The Boarding Party snafu update

AngleWyrm · #1 October 22nd, 2006, 10:54 PM

Built a ship class "Boarding Target", which had it's two crew quarters on the nose and tail. The boarding raid completed, and the ship transferred control, after the crew components were destroyed.

Since crew quarters are usually near the last thing to go, boarding is nerfed unless something changes.

Slick · #2 October 22nd, 2006, 11:52 PM

Good testing. Elaborate please.

Interpeting from what you said, it appears that the directional damage is preventing boarding from working due to it only being able to attack crew quarters, but won't do any damage if there are any other internal components shielding them. Is that correct?

Also, it appears that only 1 crew quarters needs to be converted. I wonder if it is 1 or 50%, in your example, it isn't clear. Neither sounds as it should be. I wonder what would happen on a large ship with lots of crew quarters, especially if there are more than the minimum required.

AngleWyrm · #3 October 23rd, 2006, 12:54 AM

Other things I tried:

I modded the boarding parties from 10 each to 1000 each, to see if it had to do with attack strength. The result was about the same: Attacker launches shuttle, they board, several moments go by.

The crew count stays at 100/100 the whole time, until the crew quarters are destroyed. At this point things happen rather fast; the crew count jumps, adding my crew to their crew. First test was 201/100(?), second test (with huge bording parties) was over two thousand/0.

Also, with multiple attackers sometimes the second shuttle will not land; it just buzzes around the target at point blank, as if there isn't room to land.

Maybe if crew were dispersed amongst the parts, instead of consolidated into one component. Will try that next.

Edit
I edited the Ion Engines to provide 10 crew each as an additional ability. As the ship took damage, crew counts xx/yy dropped from 180/180 down to 30/30 (last three engines). Ship wasn't taken, even though the boarded icon was present.

On one successful boarding, I went back (in the simulator) It had only one componant left: A bridge at 50% damage for all of 5 hit points.

Quarters
Put all crew quarters modules in front on the target ship. As soon as they were destroyed, the ship transferred ownership.

My Conclusion
Crew Combat module in SEV is not implemented; the boarding parties are supposed to be killing crew, but are not doing so.

Shadowstar · #4 October 23rd, 2006, 10:57 PM

Would it be possible to have the boarding parties reduce the crew count without destroying crew quarters? It seems to me if anything gets destroyed in the process it should be the bridge (as that is logically where the fighting would be since it is the control center). It could also focus on the aux. bridge since it is concievable that the aux bridge could be used to override bridge control. Of course, real boarding parties would probably not be equipped with weapons that would destroy the ship rooms they are fighting in...

"Sir, we've successfully captured the ship!"

"Great, but where did you go?"

"We're floating in space, sir -- 'bout 50 yards away from that gaping hole that used to be the crew quarters..."

AngleWyrm · #5 October 23rd, 2006, 11:02 PM

In my testing, it wasn't the boarding parties that destroyed the crew quarters, it was firing on the ship from another vessel. The boarding parties didn't actually do anything, until after all the crew were killed. Then they took over the ship.

So yea, I'de also very much like to see boarding parties do some murd--um...I'de like them to reduce the crew count to zero without me shooting out the quarters with another ship.

Shadowstar · #6 October 24th, 2006, 01:20 AM

Ah... Well I haven't been able to get boarding parties to do much good in the sims I've been running. Mostly I haven't actually run any sims to specifically test them, I just kinda assumed they worked. One thing I did notice was that they never actually managed to capture a ship. I assumed it was because my fighters were destroying everything before they could get in range. Now that I looked at it more closely it seems that the boarding units aren't actually doing anything at all. So that would be because there is still crew on the ship.

So you have to somehow kill all the crew without destroying the ship to get boarding to work then... Not sure if that qualifies as a bug, or a poorly planned feature. Seems to me that crew should only count as a very poor defending marine unit, and that actual boarding defense should be handled by the components dedicated to that. In other words, one space marine should be able to kill/replace 5 crew or somesuch.

Hmm... A system like that would allow for an interesting racial component: crew quarters with boarding defense. Would be appropriate for a race like Klingons. The crew could act like defending marines proper. But its not so great under the current system.

Dizzy · #7 October 24th, 2006, 01:22 AM

If crew quarters are fubarring up the ship capture 'feature', take crew quarters out of the components list and double the tonnage for life support? I guess all vehicle size requirements would need to reflect crew quarters are no longer needed. Would that fix it? Or are crew implemented in some other way as to involve other game perameters?

Shadowstar · #8 October 24th, 2006, 01:25 AM

It seems the key is to remove the crew from the game entirely. It's a workaround but not a very nice one. Hope it gets fixed soon.

Dizzy · #9 October 24th, 2006, 01:46 AM

Ok, well, let me ask my question in a different way. Will taking out crew quarters make boarding parties work? And will vehicle sizes need to be adjusted/changed to reflect their absence? Would making life support weigh 2x as much make up for not having crew quarters?

What's the answer here?

Phoenix-D · #10 October 24th, 2006, 01:55 AM

Taking out CQ will work. They are the problem- ships with Master Computers can be taken over successfully.