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[RandomnessInc]

I thought of this because it didn't make much sense for pirates to have dedicated marines to board ships, so I was think of a hybrid between a regular crew and a marine, it would be balanced by having a ship primarily commanded by pirate crew recover combat readiness slower and also have 3/4 the effectiveness of regular marines. They would also be more expensive to buy if you're not a pirate and some factions when scanning you would lose reputation by you harboring the pirate crew

[goduranus]

Space ships are not sailing ships. Space ship crew are mostly whimpy technicians and computer people who are no good for direct combat, while marines are a different bunch of brawny people.

It's not like the age of sail where ship equipment were powered by human muscles, where crewmen are physically strong and could supplement marines in combat.

[ValkyriaL]

crew can and do still multitask if they have to, you could have "pirate" crew that acted as both a crewmember and a marine at the same time, but only 50% as effective as novice. up to 100% as effective when they are elite, so when you have an elite pirate crew member, it would be 100%/100%(as if you had 1 regular crew member and 1 regular marine), while the normal elite marine and elite crewman would be 150% in their specific role.

[SafariJohn]

Space ship crew are mostly whimpy technicians and computer people who are no good for direct combat

I call BS. Crew have to move heavy cargo and perform other tasks that require physical fitness.

[goduranus]

I call BS. Crew have to move heavy cargo and perform other tasks that require physical fitness.

I call BS back, micro-gravity environment.

[SafariJohn]

A micro-gravity environment would require the crew to be more fit. If they weren't they would have all sorts of trouble planetside and on rotating space stations. In any case, it's irrelevant because Starsector ships clearly have some sort of artificial gravity.

[goduranus]

You'd think they'd turn down the gravity when moving cargo around don't you?

[Harmful Mechanic]

Objects in microgravity still have mass. Also, you're ignoring damage control, which is at least as physically demanding as, say, firefighting.

(This idea that highly-educated technical people are all weedy or chubby dorks is kind of amusing to me. It isn't even broadly true for software and electrical engineers any more. Once you get out into other fields, you find chemists who ski, weight-lifting physicists, climate scientists who mountainbike. Look at the guys on a contemporary aircraft carrier; largely fit, smart people.)

[RandomnessInc]

crew can and do still multitask if they have to, you could have "pirate" crew that acted as both a crewmember and a marine at the same time, but only 50% as effective as novice. up to 100% as effective when they are elite, so when you have an elite pirate crew member, it would be 100%/100%(as if you had 1 regular crew member and 1 regular marine), while the normal elite marine and elite crewman would be 150% in their specific role.

That sounds a little more balanced

[goduranus]

So, if you got a guy that's signed up as a radar technician, what would make him want to engage in hand to hand combat?

[SpacePoliticianAndaZealot]

This is an excellent idea, I endorse it!

And to weigh in the discussion, HartLord is right, you know.

[Harmful Mechanic]

So, if you got a guy that's signed up as a radar technician, what would make him want to engage in hand to hand combat?

I dunno, a really unfunny mom joke?

[ValkyriaL]

the fact that he is obligated to do so, he is a crewmember on a warship, he signed up for these things, he is expected to be ready for anything, if that means fixing broken relays or fistfighting aliens, so be it.

[Deshara]

Ship crew are like the union workers you see digging ditches in roads that are being renovated, only they have to do so while under fire. Just cause they deal with tech doesn't mean much.
The way I see it is that marines are necessary because of the fact that close-quarters combat with modern weapons is a meat-grinder that makes any crew-to-crew combat a stalemate and marines are equipped and trained to break said stalemate without destroying the ship.
I do think that marines need to eventually be integrated intolerant actual combat at some point-- they already have the bones of a ship-to-ship shuttle transfer and dead-locking ion weaponry that can temporarily "capture" an enemy ship, they just need to flesh out the former and bridge the two to implement mid-combat boarding

[Deshara]

Which they do, btw. Boarding isn't a free action, and Alex intentionally made boarding ships in general a losing proposition even with marines so there's really no way i can think of to make crew-boarding a thing without changing one of those two factors