and a bolt pistol, with the rest of the party carrying just lasguns and solid projectile weapons, so the standard attacks felt like throwing stones at a tank.

Its a well designed fight - you get wawes of mooks, an extremely dangerous sniper on the far side of the map AND the spehz muhreen with a multimelta and chain sword, who can easily one shot characters. Fortunately he is busy wrecking shuttles to keep you from flying away, but even so, he is a major threat. The fight requires heavy use of skills and talents to buff your characters and debuff the muhreen and good tactics to deal with the sniper too, while working on him.

Once you make it off-world, you get to decide what to do with the planet, which is now obviously falling to chaos, but after that there comes a really cool sequence regarding your first warp jump and the drive malfunction that happens as you launch it.

Its fully done through dialogue and skill checks, but it is really tense (especially coming on the heels of the difficult fight at the space port) and helping Pasqual to solve the problem felt p. satisfying tbh fam. Good shit.

Once you exit the warp at Footfall, the next act begins - there are a few new things since the alpha, like this part of Argenta´s personal quest...

... though basicaly its the stuff I covered a while back in the alpha-releted posts.


Onto the space stuff then.

There are some interface changes noticeble right off the bat, for example on the star map:

Alpha

Beta

Combat in Alpha

Combat in Beta

Things look more polished now, the really big addition to combat is the posibility to ram enemy ships. Eldar ships can now be fired upon even when cloaked (IIRC this wasnt the case in the alpha), though with lower chance to hit. I wonder if the starfighters will be added at some point...

The ship management is a thing now and a trader with ship components was added to the Furibunds system (where Footfall is located).

Plenty of stuff is not yet implemented, but in general I like what I see. The ship is basically another character in the PnP Rogue Trader and the game is definitely moving in that direction now.

The colony management also got a facelift...

Alpha

Beta

... again, looks better, though there dont seem to be that many changes in terms of functionality so far.


In any case, shit is sooo cash tbh fam. So far I played the beta for 30 hours, made it through the first act and now I explored like five systems after the game opened up.

 

[Aarwolf]

Imperialis is still superior path, you can get her to help you kill xenos from her craftworld and then after that you can just execute her on the spot.

I am pleasantly surprised by reactivity you have if you try to kill her on spot on Janus the first time you see her. If you side with her, she shows you everything, but if you try to kill her, you have to uncover everything yourself, by storybook event, or rather three staged big event, when you can have different approaches backed by your officers and correspodning skill checks. To me it was very satisfying roleplay wise, because I had to carefully choose what skills I will use and what outcomes it can end up with. In the end I felt rewarded, because tracking the rebel base was full my agency, not Yrliet's.

 

[Bohrain]

I have to hand it to the them that they do the setting justice. In just about every other RPG I can think of the companions and the world at large expects you to be an altruist that tries to seek the nonviolent option. But in this game it's very much the norm that human life is expendable and vast majority of you companions insist on dealing with heretics and xenos with a bullet to the head. And it stands out since you do have the option to talk things out.

 

[Mauman]

Imagine being eldar. Created by literal gods to be the perfect psychic weapon.

Wait....this is a thing? I knew about about the Old Ones making Orks, but I totally missed this.

Boy I sure do hope those gods kept the receipts then, because their weapons were beyond defective :/

 

[lightbane]

Fun fact: The Old Ones also created humanity, but the purpose is unknown, possibly some psychic weapon with minimal limitations to see what happens. My headcannon is that they were meant to be stronger than Eldar as a final failsafe if the Eldar... Failed. That's why they're so butthurt around humies.

 

[Joyvankek]

Fun fact: The Old Ones also created humanity, but the purpose is unknown, possibly some psychic weapon with minimal limitations to see what happens. My headcannon is that they were meant to be stronger than Eldar as a final failsafe if the Eldar... Failed. That's why they're so butthurt around humies.

There are some theories that they seeded Earth with life, just like they did used to do on other planets. But there are no solid evidence of that.
They didn't handcrafted Humans like they did with Orks or Eldars. At least I never saw anything that would imply otherwise.
There is a theory though. That the Emperor was created by one of them, after they realized just how much they fucked our galaxy. To give Humans some chance to survive.(I personally like this theory much more than the shaman mass suicide. Since it also explain why no other species like Eldars for example, run with their own versions of Empror.)

Imagine being eldar. Created by literal gods to be the perfect psychic weapon.

