Multiplat Warhammer 40k Rogue Trader CRPG (Dec 7). 2023 only gets better!

[GhostZ06]

the emperor is pleased with this thread

 

[Fraz]

Just finished there, what a game. Was a great experience, made even better that I've recently got into 40k.

Had no idea what I was getting into when I started this lol 170 hours according to ps5. I've been off work through illness and still took me like 6 weeks solid just to finish it.

 

[GtehMVP]

Just finished there, what a game. Was a great experience, made even better that I've recently got into 40k.

Had no idea what I was getting into when I started this lol 170 hours according to ps5. I've been off work through illness and still took me like 6 weeks solid just to finish it.

Awesome, and yeah what a great experience, especially if you have a decent nderstanding of the lore, namely the oldest races.

I started with the Horus Heresy. I really like how much material there is for the 31st millennium, and events far prior. I'm on the second last book in the Siege of Terra books, which wraps up the Heresy storyline (did about 50 of the novels). I had avoided most current stories to try and avoid spoilers of the Primarchs that either died ir turned, so most of my knowledge is still before modern 41st millennium times. It was really cool that the endboss here

Spoiler

involves an imprisoned C'tan shard. I had it spoiled that the Necrons were in this, but I didn't know about the C'Tan.

How did you handle the Nomos questline?

 

[GearSolidMetal]

Played about 24 hours of the game since Saturday, and... it's very hard to get invested into the story because... 90% of the dialog has no VO.

In the long dialog sections its hard to pay chose attention because very little seems to be relevant, and I have to force myself to pay close attention.
And it seems like it's an admittion by the developers that most of the dialog isn't relevant because they didn't bother to have VO for it... when 10% of the game does.

I'm reminded of this... in Mass Effect 2 when you meet up with Ashley after romancing her in ME1 there's a few subtle things that were different than if you didn't romance her... and after you two part ways she leaves you a message for you to read -

"Shepard,

I'm sorry for what I said back on Horizon. When I lost you two years ago, it tore me up. I prayed for you every day. I read a lot of Tennyson, thinking about you, just like I did when my dad passed. And then you came back, and it was like my prayers were answered. But I'm not who I was then, and neither are you.

I don't know what's true anymore. Part of me can't believe it's really you. I keep going back to that night before Ilos, our night.... I haven't let myself think about those memories for more than a year now.

I wouldn't have expected you to work for Cerberus, but I know why they sent you to Horizon. I saw how many people were lost there, and if anyone can stop the Collectors, you can. I can't go where you're going, but I can wish you luck.

Just stay alive out there... Skipper. I don't know what the future holds, but I can't lose you a second time.

--Ash

Death closes all: but something ere the end,
Some work of noble note, may yet be done,

Not unbecoming men that strove with Gods."



Now compare reading that... to listening to this -








I thought I could get used to the reading, and I have four bookshelves full of novels, but in a video game reading should only be for tutorials and EU material (Glossaries & Encyclopedias).
This reeks of the developers being cheap.

Anyway, I haven't downloaded the new update. Does it actually increase the VO by alot, or just a few new conversations?

 

[ssBaldy]

Lack of voiceover saddens me as well, especially since I like the actors they used.

I like the game more and more the more I play. It is not going to be my only playthrough, this time I am playing mostly Iconoclast with a healthy dose of dogmatic, but I already want to play either heretical or hardcore dogmatic and most of all smoke those Aeldari I've been helping. They are such arrogant pricks.

However I have my doubts as of who would be with me if I go full heretic - seems that Heinrix and Argenta would be out of the question, Yurliet can go screw herself along with the other space elves and I am not a cuck to employ Marazhai. That does not leave a lot of choices.

I wish there were more space battles, I like them.

 

[listrahtes]

It reminds me of how much better Disco Elysium got when they included voice over for everything. Hard to read these texts all especially as they often lack focus.

 

[Fraz]

Awesome, and yeah what a great experience, especially if you have a decent nderstanding of the lore, namely the oldest races.

I started with the Horus Heresy. I really like how much material there is for the 31st millennium, and events far prior. I'm on the second last book in the Siege of Terra books, which wraps up the Heresy storyline (did about 50 of the novels). I had avoided most current stories to try and avoid spoilers of the Primarchs that either died ir turned, so most of my knowledge is still before modern 41st millennium times. It was really cool that the endboss here

Spoiler

involves an imprisoned C'tan shard. I had it spoiled that the Necrons were in this, but I didn't know about the C'Tan.

How did you handle the Nomos questline?

I was going to start with Horus heresy but I seen it's like 50 books or something lol, I've started with one called Heroes Of The Space Marines, pretty good so far.

