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

[processdaemon]

My paranoia, or my common sense at this point, is telling me that they delayed the announcement of the xenos after the companion trailer because his romantic preference is something outrageous.

I'd guess that he goes both ways and that they wanted to avoid getting the kind of criticism they got over the only gay male romance option in Kingmaker being a chaotic evil bisexual.

 

[Fedora Master]

Regardless of how well you run your kingdom it all goes to shit the same way in the last act.

Your kingdom doesn't go to shit, if you don't go into the final act.

Played the game twice and never saw incentive to antagonize the Lantern King over Nyrissa. You're a king, your duty is to your subjects first and foremost. Endangering them because you feel sorry for fey girl with puppy eyes is beyond stupid. If you want to fuck Lantern up, you can always make a deal with Shyka.

Nyrissa starts a fey invasion no matter what to force your hand. Besides, what I actually mean is that even a perfectly well run kingdom isn't more resilient to her bullshit than some backwater hellhole. There really aren't any story incentives to Make The Stolen Lands Great Again other than feeling good about the ending slides. The best features are the weapons and teleport circles.

 

[Jaedar]

My paranoia, or my common sense at this point, is telling me that they delayed the announcement of the xenos after the companion trailer because his romantic preference is something outrageous.

To be fair, deldar sexual preferences should be ridiculously depraved according to the lore. They are the actual survivors/inheritors of the people who made Slaanesh after all (unlike craftworld eldar who were basically the hippies of the eldar race).

 

[Trithne]

My paranoia, or my common sense at this point, is telling me that they delayed the announcement of the xenos after the companion trailer because his romantic preference is something outrageous.

To be fair, deldar sexual preferences should be ridiculously depraved according to the lore. They are the actual survivors/inheritors of the people who made Slaanesh after all (unlike craftworld eldar who were basically the hippies of the eldar race).

Exodites are really the Eldar hippies.

Craftworlders are more like RETVRN Tradcath Eldar - They wear (both literal and metaphorical) masks to control their urges and suppress their personalities in service of strict societal rules. Those that can't handle this become outcasts, sort of hippies.

Corsairs are probably the most "balanced" Eldar, they're just capricious mercenary dicks, without the Craftworlders' repression or the Commoraghites' forced depravity. (Recall that the Dark Eldar kinda have to take their natural tendencies to the extreme in order to stave off She Who Thirsts)

 

[skaraher]

Regardless of how well you run your kingdom it all goes to shit the same way in the last act.

Your kingdom doesn't go to shit, if you don't go into the final act.

Played the game twice and never saw incentive to antagonize the Lantern King over Nyrissa. You're a king, your duty is to your subjects first and foremost. Endangering them because you feel sorry for fey girl with puppy eyes is beyond stupid. If you want to fuck Lantern up, you can always make a deal with Shyka.

Killing Nyrissa kickstart the final act, no ?

 

[Fedora Master]

Regardless of how well you run your kingdom it all goes to shit the same way in the last act.

Your kingdom doesn't go to shit, if you don't go into the final act.

Played the game twice and never saw incentive to antagonize the Lantern King over Nyrissa. You're a king, your duty is to your subjects first and foremost. Endangering them because you feel sorry for fey girl with puppy eyes is beyond stupid. If you want to fuck Lantern up, you can always make a deal with Shyka.

Killing Nyrissa kickstart the final act, no ?

You know what I mean. The endgame where you're forced to go to the House. Technically it's the fifth act I guess.

 

[Roguey]

You know what I mean. The endgame where you're forced to go to the House. Technically it's the fifth act I guess.

It doesn't really matter how well-run a country is if there's an active magical menace trying to make it collapse.

 

[mediocrepoet]

I doubt they'll do better than Storm of Zehir and even that merchant game wasn't exactly amazing, just... not terrible.

SoZ was cool, eat a dick.

 

[Desiderius]

Has Owlcat actually said what the new minigame thing is going to be?

Master of Orion

So, please don't use that specific comparison. I don't have any real feelings for HOMM so when people whine that what they made wasn't anywhere near HOMM, I don't care.

But you can't namedrop MOO re: probably too shallow minigames.

They would have made it into something close (they even had the actual HoMM devs) if all you phaggots hadn’t made it so obvious that you’d bitch and moan about whatever they did that they didn’t bother.

 

[Grunker]

I doubt they'll do better than Storm of Zehir and even that merchant game wasn't exactly amazing, just... not terrible.

SoZ was cool, eat a dick.

I liked SoZ?

Well, apart from the engine

 

[ArchAngel]

I doubt they'll do better than Storm of Zehir and even that merchant game wasn't exactly amazing, just... not terrible.

SoZ was cool, eat a dick.

I found it best of the 3 NWN2 games. It felt most like BG1 which is my favorite IE game.

 

[Nikanuur]

And now, for the most important topic of any RPG.

