As a GM, I am in the middle of the road. I appreciate the fine-art of min-maxing a character into a mechanically sound creation of [insert activity], much in the same way I appreciate the value calculations for ship creation - in relation to the rules. At the same time, I vastly appreciate a player who is happy and willing to live-up to their character's beliefs and make decisions based on their logic and not meta-gaming knowledge.

What I have issue with is, doing optimal min maxing myself - or clearly identifying a character design that will not shine. What are some good traits or combos for characters - what is considering an excellent rank 1 character? Is there specific gear that min-maxing can clearly identify as being especially sound or noteworthy? Post your ideas!

I'd say that Rogue Trader is more of a game of making focused characters, than neccesarily min-maxed ones. A lot depends on whether you're allowing point buy, or rolling for characterstics. If you're saying roll for characteristics, then either let people switch a characteristic, or make them choose a class after they've rolled for stats, so they don't have a psyker with a pathetic willpower, for instance.

The easy way of seeing which stats are good for characters is simply to look at what's cheap and what's expensive XPwise.

Rogue trader seems to reward specialisation. IE: You really don't need two characters who are immensely focused on commerce, since one will be better than the other (probably the seneschal). So it's a good idea to make characters together, and ensure that each has their own niche.

The other thing to do is to have a look at the starship combat. You'll need someone who can pilot the ship (Pilot spacecraft - so good agility and voidmaster or rogue trader (or battlefleet background)), someone who has a good ballistic skill (anyone), and other people to do the other actions. Of the other actions, having someone with a good tech use (so a high Int explorator, usually) is probably the most useful. In ship actions, make sure you have access to Into The Storm for things for Astropaths & Navigators to do (since their skills don't fit very well with other actions)