Boarding Deaths Idea

posted on February 10th, 2010, 8:29 pm

Currently, if you board an enemy vessel and maintain a trasnporter lock and contrinue to send crew aboard to the vessel to capture it, the enemy vessels numbers drop in a systematic fashion, e.g every 1-2 seconds, around 6 members of the crew are lost (Don't know exact numbers).

So here is my proposal:

In reality, if a ship is boarded then the crew would try to maintain control of a ship, fending off the invaders. Of course, there are going to be the cadets who falter and die within minutes of combat, and the war hero security officers who fight literally to the death taking half a dozen Borg with them to Stovokor.

Either, this idea:

1. Researchable upgrades for ships. E.g Research quantum phasers (this is a joke). Increases defence of ships being boarded by say 10%. This in turn decreases the amount of crew lost per second, and allows more time for the situation to be controlled.

2. Randomise the amount of crew lost per second (within reason). In reality, the crew are not going to be lost 5 at a time every second, in a systematic fashion. So, why not randomise the amount lost? Say sometimes 1 is lost a second, but then 10 are lost in the next second. For example, hull breaches and explosions, would account for the lost 10, whereas small arms fire from enemy invaders may result in one member of the crew lost.

Anyway, those are a couple of ideas, thought I'd throw them out there 

posted on February 10th, 2010, 8:36 pm

Really cool idea! 


  I think I've heard from Optec before in another thread that the "Boarding Strength" numbers and functions are sadly very limited, but if that's not the case then I think some of these ideas could be really cool if implemented!

Neato! 

posted on February 10th, 2010, 8:40 pm

Finally!

One of my ideas has approval! 

posted on February 10th, 2010, 8:46 pm

I like this, boarding in FO is currently a worthless idea unless you have Assimilators.

posted on February 10th, 2010, 9:25 pm

I'd be onboard this topic too (no pun intended)  . Would be nice to add more emphasis to boarding 

posted on February 10th, 2010, 9:44 pm

I feel so loved 

posted on February 10th, 2010, 9:48 pm

I'd be onboard this topic too (no pun intended)  .

Hahaha you tit! 

  Actually there may be a way to implement this idea given that a number of A2's functions can incorporate a number of "random" numbers in them that give the illusion if you will of variations in fighting strength and such.

posted on February 10th, 2010, 10:04 pm

Nice idea, it reminds me of the boarding system in a game called Dominion Wars.

One strange thing in current boarding is in my opinion is that all ships transport troops at same rate (except troopships). Galaxy class starship certainly haves more transporter rooms (more transporter capacity) than a saber, so shouldn't it be able to transport more boarding parties too?

As another boarding related idea: Could borg assimilate avatar vessels get faster transporting (more units transported in same time) as avatar bonus

posted on February 10th, 2010, 10:10 pm

Yeah as I understand that it's because each race can only have 1 standard transporter rate.  It's not ship by ship by race by race.  Troopships get a better rate because it's a special (Transporter Assault) I think.

  Could be wrong on that one but that's what I've assumed.

posted on February 10th, 2010, 10:11 pm

Intriguing. I like this idea.

If it was possible, I'd kind of like the idea that if a boarding party were beamed across then they might be able to sustain their presence and continue fighting even if the boarded ship raises it's shields, causing perhaps small random collateral losses as the boarding party digs in, with a very slim chance of disrupting some systems depending on how the fight goes (how the variables work out).

The strength of this digging in could vary by faction and be based on attributes like; The Initial Punch (The amount of crew taken out by beaming over an away team of say 5), Sustainability (The amount of time that those 5 can survive, unassisted), Collateral Damage (a small chance of disrupting random systems to simulate damage cause as the away team fights).

• The Federation would probably have comparatively low sustainability, thanks to their uncanny knack of walking very slowly into direct crossfire but maybe have an above average initial punch on beam in.
  
  The Klingons could have a pretty hard hitting initial assault but maybe lesser sustainability, thanks to their slightly gung hoe and perhaps wrecklessly predictable nature.
  
  The Dominion could have an alright initial punch with better sustainability since the Jem'Hadar are less likely to fatigue over time.
  
  The Romulans could maybe have the weakest initial punch but have random chances of taking out large numbers of enemy crew with increased chances of systems disruption or none at all, due to their subversive manners.
  
  The Borg could have the increased chance of being stopped as soon as they board, due to heightened security measures on the boarded ship, OR gain a proportion of the enemy crew to their own force, thereby increasing their sustainability with time. As they get a stronger hold over the ship, they could assimilate it gradually; crew by crew, system by system.

To expand the options you could have similar research options. They could all be passives, since it'd be too much to manage how they fight yourself but they could be researched as a means of upgrading them compared to your enemies.

• One based on away team sizes - to increase logistics training for managing larger teams and managing larger transporter systems, to increase their sustainability.
  Another based on light arm - similar to the Offense and Defense upgrades for ships but applied to away teams, to increase their initial punch.
  and a last one to open up passives for away teams to use additional equipment with extra training to increase their chances of causing sub system disruption.

... of course, this is all assuming the FO team could somehow work another miracle on the game engine.

[mimesot]

posted on February 10th, 2010, 10:13 pm

Last edited by mimesot on February 10th, 2010, 10:16 pm, edited 1 time in total.

All in all in the first stages the crew numbers should drop rapidly, as the marines sent over, will first encounter the unarmed staff.

EDIT: @phoenix:
Some very nice additional ideas. I like them.

posted on February 10th, 2010, 11:18 pm

Yeah as I understand that it's because each race can only have 1 standard transporter rate.  It's not ship by ship by race by race.  Troopships get a better rate because it's a special (Transporter Assault) I think.

   Could be wrong on that one but that's what I've assumed.

Not race by race, it's global (2 or 3 people per transport, rather than the 5 or 6 that Trek transporters can normally send).

Troopships have a ship specific bit of code that increases crew strength by 10% (making it almost impossible to tell the difference ingame), but send people over at the same rate as any other ship.

posted on February 11th, 2010, 2:14 am

We should try to see if we could borrow the DS9 Dominon Wars boarding system using both a crew strength system and a boarding party size system. Meaning that basically you have two factors creating a more realistic system.

posted on February 11th, 2010, 3:34 pm

I'm one of those people that doesn't understand all the technicalities and equations, I'm an innovator. So, can someone answer me this:

Is it possible?

If so,why hasn't it been implemented before? 

posted on February 11th, 2010, 5:29 pm

I'm also an ideas person.

I suspect that your ideas are possible as is, with a bit of clever coding. My ideas most likely need a FO Miracle to get going but there's no harm in exploring the possibilities