16 replies to this topic

[TheEmpire]

According to sidous invader on filefront he has created boarding ships into his mod. Now he will not say how he did it but he will tell use when the mod is realsed this september (or so). When this comes out we will be able to add boarding craft to PR. This is something so many people have asked for so now it will be possible!

[Tropical Bob]

Interesting...

[Kaleb Graff]

This is very good news.

[keraunos]

I have mixed feelings to this idea. Obviously it's quite logical that one should be able to board, but I find it hardly SW-like. It's like boarding action during WW2: it happened once or twice ("Altmark"), but considering amount of crews, specific equipment and various other things - it's highly unlikely it could happen on frequent basis. At least not after Katana Fleet disaster, and subsequent de-automatization of various functions

Link to Sidious mod: New Republic mod

[Kaleb Graff]

I have mixed feelings to this idea. Obviously it's quite logical that one should be able to board, but I find it hardly SW-like. It's like boarding action during WW2: it happened once or twice ("Altmark"), but considering amount of crews, specific equipment and various other things - it's highly unlikely it could happen on frequent basis. At least not after Katana Fleet disaster, and subsequent de-automatization of various functions

Link to Sidious mod: New Republic mod

I know of at least 5 diffent boarding actions: Intimidator, 2 Impstars at Endor, the Ackbar, and the Katana. There are probably others, too.

[keraunos]

I heard about 'some' boarding actions, but I was unable to find any books about them :/ Could you point me out as many sources as you can?

Still, I know it happened couple of times, but I consider those cases most likely unlikely, exceptional. Allowing boarding parties as 'standard' action could kill entire SW-feeling of this mod. It's difficult to imagine that ISD, with its crew and stormtroopers could fall victim of boarding party. Maybe boarding invasion...

[Kaleb Graff]

We would just have to make it really expensive. Still, most ships can be fought fairly effectively from the bridge. Also, I though of another one, the Night Caller.

[Phoenix Rising]

Boarding actually happens rather frequently. Besides the opening scene of ANH, you're always disabling ships to be boarded in the XW series. How common was it? The Alliance devoted an entire regiment of their army to it, the Stormtrooper Corps maintained an elite unit for it, and Storm Commandoes specifically received training in counter-boarding operations. Not to mention the presence of Navy Troopers on both sides.

That being said, it doesn't seem to translate well into the limited capabilities of the EaW engine in this regard. For one, you can't station troops onboard capital ships. That's a major deterrent. Even if you could, there's no way to simulate battle between them and a boarding party. So what you're basically reduced to is an ability that steals ships from the enemy, which might be cool... until you're the enemy.

I guess we'll just have to wait and see what this mod does, but I wouldn't expect anything beyond what we've already seen in vanilla. I've already tried Chewie's ability in space and that didn't work, although it might be because I didn't create any capture clones if the engine is weird about that. If you want to try something, add these lines to a unit:

<Bribe_Modifier_On_Uncorrupted_Planets>0.0</Bribe_Modifier_On_Uncorrupted_Planets>
<Bribe_Modifier_On_Corrupted_Planets>0.0</Bribe_Modifier_On_Corrupted_Planets>

<Unit_Abilities_Data SubObjectList="Yes">
	<Unit_Ability>
		<Type>TACTICAL_BRIBE</Type>
		<Recharge_Seconds>86400.0</Recharge_Seconds>
		<GUI_Activated_Ability_Name>Tactical_Bribe</GUI_Activated_Ability_Name>
		<SFXEvent_Target_Ability>Unit_Bribe_Tyber_Zann</SFXEvent_Target_Ability>
		<Supports_Autofire>True</Supports_Autofire>
	</Unit_Ability>
</Unit_Abilities_Data>

<Abilities SubObjectList="Yes">
	<Tactical_Bribe_Ability Name="Tactical_Bribe">
		<Activation_Style> User_Input </Activation_Style>
		<Activation_Min_Range>0.0</Activation_Min_Range>
		<Activation_Max_Range>400.0</Activation_Max_Range>
		<Bribed_Effect /> 
		<Bribed_Effect_Small />
		<Effect_Z_Offset />
		<SFXEvent_Success>GUI_Bribe_SFX</SFXEvent_Success>
		<SFXEvent_Fail>Unit_Bribe_Fail_Tyber_Zann</SFXEvent_Fail>
	</Tactical_Bribe_Ability>
</Abilities>

The bribe modifiers can be small fractions if you want boarding to cost a portion of the targeted ship's price. You also might be able to get away with -1 recharge time, but I wasn't sure; I just wanted it to be used only once per combat. Of course the audio events are just default as well. That's how I would do boarding though, but I haven't tested it.

[keraunos]

That are a couple of facts I didn't know :] So now I'm convinced, as long as it comes to smaller ship categories. It still bothers me to have ISD boarded by shuttle, or even groups of them. Kaleb, what about sources?

Phoenix, what about keeping captured ships after battle? AFAIK, units captured through bribe/hack ability disappear after battle...

[Phoenix Rising]

They would disappear. You'd probably have to script something to get them back into Galactic, but who knows if that's even possible.

[Kaleb Graff]

That are a couple of facts I didn't know :] So now I'm convinced, as long as it comes to smaller ship categories. It still bothers me to have ISD boarded by shuttle, or even groups of them. Kaleb, what about sources?

Phoenix, what about keeping captured ships after battle? AFAIK, units captured through bribe/hack ability disappear after battle...

I know of at least 5 diffent boarding actions: Intimidator, 2 Impstars at Endor, the Ackbar, and the Katana. There are probably others, too.

Intimidator: Before the Storm
Impstars: Dark Empire Sourcebook
Ackbar: Unseen Queen
Katan: Dark Force Rising
Night Caller: Wraith Squadron

[keraunos]

They would disappear. You'd probably have to script something to get them back into Galactic, but who knows if that's even possible.

That's what I was afraid of. Kind of make entire discussion pointless - unless SI developed some interesting way Thx for info.

Intimidator: Before the Storm
Impstars: Dark Empire Sourcebook
Ackbar: Unseen Queen
Katan: Dark Force Rising
Night Caller: Wraith Squadron

Thx I actually knew about Katana

[skie9173]

Would it be possible to put the captured ships on a timer? That way it could almost simulate that boarding party taking over the bridge, running the ship for awhile and eventually being taken out by fleet troopers or whatever the proper security force would be. And if that is possible, which i doubt, would it be possible to change that lenght of the timer depending on the size of the ship? bigger the vessel the shorter the time.

[Phoenix Rising]

You could probably use Palpatine's Force Convert ability, which would give you a unit-based timer. The only problem is that the unit dies when the timer's up, so that would kind of defeat the purpose.

[Kaleb Graff]

You could probably use Palpatine's Force Convert ability, which would give you a unit-based timer. The only problem is that the unit dies when the timer's up, so that would kind of defeat the purpose.

They could trigger the self-destruct before leaving.

[El Danny]

You could probably use Palpatine's Force Convert ability, which would give you a unit-based timer. The only problem is that the unit dies when the timer's up, so that would kind of defeat the purpose.

They could trigger the self-destruct before leaving.

What I was thinking.

I think its atleast worth a test.

[Delta_Osiris]

WHat if the boarding ship was more like a small capital ship?

It would use the bribe system - depending on the size of the ship, more credits would be
used (for more boarding shuttles) for the larger ships. It would make sense - a victory class
would not cost as much as an imperial class because fewer people would be needed.

It might also reqiure some sort of time based modification - certain ships take more time to
capture due to internal resistance and whatnot.