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

[Infinitron]

Official upload:

You will not explore the mysteries of the Koronus Expanse alone. Meet the companions who will help you to build and defend your flourishing trade protectorate, ranging from mysterious psykers to the holiest warriors of the God-Emperor. Study their dossiers closely, there is much critical information!
And if you wish, it will be possible to bring a friend along for the ride in co-op mode! This mode will be available on PC at launch and arrive a little bit later on consoles!

 

[Cryomancer]

I hope that will be conflicts among companions, if you have a inquisitor, a eldar, a unsanctioned psyker and a sister of battle in the same party, they should be on odds with each other.

 

[Aarwolf]

For those who missed it:

Warhammer 40K: Rogue Trader’s devs want to capitalize on 2023’s CRPG obsession
Romance, tactical combat, and cooperative multiplayer make party-building even more enticing. Good combat is not everything in role-playing games, but it sure doesn’t hurt. And in Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader, combat is looking pretty damn good.

The upcoming computer role-playing game from Owlcat Games has been in closed beta since June, and thus far, we’ve had a blast digging into its companion recruitment, intergalactic politics, and heaps of grimdark lore. Of the myriad games set in Games Workshop’s sci-fi universe, Rogue Trader’s world is already shaping up to be one of the most engrossing. And based on what Owlcat showed me during a hands-off demo of late-game content last week, it’s not skimping on the tactical options, either.

“This battle is about 80 hours into the game, so this party is pretty powerful,” Alexander Mishulin, creative director at Owlcat, tells me as he moves the group toward a combat encounter. “It will take a while to upgrade your party this much. But you absolutely can.” His own create-a-character is accompanied by five companions: Abelard, his first officer; Idira, an unsanctioned psyker; Jae, a smuggler and tactician; Pasqual, a tech-priest of the Adeptus Mechanicus faction; and, finally, Marazhai, a previously unannounced Drukhari (dark elf). Taken together, the group is as vibrant as it is imposing — even compared to the group of Necrons waiting in a darkened pit up ahead.
Once the fight starts, Mishulin guides each character into cover (or, in Marazhai’s case, to an empty space at the center of the battlefield, the better to draw enemy fire and rely on his high dodge chance) in preparation. Mishulin voices his thought process alongside every move he makes: Abelard is a sturdy tank and will fare better in close-quarters combat. Pasqual should hang back in order to buff his teammates. Jae, a strong fighter and intelligent strategist, will be tweaking the turn order to the party’s advantage, and granting extra attacks every chance Mishulin gets.

As the fight unfolds, so too does a web of XCOM 2-level tactical decisions. There are four charge-rifle-wielding Necrons on the field, along with several swarms of smaller bugs. The catch? There are also two glowing green “matrices” that will summon more Necrons if Mishulin doesn’t deal with them quickly enough. The fight becomes a balance between removing the enemies already in the fray and preventing reinforcements from causing further problems. In other words: Every turn counts.

Midway through the pitched battle, Mishulin points out a momentum meter above his Drukhari’s UI. If the party’s momentum drops too low (from taking damage or missing shots) Mishulin can activate a “Desperate Measure.” If they accrue enough momentum (by landing shots or killing enemies) he can use a “Heroic Act.” Both will grant temporary benefits (Mishulin says the latter is generally more powerful) but the results will vary depending on the character who uses the ability. Mishulin activates it for Marazhai, who proceeds to kill two Necrons with his dual blades in one turn.

Mishulin proceeds to make efficient work of the Necrons. (I get the sense that the battle will not go nearly as well for me.) He uses Pasqual to buff the front line from a safe spot, before destroying both matrices with damage-focused duos. It’s a far cry from the battles I’ve seen during the current beta, which, although compelling, have revolved around my much cruder party. Mishulin’s group looks less like a loose collection of misfits and more a stalwart corps of battle-hardened veterans.

I can’t help drawing parallels to my current obsession: Baldur’s Gate 3. Larian Studios’ CRPG has not only sold far better than its creative director anticipated, but also ignited public forums and Polygon staff DMs with conversations about another unlikely band of friends: Astarion, Shadowheart, Gale, and Lae’zel, to name some. Baldur’s Gate 3 is nothing short of a phenomenon, and it’s proven that CRPGs, despite their presumed niche-ness, still hold quite a lot of clout. It’s an exciting time for fans of role-playing, and I imagine it must be exciting for Owlcat. I mention as much to Mishulin as he closes down the demo.

“Baldur’s Gate 3’s success is very encouraging,” he says. “Larian Studios is doing great work, and as a result, they’re bringing even more people into the CRPG genre, and renewing a lot of passion for it. Ideally, when those players all finally finish Baldur’s Gate 3 [laughs] they’ll be even more ready to dive into Rogue Trader.”

Perhaps because it’s the first cool, breezy day in New York after several weeks of sweltering summer heat, or perhaps because I’m thinking about Shadowheart literally all the time, my mind turns to romance. On the one hand, Warhammer 40,000 is set in a depressing world predicated on conflict, greed, and lies. But on the other hand, Rogue Trader an RPG that’s set to be released not long after one of the horniest RPGs of all time. Can love bloom in a grimdark universe?

“We have had a lot of fun adding romance to such a dark universe,” Mishulin says. “As you can imagine, romance in 40K is not like it is in other worlds — here, it’s a lot of arranged marriages and political maneuvering. But we’ve had a ton of fun figuring out out-of-the-box ways to incorporate it in Rogue Trader, and we can’t wait for people to see it.”

