Hi there, finally de-lurking.
First I want to say that I do like the majority of added mechanics in the past, for example combat readiness as a whole and even the inbattle cr timer has grown on me.
What else? Well, great game, I like how it's coming along etc.
So, now that that's out of the way let's start with a little story.
For the last couple of (major) updates I tried to acquire an Apogee. Had a lot of fun with this ship in the past, soloing system defence fleets in particular; but which ship couldn't after the introduction of skills.
Anyway, until this update I actually never managed to get one. Even at one time aligning myself with Tri-tach didn't help.
No market had one, no matter how often I checked and attacking my only allies was kinda out of the question. In my other playthroughs boarding was kinda the only option I had,
though to organically get one by hoping real hard the rng didn't want to wave the middle finger in my face again was a somewhat futile attempt.
Those few Apogees I got to fight never ever became board able until I just gave up and gamed the mechanic to the breaking point. Basically killing every other ship in its fleet,
harassing and bullying it repeatedly into retreat with a heavy scoop of the ice cream of safe scumming. Though a chore I was finally given the ship. Hurray, I guess.
That seamlessly leads me to the point why this mechanic is my personal "big fat hate target".
(disclaimer: the following are my personal opinions of boarding, so take it for what little it is worth)
Well, the biggest issue I have with boarding as a mechanic is the complete lack of control.
The game rolls if I get the ship I actually want to acquire or if get handed the half eaten burger wrapped in a greasy newspaper.
I may then decide if I want to bet some marines on the chance to get said burger or if the games feels funny and just blows it up.
For me, that creates a pretty long chain of frustration.
Maybe I am spoiled by a lot of games that featured boarding, but in my mind boarding is a pretty straight forward decision making process: I want to acquire ship x.
Can I get it by other means (aka buying, producing, etc.)? No. Enable the ability to board (in this case marines). Done. Commence boarding of ship x.
The current mechanic throws some pretty big curve balls in that regard. The fattest and smelliest is of course the game slapping my hands by not allowing to choose the actual ship that is to be boarded.
And then blowing it up if it feels I didn't appreciate its choice enough. Now, I did read the arguments stating it would make it to easy to fast if you can get whatever, just need the marines and of you go.
Though I am firmly entrenched on the "don't care" side of this. I do however get Alex comments why boarding will not become a part of combat itself and stay on the aftermath.
That's fine, I can live without the shuttle cannon. But I do want to make meaningful decisions and feel the results, positive and/or negative and not play lottery.
Make it more expensive, don't care.
Even require a tug to drag the half burned wreck with your fleet around at burn 5 with a additional cost in .. supply, machinery, what ever, just to get it to the point where it becomes a ship again with 1% hull and 0 cr.
Force me to shuffle it to a station or have a repair rig in my fleet (would give 'em some use). Don't care. Just make the middle finger shoved in my face go away.
Increase the initial hurdle to boarding, make it require campaign time, what ever, but please, tone down the randomness.
...
Well, that ended up being quite a rant, off to a great start
Sorry 'bout that.
Or yeah, just get rid of it, that's an option as well. I don't think I would mind.