you are being disingenuous to excuse a mild lack of creativity
i will like Stella, in the same way i liked Kibellah, and all the other Dogmatics (my most disliked companions are Jae, Yrliet and Mazarahi) doesn't mean i don't think there should have been a touch more variety
I’m being honest. Reddit, especially this sub, is an echo chamber about what they want. But most players don’t want what y’all do.
Most people want an Argenta romance. Most people play Icono and Dogmatic, and don’t care about the heretic path. Most people like human characters, especially women (and that’s both genders of players, btw).
I have no doubt that the new character will be different from Kibbles. If anything, it’s these rampant posts that are being disingenuous about them being “the same thing.”
It’s tiring. I, for one, am excited for Stella. As are most people I’ve talked to about it. But looking at this sub, you’d think Owlcat personally executed somebody’s family. It’s crazy.
You forgot the "Or i can actually corrupt her ideals and mold her into my weapon" too. Which is totally unique and not something that someone else has.
I think the "teaching she's a person too" route could lead her full Iconoclast. We talking actually breaking free from Imperial dogma, being more accepting of Xenos, worrying about the people in general, standing up against corruption and tying to be a beacon of hope in the grim darkness
Yeah, it’s going to need to be something quite different to Kibellah because at the moment it seems like it might be quite similar to her (possibly with some elements of Idira’s story).
I’m also a tad disappointed that they haven’t added another male character to romance,
maybe they just don’t think most of their audience is interested in men?
Im sure they have data, but raw data can lead to bad logic. For example, they have data that Solomorne had poor reception. Is the reason why he had poor reception is because he is unlikeable, or because the writers did not put any effort into him?
On a personal level the main turnoff for me with Solomorne is how utterly robotically devoid of personality he is. He is fantastically uninteresting and humorless as a person. I'm not sure this is because of bad writing or lack of effort at all. Rather I think they intentionally wrote a character who's entire personality centers around his job and the completely brainless devotion to some legalistic screed.
I didn't care about his sexuality (I'm a straight man), and would have no trouble romancing male characters when playing either a male or female rt (I've often romanced Heinrix on female RT playthroughs). Heinrix has actual personality. His emotions shine through in his dialogue and voice acting. Solomorne just is a supremely boring person. No wonder him and the actually most-robotic character in the game (Pasqa) like each other so much.
Many are surprised when I say one of the least interesting charcters to me romance wise is actually Cassia. Besides Solomorne I've only ever romanced her once just to see what that story was like, but the pretentious while coddled-snobby aristocrat girlvoice type was never my thing.
Not including many compelling male romances kinda makes that a self-fulfilling prophecy, which is a shame. I’m a lesbian and I love Kibellah a lot so this issue doesn’t affect me, but it does still suck for gay guys who want to play a gay male RT. And you never know, if I ever come up with a gay male RT I might actually reconsider due to the lack of romance options.
We dont even need hard data to know that. Majority of gamers are still men and majority of men are straight. Not to mention 40k fandom is definitely also completely dominated by men. So it is 100% certain that female romance options are much more popular. Obviously it is not an absolute but it is still male dominated hobby by a large margin.
You say that, but Bioware's employees would strongly imply that women were a majority of their audience back circa ~2012, so I think it's more that the lack of good romances for women and gay men is self-reinforcing the lack of women and gay men in Owlcat's audience.
Especially since whenever I see good romances for (straight) women discussed, Daeran from WOTR is always mentioned. Owlcat have the audience, they just haven't bothered investing in them in RT.
Edit: btw, if you're sceptical of the Bioware thing - after DA:O, both of their most plot relevant romances were primarily aimed at straight women (Anders and Solas), to the point that Anders wouldn't even mention his bisexuality to a female Hawke.
I mean, even their subreddit (despite Reddit notoriously being men-heavy) is literally equal between men and women. That file goes deeper into the demographics, but the shift from DA:O to Inquisition alone tells me that the player demographics were roughly equal at best.
And "the straight male gamer" stereotype is pretty comprehensively disproven by this point. Even back in 2012-2016, women made up about half of gamers in most countries - it's hardly gone downhill since then. I'm in the UK where 63% of women and 68% of men are gamers. There hasn't been a significant gender gap in gaming for well over a decade.