Wait....this is a thing? I knew about about the Old Ones making Orks, but I totally missed this.

Boy I sure do hope those gods kept the receipts then, because their weapons were beyond defective :/

It's get even better, Eldars backstabbed their own creators, and later on stole a lot of their tech. There was also something about Eldars screwing Orks somehow, making them weaker than they used to be initially.

 

[Bohrain]

Was it ever explicitly said that the Old Ones made anything besides eldar and orks? I thought it was just stated that they spread life in some form to bunch of planets.

 

[Joyvankek]

Was it ever explicitly said that the Old Ones made anything besides eldar and orks? I thought it was just stated that they spread life in some form to bunch of planets.

This.
I also remember they didn't want to interfere with life at all. Which caused the War in Heaven in the first place. They refused to help Necrontyr with their miserable existence.
As you may imagine it was a hard sell to a species that evolved on shithole bathed in so much of radiation that their existence was both short an painful.

They only started to create species for war(Eldars and Orks) when they got desperate.

 

[Maculo]

Fun fact: The Old Ones also created humanity, but the purpose is unknown, possibly some psychic weapon with minimal limitations to see what happens. My headcannon is that they were meant to be stronger than Eldar as a final failsafe if the Eldar... Failed. That's why they're so butthurt around humies.

I assumed perpetuals were the end product (i.e., endlessly resurrecting/reincarnating psykers), which would piss off the necrons. I also remember any other race having perpetuals in the same sense.

 

[Joyvankek]

Fun fact: The Old Ones also created humanity, but the purpose is unknown, possibly some psychic weapon with minimal limitations to see what happens. My headcannon is that they were meant to be stronger than Eldar as a final failsafe if the Eldar... Failed. That's why they're so butthurt around humies.

I assumed perpetuals were the end product (i.e., endlessly resurrecting/reincarnating psykers), which would piss off the necrons.

There is nothing that would hint that it was doing of Old Ones.
The perpetuals either came to be on their own, or some people achieved this during the Golden Age of Technology by unknown or possibly lost means.
We also had Cabal(An alliance of ancient xenos) that were very advanced and were capable of creating perpetuals, for example John Grammaticus.

 

[MartinK]

I watched some gameplay videos and this game has really poorly designed visuals. The ship’s interior consts of botomless abyss with layers of wide platforms over it and all the machinery is relatively small. My expectation was one of a maze of narrow catwalks around machines spanning several decks. The hull is milenia old and likely was rebuild and modernized countless times yet everything is perfectly uniform, how come? Also why are there candles thick as elephan’s leg scattered all around the place? I know they are all over Warhammer illustrations too, but in these they are in places where they make some sense and they are just regular sized candles. Who keeps these lit anyway? I suppose it would be funny if they were revealed to be those fake plastic candles with LED in place of flame, but this kind of humor isn’t something I expect out of Warhammer.

It commits the worst crime art direction can do these days. Feels like an AI did it.

 

[Sunri]

Add those helmet patterns for SoB to the game

 

[lightbane]

assumed perpetuals were the end product (i.e., endlessly resurrecting/reincarnating psykers),

That's an invention of the HH books alone I think. As for the having created humanity bit, it was outright stated it so in an old book called Xenobiology IIRC.

 

[Tyranicon]

Sad story for ork lovers: the orks actually designed by the old ones (krork) were larger, stronger, had gear more sophisticated than what exists today, and might have had some kind of gestalt intelligence that made them super smart.

Of course, Trazyn has one in his collection.

just regular sized candles. Who keeps these lit anyway? I suppose it would be funny if they were revealed to be those fake plastic candles with LED in place of flame, but this kind of humor isn’t something I expect out of Warhammer.

Servo-skulls or actual human menials. Not really out of place in 40k.

Effective? No. Grimdark toil? Yes.

 

[Maculo]

Fun fact: The Old Ones also created humanity, but the purpose is unknown, possibly some psychic weapon with minimal limitations to see what happens. My headcannon is that they were meant to be stronger than Eldar as a final failsafe if the Eldar... Failed. That's why they're so butthurt around humies.

I assumed perpetuals were the end product (i.e., endlessly resurrecting/reincarnating psykers), which would piss off the necrons.

