Editing Rogue Trader (Video Game) (section)

===Combat===
The combat is turn-based, based on the d100 system used in the FFG tabletop RPG, but it takes place on an explicit grid like [[X-Com]], complete with cover, elevation, and line-of-sight modifiers to how likely you are to hit your target. 

The combat UI is pretty standard, but can be counter-intuitive. Characters can switch between two sets of weapons at a time, and each weapon has a selection of between 1 and 3 "abilities" that determine where and how it hits. On the right-hand side of the UI is a massive list of ability icons arranged in order you get them, from left to right. Nearly all of them should be used BEFORE attacking with a character's  weapon to gain various bonuses to hit/dodge/etc. Unfortunately, there are also abilities that only have benefits after your character has moved, or your character has used another ability, which wouldn't be a problem if the game made them inactive if you'd get no benefits (and sometimes it does, go figure). The UI ''does'' show you the range and LoS of most abilities when previewing your character's movement to a new position on the battle grid (you need to choose the tile you'd like to move on and choose the skill you're about to use there before actually confirming the order to move), but no one explains that to a new player in the alpha, which results in a lot of misplacement of your party outside of support range. 

There are '''way''' too many abilities, since Owlcat decided that levelling means adding more combat abilities and only combat abilities, leading to UI bloat and leaving most characters feeling very generic since they are locked into pre-determined, linear class skill routes. The only real skill differentiation is whether or not a character has psyker abilities. Otherwise, it's all class-based, and the only customization available is when the game permits you to select from a limited choice of combat abilities based on which rank you've received, but they will all be variations on a theme rather than resembling anything like the freeform XP spending in the original RPG. Presumably, this is intended to give players a sense of "progress" by giving them more things to do in battle, but it neglects the social and economic aspects of the RPG. 

Combat is based around gaining and spending three types of currency: Movement Points (MP), Action Points (AP), and Momentum (M). MP and AP are individually gained by each character at the start of every turn, while M is gained for the party overall. This holds true for enemy encounters as well. Characters can only spend MP before they attack; they can still use certain support abilities, but if they damage an enemy all their MP is cancelled and they are stuck where they began the turn. AP points are spent on all abilities, which weapon attacks are considered. Rather than using the Action system it's more like the system proposed during the Dark Heresy 2e beta and is theoretically more freeform than the RPG system. However, you can't attack more than once per turn, despite having enough AP, without utilizing special abilities, and rate of fire is nerfed badly compared to the RPG where arguably it was overpowered. Friendly fire, however, means that rapid-firing your bolter or autopistol has more negatives than positives since the game is willing to have allies target allies when they miss their intended target, and everything could get pumped into the back of your party vanguard. Finally, M manages certain special abilities accessible to the party at either very low or very high levels. You gain M by succeeding in actions and lose M by failing or dying.

The use of abilities is almost universally determined by Line-of-Sight. If your psyker cannot "see" a target, they cannot buff/debuff/kill them. Unfortunately, it's not always clear what is and isn't in line of sight, particularly when the enemy can attack you but you can't attack them, especially where full-body cover and height differences are involved. Don't get us started on staircases, it's almost impossible to pull up a charge there.

Finally, round order is determined by initiative rolls at the start of the battle, but it's clear how that is determined. It does mean that in the encounters where the game throws more than two or three times your party size at you, despite most enemies being much, much weaker than the Rogue Trader's retinue, the enemy AI will get far more moves than you do. This may or may not be a problem later in the game, depending on how wearying this becomes, but the alternative model where sides always take equal turns has its own problems.