quote:
Originally posted by Nyx:
If the enemy does not have a security station, unless you hit a bug, you will always capture them if you board. Security stations are more powerful than boarding parties. You need more marines than the enemy has defensive lasers to capture a ship. So at any given level of tech, a Security Station is worth 1.5 boarding parties.
Actually, no. At least not in the demo, and I've seen no mention of changes to this in patch histories. I just ran a quick batch of tests in the ol' simulator and this is what I found: one level of Boarding Parties is sufficent to capture one Crew Quarter. Hence, to take a Battlestation, you need at least 1xBP IV (or 4xBP I, etc.). If, however, the Battlestation merely has a Master Computer, 1xBP I can take it over (yes, MCs make it
easier to capture ships...). It
is possible to fail in capturing a ship, but it's not easy...
Edit: As a further note, I don't think that the 1.5 effectiveness ratio for Security Stations cited is acurate. To wit: if I take a 1xBP III ship and try to capture a ship with 1xCQ & 1xSS I, I fail. If I try with a 1xBP IV ship, I succeed. And to confirm that CQ is still an issue, 1xBP IV fails vs. 2xCQ & 1xSS I. 1xBP V will capture this. Hence, I'm lead to believe that one level of SS is equal to 3 CQ (and thus it takes BP III to take out a ship w/ SS I, plus one more level of BP per CQ). This makes sense, as it means that 1xSS I (20kt, 3 "CQ") is more effective than 2xCQ (20kt, 2 "CQ").
Edit: All is not as it seems... I ran into an irregularity which I couldn't figure out. The above is true in
most cases, but I had an instance when a 1xBP III failed to capture a 1xSS I. A 1xBP IV could do so, and could also capture a 1xCQ & 1xSS I. Something screwy is going on with this, but I can't put my finger on it. This weirdness only arose out of ships w/ Master Computers, but that may not mean anything...
[This message has been edited by ealbright (edited 23 January 2001).]