There is nothing that would hint that it was doing of Old Ones.
The perpetuals either came to be on their own, or some people achieved this during the Golden Age of Technology by unknown or possibly lost means.
We also had Cabal(An alliance of ancient xenos) that were very advanced and were capable of creating perpetuals, for example John Grammaticus.

Oh jeez, I don’t remember the Cabal being able to create perpetuals. I even read one of the main books introducing that.

 

[Owlcat_Eyler]

Owlcat_Eyler I forgot to bring this up in the survey:

The level-up system needs to take into account previously taken upgrades. Right now if you have two levelups and you take, for example, Biomancy - you can not get any Biomancy powers. They will only appear the third time you'll get a level-up. Basically, ability/talent lists do not get refreshed to consider prerequisites until leveling is fully completed, even if you have multiple levels stockpiled.

Copy that.

 

[Storyfag]

Fun fact: The Old Ones also created humanity, but the purpose is unknown

I liked the explanation proposed by root

 

[Parabalus]

Are the two psyker classes in the beta playable?

Or stick to the pregens?

 

[Riso]

The collector's edition is the only way to get the art book? Meh.

 

[SpaceWizardz]

Are the two psyker classes in the beta playable?

They have their abilities but there's no special dialogue or reactivity.
Biomancy Fighter is pretty top tier at the moment.

 

[Serious_Business]

In any case, shit is sooo cash tbh fam.

I prohibit the use of such base unintelligible langage. Shit is not "cash", and even if it was it would still be shit. Get back to your fucking tribe boyo, or your "fam", as you put it. "To be honest", fuck off. Die. In a "so cash" way, if you need to, the options are there.

 

[Parsimonious cook]

Fun fact: The Old Ones also created humanity, but the purpose is unknown

I liked the explanation proposed by root

My impression was that humanity was a failed experiment (not as strong as the Krork and not as psychically powerful as Eldar) that the Old Ones simply discarded and focused on what seemed to be more promising.

In any case, shit is sooo cash tbh fam.

I prohibit the use of such base unintelligible langage. Shit is not "cash", and even if it was it would still be shit. Get back to your fucking tribe boyo, or your "fam", as you put it. "To be honest", fuck off. Die. In a "so cash" way, if you need to, the options are there.

Y so serious nigga? I just make cultural references to the times when 4chin produced cool content.

 

[S.H.O.D.A.N.]

War in Heavens ended 60 million years before the current timeline. If the Old Ones had plans for Humanity, none of them survived that amount of unchecked evolution. They could have been trying to create 40k Lizardmen, for all we know.

 

[bobocrunch]

I'm not sure if somebody said something about that (probably yes), but what with writing? I'm not asking about lore schticks, a bit more about overall quality and quantity. I was turned by their last game, WoT, and countless pages of childish, teen-giggling, occasionally simply boring writing. No matter if you are dwarf, humar, assimar or a vampire, nearly nobody acknowledges this.. Also, I cannot not to mention about Anevia-Irabeth questline.
I know it's from the original campaign, but still, Owlcat, and all this knee-pandering, made this impenetrable for me. I know that for Codexers writing is not important, personally I also don't respect gaming writers graphomania (with exceptions), but, no matter if we like this or not, that is a big part of modern RPG.

So, how it looks in this game? Did escape from Paizo contracts made Owlcat writing any better?

I fucking hated Pathfinder for the exact reasons you explained, it's 100x better in Rogue Trader. It's replaced with the technobabble typical of 40k and there's a few people who delve into the zany territory sometimes (the psyker) but it's not every character like the Pathfinder games. I don't have any specific examples but as someone who's triggered more by bad nuwriting than anything else in RPGs nowadays, I'm pleasantly surprised given their past work and enjoy how much more grim it is.

 

[Longes]

What I'm getting more and more in Rogue Trader is that your predecessor was incredibly, comically heretical, and you get to either clean up or continue her shitshow. Every planet in Theodora's domain is full of chaos infestations, Janus' governor is almost openly a Slaanesh cultist, Theodora was messing about with a Tzeentchian artifact right before she died, she had a chaos-tainted gun in her secret armory, and her unsanctioned pet psyker Idira talks mad shit about the Imperium while she's summoning demons through the Gellar field and losing control. Because no, despite her assurances to the contrary, Idira is stupid enough to go fishing for Theodora's soul in the Warp. Meanwhile, her Senechal's family is in de facto control of her empire and would really like for you to legally pass even more power to them.