It's My Sector And I'll Do What I Want

[ZaphodBeeblebrox]

I am the proud owner of Heretics End. I have my own patrols. While trying to board an SCA Plunderer, and idiot Argon turns up with his friends and starts in on my target.

Why can't I tell him to bu99er off? Why is there no command "I am the law here, so cease and desist in your attack."

[Feloidea]

Scan SCA ships (CTRL+F at short range, ~1km) before trying to make them bail/board them as that drops their faction cover. If you attack them whilst they maintain their cover and they call for help, the faction they're disguised as will respond. If you scan them first and drop their cover, any emergency hails from them will be ignored and you can do to them whatever you want.

Any deployables like lasertowers might still be disguised though (which is something Egosoft really should get rid off), which is wonky AF and can be a headache unless you just ignore those completely.

[Nanook]

He's talking about the Argon 'helping' him by attacking the SCA ship, too. Yeah, there should be a way, especially in neutral or player-owned sectors, to tell others to lay off.

[Feloidea]

Whoops, I misunderstood that. Yeah, would be neat if the AI wouldn't try to police/attack stuff outside their own sectors (unless they're in sectors by allied factions that would conceivably allow them to do these kinds of things).

[j.harshaw]

Was this in 7.10? And did the Argon ship start attacking the Scaleplate ship you were trying to board after you had already started the boarding operation (hit "start operation" in the boarding interface)?

[RainerPrem]

Was this in 7.10? And did the Argon ship start attacking the Scaleplate ship you were trying to board after you had already started the boarding operation (hit "start operation" in the boarding interface)?

In my case (7.1HF2 German) the same happened in BOR and PAR sectors, but I can't say if they started their attacks before or after I started boarding. Is that relevant? In that case I'll check it during my next boarding operations.

[Ragnos28]

When you have good relations with a faction, they will send patrols in the sectors you own, to "help" you. That is why my Heretics End is full with argon, boron and paranid patrols.
Funny, all paranid love me, even tho I supported BUC and have them at war with each other permanently.

[H34Dru5H]

I don't think it matters if you have started boarding or not. Once the ship turns hostile and starts firing back if it's able, it will be seen as hostile to your allies and they will attack it if near by. It is a PITA and I have often had to shoot down a few allies to stop them destroying my prize. If you have really good rep them it won't hurt much, just stick it out and hope they don't destroy the ship before your boarding operation has completed.

[ZaphodBeeblebrox]

I was just about to start boarding operations but with my "allies" already attacking the ship, there did not seem to be any point.

Would be nice to be able to comm the leader of an attack group and say "Its OK guys, I've got this one."

Never seen this before, other factions turning up and patrolling my owned sectors.

[j.harshaw]

I was just about to start boarding operations but with my "allies" already attacking the ship, there did not seem to be any point.

If you have a reliable repro case of this happening in an unmodified save where they either attack or keep attacking a ship that you've started boarding, I'd like to take a look.

[BitByte]

This was interesting information. I had to test this in Second Contact II with SCA Phoenix E.
1. test: When I catched the ship I scanned it and started takedown engines and turrets. It didn't take long until local fleets run onsite and destroyed the ship with missiles (I had no time to start boarding).

2. test: When I catched the ship I scanned it and immediately started boarding operation. As ship was near the station it got hits from the station turrets but was still able to fly outside of turrets range. Station defence drones kept following Phoenix E but they didn't shoot. And none of ANT / ARG fleets came near. I was able destroy engines, turrets, shields and make 3-4 escape pods to flee without any assistance from locals until boarding was completed.

I'm just starting another test scenario with SCA Heron E located in Profit Center Alpha. I have already disabled the ship fully (engines, turrets and M-shields) and 1-2 escape pods fleed. MIN ships are far away at the moment but I assume they will arrive (my satellite coverage is very limited as save is "quite fresh") so I may need start boarding soon. In this scenario I planned to test what happens if I start boarding when they are about 15-20km from my position as that time they should already have plan to attack against Heron E.

Rep with Argon is +14, Antigone +1, Teladi +20 and Ministry +5.

-Updated-
I performed also second test scenario in Profit Center Alpha and SCA Heron E. For marines I had my own Phoenix E and Helios E. Ministry patrol (Ospray, Peregrine and 4 S-size ships) approached from west.
1. test: If I waited MIN patrol to perform scan for another TEL freighter next of shipyard they started move away but then patrol leader yelled they would need immediate backup. I don't know if this is made by purpose or why such comment because no-one shot the fleet.
a) If I didn't do nothing it took very short time couple torpedoes hit to Heron E and it blew up.
b) If I started boarding at this point (when captain requested backup) only my own ship boarding pods managed get launched (Helios was little bit further away), some managed to attach the frame but then ship blew up due incoming torpedoes.

2. test: MIN fleet was approx. 15km from my position when I launched boarding operation. My own ship boarding pods launched immediately but Helios took awhile until it approached the launch position. Meanwhile MIN patrol performed scan to TEL freighter sameway as in 1. test but they didn't care about my business (let the Heron E be alone). Then suddenly I heard again patrol leader to request immediate backup so I was prepared that the scenario would end up very soon sameway as 1b did but no.
There came another SCA Heron E out from TEL Shipyard fabrication bay and MIN patrol started fight with that. 4 TEL S-size fighters joined to party. Even there was just 1-4km distance (yes at some point I was face to face with SCA Heron E with my Phoenix E) between my boarding operation and this fresh SCA ship fight stayed between locals and that ship. No-one else than me was shooting SCA Heron E which had boarding operation ongoing.

So based on these tests so far I would say devs definately have changed NPC behaviour when there's boarding operation ongoing.
I still have possibility to test will NPC faction stop shooting if I start boarding operation while they have already attacking.

@j.harshaw: Curious that should NPC stop attack at that point?