Did "Surrender!" ever do anything?

[Rei Ayanami]

I've been playing the X-Series since X-BTF got released and i was wondering :
When you contact an enemy ship, did the "Surrender!" command ever do anything other than making the other pilot say a sentence?
I can't think of any situation in any X game where it had any effect, be it aggroing the ship, making the enemy pilot call for backup, making the enemy pilot drop cargo or making the enemy pilot leave the ship if his morale is too low and his ship is being damaged too much.

Having these 4 functions ingame would greatly benefit the gameplay style of playing a pirate.

[BrasatoAlBarolo]

+1 on this.
The "Surrender" request seems to decrease the chances for the pilot to bail, making him angry and prone to death. I don't know if it's the stroke caused by anger killing him or the torpedo, though...

[Tamina]

There is no reason to have an "option" which only increases the chances to win. Subsequently we would always press that specific button and subsequently we wouldn't need it in the first place because it would be just better to make it a standard effect.
IMO it would be great to have multiple surrender-options, in order to tell the pilot what we want exactly (ship, cargo, mission item, money?) in order to increase that chance of happening while the other options decrease in their chance.

Otherwise there is no use in having this "option" besides as a flavour to the game, which it already is.

[Alan Phipps]

Well for role-play purposes, there is the feel-good factor in having actually asked and given the poor pilot the notional chance (even if it is never taken up).

[lordmuck]

it does increase the chances of bails from what I have seen.

I attack a ship in a way that i drop shields hammer at the hull, wait a while for shields to go up and repeat. You may get a bail.

I do the same process, yet pause longer during the shield recharge and even after I continue to spam out the surrender command. Most times without shooting at them they will! If you feel that you need to damage the hull more then go for it and repeat spam the command during and perhaps a minuet or under a minuet of spamming the surrender command even after shields are full, you will notice a difference and should see that you did not shoot, yet they surrendered :>

OR I could be totally imagining this shit and tripping balls.

[Geek]

I had several ships in X4 which surrendered after asking.
So it does have an effect.

[radcapricorn]

In X3, depending on some hidden internal mechanics, ordering an enemy to "Surrender and drop your freight" could lead to them actually dropping some of the freight. Much more than they would drop on their own. I don't think it affected the chances of them bailing though.

As Geek and lordmuck have already said, in X4 enemies sometimes do comply and bail. But of course, now we have the makes-so-much-sense "No! Please, spare me!.. I'm not talking to you!!!"

[Scoob]

A few times now I've had a ship bail after asking it to surrender, it appears to be VERY random though. I mean, I could have a pilot basically begging for their life, yet they don't what to talk when I give them an option to live. Other times, they're cursing and threatening me, yet they surrender when asked. Generally now, I just shoot them until they bail, only if their ship is really knackered and they WILL die in the next couple of shots will I ask for their surrender. So far in my fresh 2.0 start, they've chosen death, despite dialogue from them suggesting they're ready to give up.

Scoob.

[freiman17]

They sometimes bail.

Usually, they say "I'm not talking to you."

Sometimes (rarely) they eject.

f

[Ezarkal]

I often hear pilots I'm firing on say something like "Please let me live" or something similar when their ships turn super-low on health.
It may be a good time to ask for a surrender. I'll try that next time.

[Tomonor]

Now that I think of it, the communications range should be extended. It probably won't happen in this game though since the voice lines are already recorded. But it would be fun to have a sort of chit-chat + chatter with the NPCs.

For instance, upon instructing an NPC to surrender, he could ask back what for. And you could explain that your marriage is failing and have to feed your offsprings somehow. Thus he/she ejects some cahoonas.

[Scoob]

I often hear pilots I'm firing on say something like "Please let me live" or something similar when their ships turn super-low on health.
It may be a good time to ask for a surrender. I'll try that next time.

No, that has zero impact on whether they'll surrender or not - I thought the same initially, as it makes sense, but it appears to be entirely random whether "Surrender!" will cause a bail or not. For me, it's 99.9% guns that cause bails lol.

Scoob.

[Falcrack]

I've been playing the X-Series since X-BTF got released and i was wondering :
When you contact an enemy ship, did the "Surrender!" command ever do anything other than making the other pilot say a sentence?
I can't think of any situation in any X game where it had any effect, be it aggroing the ship, making the enemy pilot call for backup, making the enemy pilot drop cargo or making the enemy pilot leave the ship if his morale is too low and his ship is being damaged too much.

Having these 4 functions ingame would greatly benefit the gameplay style of playing a pirate.

It's like the "close door" button on elevators. Mostly there for cosmetic reasons, never seems to actually do anything.

[shealladh]

I had several ships in X4 which surrendered after asking.
So it does have an effect.

In my experiences, it can go both ways. So sounds like they've already made up their mind either way if they'll bail or fight.

[Ezarkal]

I often hear pilots I'm firing on say something like "Please let me live" or something similar when their ships turn super-low on health.
It may be a good time to ask for a surrender. I'll try that next time.

No, that has zero impact on whether they'll surrender or not - I thought the same initially, as it makes sense, but it appears to be entirely random whether "Surrender!" will cause a bail or not. For me, it's 99.9% guns that cause bails lol.

Scoob.

Thanks! I won't waste time testing.

[Scoob]

Thanks! I won't waste time testing.

Wish someone had told me not to lol.

Scoob.

[radcapricorn]

I wish they'd at least have more variations of the "I'm not talking to you". Like Paranid in X3 saying something like "Go away! Quickly!".

[shealladh]

I wish they'd at least have more variations of the "I'm not talking to you". Like Paranid in X3 saying something like "Go away! Quickly!".

C'mon, we need "Bugger off you t w a t"

[Damocles_]

The correct implementation would be the option to ask "drop your cargo", thus giving the attacked ship the choice to fight to a possible death, or drop the cargo and bail.
Just what a proper pirate would do. (Pirates dont steal ships to own ships, they want money or valuable cargo)

The player would have the choice to easily gain cargo, but to 100% be remembered as a pirate by the attacked faction. Or fight a vessel and potentially take it over, but be flagged as a killer if discovered (with a lower than 100% chance, depending on the situation).

The ai ship should also evaluate the possible outcome of the battle, thus dropping cargo when the players ship (or reputation) is really overpowered. Whereas the ai gets immediately hostile when the player is under-powered.

[ei8htx]

For those of you who did get a successful bail (or cargo drop? curious what the outcome was here), who was it? Other factions? Pirates?

How big of a ship were you in? What kind of ship were they piloting? Super curious