Boarding stage 2 "risk to marines" is inverted?

[asdrubale]

When boarding, choosing to start breaching at higher hull strength increases the indicated "risk to marines". As far as I can tell once stage 2 starts the marines become part of the ship and you can't lose them as long the ship survives, so obviously higher hull actually decreases the risk. Why is the UI telling me the opposite?

[LameFox]

It's a hard thing to measure I guess. The direct effect of higher hp is they take longer to get to the next stage, and thus the whole operation takes longer. Whether that's actually dangerous depends on external circumstances. If the ship is actively under attack, then yeah, they might all die very fast if its hp is low. But then, hp regen is utter rubbish. If you don't leave the shields intact, one small fighter can happen by and singlehandedly kill a destroyer. On the other hand low hp also makes it go by faster, so if there are no attackers, it might be over before any arrive.

[stooper88]

The risk "to marines" being referred to in stage two is the risk that the target ship will be sighted, attacked, and then destroyed by another ship while the boarding is still in progress. Previously, the second stage of boarding involved the longest duration by several multiples of stages one and three combined, often exceeding ten or even tens of minutes. The main factor was the remaining hull integrity of the ship such that any previously inflicted damage would reduce the time needed to infiltrate the hull. Therefore, a lower hull strength allowed the second stage to complete sooner and overall boarding to complete sooner, thus reducing the chances of all marines perishing due to the ship being destroyed by rival factions.

Ironically, a lower hull strength also increases the chances of the ship being destroyed sooner once an attack has ensued. But the implication seems to be that the greatest hazard to boarding is from the ship being destroyed outright before boarding has completed (often before the stage three assault has even commenced).

In the past, there was speculation that hull strength was a factor in the stage three assault phase of boarding, i.e. that a stronger hull provided the target ship's crew with defensive advantages. But I've never noticed any such pattern in my testing and experience. All other variables being equal, lower and higher hull strengths have never accounted for respective lower or higher boarding team casualties and failure rates.

As of 7.10, the infiltration stage of boarding is greatly shortened when employing higher quality marines. Especially when enlisting marines with 4 stars or higher, the infiltration stage can complete in mere minutes if not less than a single minute. Subsequently, the aforementioned "risk to marines" is effectively negated, even for hulls at 100% strength.

Excellent details regarding boarding mechanics can be found at a guide apparently written by one of the forum members (Mookau).

[asdrubale]

On the other hand low hp also makes it go by faster, so if there are no attackers, it might be over before any arrive

It's still way easier (less risky) to defend a ship at 100% shields and 100% hull for 20 minutes than it is to defend a ship at 0% shields and 20% hull for 2 minutes. A full health ship will pretty much defend itself, while you'll have a hard time just keeping your own fleet from killing the low hp one, even when no enemy is around.

[stooper88]

On the other hand low hp also makes it go by faster, so if there are no attackers, it might be over before any arrive

It's still way easier (less risky) to defend a ship at 100% shields and 100% hull for 20 minutes than it is to defend a ship at 0% shields and 20% hull for 2 minutes. A full health ship will pretty much defend itself, while you'll have a hard time just keeping your own fleet from killing the low hp one, even when no enemy is around.

For myself, and I think many players, the greatest threat often comes from "friendly" factions who oftentimes are rushing to "aid" your ships against hostiles (i.e. the boarding target). In such cases, there is no way to effectively protect or defend the target ship without incurring arguably greater harm (to NPC reputation which can be very expensive to recover). Therefore, being able to conclude boarding operations as quickly as possible has frequently been much more preferable to avoiding damage to the ship itself. However, with the changes in 7.10, boarding has been dramatically accelerated and has become much less excruciating than in the past.

[LameFox]

Yeah, my issue has always been with neutrals. What I tend to do is get the hull around 30% but leave all the L/XL shields intact so once the boarding is done the ship will quickly regain shield hp, and if anything comes along it's less likely to kill it.

[asdrubale]

However, with the changes in 7.10, boarding has been dramatically accelerated and has become much less excruciating than in the past.

I never tried boarding before 7.10 so that may be what skews my perception. Yes I do sometimes lose a ship to friendlies, but the best way to mitigate (IMO) is to leave 100% shields and hull so that I can get away from the ship as quickly as possible, and it has enough health to sustain some damage, repair engines and reach a gate.