Just how that romance will unfold alongside Rogue Trader’s nuanced tactical combat, intergalactic politicking, and cooperative multiplayer (which Owlcat just announced at Gamescom today) remains to be seen. Personally, I can’t wait to find out.

Warhammer 40K: Rogue Trader is currently in closed beta for pre-order players, and will be released “soon” on Windows PC.

https://webcache.googleusercontent....e-trader-companions-drukhari-marazhai-preview

 

[Infinitron]

The link works now.

 

[Jermu]

no gay companions and only 1 lesbian? outrageous

 

[Zayne]

no gay companions and only 1 lesbian? outrageous

Ye, I was hoping for gay sex with furry spacemarine to relive those sweet BG3 memories.

 

[jaekl]

They look like a bunch of homos therefore they're a bunch of homos

 

[Infinitron]

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/2186680/view/3690190742419217370

Co-op mode is here!
Today we have great news for you!

In our new game, Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader, we've introduced a lot of unique and unusual mechanics that were not present in our previous projects. We decided to not stop there and took it a step further.

Since the very first day we started working on Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader, we've concluded that travelling across the Koronus Expanse with a friend would be a lot more fun, and now we're excited to finally announce it! Cooperative mode will be available on PC at launch and introduced to consoles at a later date!

We'll be back with the details soon enough, but for now - stay tuned!

 

[Dishonoredbr]

I don't see much purpose on Co-Op on CRPG.. I just hope they don't fall into Larian pitfall of making Single Player worse because of it.

 

[Space Satan]

I don't see much purpose on Co-Op on CRPG.. I just hope they don't fall into Larian pitfall of making Single Player worse because of it.

Twitch friends are having great time with coop runs. They are unusually fun this way

 

[Owlcat_Eyler]

I don't see much purpose on Co-Op on CRPG.. I just hope they don't fall into Larian pitfall of making Single Player worse because of it.

Yeah, well, coop is an additional feature, not the main one. Single Player still remains an utmost priority, of course

 

[Yosharian]

Companions look pretty cool, can't wait to see how they ruined the game with some sort of strategic minigame stuck onto the side of the game like some cancerous growth

 

[processdaemon]

Companions look pretty cool, can't wait to see how they ruined the game with some sort of strategic minigame stuck onto the side of the game like some cancerous growth

I think that's just going to be the space combat that was already in the beta, which I thought was fine. I also enjoyed kingdom management and the crusade fights though so it's possible that my opinions on minigames shouldn't be trusted.

 

[Tyranicon]

The first and only co-op cRPG experience I've had was playing through BG3.

It was super painful and buggy as hell. I can't really imagine why anyone would want to play a cRPG of all things in multiplayer.

Grab a few source books and just run a tabletop game. It'll be vastly more fun.

 

[Abu Antar]

I have played both Original Sins in MP. We had zero problems. I am playing DOS2 in four player MP, and everything is going great.

 

[S.torch]

There's a lot of husbando potential here, and unlike Pathfinder there are some girls who look interesting too.

 

[TheDarkUrge]

Co-op will be cool
Golden age of CRPGs

 

[Rhobar121]

The first and only co-op cRPG experience I've had was playing through BG3.

It was super painful and buggy as hell. I can't really imagine why anyone would want to play a cRPG of all things in multiplayer.

Grab a few source books and just run a tabletop game. It'll be vastly more fun.

This was to be expected given the success of DOS2. I guess only Obsidian is too stubborn and stupid to do that.

 

[Axel_am]

Co-op sounds nice on paper but I have my doubts how well it's going to perform on lunch. Playing multiplayer CRPGs is cool but it's really hard to finish the whole game due to how long they are. Still tho, I'm glad Rogue Trader is getting it.

The companion models look pretty good. The ones I don't like that much are Abelard and Idira. I was expecting Abelard to look much older. On the other hand they have nailed Ulfar and Heinrix.

 

[Harthwain]

To me the problem isn't the existence of co-op per se, but rather what kind of team activities there can be excluding tactical combat (which is better solo, when you control the entire team).

 

[mediocrepoet]

What have they done to you? I never should've let the Russians take you!

 

[Jaedar]

I hope that will be conflicts among companions, if you have a inquisitor, a eldar, a unsanctioned psyker and a sister of battle in the same party, they should be on odds with each other.

The ordo xenos frequently has shaky cooperative deals with eldar, and more radical inquisitors might not shy away from an unsanctioned psyker.

But yes, I really hope that at some point the game gives a massive fuck you to anyone who thought it was a good idea to bring along an unsanctioned psyker. Something like: "here's a mandatory hard boss battle at the end of a 3 hour dungeon where you can't change party members in the middle, and at the start of the battle she explodes hitting the entire party for 1d10 damage ignoring armor/tb and summons 1d6 bloodletters".

I doubt it though.

 

[Parsimonious cook]

Co-op sounds OK, I remember playing Neverwinter Nights in with several people ages ago and it was fun. It would be good if the game had some co-op only quests (like lets say larger space battles that only multiple ships could suceed at)... we will see what kind of stuff will be in.

 

[Cyberarmy]

Co-op? More like bugs galore. It is the most useless gimmick to put in this game imho.

 

[Reinhardt]

i played iwd 2 with frens. and dungeon siege.