The shots feel satisfying, and the game has a completely different vibe and graphics when compared to the Pathfinders. Man, I'm hyped as a Unicorn seeing itself in the mirror for the first time and starting to believe the Unicorns truly exist.

 

[Desiderius]

I wish you all would move this kingdom talk to one of the two Pathfinder topics. No need to spam this one.

Impossible to talk about new Owlcat titles without mentioning the old ones at some point. You better arm yourself with patience once the companion comparisons begin.

This is no longer comparisons. They are even now spending pages comparing two pathfinder games. That is not for this topic.

"Minigame Suxxors!" is a different kind of nerfbat but that's what it is all the same. If you don't want your Trading Empire/Spaceward Ho! piece of this game strangled in the crib before it can get the development it needs to function properly you're going to have to revise the conventional wisdom on the previous games.

 

[Axel_am]

I'd guess that he goes both ways and that they wanted to avoid getting the kind of criticism they got over the only gay male romance option in Kingmaker being a chaotic evil bisexual.

Probably both ways, yes. They flagged Owlcat for Daeran? Really? I thought he was hilarious. If anything I am more surprised he likes women as well.

To be fair, deldar sexual preferences should be ridiculously depraved according to the lore. They are the actual survivors/inheritors of the people who made Slaanesh after all (unlike craftworld eldar who were basically the hippies of the eldar race).

This makes things better. I thought the evil elf in the party is just going to be bi/homo just for the sake of being the first evil gay space elf or some stupid shit like that.

 

[Desiderius]

They flagged Owlcat for Daeran?

Regongar, Daeran was the update. And Sosiel.

 

[Axel_am]

Right, my bad. Mixed up the titles.

Yeah, Regongar was very in your face with it. I can see people getting mad over him easily. The fact that I'm mixing them up speaks volumes on how inclusive games are. Not a bad thing but definitely something that should be dealt with a delicate touch.

 

[Desiderius]

It's not in your face beyond being there at all.

It's there because sexuality (including deviant sexuality) was injected into the genre, but it's easily shut down because even the devs know its wrong on some level even if their brainworms won't let them think about why. It has nothing to do with inclusion.

If you're going to have deviant sexuality an Orcish prisoner is the natural place for it, as is a decadent noble scarred by a powerful entity taking advantage of a situation that left him vulnerable to enter him and exploit him for its own purposes. Similar story with Astarion. These of course are real things, but not all real things belong in every genre. Sosiel was fake on multiple levels.

I'm sure Infinitron will remove this post, but will still be interesting to see if Rogue Trader can avoid this trap altogether. Probably not. Yet.

 

[Jaesun]

Is anyone actually playing the beta for this currently?

 

[Axel_am]

It's not in your face beyond being there at all.

It's there because sexuality (including deviant sexuality) was injected into the genre, but it's easily shut down because even the devs know its wrong on some level even if their brainworms won't let them think about why. It has nothing to do with inclusion.

If you're going to have deviant sexuality an Orcish prisoner is the natural place for it, as is a decadent noble scarred by a powerful entity taking advantage of a situation that left him vulnerable to enter him and exploit him for its own purposes. Similar story with Astarion. These of course are real things, but not all real things belong in every genre. Sosiel was fake on multiple levels.

I'm sure Infinitron will remove this post, but will still be interesting to see if Rogue Trader can avoid this trap altogether. Probably not. Yet.

He invites you to a threesome 5 minutes after you've met him and Octavia. He also leaves the strong impression that he wouldn't mind banging/getting banged by the MC solely. On top of that his favorite food is a Succulent Sausage which is also pretty gay. Not that much in your face tho.

Is anyone actually playing the beta for this currently?

I've been watching Retcon Raider on YouTube. He has 16 parts of 45~ minutes each uploaded currently. Hasn't released a Rogue Trader video in awhile but his style should be to the liking of most codexers.

 

[skaraher]

If you got more romance point with Octavia than him, he offers her to you in an unavoidable capital dialogue.

 

[Axel_am]

If you got more romance point with Octavia than him, he offers her to you in an unavoidable capital dialogue.

That's pretty nice of him. I didn't romance anybody on my Kingmaker playthrough. Just turned down Valerie. If I had to do it again I'd probably pick Kalikke or Kanerah.

 

[Infinitron]

https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/cr...to-matter-says-warhammer-40k-rogue-trader-dev

CRPGs need to be vast for your choices to matter, says Warhammer 40K: Rogue Trader dev​

"That's the reason why our game is so long."

Earlier this week I attended a hands-off preview for Owlcat's forthcoming CRPG Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader, which is shaping up nicely, inasmuch as there's anything "nice" about a Warhammer 40,000 game. Rogue Trader is a party-based affair in which you play a sort of Warhammer East India Company, tasked with flipping outlying worlds to the Imperium. In order to carry out this goal, you're granted a lot more individual license than most human residents of the 40K universe. You can, for instance, recruit ungodly xenos to your grimdark troupe, operate a private armada, and even colonise planets and turn them into your own personal piggybank. Just watch you don't push the whole "heresy" thing too far.

