Warhammer 40k: Rogue Traders - new Owlcat RPG

[Sly Boots]

This was probably one of the announcements from the recent showcases that got me most excited - Owlcat, the developers behind stonking cRPGs Pathfinder Kingmaker and Wrath of the Righteous, are working on a sci-fi RPG in the Warhammer 40k universe:

https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/owlcat ... gue-trader

Going to be keeping a very close eye on this one.

[Wrathbone]

Yeah, very interested in this. I know very little about Warhammer, but Owlcat did a great job with Pathfinder.

[Me99]

It's in space within a massive empire that a bit like dune (but with aliens and everything is made of Gothic cathedrals)but more xenophobic fundamentalist in a grim dark way. For example, like Dune AI is banned, but unlike Dune 40k takes people, dissects their brain and turns them into a lobotomised computer thats only goal in life is to open and close a door.

Rogue Traders are sort of mercantile explorers on the edge of the Imperium (Human space) given a hereditary (like, been in the family 10,000 years) license to go exploring and interact with aliens without being burnt to death for it. They generally have their own large ship and are often very wealthy and own arcotech and xeno tech no one else is allowed.

Should give the writers alot of leeway in the story and allow them to make up new aliens and planets outside of the general lore of 40k.

[Sly Boots]

Aaaaand finished! Just the 3-odd months of playing almost daily to get to the end

I'm not sure if it's because I was playing so slowly - as part of featuring a daily, hour-long video on my channel - but I really enjoyed it all the way to the end, without the same fatigue WB reported feeling in the latter acts.

I think the game definitely shines in the first two acts, however I also enjoyed the weird, twisted and dark third act (though a glance at the steam forum or Reddit suggests I may be the minority here), and then the final couple of acts are a more fast-paced dash to the end. While the story elements from then on aren't perhaps as strong, I was really enjoying the combat, for whatever reason my builds just went nuts from act 3 onwards, with Argenta in particular just decimating entire squads of enemies before they'd had a chance to act... to the point where I went and doubled the enemy hp just to make combat last a bit longer! I was a bit in dread of the infamous Owlcat sudden difficulty spikes (there were lots of points in their previous games where I had to drop the difficulty just to progress), but that never seemed to happen here. We just became increasingly godlike to the point where even the final boss, all 18,000hp of it, just dissolved before it could even try any of its fancy abilities

I quite liked the space combat as well. It was a bit of a grind initially, but once you've levelled your ship a couple of times, added some better guns and got some skills and abilities to use it was enjoyable.

I'd be keen to know which ending WB got, as for me:

Spoiler

I'd been playing predominantly Iconoclast and had supported Nomos in their first steps into understanding humanity and the galaxy, so it felt appropriate to let him have at it on C'tan Shard and he fused with it, become a mostly benevolent god that protected our dynasty, even sealing the Koronus Expanse against the fleets of the outraged Imperium. It felt like a pretty good ending.

It will likely be a while before I attempt a replay, but am interested to know how the other two endings - supporting Calcazar or striking a bargain with C'Tan - play out.

[Wrathbone]

I think spacing it out more may have helped, and also I expect patches have helped somewhat, as there were some quests that I’m pretty sure were broken when I played it.

As for the ending, this is a little embarrassing but I don’t fully remember!

Spoiler

I’m pretty sure I destroyed the C’tan. I initially set out to be an iconoclast and then drifted towards dogmatism, so I think I must have got the variation for no clear doctrine. The Nomos quest had broken a while back so I didn’t get that ending. From what I remember of the end text, I continued on a path of conquest, which bodes badly for the galaxy considering my descent into frequent mass purges.

[Sly Boots]

Oh that's a shame, the patches probably helped. The big one dropped just as I was finishing act 3 so I probably had a smoother ride of it to the end