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[Kipcha]

Have the boarding values changed at all for 0.65?

With the new market additions i wouldnt mind knowing if there are any stats for;
% of destroyed ships that are boardable
Chance of:
Hard dock Success/failure
Assault boat: success/failure

As 20 marines run you roughly as much as a fully fitted frigate, and you have the chance to loose your own ship in a hard-docking style boarding action.

How long would it take using only assault boats with 20 marines to make back the money you paid for them.

[Debido]

Have the boarding values changed at all for 0.65?

From what I've seen in the API the code is almost entirely identical between 0.62 and 0.65.

I've been considering re-writing this section as it is just...not ... good.

[CopperCoyote]

I've been using marines quite a bit lately.
I'm not sure you can make back the cost with them unless you're really lucky. You want marines because getting a ship is sometimes worth far more that the cost in credits for the marines/ship and supplies to feed/repair.

If you're able to buy combat ships from one or more factions with a military base then you probably don't need marines.
If you're a trader you probably won't need marines because you can buy cargo vessels from nearly everywhere.
If you're a smuggler you probably won't need marines because you probably won't be running more than 3 ships any way.

There are 2 ships i suggest you try to board even if you don't have marines: The pirate buffalos with shielded cargo holds, and all fully functional hounds (destroy the (D)s still). Those two kinds of ships have probably saved me enough money in toll fees to buy a cruiser every year i've had them.

If you are going to use marines hard dock every time. Launching them is a waste of time because the enemy gets away so often. If you don't have a ship you are ok with losing or you're sure will survive a self destruct then let them go (or destroy them). I use hounds and mercuries for disposable boarding ships. With 40 or 30 marines you can frequently get most high or medium tech cruisers. If you're not willing to use a ship that will die in a self destruct then use a ship of the same size category or bigger. Lower tech ships are better because they have better armor. I don't think their shields matter if the enemy self destructs.

I seem to recall the chance of any particular ship being salvageable being 1 in 20 20%, and if one is a yes then none of the others are salvageable even if they roll yes. So if there is a particular ship you really want, then let it go and hunt it down by its self later so you only have to worry about weather or not it is salvageable. Not if one of the other ships are salvageable before it preventing you from getting it.

Edit: i was mistaken on the boarding chance. It's 20% not 1 in 20 (5%)

[Camael]

It seems to me the values have changed, though; I had four successes in hard-dock boarding at 52 attempts. Of the rest roughly one third exploded, the rest were "crippled beyond repair". (Probably should order my marines to stop using their nuke-grenade-launchers during close quarters fighting.) It did not seem so bad before the last release. Did I mention the system sucks?

On that note - where can I edit that one?

[Blaze]

From what I've seen, ships will self-destruct if your crew is too powerful for them to have any hope of winning. I would suggest matching marines and their crew, you'll ALWAYS lose at least one marine anyway, so there's no point in going in full force. I generally keep a disposable ship for hard-docking, since launching crew tends to result in them speeding off or inflicting enough casualties before they board resulting in loss.

As for the "too damaged to use" bit, that's just a crapshot I suppose.

[Megas]

Use marines to board ships that rarely appear in shops, or anything that is good if you only see ten men or less.  In other words, stuff that you would give everything to get a ship you covet or when risk-to-reward seems to be in your favor.

Always, ALWAYS hard dock.  Chances of successful capture with hard docking is unreliably low enough already.  No need to make it even worse by launching assault teams.

Keep boarding in mind when building your fleet.  If your fleet has big ships, use them to board smaller ships; they can survive an explosion.  If you want a fast fleet or you think you might board a Paragon or other big ship with huge flux pool, bring some Mercury and/or Hound ships.  Mercury is much more common in 0.65.

For marines, bring at least ten.  That will be enough to board many ships.  If you want to board anything, bring up to 200 (or less if you have Special Ops perk.)

Remember, explosion damage varies by the ship's flux capacity.  See if your ships have more hull and armor.  If so, use it to board the ship.  If not, use your disposable Mercury ships.

[CrashToDesktop]

I actually find that if I send in way too many Marines / crew, the ship can be captured nearly 100% of the time, but the damage done to the ship itself during the boarding just renders it useless and I'm left with nothing but a casualty list and another scrapped ship.

Standard military procedure dictates you should at least have 3 times the amount of troops attacking compared to the defenders, but in my experience this usually renders the boarded ship unusable.  2 to 2.5 as many Marines does the trick.  Also, board ships with the next tier of ship up - for example, board an Enforcer with at least a Cruiser-sized ship to eliminate the possibility of having your own ship blown in the process of boarding.  And use ships that have the least damage armor and hull.

