Rogue Trader - Beta Survey Results

HiddenX

The Elder Spy
Staff Member
Original Sin Donor
Original Sin 2 Donor
Joined
October 18, 2006
Messages
20,139
Location
Germany
Yesterday the Beta survey results for Rogue Trader came in and were discussed by Owlcat in length:

Feedback from the Koronus Expanse 2: Beta survey results

Greetings, Lord Captains!

Months ago, during alpha testing, we posted an article about changes brought to the game based on your feedback in the big alpha survey.

Time flies by quickly, and today we are back with the second article of the series, this time to show you how your feedback shaped the game after the beta!

Disclaimer: Same as in the last article, we will not be going over every question in the survey, but will highlight only the most interesting facts. Enjoy the read and watch out for spoilers below!

Overall Score

What could be better than to begin the article with the overall rating you guys gave us?

A total of 5000+ players have taken the survey, and they rated Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader 4.3 out of 5!

This is almost the same result as the last time (alpha was rated 4.35). But considering this time the amount of people taking the survey has increased tenfold, a large number of them way less familiar with the universe, it looks like we're still going in the right direction. Thank you for the recognition! Of course, this result is not a reason to sit idle, and we'll discuss why below.

Reactivity and Convictions

One of the most frequent complaints in the survey was the insufficient reactivity of NPCs and companions to the Rogue Trader's biography, doctrines, and convictions. There were also concerns about the conviction tags often feeling off or missing altogether. Well, that makes sense - a significant chunk of these reactions were not in the game yet! We're already busy adding these reactions as this article is being written. Same goes for convictions - the tag placement was a draft done shortly before the beta launch, and we're carefully working on all dialogues to tag them correctly.

We've also paid additional attention to scenes where a lot of you wished to see specific reactions. For example, quite a few people really wanted to be able to interrupt some of Idira's heretical speeches in front of outsiders, and we'll let you do this now!

Tutorials and Lore Glossary

Over 50% of you found our newly introduced tutorials useful, and the only negative criticism about them was, well, that there's not enough of them! We are happy that they seem to be working well and will add more tutorials for various aspects of the game as we continue development. Some of them will even receive short explanatory videos.

The lore glossary appears to be quite helpful as well: almost 90% respondents told us they were actively using it! A curious note: these numbers appear the same even for the respondents who claimed to be deeply familiar with the universe. Checking our knowledge of the Lore, are you? :D

Difficulty Curve

There's a lot of curious data here depending on the choice of difficulty. Overall, it seems that we're on the right track, although some players on normal difficulty reported that there could be a bit more challenge. We will be carefully tuning the encounters with that in mind, especially in the later acts of the game, where player power may currently grow a bit too quickly.

Doctrines

Among the doctrines available, Marksman was an undisputed leader in all aspects. So much that we are considering lowering its potential a bit. Don't panic though, we're not removing the already iconic Shoot on the Run!

Adept, on the other hand, appears to be the least popular, with the most common complaints being lack of visible impact and difficulty in understanding its mechanics. In the beta this doctrine also suffered from a whole spectrum of bugs, which made the abilities even more confusing. We will be fixing these, tweaking some abilities, and reviewing the confusing and unclear descriptions.

[...]
Thanks Darkheart!

More information.
 
Joined
Oct 18, 2006
Messages
20,139
Location
Germany
If they're still working on reactivity a couple of months before release I have to question if they are ready to launch.

Oh well there's no way I play this on release anyway. I'll probably buy it to support them though.
 
Joined
Nov 13, 2006
Messages
9,198
Location
Manchester, United Kingdom
If they're still working on reactivity a couple of months before release I have to question if they are ready to launch.
True! Although, I think they were continuously working on the game during Beta and should be further along. The Beta only received a few bug fixes but no new content.
 
Joined
Feb 21, 2015
Messages
2,173
Location
BW, Germany
I thought they'd avoid asking about the meta-game, but there's something about it:

For space combat, we are at 3.7 out of 5, up from 3.4 in the alpha. Progress is visible, but there is still a lot to do. A lot of people were frustrated by the lack of tutorials, so of course we’ll be putting that in! We will also fully implement officer post management, which was turned off for the beta, squash some bugs, and put in some additional effort to improve the variety of encounters.