Spoiler

Yeah I thought that was really cool as well, I wasn't expecting anything like the C'tan in the game so was a nice surprise, I knew about that stuff from Luetins lore videos. I merged Nomos with the shard, took a few minutes to decide because I done a mostly dogmatic playthrough and didn't seem in character but wanted to see what happened. What did you do?

 

[ssBaldy]

I was going to start with Horus heresy but I seen it's like 50 books or something lol, I've started with one called Heroes Of The Space Marines, pretty good so far.

Spoiler

Yeah I thought that was really cool as well, I wasn't expecting anything like the C'tan in the game so was a nice surprise, I knew about that stuff from Luetins lore videos. I merged Nomos with the shard, took a few minutes to decide because I done a mostly dogmatic playthrough and didn't seem in character but wanted to see what happened. What did you do?

I started with the Horus Heresy, but they say Eisenhorn series is extremely good and I personally highly recommend books about Ciaphas Cain.

 

[GtehMVP]

I was going to start with Horus heresy but I seen it's like 50 books or something lol, I've started with one called Heroes Of The Space Marines, pretty good so far.

Spoiler

Yeah I thought that was really cool as well, I wasn't expecting anything like the C'tan in the game so was a nice surprise, I knew about that stuff from Luetins lore videos. I merged Nomos with the shard, took a few minutes to decide because I done a mostly dogmatic playthrough and didn't seem in character but wanted to see what happened. What did you do?

You don't need to read all the novels in the Heresy series, there a couple of hundreds lol. I used this guide up until the Siege of Terra novels. Def do the Dark Angels books, especially the first one that focuses on the Lion's origin story. I'll send you a PM if you're interested in audiobooks.

Horus Heresy Reading Guidance

Back at the beginning of 2018, Ty was looking for recommendations on how to navigate the huge backlog of Horus Heresy books. I put together this list with my must-read and not so much must-read Ho…

blog.basementofdeath.com

Lack of voiceover saddens me as well, especially since I like the actors they used. I like the game more and more the more I play. It is not going to be my only playthrough, this time I am playing mostly Iconoclast with a healthy dose of dogmatic, but I already want to play either heretical or hardcore dogmatic and most of all smoke those Aeldari I've been helping. They are such arrogant pricks.

However I have my doubts as of who would be with me if I go full heretic - seems that Heinrix and Argenta would be out of the question, Yurliet can go screw herself along with the other space elves and I am not a cuck to employ Marazhai. That does not leave a lot of choices.

I wish there were more space battles, I like them.

I really liked the space battles too. You ever play Battlefleet Gothic Armada 2? I wish they had the budget to make space battles look that good. Hopefully in any sequel they step it up largely. Before I went into that point of no return in act 5, I went to every star system just to fight every space battle. We really needed more ship options too, with visual upgrades, though I think that was a thing until it was cut.

For voice acting, that is the only negative I have of the game. Compared to Wrath of the Righteous, all their voice actors and recordings are excellent, and there's a lot more of it here.

I come from the old Infinity Engine school of CRPG's, so I'm still used to it, but when you compare it to games like KOTOR (pretty sure both were all voiced?), ME, DAO and BG3, it takes away from the experience. This is a far smaller budget game in a world I love, so it was easy for me to overlook, but it's still a shame. I'm glad to hear all future games will be fully voiced. Hopefully that includes the new DLC.

Like @listrahtes said, hopefully they can pull a Disco and record every line before the game is considered finished. Not every person you interact with has portrait art too, which also detracts. I only played Disco near launch, so I look forward to doing it again with the new voice overs. what a masterpiece that was, even with all the reading. it helped that the layout was like reading text messages, def easier on the eyes.

@GearSolidMetal apparently they have more voice recordings in the new update

"A lot of new voiceover, including companion banter, voiced cutscenes, etc. Fixed problems with many voiced lines and pronunciations;"

"Multiple new cutscenes and a major rework of some old cutscenes;

Patch notes

 

[GearSolidMetal]

@GearSolidMetal apparently they have more voice recordings in the new update

Yeah, I was asking about it in my recent post.

I estimate only 10% of the game has VO, and given how the update notes are not specific about the amount of VO added I figure its pretty sparce.

 

[NoSmilez]

Yeah, I was asking about it in my recent post.

I estimate only 10% of the game has VO, and given how the update notes are not specific about the amount of VO added I figure its pretty sparce.

VOs seem to all early on then it gets less and less. I think they run out of money by act 5. The secret characters have no voice or special dialogues. You still have some VO in cutscenes but that is about it. I will admit I would go nuts if Pascal had a voice. It was a pain reading what he was saying. Same with Ulfar when he goes into poetry.

 

[NoSmilez]

I started a heretical run on unfair mode. I get powerful weapons but I am assuming I have to kill off a bunch of companions or they leave me. Unfair mode is a bit messed up. The injury stuff matters a lot now. Every little hit causes an injury. You get way less weapons or armor drops in chest.

