Analysis of boarding parties.
 

I have done some analysis and come up with the following definitive results regarding boarding:

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• <font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Boarding ship will achieve success if attack strength is greater than defense strength of target ship. Ties go to the defender.
  </font>
• <font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Attack strength of boarding ship is total number of Space Marines of all Boarding party components on ship.
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• <font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Defense strength of target ship is total turrets from security stations + total strength of boarding party components (used for defense) + 16 for each crew quarter component.</font>
• <font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">NOTE:There are two ways of looking at the boarding attack or defense strength of any component. The actual text file ability value, or the description of the component that is visible from within the game. For some reason Malfador has chosen to make these two numbers different. The ability value is multiplied by four for purposes of getting a number of marines or turrets. The crew component has an ability value of 4, which is equal in strength to 16 marines or turrets for the purposes of ship capture.</font>
• <font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Master Computers, Life Support, Bridge, Aux Control, and troops in cargo offer no assistance to Defense strength of target ship.</font>
• <font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Ship size does not factor into Boarding defense, other than the fact that larger ships require more crew quarters.</font>
• <font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Increasing the size or structure of crew quarters through a mod has no effect on boarding defense. However, they can be modded and given an additional boarding dfefense factor which will increase their strength.</font>
• <font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Racial characteristics do not appear to have any effect on calulation of boarding succes, for either attacker or defender.
  
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<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">I do not have any idea whether or not the various racial faciliites that offer bonuses to weapon damage in system have any effect. I would guess not, but I have not confirmed it.
Hope this helps.
Geoschmo

[ October 28, 2002, 16:47: Message edited by: geoschmo ]

Re: Analysis of boarding parties.
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Isn't that moddable in settings.txt?

Re: Analysis of boarding parties.
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Isn't that moddable in settings.txt?</font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Not that I could see. Wouldn't really be any use. It would affect all races equally. If you wanted to do that you could just change the boarding and security comps.

Geoschmo

Re: Analysis of boarding parties.
 

I just checked again, and you're right, it's not there. But I could have sworn it was...

Re: Analysis of boarding parties.
 

Crew quarters give 4 boarding defense points. It has been that way since SE3 or earlier.
Ties go to the defender.

Boarding attack/defense points are multiplied by four to get the default decription of the number of turrets/troopers.

The defense strength of Crew quarters can be increased or decreased by adding a "boarding defense" ability to the component.

Proof:
A) One (1) cruiser with 1 modded boarding party providing 21 attack points.
B) One (1) cruiser with 4 Level 1 Boarding parties (5 points each, total = 20 attack points)
C) One (1) cruiser with 5 crew quarters.

Cruiser B attempts to board cruiser C. It fails.
Cruiser A attempts to board cruiser C. It succeeds.

Thus, cruiser C has less than or equal to 21 defense points. It also has equal to or greater than 20 defense points. (Since ties give unknown results)

Thus, Cruiser C has either 20 or 21 defense points.

Since 21 does not divide evenly into 5 (five crew quarters), Cruiser C must have 20 defense points.

Since 20 vs 20 failed to capture, ties must go to the defender.

(sorry Geo)

[ October 28, 2002, 03:33: Message edited by: Suicide Junkie ]

Re: Analysis of boarding parties.
 

My analysis:

Boarding ships are fun. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif Just load a few BP Vs on board, and you're ready to go. Ships either get captured, or self-destructed. Either way, the enemy lost more than you did.

Re: Analysis of boarding parties.
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">SJ, why in the world are you sorry? My reason for doing this work and posting this was to clear up the confusion. I think I came close, but if there are inacuracies in my calculations, then I want to get them corrected.

However, since I am trying to write this from the perspective of a user and not a modder, rather than force calculations on them I will simply say the crew quarters offers a defense factor of 16. Does that make sense to you?

Geoschmo

[ October 28, 2002, 13:47: Message edited by: geoschmo ]

Re: Analysis of boarding parties.
 

I altered the "boarding parties" entry (without knowing about this thread) and said that the crew quarters are destroyed in boarded ships.

Then someone (Geo?) changed it to this:

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">I'm sure I had it right. I observed it only Last night, several times. I don't have the game in front of me but can anyone prove it one way or the other?

Re: Analysis of boarding parties.
 

I changed it. I have never seen that, and in all my tests the crew quarters are not damaged.

Perhpas you are playing with the P&N mod or some other mod in which crew quarters are given security station ability, and you have a weapon that damages these?

For that matter, maybe a weapon that targets security stations in the stock game will damage crew quarters. I don't know for sure. But the boarding parties themselves will not.

Geoschmo

[ October 28, 2002, 14:35: Message edited by: geoschmo ]

Re: Analysis of boarding parties.
 

Well, aside from losing all of its shields, boarding parties and security stations, and any collateral damage caused while forcefully dropping the shields, no.

In P&N v3.1, Psychic crew quarters will be damaged during a capture attempt since they have the boarding defense ability added on top of their normal built-in defense.

[ October 28, 2002, 15:23: Message edited by: Suicide Junkie ]

Re: Analysis of boarding parties.
 

Ah, that explains it. So security stations are destroyed in a succesful boarding, even in the stock game. I had not got that far in my tests. I was just testing how many stations prevented the attempt.

And by adding the security station ability to the crew quarters in your mod, that is why D was seeing them destroyed.

Btw, SJ. When you give the crew quarters the security station ability, does it add to the inherant sec station value of the crew quarters, or replace it?

Geoschmo

Re: Analysis of boarding parties.
 

It was Proportions. I guess PvK gave crew quarters Security Station abilities then.

Heh, learn something new every day. Today I learned this, and that I hate zombies. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Re: Analysis of boarding parties.
 

It adds.

I also noticed that SE4 dosen't complain about NEGATIVE values for boarding defense ability...

You might be able to make crew quarters easier to capture, or have specific components cause a ship to be easier to capture.

EG: Kamikaze Self-destruct device. Reduces boarding defense by 100 points. That encourages enemy ships to attempt captures, and then blows them up!

If the KSDD gets destroyed, then your crew & security stations will be able to prevent capture normally.

Re: Analysis of boarding parties.
 

Great info fellas.

Sorry if I missed this question, but do boarding parties need to be repaired after use, similar to a device? I just noticed this in a multi-player game and it has not caught my attention until now.

Re: Analysis of boarding parties.
 

Yes, the boarding parties will be destroyed whether they succeed or fail.

If they fail, they're all dead. If they succeed, then they're all manning the enemy ship.

Re: Analysis of boarding parties.
 

Thanks SJ!

Re: Analysis of boarding parties.
 

great info. i haven't used them very much. but for me, they seem to be less interesting in the later game. Their big value is in the early game IMHO

Re: Analysis of boarding parties.
 

They are always useful, especially if the enemy doesn't use SDDs. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif