Stealth for boarding

[poryg]

In the game I have read that Stealth is used in boarding. What does it do?
Well, whatever it does, it doesn't seem to be that important, since nobody uses it while being a boarder Although I have thought about it, I just need to unlock several achievements before I begin my boarder.
Which reminds me of another question. Since the game keeps enemy captains leveled depending on your captain, if strength doesn't level you up, what would happen if you just built your boarder character and then just bumped every point to strength? Wouldn't it give you tremendous edge?

[resistor]

I'm not sure how stealth might be useful for boarding, but keeping strength at several times what your level is would indeed give you a tremendous edge in boarding.

[poryg]

Jun 11, 2016 10:53:51 GMT -5 resistor said:

I'm not sure how stealth might be useful for boarding, but keeping strength at several times what your level is would indeed give you a tremendous edge in boarding.

I guess so... I will experiment with both. I will try an alien hunter that will just put everything into strength from lv 30 or something like that. Then I will see what good it brings

[xdesperado]

Strength is a tremendous asset to boarding combat as it will make your captain tougher.
However without other skills and abilities leveled up you will find yourself struggling in all other activities.

[poryg]

Jun 11, 2016 16:20:12 GMT -5 xdesperado said:

Strength is a tremendous asset to boarding combat as it will make your captain tougher.
However without other skills and abilities leveled up you will find yourself struggling in all other activities.

I am not talking about not having anything else levelled. To make it more clear, let's imagine a captain like this.

He already has pilot at 200% of his level
He has decent tactics and intimidate skill, so decent that he is happy with it
And of course, he is happy with his strength and warrior skill

It is a fully developed captain. But from this point he will put every experience point into Strength.

[athios]

So basically staying the same level forever while perpetually increasing your strength. I've tried similar tactics when working on specific unlocks. In @starfixer's guide to living forever (link), he increases strength to 2400 (not a typo) in early game.

To be honest, if everything in the game revolves around % ranges in relation to yourself in conjunction with Turns Played, I don't know what specific purpose leveling up has (assuming you would have kept your Skill:Level ratios about the same anyway).

Anyway, back to your original question. I don't know what Stealth specifically does during boarding. I used to have a few high Stealth+Warrior captains, but in terms of boarding combat outcome, I don't think I noticed much difference compared to my current low/no Stealth boarding captains. It does let you initially choose which battles to fight though (i.e. at long range, you can successfully run from ridiculously overpowered foes).

[poryg]

Jun 13, 2016 14:11:17 GMT -5 athios said:

So basically staying the same level forever while perpetually increasing your strength. I've tried similar tactics when working on specific unlocks. In @starfixer's guide to living forever (link), he increases strength to 2400 (not a typo) in early game.

To be honest, if everything in the game revolves around % ranges in relation to yourself in conjunction with Turns Played, I don't know what specific purpose leveling up has (assuming you would have kept your Skill:Level ratios about the same anyway).

Anyway, back to your original question. I don't know what Stealth specifically does during boarding. I used to have a few high Stealth+Warrior captains, but in terms of boarding combat outcome, I don't think I noticed much difference compared to my current low/no Stealth boarding captains. It does let you initially choose which battles to fight though (i.e. at long range, you can successfully run from ridiculously overpowered foes).

Basically there are points revolving over game turns (for example difficulty of exploring) and then there are points revolving around your level (like enemy captain levels). The guide is certainly interesting although I doubt that I would be able to wait for so long to reach strength 2400 just to continue forward then if strength helps in boarding, then it should be an unboardable captain from certain point

[athios]

Jun 14, 2016 12:10:33 GMT -5 poryg said:

and then there are points revolving around your level (like enemy captain levels).

Yes I know, but my point was, increasing your own level would just slide the enemy levels proportionally higher, but keep the same +/- % range relative to your own... or at least I think that's how it work? So in my mind it doesn't make a difference.

Jun 14, 2016 12:10:33 GMT -5 poryg said:

if strength helps in boarding, then it should be an unboardable captain from certain point

From the game's Help file, it says Strength comes into play during extended boarding (pressing Board 3 or more turns), so I don't think it helps guard you against being boarded.
The Help file also says Stealth helps you avoid damage during Captain Duels.

[poryg]

Jun 14, 2016 14:22:20 GMT -5 athios said:

Jun 14, 2016 12:10:33 GMT -5 poryg said:

and then there are points revolving around your level (like enemy captain levels).

