Update: check out our post-release wish list formed after a complete playthrough!
Developer Owlcat Games is hard at work on Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous DLC#4 – The Last Sarkorians and on the turn-based cRPG Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader. The studio recently shared the overview of new additions included in the upcoming game in Q4 2022.
Players that purchased certain editions of Rogue Trader can get access to the closed alpha version that features a nice slice from the game’s second chapter, including a portion of the main quest, companion-related tasks, quite a lot of exploration and combat, and much more. Check out our impressions from the Rogue Trader closed alpha to learn more.
The closed alpha provides enough content for 30+ hours of gameplay if you do some exploration, offering players a way to explore the systems and features hands-on. As expected from the game in the alpha stage of development, some of the aforementioned systems and features are currently not finished or unpolished.
Here’s the list of things we hope to see around when Rogue Trader enters its Beta stage!
Character Creation & Customization
At the moment, the game features a limited character creator. You get a choice between a male and a female Rogue Trader and selecting the respective option automatically assigns a portrait and a voice to your character. The game then offers some further customization by offering a number of backgrounds and classes presented in a short dossier.
Once you are done with these options, your brand-new Lord Captain arrives on the von Valancius Voidship somewhere in the second Chapter of the game, ready to wrangle the Koronus Expanse and get it under control.
While this way is more than enough to dip your toes in the early content, it is still hard to beat the thought of the actual character creator with a million options, Pathfinder-style. Here’s to hoping that Owlcat Games introduces further customization, including the absolutely gorgeous portraits, at a later point in the game’s development and prior to the release so that even the most indecisive like yours truly have enough time to play with all the options.
A Way to Speed-Up Animation During Combat
If there is one thing Rogue Trader is not shy about, it is raining opponents of all shapes and sizes to stand in the Lord Captain’s way. Humanoids, xenos, daemons, various corrupted beings, all of that and more will at some point stand between your party and their destination, more likely than not in great numbers as well.
Those who have played Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous will not see anything new in this situation. However, at the moment WotR has a few serious advantages when it comes to combat. First, Pathfinder allows you to swap between Turn-Based (TB) and Real-Time with Pause (RTwP) modes on the fly, letting you decide whether you want a long strategic combat or a quick mess on your hands. There is nothing quite like mowing an unexpecting demon squad with your Mendevian Inquisition.
Previously, the developers have revealed that Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader is TB-only cRPG for a variety of reasons, including to further hone the battle system to perfection. So mowing down daemons for the glory of the Emperor in quick succession is out, which brings us to the second point.
In its turn-based mode, Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous allows players to significantly speed up the animation of active characters, be they enemies or your own party members. It is especially handy when you have a handful of animal companions as well as half of the screen of summoned help.
At the moment, Rogue Trader doesn’t have a similar feature, making some battles (mostly early ones or the ones that involve a cast of neutral NPCs scurrying about) take up a long time. Additionally, it would be neat to have an option to postpone your turn/wait until the end of the round before acting (also present in Wrath), especially in the situations where your characters get automatically spawned on the battlefield and somehow all your melee end up squished among the ranged, without a way to fully participate in combat right away.
Map QoL Additions + An Option to Add Pins
The events of the game take place in Koronus Expanse and, while it may be a small corner of Warhammer universe, it is an impressive if perilous area of space that contains various points of interests, from planets to abandoned stations, derelict ships and more. Of course, there are also a variety of locations, including the worlds that belong to your Trade Empire, that you can land on and explore on foot.
Having spent an embarrassing amount of hours both in Mass Effect, I can confidently say that I hope the world map will be adorned with a variety pins, stating the significance of a particular system (such as it belonging to your sphere of influence and housing one of your worlds, with the name of the world present) if not allowing outright navigation to a quest, provided you have already charted the course to and unlocked the corresponding system.
I remember my days in Mass Effect 3 well, tracking all the various signals and side-quests and going: “Uhh, Silean Nebula… What was the system again?” and digging into the journal just to refresh my memory where exactly the Elcor homeworld is located, only to see another couple dozen errands that require a similar approach. And, while there is nothing wrong in doing that for side-quests, I hope that main points of interest are marked clearly nonetheless.
Below you can see screenshots of world maps from Mass Effect 3 (points of interest & main quests marked) and Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader as it currently is. Speaking of marking, an option to make your own map pins at the very least on the surface of planets will be greatly appreciated.
Inventory Sorting & Search, Enhanced Cargo Options
Much like in any other cRPG, Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader will have you deal with a great deal of loot: picking up, comparing and buying, equipping, assigning to cargo to use in Warp Battles and more.
A story as old as time, cRPG players asking for more inventory flexibility such as the search function and option to choose multiple items to perform bulk actions, and Rogue Trader is no different. The Owlcat team made significant progress in terms of the inventory if you compare Kingmaker and Wrath of the Righteous, and I am excited to see the new tools we might be given in WH40k: Rogue Trader.
Ship Combat
In the closed alpha, spaceship combat has been implemented in its most basic and barebones form. It works, you can see the idea behind the system but it is certainly not fleshed out nor does it give many options. Let’s hope that versions of the game that are further in development change that!
You might be sick of me making comparisons to the Pathfinder games at this point, but let’s take a look at the strategic side systems of Kingmaker and Wrath of the Righteous anyway. Both games have options to significantly ease up or even completely automate the Kingdom Management and the Crusade respectively. Do you think Owlcat Games would have anything of the sort for Rogue Trader? Time to sit tight and find out once the crew is ready to share!
More Voice-Over
Less of a gameplay addition and more of a vain wish, I hope Rogue Trader beta sees a massively expanded voice-over, with characters actually speaking out the most important story-related dialogue vs simply letting out combat/movement barks. Hearing Cassia, Calox, Yrliet and others actually speak their lines? Can’t wait to hear that in the game!
That said, this portion can be simply described as “MORE”: companions, quests, classes, weapons, music tracks, etc. etc. Whatever Owlcat Games is ready to show, I’ll take it and play through it. Anything in particular you are looking forward to? Let us know in the comments below.