 

[GearSolidMetal]

VOs seem to all early on then it gets less and less. I think they run out of money by act 5. The secret characters have no voice or special dialogues. You still have some VO in cutscenes but that is about it. I will admit I would go nuts if Pascal had a voice. It was a pain reading what he was saying. Same with Ulfar when he goes into poetry.

So many characters don't even have avatar pictures showing who you're talking to.

I didn't enjoy Divinity Original Sin 2 but at least the entire game was at least had VO with avatars.

 

[ssBaldy]

VOs seem to all early on then it gets less and less. I think they run out of money by act 5. The secret characters have no voice or special dialogues. You still have some VO in cutscenes but that is about it. I will admit I would go nuts if Pascal had a voice. It was a pain reading what he was saying. Same with Ulfar when he goes into poetry.

Pasqual has a lot of voiced lines. No idea if ye's voiced in act 5 since I am in act 4, but ye was rather talkative on Kiava Gamma. Also his voice has these nice vox effects

 

[NoSmilez]

Pasqual has a lot of voiced lines. No idea if ye's voiced in act 5 since I am in act 4, but ye was rather talkative on Kiava Gamma. Also his voice has these nice vox effects

Act 5 is a bit empty. Oh you know what it is. I got Pascal's lines confused with that elf who speaks in riddles. He doesn't join us but he is important to the story. We have a few characters with weird dialogues in the game. I just had a headache trying to read what he wants.

 

[NoSmilez]

So many characters don't even have avatar pictures showing who you're talking to.

I didn't enjoy Divinity Original Sin 2 but at least the entire game was at least had VO with avatars.

It is something that bothered me early in the game. At first I thought it was for less important characters but some really important characters don't have one either. I don't understand why they chose to give certain characters portraits and not some. The bullshit NPC bartender has one but certain important characters don't. I just figured they didn't have money for it since they are an indie company. CRPGs aren't a big seller and they can't sell loot crates with it. I think the modding community will probably release something before Owlcat changes it. They did that for the pathfinder games. The general consensus for Owlcat games is that it might be buggy but the company will keep on working on it.

Oh yea Theodora has a portrait but no voice actor. Fucking bullshit NPC Mort had a voice actor.

 

[ssBaldy]

Act 5 is a bit empty. Oh you know what it is. I got Pascal's lines confused with that elf who speaks in riddles. He doesn't join us but he is important to the story. We have a few characters with weird dialogues in the game. I just had a headache trying to read what he wants.

Ah, the harlequin. Yeah, would be nice for him to have a voice.

 

[GtehMVP]

It is something that bothered me early in the game. At first I thought it was for less important characters but some really important characters don't have one either. I don't understand why they chose to give certain characters portraits and not some. The bullshit NPC bartender has one but certain important characters don't. I just figured they didn't have money for it since they are an indie company. CRPGs aren't a big seller and they can't sell loot crates with it. I think the modding community will probably release something before Owlcat changes it. They did that for the pathfinder games. The general consensus for Owlcat games is that it might be buggy but the company will keep on working on it.

Oh yea Theodora has a portrait but no voice actor. Fucking bullshit NPC Mort had a voice actor.

Theodora should definitely have been voiced. She's crucial, referenced constantly too, but has a small role. I'm surprised they didn't give her a VA, wouldn't have cost much. Some of the missing portraits are baffling as well. I get no portraits for NPC's you speak to only a once or twice, but there are a few you interact with more that should have one.

Where I really felt the smaller budget was at the end of Act IV. The big battle that takes place before you get into the facility the boss is in (won't spoil it), would have been epic if it wasn't text based and they were able to include vehicles we could command on a giant battlefield, also letting us call in air strikes. I'd like to see them rework that, or include that type of scenario in future 40K games. The end of Act IV battle is still pretty large in scope though.

I'd love to be able to command some tanks, dreadnaughts, Knights, more Space Marines etc... I hope this sold well and their venture as a publisher gives them more $$ resources.

The game is so good though, especially the writing, pulls you right in. I'd love to see what they could do with a bigger team/budget, which is what's happening for their next unannounced game. Hopefully it's another 40k CRPG.

Here's a good interview with Owlcat's CEO, talking about the CRPG challenges in a post BG3 world.

Owlcat founder breaks down RPG budgets and Larian’s impact on genre: “We can’t invest $200 million to make BG3” | Game World Observer

RPGs have always been one of the most difficult and risky genres in terms of production. Here is what Owlcat Games founder and CEO Oleg Shpilchevskiy has to say about the challenges posed by rising costs, as well as the success of Baldur’s Gate 3 and its impact on the industry.

gameworldobserver.com