So if you have an escort ship and a merchant, then if someone tries to board the merchant a mini battle is created with all 3 ships involved.
As before the position to be boarded has 4 round of combat vs the boarding ship at increase dmg/acc. The defending / supporting positions get X round of combat against the boarder also but with no modifers.
Where X is:
4 rounds if the defender/support has no locked targets
1 rounds if the defender/support has locked targets
1 round if they are a SB/platform
0 rounds if the defender/support has locked targets==Max Targets
Starbases and platforms only use a fraction of there weapons if they have multiple locked targets.
This change will come in a week or so and will be noted in SSS
i am assuming the boarding ship, if it is faster than the escort will only get 1 round of fire from the escort? (IE similar i suppose to a sub running past the escorts and knobbling the freighter)
and 2.
if the ship carrying out the boarding comes under attack in a mini battle, if there are ships present with that boarder on the defend list it will bring in their own support ships to give escort to the boarders.
please confirm these, as it would be obvious to me, but that doesnt mean they are coming into force
| QUOTE (Gandolph @ Feb 9 2006, 02:31 PM) |
| if the ship carrying out the boarding comes under attack in a mini battle, if there are ships present with that boarder on the defend list it will bring in their own support ships to give escort to the boarders. |
The boarding ship will go in alone and remain alone in exactly the same way that a combat transaction does not check support and defend for the position being fired on for performing the combat transaction.
| QUOTE (David Bethel @ Feb 9 2006, 02:06 PM) |
| Boarding ships will be changed so that each boarding produces a mini battle with all involved defenders/supporters. So if you have an escort ship and a merchant, then if someone tries to board the merchant a mini battle is created with all 3 ships involved. As before the position to be boarded has 4 round of combat vs the boarding ship at increase dmg/acc. The defending / supporting positions get X round of combat against the boarder also but with no modifers. Where X is: 4 rounds if the defender/support has no locked targets 1 rounds if the defender/support has locked targets 1 round if they are a SB/platform 0 rounds if the defender/support has locked targets==Max Targets Starbases and platforms only use a fraction of there weapons if they have multiple locked targets. This change will come in a week or so and will be noted in SSS |
So boarding is getting too easy I take it?
It makes the chances of boarding during a battle go from next-to-nothing to guaranteed-death
Mark
What is the reasoning behind this change; i.e. what is wrong with the current system?
Will boardings take place before or after standard combat?
In large battles, will it not remove the possibility of boarding damaged ships? If both sides clear target/lock lists each day, then there could be lots of ships with no targets with 4 rounds against a boarder and then 4 rounds against a ship in the main battle.
Nik
therefore that is why this is being bought in.
i do however feel that double damage is too much and have always said so, the extra hit rate is double damage already
| QUOTE (Jerusalem @ Feb 10 2006, 12:26 PM) |
| Somebody should run this one past Pirate Large. He must have the most experiance of anybody at boarding operations. |
From Pirate Large (who wants to remain annonymous
) :It is due to numerous pirate boarding actions that a fault has been found with the current boarding mechanism. This has happened on several occasions and luckily for me, most people havent twigged it. BUT basically if freight ships run with just 1 ship, no matter what it is warship or not, with a naval captain on board and defend freighters on its lists, all boarding operations are NOW IMPOSSIBLE.
What has been happening is, a target is spotted, a boarding ship makes the hit, only to trigger a battle, the battle runs and the pirate successfully evades the warship, then when the boarding operation continues, the freighter has now moved on, EVEN though the freighter was being attacked in the first place.
Therefore if you run ships in pairs or more, and update them daily, you cannot capture the freighters.
I do have a concern I must admit, as I'm assuming ships will still be able to outrun the warships, if they are faster.
| QUOTE (Mica Goldstone @ Feb 10 2006, 01:40 PM) | ||
From Pirate Large (who wants to remain annonymous ) :It is due to numerous pirate boarding actions that a fault has been found with the current boarding mechanism. This has happened on several occasions and luckily for me, most people havent twigged it. BUT basically if freight ships run with just 1 ship, no matter what it is warship or not, with a naval captain on board and defend freighters on its lists, all boarding operations are NOW IMPOSSIBLE. What has been happening is, a target is spotted, a boarding ship makes the hit, only to trigger a battle, the battle runs and the pirate successfully evades the warship, then when the boarding operation continues, the freighter has now moved on, EVEN though the freighter was being attacked in the first place. Therefore if you run ships in pairs or more, and update them daily, you cannot capture the freighters. I do have a concern I must admit, as I'm assuming ships will still be able to outrun the warships, if they are faster. |
Sounds like a good reason to change things if thats the case
But changing it in the way proposed would make it impossible for other boardings to occur (such as during combat). Seems a bit unfair.it also sounds more like a bug, than a rules change. Couldnt you change it so that if combat is avoided, then effectively no time has passed and the cargo ship will be boarded? Or some other clever techie thing
Mark
| QUOTE (Mica Goldstone @ Feb 10 2006, 02:40 PM) | ||
From Pirate Large (who wants to remain annonymous ) :It is due to numerous pirate boarding actions that a fault has been found with the current boarding mechanism. This has happened on several occasions and luckily for me, most people havent twigged it. BUT basically if freight ships run with just 1 ship, no matter what it is warship or not, with a naval captain on board and defend freighters on its lists, all boarding operations are NOW IMPOSSIBLE. What has been happening is, a target is spotted, a boarding ship makes the hit, only to trigger a battle, the battle runs and the pirate successfully evades the warship, then when the boarding operation continues, the freighter has now moved on, EVEN though the freighter was being attacked in the first place. Therefore if you run ships in pairs or more, and update them daily, you cannot capture the freighters. I do have a concern I must admit, as I'm assuming ships will still be able to outrun the warships, if they are faster. |
So surely this is just simply a flag setting. The ship being boarded has a flag set against it when the initial attempt is started. The battle, if any, occurs and if the boarding ship still exists then it does the boarding. The ship being boarded cannot leave the area until the flag setting has changed. Then there is no need to actually change the boarding procedure.
