Warhammer 40K: Rogue Trader (CRPG)

Caliane said:

We should all be executed.

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I don't know exactly what goes on since this is my first playthrough but the MC is somewhere between subsector and sector lord as far as equivalent political power level goes, that isn't someone you casually execute even in 40k. Inquisitor Lord or not, the Koronus Expanse is not only not an Imperial sector but travel between the expanse and the Calixis sector is currently impossible so the expanse is completely cut off. The MC is an incredibly important figure when it comes to maintaining stability of the region and executing them with anything short of direct incontrovertible proof of heresy would probably lead to disaster. Now would the MC be in a position to demand the protection of their status extend to their retinue as well? Yeaaaaaaaah that's a bit of a stretch. Yrliet would be doomed, the dark eldar companion (if its possible to have already recruited them by then?) would be super doomed, and Idira would redefine what doomed meant. But maybe the Inquisitor Lord is a secret radical, radicals do rise to that level of seniority in the Inquisition.

Speaking of Idira...man. Maybe part of it is me not understanding exactly how perils of the warp works and taking unnecessary risks when using her at high veil degradation levels, but on her very first turn on the final boss fight of Janus she fucking explodes and summons a Screamer of Tzeentch that also downs Jae before I can react to it. And then Cassia and my pyro tank MC steamroll the fight anyway. So maybe you aren't entirely wrong about the game being too easy but it seems like the easiest solution to that is to stop bringing Cassia. Or always bring Idira and sling psyker powers like veil degradation doesn't exist and see how much harder you can make things.

I think flamer argenta might be her best build now. So, that would let you go bolter ulfar without feeling like its just copy/paste, weaker version of argenta. yes, argenta is softer then ulfar.

What exactly does he charge when alwaysactfirst Cassia is around?

yeah, current busted is my pc and cassia. no one else is needed. just had a surprised fight versus some angry robots. they didn't even get a chance.

Cassia goes first with grand strat. mend reality. 2ap. aoe all party, -veil, and huge warp damage defense. +9 all characters to all party via infusing.
+35ish toughness and wp single target buff on my PC. another +9 char to her as well. now 2 ap, could do lidless stare for damage/stun and momentum. a few talents as well as that mend reality armor/deflection means I can can hit allies with lidless stare safely. Or, I bring it down my pc. 2 ap, can either emperors wrath staff attack, or 1ap immolate, and 1 ap voice of the emp. AND, inquis ring, lets me +50 momentum, as well as the other buffs. 100% chance for finest hour to proc here.
finest hour on cassia. mend reality again.. another +9, reveal the light will be about +44 now, so cast that again on PC. -1 ap for non combat skills, so can voice of command, notch, etc, all for free. then do some lidless stares. finest hour should proc again. target my pc.

my pc psyker has a necklace which gives +5 wp, when she buffs an ally. and of course infusing, and reveal the light. she should be at 8 psy power, and 230-250 WP atm. oh, and master tactician. stacks on momentum gain. 100-150ish. press the advantage.
Emp wrath 700-1500 aoe. pain channeling. overkill damage hits closest enemies with direct damage.. so 1200 damage to the 500 hp boss, 700 direct damage to the closest..
(also has deals aoe direct damage to enemies when casting pysker abilities)

nothing survives the first turn with cassia and my pc bouncing back and forth.

more notes mostly for myself.

act 4. footfall has a few places where it got my first visit wrong. people who should be dead, are alive. people who should be on my ship, are on footfall dead.
Jae also commented on having been to the city.. she was not in my party for that.

the more I play, the more my suspicions on the dogmatic/iconoclast/heretic system sucking, are becoming manifest.

my choices should dictate my "alignment", and that should reflect how people react, and ending elements, but passively. but thats clearly not whats happening here.
1. alignment unlocks further alignment dialogues. which is lame as fuck. I should be able to pick dogmatic, iconoclast, heretic options in every dialogue, every time. locking shit behind dogmatic 3, iconoclast 4, etc is lame a shit.
it forces you to focus on 1, instead of roleplaying freeform. as, you get alignment for using alignment choices, failing to have enough alignment to use a choice prevents you from getting more alignment...