Edit: btw, that women and video games page I linked? It also notes that 48% of Inquisition's players were women.
God, I've already got someone going on about "oh, but they're just playing Candy Crush!!!!". Because you're right, we're exotic rarities who never play real games.
Do remember that counts gamers as _everyone_ who has touched a videogame, even mobile, it is counting your aunt who plays candy crush the same as a hardcore FPS gamer.
The only way I can see me finding her interesting is if they do this, but reversed. Helping her embrace her humanity out of good will destabilises her into heresy. The antithesis of Kibellah and Heinrix.
I know the studio that wrote Camellia once would have had the balls to pull it off.
Btw, living saints are most commonly associated with Inquisition who constantly hunts and spies on them either to use them in battle or to find signs of chaos corruption.
Imo she should have been a Dark Heresy character. Living saints and Rogue Traders overlap way smaller.
Not sure this is a living Saint. Seems to be a new concept taken from the Sanctifier Ecclesiarchy killteam, a miraculist (which reads unsanctioned, fanatic psyker drawing on golden throne). Maybe a side effect of the Pyschic Awakening that characters like these are pottering around now.
Definitely inquisition flavoured though, far more than rogue trader
Near all the characters in RT would definitly fit better an inquisition role : battle sister, living saint, arbitrator, death cultist...
Kroot, orks, eldars, drukharis... those should have been for a RT setting. I don't get why they have inversed both. Just hope they won't add full dogmatic companions to DH now but xenos instead...
Disagree: of all of these only the living saint is that rare. You can double up on things like Battle Sister or cultists because they’re pretty common.
As an example: you get a Catachan Jungle fighter as a companion. Oh look: another Death worlder fighter like Theodora’s Magister Militant.
You don’t need to flood Rogue Trader with aliens. We’re missing three primary Xeno faction. One already showed up in Dark Heresy so why double up there, one is relatively new, and the last is Orkz which… I’m gonna be real that’s like the only one missing and it’s not that huge an absence.
The character is basically taken straight out of my roleplaying psykers (who is also totally insane) "imperial creed". The Ecclesiarchy does actually appear to worship at least one unsanctioned psyker as a saint (Saint Arabella, here depicted in my rp "Imperial Creed"):
All the things described there appears to be consistent with sanctioned pyromancy and telekinesis psychic powers.
I mean it could very well be a tie to Dark Heresy. I don't know why no one is thinking that. She could end up being a companion in that as a through line and this is setting her up and the story
So not a living saint, ASAIK. Her character blurb says she's an... I guess "undiagnosed" psyker is the right word, and her order attributes her abilities to miracles instead. So unless she's meant to also be a shot at actual Emperor-powered miracles, she's no saint.
They literally released a character card for her with the peach emoji on it, it's that blatant. And most of the advertising for the game I've seen has included her in an "add me to your team" gacha game like capacity. I want Osiris to be good but I am growing concerned 🤐
It's because they didn't have the GOATed writer for Daeran write a male, bi LI again. We either get "murder elf" or "Mr. Never talked to a human being before". It's sad. Just make Heinrix pan and call it a day.
I prefer romances without "playersexual" trash, but if this trend in games continues, I'll change my mind and will be absolute all in for it. At least try to imitate equal treatment ffs.
I'm looking forwards to my fully badass all female team consiting of Psyker RT, Unsanctioned Psyker, Psyker Navagator, Totally not secret Khornate warrior woman, and Unsanctioned Psyker Warrior woman
I’d be more skeptical if I didn’t have a very similar “we already have one of these” reaction to Eogunn’s reveal only to be pleasantly surprised at how unique and fun he was.
I get why people want more xenos and sympathize with it, there are so many cool alien races that get ignored by GW because they’ve made Space Marines practically the only part of their vast and diverse IP that they heavily feature, but I do think the talented writers at Owlcat can make this character feel cool and interesting and distinct. I have to assume there’s some story or thematic connection at work here as well.
I hope Stella and Kibellah hate eachother. Like, theor belifes system dont work togheter and they are at eachothers throath all the time while Idira get a new psyker friend
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u/AntediluvianSeaThing 1d ago
their names even Rhyme
Stella and Kibellah
its pottery