The story does not work

[nno785.45]

Hey hey people

In short owlcats have never managed to produce a decent games.

[Rookie0879]

The story does work. You see, in other segments of the galaxy, we actually have competent Rogue Traders. Look at the three we have in the game. Two are self-evident, and Theodora herself is the height of incompetence.

The crew (top tiers) love her because she indulges their every wish. But at the same time, what are her actual deeds? Mort, her bodyguard, was so incompetent that he failed to save her life from an obvious threat. She humiliated her spy master and then invited all her heirs on a ship with the said spy master on it, who could be her heir if the other heirs were gone. Gee, I wonder what could have gone wrong.

She neglected her duties and let chaos spread across her lands. Combine this with an actually competent Dark Apostle who has come to ruin her, and it is no surprise why the PC is scrambling for gear. For all the opulence, your realm is poor. For goodness sake, there are zero built projects on any of the planets; this is how badly Theodora runs things. Foulstone was right for the grab, and she couldn't do even this much.

In the game, your PC is basically busy building everything back up because Theodora took shortcut after shortcut and didn't live long enough for the consequences of her actions to catch up with her. But they caught up with the PC. Ask yourself: Who would want to have a deal with someone as incompetent as Theodora? Of course, you need to build your reputation again.

[nno785.45]

Originally posted by Rookie0879:

The story does work. You see, in other segments of the galaxy, we actually have competent Rogue Traders. Look at the three we have in the game. Two are self-evident, and Theodora herself is the height of incompetence.

The crew (top tiers) love her because she indulges their every wish. But at the same time, what are her actual deeds? Mort, her bodyguard, was so incompetent that he failed to save her life from an obvious threat. She humiliated her spy master and then invited all her heirs on a ship with the said spy master on it, who could be her heir if the other heirs were gone. Gee, I wonder what could have gone wrong.

She neglected her duties and let chaos spread across her lands. Combine this with an actually competent Dark Apostle who has come to ruin her, and it is no surprise why the PC is scrambling for gear. For all the opulence, your realm is poor. For goodness sake, there are zero built projects on any of the planets; this is how badly Theodora runs things. Foulstone was right for the grab, and she couldn't do even this much.

In the game, your PC is basically busy building everything back up because Theodora took shortcut after shortcut and didn't live long enough for the consequences of her actions to catch up with her. But they caught up with the PC. Ask yourself: Who would want to have a deal with someone as incompetent as Theodora? Of course, you need to build your reputation again.

1. On one point, you fight Slaanesh cultists. Why the ♥♥♥♥ are you heading into a trap with 5 people?! where are the rest of your men? you can freely leave the place, go to ship and return, the game allows you to do that. It does not allow you to bring 10 crewmen.
2. You manage planets and lower decks of the ship)) you must visit a nurgle infested ship and cannot order Abelard to just sent a crew. That does not combine))
3. Owlcat just wanted a player to feel important. It is cheap but works for a rather surprisingly larger amount of their simps who do not care about a story at all. 4-5 acts do not work and hey you see these clowns finishing the game. ♥♥♥♥ quests, and story, and logic, just let me ♥♥♥♥ Argenta, and Abelard!
4. The reputation of a RT is gained through trading on a planetary level scale and dealing in rare and exotic staff but not through giving crates of bolters.

[ReLAXed]

Well, I partially agree with the OP!

Yes, your RT should take his/her soldiers into combat (their general equipment should get better and better as the story progresses - there should be quests that push this even further!), but the RT going into the fray personally (alongside the valued members of their retinue) is also very lore-friendly! Why?

A) RTs are not just nobodies (note: Not all of them were given their Warrant of Trade from Big-E, those first/ancient Warrants however are the most prized, as they are holy artefacts from an era where humanity was ascendent again, not stagnating and bogged down by dogma (hell, Big-E wanted Atheism and enlightenment - he didn't want to be worshipped!)! Big-E himself did invent new things, like the Thunderwarriors, the Astartes, the Custodies and the Primarchs...and war gear, too!) they are exceptional individuals, who if they are the first in their dynasty will often have earned their Warrant on the field of battle, so they are exceptional soldiers, powerful psykers etc...most of them would probably be OFFENDED if you told them that you would stay on the ship and send your men to do the fighting (and if need be) dying! In the Imperium (which in part at least still is meritocracy, you don't truly get a Warrant if you are an armchair-soldier...unless you are an admiral in the Imperial Navy (Navis Imperialis)) you lead from the front!

B) Same goes for the other members of the retinue! Sure a strong psyker, a magos of the Adeptus Mechanicus, a navigator etc. are prized, but they are also on a whole other level to regular (even Astra Militarum/Imperial Guard) soldiers (the only soldiers which stand above the rank and file are probably Cadian Shocktroopers (originally from the Fortress World of Cadia - until Chaos destroyed it, which led to the following proverb in the Imperium: "The planet broke before the guard did!") and the Solar Auxilia - those are the soldiers from (Holy) Terra itself and they field better gear than most Guard units!)...also: No ship would usually only have one senior tech-priest and one navigator, because it doesn't make sense when warp-jumps may last for days (your navigator needs sleep, too - hell, a cranky and tired navigator? Damned, nope, don't want! Many of them have a temper while being well rested...) thus they will deploy alongside the RT! Hell, the magos in game is mighty fragile compared to higher echelon AdMech-Personal! Why? Magoses usually have an ENERGY SHIELD (Conversion Field - which is about the heaviest portable shield the Imperium employs, regular tech-priests use a Refractor Field, which still gives them better protection than almost any guard-soldier!)...hell an RT would probably use an energy-shield himself, too and give some to his most prized crew, just like Powered Armor - that's also something, that while rare, is available to Rogue Traders (just like Inquisitors)

C) Yeah, you should have an armory on board (hell: Being able to walk the ship, talk to your crew - even the "lower deck rabble" - should be a thing, especially if play a friendly Iconoclast RT) where you can grab regular weapons (hell, why not allow us to upgrade said armory so that we can get more of one weapon - like say I only found one decent Laser-Rifle during act 1 (the Long-Las) and that sucked, as it was not a unique named weapon, just a different pattern of lasgun!)

D) Yes, a Rogue Trader can go and buy personal items (just that they will not go buy soap or something! Their personal items will be stuff like plasma-weapons, power armor, energy shields etc. - so rare weapons and goodies!) and they will! Hell, many of them have ties to the AdMech to get those rare items for themselves and their retinue! Hell, some of the more powerful RTs can even have a chapter of Astartes working with them or a Knight House (note: An Imperial Knight is a mechanized and heavily armed walker (smaller than a Titan, but still a powerhouse on the field!))...still, they will engage in small scale trades, too - especially with XENOS! That's one of their rights after all, to trade for and use xeno-items! Planet scale trade does happen, too of course (that's why our ship is not fitting...too small to truly transport much cargo!)

The only thing I don't think as being that lore friendly is that a Rogue Trader, with a Warrant of Trade granted by Big-E himself over 10K years ago only has a (dinky little) frigate for a flagship! A Rogue Trader House this old should at the very least field a Grand Cruiser if not one of those ancient (and by now probably heavily modified - with tacked on archeo- and xeno-tech) Conquest-Class Star Galleons (designed by Big-E himself for the very first Rogue Traders!)

ps: Yes, 1.6 Kilometers length is still DINKY, compared to 7 Kilometer long (light!) Cruiser!