if anything, what it should have is multiple choice.
1. burn the heretic! [Dogmatic +5]
2. This is simply a misunderstanding on Imperial doctrine. The Emperor is a god and a man. [Iconoclast +5]
3. The Emperor is a man. [heretic +5]
4. the Corpse god is false god. [Heretic +10]

considering how this is set up. there is a 1000% chance the endings are set up so having higher % alignment is the "good" ending.

like, I did finally hit rank3 iconoclast before rank 3 dogmatic. so, I'm now locked into iconoclast.
as I stated earlier, Owlcat gets Warhammer. and I'm pretty sure I can guess how this will go. Route out heresy, and take control of the sector, game ends. The Imperium shows up to demand I pay my taxes. however, again, given the way this system seems set up, I am almost sure, that this ends badly, the lower your iconoclast rank is. if rank 5, you probably get declared a living saint, and make peace with the Ecclesiarchy, or something. (Its possible its tied to rep, or something instead. high rep with Ecclesiarchy and/or mechanicus, could give you the power to break through the Imperiums corruption, and make peace, and swear loyalty via paying higher taxes, pirates simply bleed the navy, which is very far from home, across the great rift.)
so I suspect I screwed myself by not committing fully to iconoclast. which I think is bad design.

Also, I noticed the puritan/radical bar is finally moving. I'm not sure if I had just kept moving it back and forth, so stayed in the middle, and only recently started making more radical choices, so it finally moved.

Koronus expanse is on the top left. Past Cadia, past the Eye of terror. past the Calixis sector. you can see footfall, and port wander labeled. this uses the tabletop names for the other stuff. The maw is not labeled. but its the large warpstorm wall between Footfall and port wander.

Caliane said:

Also, I noticed the puritan/radical bar is finally moving. I'm not sure if I had just kept moving it back and forth, so stayed in the middle, and only recently started making more radical choices, so it finally moved.

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Dogmatic is Puritan, Iconoclast and Heretic are both Radical. Pretty sure you were just moving it back and forth.

I'm kind of surprised how much I hate Act 3. Do I remember reading that when the game originally launched, they didnt automatically reequip all your party members when you got your gear back but instead just dumped everything straight back into your inventory?

Gavinmad said:

I'm kind of surprised how much I hate Act 3. Do I remember reading that when the game originally launched, they didnt automatically reequip all your party members when you got your gear back but instead just dumped everything straight back into your inventory?

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Yea, on release I remember having to go through and re-equip everything. The worst was trying to remember who had what trinkets equipped.

I liked act 3 well enough. While it wasn't as good as chapter 1 or 2, it still felt like a new and interesting location. I lost interest in chapter 4 when I was expecting more exploration of star systems, but instead it was mostly just revisiting old locations.

I'll probably try to actually finish the game once it looks like they are totally done with it, since a Chaos playthrough should be quite different. Although I don't really like the character building system in Rogue Trader, so it's difficult to get motivated to pick it up again.

Burns said:

Yea, on release I remember having to go through and re-equip everything. The worst was trying to remember who had what trinkets equipped.

I liked act 3 well enough. While it wasn't as good as chapter 1 or 2, it still felt like a new and interesting location. I lost interest in chapter 4 when I was expecting more exploration of star systems, but instead it was mostly just revisiting old locations.

I'll probably try to actually finish the game once it looks like they are totally done with it, since a Chaos playthrough should be quite different. Although I don't really like the character building system in Rogue Trader, so it's difficult to get motivated to pick it up again.

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Yeah the Dark Heresy system just does not seem particularly well suited to computer adaptation, at least not compared to the ease with which d20 can be done.

Just dumping everything back into your inventory is hilarious and another thing I can't believe made it live. Chrono Trigger automatically reequipped your party members when you found their gear and that was thirty years ago, there may be older examples but that's the first one that comes to mind.

so, not done yet, but its hard to avoid spoilers...

my thoughts on Nomos. both, super heretical, and also not. major spoilers. part theory, part confirmed.

