Strange boarding

[pynky]

I am playing game for a while and recently I decided to try some boarding tactics and I must admit that there are some factors that determinate boarding actions results I cant understand, therefore I am bit confused how I should develop my character in the most suitable way. What makes me wrote this post was my recent combat results (my win) :

myship: terror class opp: Jango class lvl32 bounty

hull: 16/16--------------------------15/15
Armour: 7/8-----------------------------6/6
Engines: 32/32---------------------------30/30
Sails: 27/32---------------------------30/30
Crew: 1/70---------------------------55/55
Guns: 4/27----------------------------28/28

The clash ended up after 19 turns when my brave captain submitted the whole Jango class crew untouched to his will, just soon after his all crew was slaughtered in first 5-6 turns of combat. I am content that I have so brave captain to command my ships but i would appreciate it very much if I could receive some advice on reducing my crew losses

My character level is 17 Cadar Military officer having veteran, military, pilot officers on board and 20 of weapons(which i know form other post is not optimal)

The stats are:
Cha: 12 Expl:1
Wis: 15 Pilot: 18
Quick 19 Neg: 1
Str: 20 Tact: 15
Sth: 18
Wrr: 20
Int: 12
Health 10/10
Ships upgrade is Plasma door cutters only

Do you have any suggestions on how should i develop my character, what upgrades should i install and what is killing my crew and how to stop it

[pynky]

I forgot to mention that i play Elite version 3.9.15 on insane difficulty

[Fenikso]

Sometimes I see similarly strange results. Such as being boarded, loosing crew and destroying enemy ship without me doing anything in the same turn. Or being boarded by one guy, not loosing anyone from my 70 crew and getting injury to my captain and damage to the half of my ship.

If I am not mistaken, Cory suggested that current combat messages concerning boarding are not giving enough information to be well understood and he will look into it.

[Cory Trese]

I am working to improve the messages.

A few things to think about:
- Morale of my ship?
- Shoot at the enemy ship before boarding
- Plasma Cutters only effect first board (so you want to Board-Gun-Retreat-Board-Gun)

If you want to rock Board-Board-Board-Board like me get the Templar's Leviathan Armor.

Go after Weapon Cabinet ASAP and carry more Weapons. Also, upgrading Armored Bulkheads is good for keeping your losses down (a LOT) but won't help you offensively.

Another great upgrade is for Crew -- but I would suggest you consider the fuel cost before installing it. The more Crew you have over Engines+Solar the more Soldiers the Captain has.

[kremmen]

On insane, most of your combats will end in being rammed to death anyway.

[Cory Trese]

Aug 16, 2011 2:08:18 GMT -5 kremmen said:

On insane, most of your combats will end in being rammed to death anyway.

I cannot agree with that statement, honestly.

I play almost exclusively on Insane and Impossible and I have not been really taking any Losses from Ram since the 3.8.15 update. I have been thinking recently that it has made Pirates FAR too easy to defeat.

Care to post any information about the strategy you are using that ends in failure to defend from Pirates' AI Ram? i think it is a good discussion to have and may help explain what is going on.

Complaints about ram have dropped by around 70% since 3.6 and 3.8.15 has reduced it to zero (in my e-mail box.) This forum is a great place for people willing to post in public but I actually get many more e-mails than we get threads on the forum.

So I think that means we should discuss and figure out what is going on. What is the average player doing differently that is preventing lots of ram defeats? What are you and I doing differently on Insane?

Even more interesting question -- what is my simulator/play bot doing differently than you? It very rarely looses to Ram (less than 3% of games ending via ram defeat on the 3.9.x runs.)

If we just talk about numbers the most common way to die is by the Gun.

[pynkyp]

Thank you very much i will test all suggestions.

Other bit

Is the intimidation skill affects crew losses in any way(when you play offensive tactics)? Because i am thinking of dropping pilot officer or veteran for a first mate again cause he should provide intimidation bonus and after brief look throughout the forum threads i could not find precise information what that two first fellas are actually doing on my ship.

[Cory Trese]

we are working on building a comprehensive list of Officer abilities and I know that the information is on the forum, but very scattered. trying to fix that with the wiki.

Intimidation and Tactics are key in controlling Crew death.

[kremmen]

Thanks for that, Cory.

I'm talking out of my hat. I've been ram-phobic for so long that I haven't really risked close combat in a few versions. I've given it a few goes now and I'm having a great run of boarding and wrecking.

[Tenebrous Pirate]

I play on impossible only, and have had many 50+ level characters over the last few months. They have all died in pretty much the same way: hand-to-hand combat.

There has been one time I died from a ram in recent memory, and that was from a ram I accidentally did myself.

[mordechai]

Aug 19, 2011 8:28:18 GMT -5 Tenebrous Pirate said:

There has been one time I died from a ram in recent memory, and that was from a ram I accidentally did myself.

Kirk: I'm an Aries.
Rand: An Aries, sir?
Kirk: You know, The Ram.
Chekhov: Aye, aye, sir; ramming speed engaged.

[Tenebrous Pirate]

Lol!

[slayernz]

I wonder about the impact shielding generator. If you have shielding that protects you from ramming attacks - does it also weaken your own ram attacks? After all, it's kind of like cocooning your hull in bubblewrap.

[phantum]

I always wondered what is this thing with ordering "ramming speed" Is there like an extra speed setting you can get for ramming that you don't use to run and save your ship, or close faster for the kill shot?

PS my favourite ram scene was in the final Battlestar Galactica, and he said "all ahead flank speed". (although then spoiled the urgency a bit with a countdown!)

[mordechai]

"Flank speed" is the true maximum speed of a ship. It usually involves pushing the engines beyond their normal limits. Besides being very fuel inefficient (for a reason discussed below), it may also involve overheating the engines and thus, only for brief, emergency situations. This situation is somewhat different for nuclear vesicles which can maintain their near maximum speed for a relatively indefinite periods of time.

In a maritime environment, there is also the issue that a hull can only push the water out of its way so fast, and beyond a certain point, it takes rapidly increasing efforts for every small increase of velocity. Smaller vesicles often use a differently shaped hull (called a planing hull) to overcome this issue of diminishing returns by rising up out of the water (i.e., planing). (BTW, this is why it is very dangerous for a car to speed over a puddle, or even a very wet roadway. The wheels start to hydroplane; they loose contact with the road's surface, and with it, the friction upon which they depend for control.)