I'll have more for you on the subject soonish, but here's an interesting advance snippet from my interview with Owlcat's creative director Alexander Mishulin, in which we discussed what really distinguishes a CRPG from other kinds of role-playing game. According to Mishulin, it's all about designing for choices with consequences that genuinely run the entire length of the game, without (somehow) getting lost in the narrative undergrowth.

"In our opinion, the focus we put in our games is on crises, consequences and reactions," Mishulin told me. "So when you make a decision, you should be able to see what it leads to, and you should be able to see your companions react to your particular decision, whether they like it or not. Sometimes the consequences should be rather harsh, or hard to deal with." He gave the example of Space Marine and Inquisitor characters leaving your Rogue Trader party, and even becoming ferocious enemies, if you flirt a little too conspicuously with aliens and blasphemers.



"I'm not saying that all of your decisions have so much impact on your party and other characters - it would be rather difficult to play!" Mishulin added. "But there are some very important decisions you can make and face the consequences throughout the gameplay that go all the way to the epilogues."

Having choices that take a while to play out naturally requires Owlcat's CRPGs to be on the lengthy side: Rogue Trader is designed to last 100 hours or so. "That's the reason why our game is so long, because we have to have space for this, if you're making those kind of decisions," Mishulin said. "Of course, there are some direct consequences, but it's far more interesting when some of the consequences are delayed, and you face them further into the game, and you understand how it is all connected together. Of course it's not the only reason - another is that we just like to have a lot of features and content, but yeah, we're really interested in decisions, consequences and reactions."

One question all this leaves me with is: what's the most effective way to ensure that we can always trace the evolution and outcomes of choices we've made across 100 hours of play, particularly if we take a break? I've had to pause my Baldur's Gate 3 playthrough, for instance, what with all the Starfield in the air right now, and with every day that passes, I'm aware that certain cause-and-effect chains are dissipating from my grey matter. At the very least, when I fire the game up again, I'll have to reacquaint myself with the logic behind my character progression and equipment. Give it a week, and I'll probably have forgotten who I'm supposed to be romancing, or why exactly Gale keeps eating my gloves.

RPGs do have various, well-established generic means of tracking or mapping the bespoke narrative you piece together in the course of playing them: from bog-standard conversation and quest logs, to more colourful lingering effects such as your good and bad deeds being writ large in a character's appearance, a la Fable, or the player acquiring certain gear from particular decisions. I'm not sure any CRPG or other-RPG developer has ever nailed this, however, and the bulkier the game, the greater the stress I feel about keeping all my nested good/bad calls in view. Anyway, I'll have more for you on Rogue Trader in the grim darkness of the far future (next week).

 

[sebas]

From everything I've seen in the Beta this game looks like a love letter to Fallout (from a gameplay pov). Great stuff. See you all in release date+2years when they're gonna have most of the bugs ironed out.

 

[Desiderius]

It's not in your face beyond being there at all.

It's there because sexuality (including deviant sexuality) was injected into the genre, but it's easily shut down because even the devs know its wrong on some level even if their brainworms won't let them think about why. It has nothing to do with inclusion.

If you're going to have deviant sexuality an Orcish prisoner is the natural place for it, as is a decadent noble scarred by a powerful entity taking advantage of a situation that left him vulnerable to enter him and exploit him for its own purposes. Similar story with Astarion. These of course are real things, but not all real things belong in every genre. Sosiel was fake on multiple levels.

I'm sure Infinitron will remove this post, but will still be interesting to see if Rogue Trader can avoid this trap altogether. Probably not. Yet.

He invites you to a threesome 5 minutes after you've met him and Octavia. He also leaves the strong impression that he wouldn't mind banging/getting banged by the MC solely. On top of that his favorite food is a Succulent Sausage which is also pretty gay. Not that much in your face tho.

Is anyone actually playing the beta for this currently?

I've been watching Retcon Raider on YouTube. He has 16 parts of 45~ minutes each uploaded currently. Hasn't released a Rogue Trader video in awhile but his style should be to the liking of most codexers.

And he’s easily shut down at which point he switches to bad dirty puns, as a Orcish half-wit would be expected to. You can even eventually get him to CN from CE and reconnect him with his clan/dad.

BG3 just made it much harder to barge in on the Bugbear rutting the Giant Ogre.

Doesn’t belong there at all and they’re slowly cluing in to that.

 

[The_Mask]

It is rather sad that WOTR curbed my enthusiasm for any day 1 purchase. But I sincerely hope everything turns out well for Owlcat. As far as I can tell, most of the people working there are nice people.