Boarding: PLEASE stop uninvolved ship from launching

[Scoob]

Hey all,

While I'm aware of this "feature", it continues to catch me out from time to time. I'm Piloting a Hyperion. Nice. It's full of Marines. It has two docked subordinates in the Bombard role set to "docked". They have no Marines. I order a Boarding operation... the two subordinates launch and die, killed by a different ship. They were NOT part of the operation. They were not needed to launch Marines, they were not needed to "suppress" the target. They. Were. Not. Needed.

I TOLD the game that they weren't needed, that's why I DIDN'T select them as part of the operation. All they did, was make me reload. That's it. Reloading isn't gameplay.

When boarding, I'd suggest that ships that aren't selected perhaps not be part of the operation. If they are selected and have Marines aboard, yep, they've been asked to help out. Launch them. If they are selected and don't have Marines, well, then that's quite clearly telling them to help suppress the Target. Be it "attack engines" or whatever the main boarding stance is, once pods have been launched.

Now, of course, I can work around this. I can PAUSE the game, order the boarding operation and then immediately clear the spurious orders any subordinates have gained. I can then resume the game and they should stay put. A little cumbersome that I have to do that though.

Boarding is FUN, but this is just clunk. Allow us to select ships, perhaps even allow us to define the role they play individually - Launch Pods if they have Marines, suppress target, defend against other ships etc. - a little more control here would be great.

[BitByte]

You said they are subordinates of hyperion - I assume depending their assignment role reason why they are lauched is they either "defend" or "protect" commander. As boarding target ship becomes hostile they are sent for their duty.
So you may need concider to disable fleet while you perform boarding so prevent them from launch.

[Scoob]

Subordinates are set to DOCKED, so they won't launch even if the Hyperion is attacked. The board order overrides that setting though. Work-arounds aren't really the point here, I've got one that works fine while preserving fleet integrity. It shouldn't be necessary though. They are part of a fleet, but they're set to docked, which is ignored by boarding, they are also not selected as part of the boarding operation, nor to they have any role to play in it. The UI appears to offer a list of ships to involve in the operation, but it's not quite as useful as it could be.

Having them launch this way means at least some will DIE, unless the target has been totally neutered. Of course, then they have even LESS reason to launch. I've seen them form up on the leader and just sit there while taking fire until they die. They're literally doing nothing useful at all most of the time. If additional ships are needed to help disable the target, well, even then this forced launch is pointless. Any remotely competent player will disabled a ship before those super-squishy pods launch ideally.

Anyway, this is a suggestion for how to improve Boarding by preventing spurious launches of ships BOT involved in the operation. I'm not disbanding a fleet for this. I will continue to use the Pause and Board technique to CANCEL the spurious launch order given to all docked subordinates.

Think of it this way, a Carrier-class ship might have a number of "Intercept" Fighters, these are light, fast built to take on other Fighters. The Board command then force-sends them against a Capital Ship... that's a little... unwise lol.

[H34Dru5H]

I know this is not the answer you're looking for but setting all subordinate ships to 'Maintain Distance' before starting the boarding process is how I do it. All ships with needed marines drop their pods and clear off, all other ships just leave and don't get involved at all maintaining a safe distance. Unfortunately in hostile territory a safe distance might not be the safest place to be.

[Nanook]

I tell all the pilots of the ships I don't want to launch to stay in the 'Ready Room' and have a cup of coffee (or tea). If I need them later, I'll tell them when to board their ships.

[jlehtone]

I know this is not the answer you're looking for but setting all subordinate ships to 'Maintain Distance' before starting the boarding process is how I do it.

That is an another detail where UI could be made more comfy: a global option, where user can change the default action of the boarding ships. That would allow to change the default to 'Maintain Distance' and then would have to adjust it only for the ship that actually does boarding (if you don't want it to maintain distance too).


Overall, IIRC, the boarding is not the only order that propagates to subordinates. I just cannot remember what the others were. This is again about UI design decisions. Most orders are only for the ship that you give them to. Are there orders that logically should be given to the subordinates too? If there are, are some of them such that you might occasionally want to issue it only to the leader and at other times to both leader and all subordinates?

One could be a dread pirate captain, with an armada of dinghies, which one wants all to take part of the boarding. Then it makes sense to enroll whole fleet with one click. (I don't have a fleet, but individual dinghies that I group-select before issuing the Board order.)

[jlehtone]

I tell all the pilots of the ships I don't want to launch to stay in the 'Ready Room' and have a cup of coffee (or tea). If I need them later, I'll tell them when to board their ships.

But there is no "All fighter crews, board your planes" carrier command, is there? (That too would be convenient to have.)

[BitByte]

But there is no "All fighter crews, board your planes" carrier command, is there? (That too would be convenient to have.)

Resume your duties?

[Scoob]

I think my work-around of issuing the Board order while Paused, then immediately cancelling the launch orders of all spurious ships is about as good as it gets currently. It's what I usually do, but I forget sometimes - usually during my first boarding operation of a new game - and it's just do darn messy.

This last time I DID order the ships to maintain distance, but they don't obey that. They obey their standing order. I.e. The ship I boarded from had two Bombard-role Fighters set to DOCKED. Boarding OVERRODE that DOCKED order (bad), but then the Bombard behaviour OVERRODE the "Maintain Distance" Boarding behaviour. Result? Those ships - that were NOT asked to be part of the boarding operation - launched and directly attacked the target. This is of no use to anyone.

So, in summary:

- Ships NOT included in the Boarding Operation (no marines) launch anyway.
- The same ships IGNORE the "Maintain Distance" stance from the Boarding UI
- The same ships follow their assigned subordinate behaviour (Bombard in my case) making them attack and KILL the target, or be killed.
- Entire operation turns into a mess
- Reload.

Boarding, while fun, feels a little unfinished. We have a UI that suggests a degree of control that simply does not exist. Enhancing this to be able to select EXACTLY which ships will be involved, and their role, would be great. So, these ships in the fleet will be launching Marines, then Maintaining Distance for example. These other ships will be suppressing the target, i.e. taking out engines, weapons etc. These others will defend against other vessels but NOT shoot the target. Something along those lines.

On top of this, boarding needs a bit more feedback. My first boarding operation with Rookie Marines took ages to get through the hull. No progress report during that stage, just a seemingly stalled boarding operation. Only experience allows me to know I just have to wait it out.

In the short term - approaching seven years after X4s launch - I'd be more than happy with ships that are not assigned to the boarding op, not being part of the boarding op and staying put.