[SafariJohn]

Alternatively, if you're not boarding big stuff, you can just use an expendable shuttle.

[Vind]

If you send too many forces its is almost every time crippled enemy ship and combat losses. Also the chance to self-destruct is too high and provided ship to board is random too this is 2 roll dice game regardless of your choices. Pretty bad but such boarding just can be scrapped totally - it is not worth it at any rate. Also you cant capture fighters because current game mechanic repairs them even without alive enemy carriers if one was present in fleet before combat.

[CopperCoyote]

I find that a slightly greater than 1:1 ratio works best (for me). When the enemy ship has 20 or more people in it sending in 1.25 marines for every enemy detected works great. With smaller quantities of enemies the random enemy marines will have more effect. So for less than 20 enemies i use 1.5 to 1.

Using lower quantities of marines also means you have lower overhead, and you're less likely to frighten the enemy into self-destructing.

[Auraknight]

If you send too many forces its is almost every time crippled enemy ship and combat losses. Also the chance to self-destruct is too high and provided ship to board is random too this is 2 roll dice game regardless of your choices. Pretty bad but such boarding just can be scrapped totally - it is not worth it at any rate. Also you cant capture fighters because current game mechanic repairs them even without alive enemy carriers if one was present in fleet before combat.

I miss one factor of the old system where the ships where still healthy enough to flee/fight, but the captain and crew surrendered. This was primarially how you'd capture fighter wings, as well. I'd imagine that someone in a fighterwing that was picked up would want to surrender, espcially if he was captured on a hostile ship, with mechanics already disableing his self-destruct capabilities, and marienes all over pointing guns at him.

[Okim]

HUGE SPOILER AHEAD!!! HUGE!

Spoiler

              public static final float SELF_DESTRUCT_CHANCE = 0.25f;
   public static final float CIV_SELF_DESTRUCT_CHANCE = 0.05f;
   
   public static final float ENGAGE_ESCAPE_CHANCE = 0.25f;
   public static final float ENGAGE_DISABLE_CHANCE = 0.5f;
   public static final float ENGAGE_DESTROY_CHANCE = 0.25f;
   
   public static final float LAUNCH_CLEAN_ESCAPE_CHANCE = 0.5f;
   public static final float DOCK_SUCCESS_CHANCE = 0.5f;
   public static final float LAUNCH_SUCCESS_CHANCE = 0.25f;
   
   public static final float DEFENDER_BONUS = 1.5f;
   public static final float DEFENDER_VS_LAUNCH_BONUS = 3f;

boolean civ = member.getVariant().getHints().contains(ShipTypeHints.CIVILIAN);
      if (outcome == null && (float) Math.random() < SELF_DESTRUCT_CHANCE && !civ) {
         outcome = BoardingOutcome.SELF_DESTRUCT;
      }
      if (outcome == null && (float) Math.random() < CIV_SELF_DESTRUCT_CHANCE && civ) {
         outcome = BoardingOutcome.SELF_DESTRUCT;
      }

The chances to self-destruct/damaged beyond repair and etc. are purely random and have nothing to do with the amount of mars/crew you sent. Self-destruct is almost non-existent for CIVILIAN-grade ships and is 25% for other ships.

[close]

[Megas]

Using crew for boarding is not a viable option for me much of the time.  Most of my crew is either veteran or elite, and I do not want to waste hundreds of them on boarding, not when marines are available.  Crew may be cheap, but lots of elite crew are hard to come by without high to max Command Experience.

[bluntfang]

[/quote]
I miss one factor of the old system where the ships where still healthy enough to flee/fight, but the captain and crew surrendered. This was primarially how you'd capture fighter wings, as well. I'd imagine that someone in a fighterwing that was picked up would want to surrender, espcially if he was captured on a hostile ship, with mechanics already disableing his self-destruct capabilities, and marienes all over pointing guns at him.
[/quote]

This. I miss this. That and the fact we only get one chance at boarding now as well (as opposed to before, where each ship had a boarding chance). 

Especially with the fact that at least half of the time I try to board they blow up,  especially if i use marines. I swear, when i use marines they blow up 70-80% of the time.

[Cosmitz]

Actually i got a Hermes, named it Strike Craft, and am now hauling 10 marines after me. Cheap, disposable, and a necessary evil when you /really/ want that /one/ ship.