Yes I know, but my point was, increasing your own level would just slide the enemy levels proportionally higher, but keep the same +/- % range relative to your own... or at least I think that's how it work? So in my mind it doesn't make a difference.

Jun 14, 2016 12:10:33 GMT -5 poryg said:

if strength helps in boarding, then it should be an unboardable captain from certain point

From the game's Help file, it says Strength comes into play during extended boarding (pressing Board 3 or more turns), so I don't think it helps guard you against being boarded.
The Help file also says Stealth helps you avoid damage during Captain Duels.

You are correct. The levels are kept proportionally the same and enemies are never higher than 190% of the captain (except for aliens ofc). But you know, higher level has it's advantages for some builds. Pilot and intimidate cuts fuel consumption. Intimidate prevents morale losses.

[athios]

Ah, good point. It will probably come down to diminishing returns, or at least some point where the continual improvements are irrelevant when the captain is a millionaire, the ship has a giant hold for fuel and officers keep crews in line.

Let us know how your experimental build goes.

[redartrats]

I have a captain on Hard difficulty that's reached lvl 79 now, and has 16 million credits to his name (it could have been a lot more by now, had I not had my fair share of fun, such as earning the Independent Captain and Star Hero awards, in that order, which involved a lot of money-losing ventures for raising reputation from below -151 with all 6 factions, as well as a bit of money poured into patrolling dead planets for Aliens, just for fun). At this point, he's basically undefeatable except perhaps by insanely-overpowered Aliens or Narvs/Hives, with most XP points allocated to strength/warrior, tactics, and pilot, in that order. He can basically win any battle by closing range and repeatedly boarding, or alternatively closing range and jamming Engines to minimize collateral damage. (Boarding is messy business, even when I have 130+ warrior.) Interestingly enough, I'm noticing that sometimes jamming Engines will stalemate when the enemy ship (non-Alien) is also insanely overpowered (neither ship hits the other), in which case boarding will kill them off in 1-3 turns.

With Aliens it's a different story, of course. I don't really have the best alien-hunting setup, since that was an afterthought rather than something planned into the captain's build. But still, I've won againts Narvidian Harvesters, Hunters, all sorts of low/mid level Aliens, a Heela, etc., just by boarding. Recently won a battle against a nasty Terrox ship (it was a close shave, though; my crew was decimated and the Aliens still had 100+ left, good thing the AI wasn't Terror and my captain was able to kill the enemy captain before things went south).

[Cory Trese]

How many ships have you built and upgraded for specific purposes, like Xeno hunting?

[redartrats]

My captain's current ship was either stolen from a pirate or bought at a star dock because I happened to browse through the list of ships and found something better than my previous ship and closer to what I wanted it for. I chose high cargo and high crew because I read that boarding is a good strategy against Aliens, and on a whim I wanted to try hunting some Aliens. I didn't try very hard, though; aside from the Null field generator to attract Aliens, the other upgrades were chosen primarily to suit my playing style rather than specifically targeting Alien hunting.

[poryg]

Jun 15, 2016 13:51:22 GMT -5 athios said:

Ah, good point. It will probably come down to diminishing returns, or at least some point where the continual improvements are irrelevant when the captain is a millionaire, the ship has a giant hold for fuel and officers keep crews in line.

Let us know how your experimental build goes.

My experiment went quite awesomely. It wasn't what I planned originally, but well, it was fun nonetheless. I created a custom stats captain, everything in 1 except for strength and warrior, trading 6 attributes for 8 skills. I had to upgrade pilot a bit though (to still keep on lv 1, but still increase it). With 45 crew I am unbeatable. The AI closes range sooner or later and when it does, I board it, killing captains instantly while taking no real damage in boarding. Well, of course the only ones that can beat me are aliens and narvidians, since Narvs have a torping AI and Aliens have some brutally strong captains, not mentioning that the Alien terror has no captain. I will continue in this experiment, pushing only into Strength, Warrior (hopefully I can keep it 9x-18x my level) and Pilot and see what happens.
Extremely huge strength and warrior helps tremendously. It gives you the edge in boarding and also, having great strength soaks captain damage. It helps while exploring, while dueling and also in mutinies.

[poryg]

Jun 11, 2016 10:53:51 GMT -5 resistor said:

I'm not sure how stealth might be useful for boarding, but keeping strength at several times what your level is would indeed give you a tremendous edge in boarding.

Okay, stealth is solved. Stealth soaks ship damage while boarding/being boarded and helps soak captain damage. But otherwise it's quite useless in board actions.