I'm about to start playing this and it makes me feel like a lot of others felt when they started BG 1, 2, 3, Kingmaker/Wrath, etc.

My knowledge of D&D and PF is encyclopedic, but I know nothing about the mechanics (or even lore) of Warhammer and going into an expansive game like this is feels like a massive disadvantage.

Id say wait. new DLC is sept 24th with which their will certainly be a larger patch to the base game as well. Game is pretty solid now. but still. just give it 2 more weeks. got to have something in your backlog to hold you over.

yeah, the game system is a bit overwhelming at first.

A build "class" consists of Origin, then archetype, later t2 archetypes are specced into based on starter archetype. (t3 exemplar, just lets you pick talents from the first 3)
so the combinations of these 3 form your character's abilities. orgin, t1 archetype, t2 archetype.
homeworld has some small effects too.

There are 7 origins.
astra militarium commander.
Commisar
Crime lord
Ministorum priest (carbon copy of Argentas sister of battle)
navy officer (abelard has this)
noble
sanctioned psyker. (heinrix has this) (idira is unsanctioned, which is very similar) the others just add to your archetypes, psyker really defines it though. its not like the others in this regard.

so, just fyi, may want to avoid ones, the companions already have. (pysker is still stupid strong, if you want to do it yourself.) early game more then 1 pysker in the party is rough. but as soon as cassia gets mend reality, its kindof trivial.

4 starting archetypes.
warrior, officer, operative, soldier.
these are all shared with companions. abelard/heinrix are warriors. melee focus. ulfar/argenta are soldiers. pasqual/yriel are operatives. cassia/jae are officers.
(officer is op for teamwork. does not buff itself though, so if you want to be a solo gg king, something else)

now, each starting archetype, can be upgraded to 1 of three t2 ones.
assassin, vangaurd, bounty hunter, master tactician, grand strategist, arch-militant.
example, officer can spec into arch- militant, master tactician, or grand strategist.
soldier can spec into assassin, bounty hunter or arch-militant.

Extra attacks and turns are king. by default, you get movement points and action points per turn.
Attacks consume your MP, and enable a cooldown, preventing you from using more attacks in the turn, even if you have extra AP. Certain abilities, such as soldiers "run and gun" enable extra attacks during a turn. arch-militants wildfire. etc.

This is why Officer is op. it by default starts with "bring it down", which lets you target an ally, and GIVE them an extra turn, with 2ap.

Heroic acts. there is then also a "momentum" mechanic. the start of your turn, abilities, and kills generate momentum. at 250 threshould, you can use an heroic act. once per combat per character, which in some cases is very very strong. Again, Officers heroic act is busted. gives an ally a free turn, with unlimited attacks per turn. +stat,damage buffs, and potentially reduced ap costs.

since several HA's are so strong, generating momentum is key. Resolve controls that, via fellowship stat. (again prime stat for officers)

Agility is dodge, and intitative.
Perception is anti-doge, and also initiative. (the tooltip doesn't tell you per does init)
master strategist just defaults "starts first".

theres a bunch of "heavy weapon" talents that kindof just make them better then light weapon alternatives.
for pyskers, each pysker "school" gives you an ability when you choose it, it not a dead talent. and then unlocks talents relevant to that school. but its important to note, those talents, are largely NOT locked to that school. an example, the telepath talent, "pain channeling" applies its effect to all psyker damage spells, not just telepath mental ones. (while aftershock is just telepath mental ones) I see alot of people picking one or two schools only, and thats a mistake.

MC as a tanky psyker has been invaluable, especially once I stopped using the Cassia cheat code. There's also a warp travel event where you start on your own and have to survive as your team member trickle in one turn at a time and unless your MC is a killing machine or tanky af it's gonna be a pain. Although I kind of want to say it's not a game over if your MC goes down in RT unlike in the Pathfinder games so maybe it's not that big a deal. But high survivability is pretty handy whenever you can't control who is in your party or get stuck solo.

mkopec said:

Cassia... ...use her

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What's the point of playing with cheats?