A few days ago, I released a video showing one of the new abilities Pox has been working on for 2.2, unit boarding. We've held off on posting this in other usual news sources because I wanted to take some time to respond to some of the more common questions that go along with it, which I'll be doing after the video:
Although it was specifically mentioned in the video that the exact numbers (success chance, unit price) you were seeing were not the actual numbers and instead just to make it as easy as possible to get the video showing the basic mechanics, one of the primary concerns raised by people was about balancing. First, I want to re-iterate that the boarding units will be expensive, in both credits and pop cap, typically similar to a capital ship in both areas. This is not a unit you will be spamming and trying to do so would be an incredibly bad idea. Your success chance with boarding is almost nothing if the target ship is anywhere near full health, and your boarding shuttles are incredibly vulnerable- successfully capturing an enemy ship will require something of a concentrated effort, and after you've captured the ship, it will typically be very heavily damaged- something you will need to protect, not something you will be using to help you win that engagement. we're also considering turning off major subsystems after a successful boarding (as you'll only have a skeleton crew).
So, other FAQ:
1. What can be captured?
The typical rule of thumb will be ships between 500 meters and 2000 meters will be capture-able. There will be some exceptions, but that's essentially how it works. This includes things like Hapan Battledragons, Star Destroyers and most things in between. This does mean SSDs will not be boardable in this way.
2. Who will have this ability?
Right now, the New Republic, Duskhan League and era 2 Remnant have it, with era 5 Remnant being another possible candidate. It's undecided how far it will go beyond that.
3. Does success chance change between ships?
Success chance is currently based on proportion of total ship health, so it does take more actual damage to get larger ships down to any given success chance, but in terms of overall percent it is the same. Capturing ships is currently fairly difficult as it is, but if it ends up being too easy, this is one potential area we'll be examining.
4. Can you tell your ships not to target the ship while it's being boarded?
Currently no, however making ships invulnerable while being boarded is something we're considering.
5. What's the cooldown? Is the boarding shuttle removed after being used?
Currently we're undecided whether we're going to use a direct cooldown, a limited amount of tries for the ability per shuttle in any given battle, or both. Currently, the shuttle is not removed after successfully (or unsuccessfully) being used. While removing them for a successful boarding may sound like it makes it less powerful, in practice, they're quite fragile, quite expensive and because of the pop cap value they take up, keeping them in the battle afterwards makes more sense in keeping the attempt to capture a ship a primary focus of a battle, instead of something you just incidentally do.
6. Will fighter compliments reflect the new or the original owners?
Currently they stay with the original loadout, but this is something I'd like to change for the first patch post-2.2. It shouldn't be an especially difficult one to make, but there's certain other variables I want to change to certain fighter loadout situations, and it makes more sense to implement it all at once than doing piece by piece.
So, hopefully that gives you an idea of how the ability works. If you still have questions feel free to post them here, on the video comments, or in our official discord channels on the CGB Coalition server: Discord.gg
Very useful ability! Great work!
Will you consider adding the boarding ability to other factions ? I know, NR boarded a lot ISDs, Duskhan League hijacked the Black Sword fleet and Thrawn liked to steal ships as well, but i think that boarding, especially during this turbulent time in the galaxy, would be something that every faction would try to accomplish, especially when there's not that many ways to get your own ships(for example, if you lose your shipyards and need to replace your ships somehow)
I always liked the ability to hijack other faction's stuff in games. I would probably make a fleet of nothing but hijacked ships as the EOTH eventually if they ever let them have boarding ships....
This is a really interesting new option which may add quite a bit of additional fun to the table as it opens up more tactical options and may allow a faction to gain ships it normally can't even build.
I do understand balance concerns so barring Super Capital ships from being affected and making boarding shuttles rather expensive is a necessary thing.
Nonetheless if the option yields too rarely a satisfying result it might be something that is sparely used if not even at all.
Question that I didn't find in the FAQ though:
Will it be possible to board and capture ships from Raid Fleets?
Yes, the boarding does not depend on the owner of a ship.
That was me.
Sweet, that's gonna get interesting to bolster your own forces with some normally unavailable units.
Gotta give the "New" Republic some "Old" Republic flair by snatching some Venators and Victory I SDs.
Will add a great deal to tactical consideration.
Sweet
Here is a thought, what if with the boarding ship is that you could disable the ship from combat and post battle it is then captured? The mechanic of it being at a lower health increases your odds of capturing it is neat, BUT if you capture and it later gets destroyed its then somewhat wasted.
But the whole idea of being able to capture ships is still pretty awesome though
Mandalorian pirates RP engaged.
Amazing, although i do hope the Remnant wont be restricted from it at all. Its technically in the specialty of the Stormtrooper corps and I would very much enjoy doing that to filthy Republic dogs.
Either way though amazing, i love boarding mechanics in games!
Sound like a great thing. That make me think of when ennemy retreat the ship without engine are lost I think. I dont know if it possible but insteed you can make a % of them join the side of the winner.
I know this is late but maybe put the capture ability on special forces space transports like the Republic infiltrator or the Imperial Nova troopers
Will the AI be able to use these too? And if so, will their success rate be the same? As soon as I read this, I had visions of Consortium corruption dancing through my head.