Warhammer 40,000: Inquisitor – Martyr Release and Post-release Content Detailed

Warhammer 40,000: Inquisitor – Martyr, NeocoreGames’ grim futuristic action-RPG will be leaving Early Access on May 11, 2018. And while we’re still roughly a month away from the game’s launch, the developers have already outlined all the content that will be present in the initial release, their post-release plans, and a few of the ideas on their maybe list. Have a look:

RELEASE CONTENT

• Pretty much everything what’s already in the Steam Early Access build. 
  • It would be a bit redundant to list all things here, but if you’re not participating in the pre-release phase, you can read all the update logs up until now to see the classes, enemy factions, features, gameplay modes already in the game. 
  • Also make sure to watch our videos, trailers and past live streams on our YouTube channel.
• The full story campaign, spanning five chapters, with
  • unique maps,
  • unique NPCs,
  • in-game and CGI cutscenes, 
  • and an interesting narrative dealing with heavily lore-related questions.
• Morality system
  • This will be tied to assignments and story events (in the campaign), where you will be prompted to make a choice that will push you towards “Puritan” or “Radical”
  • Based on the two extremes, you will unlock
    • separate skill tree branches,
    • unique artefacts,
    • and a perk for each.
• New enemy faction: Alpha Legion
• New terrain settings (placeholder names, but you get the idea): 
  • “Ruined city”, 
  • “Upper hive”, 
  • “Giant rails”, 
  • “Industrial”.
• Maps for randomly generated missions will be revamped. 
  • The previously used set of mosaic weren’t varied enough, according to feedback they still felt too familiar. 
  • We removed all the props from the mosaics and built 2-300 more props and decals for more variation.
  • All mosaics will receive 3-6 major pattern variants (based on theme and atmosphere), and we’ll assemble maps from these. 
  • There will be more scripted random events on the maps, there will be new ones, but we’ll use the already established ones more frequently as well.
• Lots of unique artefact enchantments for Relics
• Inoculator will be re-balanced, components will be expanded. (It’s rather heavy on healing now, so we’ll strengthen boost effects so players won’t use the Inoculator for healing only, other type of skill crafting will be encouraged.)
• Class builds
  • Supported with unique items, passive skills and perks. 
  • This will take a lot of unlocking, most of these are endgame builds, mostly for hardcore players. 
  • In general, you’ll be able to assemble surprisingly unique builds. 
  • The system is built upon three pillars (passive skills, perks, unique item enchants), so it’s not only dominated by one trait, there’s a nice space for experimentation.
  • We’ll show you some interesting builds soon.
• Pskyer will receive another spell tree (Telekinesis) .
• All classes will receive a bunch of new perks.
• Some of the passive skills will be changed.
• We’ll rework the progress system yet again.
• We’ll rework the loot system heavily, so it would feel more rewarding.
• We’ll rework the boss system.
  • There will be humanoid, but really tough enemies, the “Villain” unit type (this will be featured in our Unit types blog series this month). 
  • Some elites will become bosses in scripted bossfight maps, and another boss type will be introduced, the “Nemesis”. There will be two in the game, one at the end of the campaign, and one in the endgame layer, at the end of Tier I.
• Customizable character appearance. 
  • You will be able to adjust the colour of equipment materials.
  • You will be able to add and modify the amount of grime, scratches, etc.
• GUI improvements 
  • Graphics and arrangement will be improved.
  • The main menu will be improved.
  • More functions will be added.
• Better, more balanced and polished combat gameplay.
• Better, improved graphics.
• Tier I (first subsector) investigations, involving Word Bearers, Alpha Legion, Black Legion.

POST-RELEASE CONTENT

• 4-6 weeks after release: the first global event. 
  • This is where the Tier I’s investigations will end up. 
  • The Warzone will open up. This is the endgame zone of the first Tier (not recommended under Rank 40). As the name implies, it’s an endless battleground where you can progress in increasingly difficult special missions, and you’ll meet the second Nemesis of the game here. This provides competition among hardcore players, you’ll be able to improve unique items in a way that your build will be more than capable of handling the opening of Tier II.
• 2-3 months after release: Opening up Tier II. 
  • This is a new subsector with 
    • 6 new solar systems, 
    • new unique Points of Interests, 
    • three investigations focusing on the Dark Eldar. 
  • This update will introduce Dark Eldar and Night Lords enemy factions.
• This will be followed by two more Seasons 
  • both revolving around their own storylines, 
  • new subsectors, 
  • 2-4 new investigations each, 
  • new unit types (Khorne).
• In the further future (in a year or so) we’re planning to release a paid expansion, followed by another cycle of free Seasons with new stories and themes, but at this point this is all the information we can share.

PLANNED CONTENT (BUT UNCERTAIN)

• Retinue system. 
  • Unfortunately, we’re not going to be able to include it for now, this fell outside of development time and focus. We made several plans, but none of them worked well with the game. We didn’t give up, of course, but this is definitely something that we can’t finish until release.
• Inquisitorial Fortresses. 
  • We couldn’t make them work well so far. Our first concept didn’t work out well, so it was discarded, it was rather something extra instead of something that tied into the core gameplay well. What we can promise is that we’ll try to come up with something sensible, but it may not become a feature at all. Please adjust your expectations accordingly.
• New PvP modes. 
  • This is still a thing, but because it’s not the main feature of the game, and because we had to concentrate on finally finishing the game, this fell out of our focus for now. We’ll make them work during the Seasons.