Space exploration was rated 4.1, up from 3.9 in the alpha. It is a good result, and after a bit more polishing, it looks like we’ll be in the right spot. An interesting observation is that an overwhelming amount of players explore everything in the game, no exceptions.

Colony management is at only 3.4 at this point, which is far less than we would like to see. We will be putting in tutorials, improving the UI, tweaking numbers, offering more interesting rewards and adding reactivity to colony events and decisions. We will also remove the necessity to personally visit the colony to claim a reward - it was a quite popular demand.

The global map is at 3.93, which is decent, but it could be a bit better. We will be adding tutorials, upgrading a few visuals, adding more text-based warp encounters (many of you found them repetitive), and tuning the number and frequency of combat warp encounters.
 
Joined
Aug 29, 2020
Messages
10,442
Location
Good old Europe
If they're still working on reactivity a couple of months before release I have to question if they are ready to launch.

Oh well there's no way I play this on release anyway. I'll probably buy it to support them though.
It's not just reactivity they are still working on - class system was incomplete beyond tier 1 for some of classes as well (IIRC, there will be 4 tiers), so they still have a lot to work on.

I will probably pick RT up at some point too but I'm not sure if I will play it on release.
 
Joined
Sep 4, 2021
Messages
1,420
Seems like a lot to address between now and release. Frankly, I've got so many other games to play, I hope they don't rush that release, and I'd be ok with a delay for them to really get the final polishing dialed in.
 
Joined
Sep 3, 2016
Messages
1,360
Location
A Misty Island
Would look foolish to delay the game they just announced a release date for. Just ask CDPR with how they handled the release of Witcher III and Cyberpunk 2077.

Owlcat at least wouldn't waste millions on PR marketing because of the delay.
 
Joined
Oct 1, 2010
Messages
36,500
Location
Spudlandia
So you say it raises red flags in my mind when a game is delayed. Especially weeks after a release anouucement. Sometimes it makes sense and other times doesn't.

The excuses are hilarious though.

Same font, same lauauange, and ending with a fake apology.:D
 
Joined
Oct 1, 2010
Messages
36,500
Location
Spudlandia
Given how many games, RPGs included, are releasing in the last 5 months of 2023, I would not be at all fussed if they delayed Rogue Trader. I was very surprised to see a 2023 date in the first place.
 
Joined
Aug 31, 2013
Messages
4,943
Location
Portland, OR
So you say it raises red flags in my mind when a game is delayed.
It totally depends on the context, and communication. Owlcat has a pretty good reputation, and generally seem pretty forthright in their communication. A delay, with valid reasons, wouldn't cause any red flags for me; in fact, it would do the opposite and give me more confidence in their intent to ship a great game. And if that comes on the heels of this beta feedback, it would totally make sense to me that they could reevaluate and decide the game needs more time to hit their (hopefully) high standards.
 
Joined
Sep 3, 2016
Messages
1,360
Location
A Misty Island
Given how many games, RPGs included, are releasing in the last 5 months of 2023, I would not be at all fussed if they delayed Rogue Trader. I was very surprised to see a 2023 date in the first place.
Me as well what is more hiliarious is they just announced a date for the first time, and now people are saying they want it delayed. You can't make this stuff up comedy gold.

Also they don't have high standards, the staggering amount of bugs and patches every release are proof. Just give them the crown for most hot-fixes released.
 
Joined
Oct 1, 2010
Messages
36,500
Location
Spudlandia
Looking forward to reading reviews first, and then probably buy it sometime next year.

I like the Warhammer 40k setting more than Pathfinder, and since I find their Pathfinder mechanics only decent, I'm also looking forward to seeing them try their hand at a different system.

I don't know if it is Pathfinder itself I dislike, or how they use it in their games, so if I dislike how they do it in the new game, it's probably more how they implement it.
 
Joined
Feb 15, 2009
Messages
1,990
Location
Sweden
I don't know if it is Pathfinder itself I dislike, or how they use it in their games, so if I dislike how they do it in the new game, it's probably more how they implement it.
For me, it's definitely how they used it. I bounced off the kingdom management hard in Kingmaker, and I don't like the map travel system either. If they had just made a Baldur's Gate style adventure with those graphics and characters, I know I would have loved it.
 
Joined
Oct 21, 2006
Messages
39,481
Location
Florida, US
Back
Top Bottom