Nik
| QUOTE (Nik @ Feb 11 2006, 07:37 PM) |
| So surely this is just simply a flag setting. The ship being boarded has a flag set against it when the initial attempt is started. The battle, if any, occurs and if the boarding ship still exists then it does the boarding. The ship being boarded cannot leave the area until the flag setting has changed. Then there is no need to actually change the boarding procedure. Nik |
Ah, but under this system if you attempt to board a ship in battle it cannot leave the battle until after the battle at the end of the day is resolved - the perfect pinning strategy!
| QUOTE |
| Sounds like a good reason to change things if thats the case But changing it in the way proposed would make it impossible for other boardings to occur (such as during combat). Seems a bit unfair. |
Don't see why you can not have combat boarding, although has locked targets might want to reduce the rounds of fire to zero (unless teh locked target is the boarding ship)
The combat program as far as I remember doesn't fire your torps if it feels that it has no chance of hitting (greater then 1g difference in combat speeds or somethign like that), so in the case of boarding do you get to give the pirate a full broadside of torps from your freighter as he attempts to board no matter the differential in combat speeds?
Paul if thats the case again, that suggestion wipes out an entire element of the game
In a way i dont see a problem, Large takes AFT ships, must be that most dont fly around with escort ships, also now consider this, a cargoship and a destroyer today moves into a pirate area, the pirates sends a destroyer as well to board the cargoship, but the escort destroyer moves into to figh the pirate destroyer, does that then mean the cargoship will remain there? no it will move away as fast as possible to escape the pirates, in case their escort losses.
I do see why people would want this changed, but from a real life points of view, i dont see the problem, but does not mean there should not be a possible fix, because if more then 1 pirate attacked those two, then will escort only be able to hold back 1 the other pirate will still be able too board under the fight.
all you need is anything from 1 hulled up or 2 freighters flying with each other with officers on, if they defend each other then they can NEVER be boarded.
IE the defend list is triggered, no weapons on board any ships doesnt mean the defend order isnt triggered, then everything stops and the freighters move on.
there fore it has got to be the view something has to change, otherwise a lot of people in the game wont exist anymore
Lets say you got 2 armed merchantships and get hit by just a single PIR, problem i think here lies in that the game is not really setup to handle it right, really both ships would try to flee being merchantships.
I think the way to possible go is to have players themselves class ships as merchantships or warships, so game dont try to figure this out on its own.
So if you got 2 merchantships vs 1 pirate, then should neither be able to hold back the Pirate, who close in to board one of them and the other runs away.
This way you force players to use warship classed ships to defend with, which should be able to cover vs enemy ships, so if i bring 3 escorts and is hit by 3 Pirates, then should all merchantships get away with the 3 escorts ending up in a fight with the Pirates, otherwise why have escorts at all?
an escort and a pirate can be equipped in numerous different ways, so it cannot be in black and white as every situtaion wont be the same.
so if an escort is incapable of holding the pirate OR destroying it then they shouldnt be able to stop the pirates boarding merchants
Consider that the escort will most likely try to move in front of the pirate, who still have to fly at the merchantship, so there should be a change that the merchantship can escape, not just be pinned there.
you are also assuming you have spotted the pirate, dont forget sensor ratings/profiles etc etc.
NOT black and white, chances are the ship may already be on top of the freighter
but it should also not be automatic, because then that is unfair on the merchantship owner.
| QUOTE (David Bethel @ Feb 9 2006, 04:06 PM) |
| 0 rounds if the defender/support has locked targets==Max Targets |
David,
Would this last rule apply in the case that
(lockedTargets->count >= 0 &&
lockedTargets->count <= MaxTargets &&
boardingShip->Id is a member of lockedTargets->Id[0.. lockedTargets->count -1])
is true especially if lockedTargets->count == 1 ?
| QUOTE (David Bethel @ Feb 9 2006, 04:06 PM) |
| 0 rounds if the defender/support has locked targets==Max Targets |
David would the last rule apply
if
lockedTargets->count >= 0 &&
lockedTargets->count <= MaxTargets &&
boardingShip->ID is contained in
lockedTargets->ID[0..lockedTargets->count - 1]
is true especially if locketTargets->count == 1 ?
| QUOTE |
| Would this last rule apply in the case that |
yes. If you are locking it you fire at it as it boards