Developer Owlcat Games took to the official Steam page of turn-based cRPG Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader to share more details on the game’s co-op mode. A way to play together with friends is something that players have been asking for repeatedly ever since Pathfinder: Kingmaker, and now it’s finally possible.
“After discussing our options, we’ve decided not to try artificially stretching the story to fit multiple equally important protagonists. Instead, we’ve taken the route of inherently asymmetrical gameplay, where one player takes up on the role of the Lord Captain, and the other players form their crew, assisting their leader in battle, exploration, and management.”
This asymmetrical approach does put some limitations on the gameplay for other players, after all only the protagonist can choose options in dialogue and book events. It is also only the Lord Captain who chooses to level up the ship or to enter locations and so forth.
“This, however, allows us to deliver the same story experience as in singleplayer, gives the host the option to continue playing the campaign in the absence of some players (or even convert it back to a singleplayer campaign), and, let’s be frank, reduces some potential misclicking and trolling chaos. Sorry, Heretical players!”
You can still take advantage of the friendly fire if you want to spice up the game though!
Rogue Trader supports up to 6 players in a single co-op game, matching with the maximum available number of characters in the party. It is up to the host to distribute the characters between players as they see fit. Players might have multiple characters to control, remain a spectator or even take over the Lord Captain with the host’s permission. A player in control of the characters can move them, engage in combat, loot, level up, manage their equipment and pass skill checks the same as they would normally do in single player.
Check out the overview on the official Steam page to learn more.
