Why is our Voidship so small?

[n9ne_x]

I'm new to 40k but supposed to be this big bad rogue trader, but I'm fighting against PIRATE and alien ships that are HUGE and about 3times the size of my ship, why is that?

Aren't we supposed to be hauling tons of cargo, and soldiers, etc?

[Myth Alric]

Originally posted by Alucard:

I think it's more than that, becasue that's only five planets in this sector, I think considering our Warrant is 10k years that our dynasty has more planets somewhere else. After all, we are meant to constantly look for new planets, so 5 in 10k years is definitely too small. Still, the fact that after 10k years of wealth we have... frigate - it's just idiotic.

There isn't more than that. I think you underestimate how risky being a Rogue Trader is. At the start of the game the Rogue Trader Dynasty is nearly completely wiped out, and that isn't an uncommon thing. When dealing with aliens and shady stuff, bad things happen.

At the start of the game you are a Rogue Trader with basically no planets, and just a ship. Sure there are planets loyal to you, but you need to get back in contact with them and resolve the issues.

10k year old dynasty does not equal 10k years of uninterrupted profit.

[KING]

I also agree with OP. I got interested in 40k because of this game and fell in love with these indomitable flying cathedrals of immense faith. Went and read the lore, checked out what is out there, and then came down the terrible realization that we are actually calling a lawnmower a flagship. Our symbol of a supposed world-bending might and glory is a golfcart...

[talemore]

What is profit in W40k, a concept given to the poor.

They have worlds dedicated to farming humans and manufacture.

The value is the ships, the planets and the moons and the stars.

You can not put these assets on a sale and expect rulers to openhanded give them as part of profit and losses.

[JimmysTheBestCop]

Originally posted by talemore:

What is profit in W40k, a concept given to the poor.

They have worlds dedicated to farming humans and manufacture.

The value is the ships, the planets and the moons and the stars.

You can not put these assets on a sale and expect rulers to openhanded give them as part of profit and losses.

Man do you have an AI type these for you? wtf are you talking bout

[gurugeorge]

You can tune the difficulty of ship combat separately in the Difficulty options.

[MichaelFrazzy]

Just glad this thread exists, this is one of the only main immersion breaking and completely baffling parts of the game to me. I am severely hoping that ship combat was just rushed and they will expand ship options with DLC. As many have said, it doesn't even need to be a massive battlecruiser we control (though it could be since a quick wiki search says the Overlord, Mars, Chalice, and Armaggeon-class are all available in the Koronus Expanse) but literally anything else.

[MichaelFrazzy]

Originally posted by KING:

I also agree with OP. I got interested in 40k because of this game and fell in love with these indomitable flying cathedrals of immense faith. Went and read the lore, checked out what is out there, and then came down the terrible realization that we are actually calling a lawnmower a flagship. Our symbol of a supposed world-bending might and glory is a golfcart...

These were the same aspects that started getting me into the lore too!

[THAC0]

Originally posted by Mack:

Our ship is still gigantic (it has like 30,000 crew and it's 5 times the length of a modern US Aircraft Carrier). It's just tiny compared to cruisers. 40k ships are crazy huge.

I think the game should have come up with a reason to give us a bigger ship like having our flagship built around a Dictator or Lunar cruiser, even though in the lore most Rogue Traders would be lucky to even have our frigate warship as a flagship. Even a Dauntless Light Cruiser (that gets our hero ship narrative plot armour) would have been more realistic as a winner in the fights.

In a lore based fight, our ship would be a bug on the windshield of certain ships we fight and easily defeat in the game.

[Nick]

Rogue Traders tend to use smaller vessels because they travel around more. They're also a lot cheaper to pay the labor for. Large ships like battleships have several or more navigators aboard, which command a very sizable rate.

[Rumpus]

Originally posted by Alucard:

Originally posted by Daliena:

Um, that only justifies why it has to be THAT SHIP (Theodora ship) but it does not at all justify why THAT SHIP is not heavy crusier to begin with. Our dynasty is wealthy enough to easy afford heavy crusier. It's a FREAKING FLAGSHIP!

At the risk of being pedantic, any size vessel can be a flagship. If you have a commander who is in charge of other vessels on board, that's a flagship (assuming the officer is senior enough to be a "flag officer"). If a commodore has command of a squadron that includes a frigate and two raiders, the frigate is the flagship.
OTOH, a ship operating by itself is, by definition, never a flagship. It's just a ship, no matter how big it is or how high ranking it's senior officer is.

[BeelzeBob]

A bigger issue for me is that it appears you can't ever build any kind of battle fleet. At least that's the impression I have some 40+ hours in. Only having a single frigate to control in every space battle feels really off to me.

[Daliena]

Originally posted by BeelzeBob:

A bigger issue for me is that it appears you can't ever build any kind of battle fleet. At least that's the impression I have some 40+ hours in. Only having a single frigate to control in every space battle feels really off to me.

You can get one (1) AI-controlled frigate with nothing but one single plasma macro battery per broadside to reinforce you, and no other upgrades. So that's great!

It basically tends to die on turn 2, but hey, at least it's a few shots that weren't aimed at you.

[Blackdragon]

Originally posted by PureOrionBelt:

Originally posted by n9ne_x:

Aren't we supposed to be hauling tons of cargo, and soldiers, etc?

The Rogue Traders ship is generally not for transporting. It is for show of power and dominance.

Right, and how are we supposed to "show power and dominance" with a puny frigate? When our competitor Rogue Trader has a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ Grand Cruiser?

Nah, it's all bollocks, Owlcat dropped the ball here just like almost everywhere else in the game.

[Blackdragon]

Originally posted by Nick:

Rogue Traders tend to use smaller vessels because they travel around more.

LOL no they don't. Rogue Traders mostly use cruisers, because they're the conquering/occupying force on the fringes of the Imperium. There's even a separate page on the WH40K wiki for that:

https://warhammer40k.fandom.com/wiki/Rogue_Trader_Cruiser

See also:

https://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Rogue_Trader#Frequently_Used_Ships

[Harukage]

Yeah, just fought Elusive Contempt and 4 Claymore corvettes. That was gross. Aparently pirates also have an infinite number of interceptor pilots too. Cool story.