Problems capturing a capital ship using a fleet.

[Alan Phipps]

I think that is Mr.Killer's point. If the sledgehammer fleet were smart enough to recognise the difference between attack and board, then might it not be able to tap very, very, very gently too? Let's face it, the uncontrolled turrets of just one ship could be too many in some boarding operations.

Obviously smart sledgehammers (adaptable fire control orders/inhibits) are not too evident in the game just now.

[Mr.Killer]

So, I let the whole fleet (about 40 chimera's, 10 behemoths and one raptor) board this rattlesnake....

Well that's just ludicrous. You're using a sledgehammer to crack a nut. Why on earth did you think that level of firepower was remotely suitable to the task? Did you not think there would be silly amount of collateral damage if you try to disarm a single ship with 200 S class guns, 40 destroyer main guns & almost 300 turrets? That is by far the daftest boarding fleet I've ever seen. It exceeds what is necessary for the task by several orders of magnitude. Simply ridiculous to expect that to work.

I try not to do this, but it is merely the amount of marines that are on each single ship, and that is for chimera's only one or none..(mostly none because of the space).. To go with the sledgehammer idea of yours? it is far too comprehensive as in the heat of the moment, whilst other enemy ships may appear any moment, time is of the essence in such an operation and I better go full force in than to lose more than I love....
So, as I said earlier, I do not prepare a notorious freighter, armed to the teeth with marines, as if this one ship can easily be destroyed. There must be one enemy boldly enough to shoot it and all my effort is gone. That is also why I gamble on more small ships, swarm like, to attack large ships instead of one big one, even if I have to control them and lead them by the hand in battle - every single time...

Now, can we agree on this that the action is not the best piece of work? that it can become much better? or are we going to fight me against that too?
(then I know what to prepare, a whipped cream pie to throw!!!!! )

ps. also I said, if you never try this, they will not learn, however how many stars on a person are, they do not tell they know, they absolutely DO NOT KNOW! and that is a result from my freshly started game.

[GCU Grey Area]

I try not to do this, but it is merely the amount of marines that are on each single ship, and that is for chimera's only one or none..(mostly none because of the space).. To go with the sledgehammer idea of yours? it is far too comprehensive as in the heat of the moment, whilst other enemy ships may appear any moment, time is of the essence in such an operation and I better go full force in than to lose more than I love....
So, as I said earlier, I do not prepare a notorious freighter, armed to the teeth with marines, as if this one ship can easily be destroyed. There must be one enemy boldly enough to shoot it and all my effort is gone. That is also why I gamble on more small ships, swarm like, to attack large ships instead of one big one, even if I have to control them and lead them by the hand in battle - every single time...

Mostly use the single boarding ship approach for the sake of convenience. Much easier to transfer marines between ships in one big mob, rather than 1 by 1 into individual fighters (I just don't have that much patience). Yes, it is a risk keeping all my marines aboard one ship, but in practice it's a relatively minor one. If there are any hostiles in the sector, or ships which might turn hostile when the boarding starts, I always bring my war fleet with me (similar size & composition to your's). However it doesn't play an active role in the boarding op - it just lurks some distance away doing Protect Position, in between the place where the boarding will occur & potential hostiles which might try to disrupt my plans. To date only the occasional fighter has ever got past them, certainly nothing to seriously threaten my boarding ship. Is worth thinking about though. May move the marines over to one of my Monitors. They should be a bit safer there - stronger shields, substantially thicker hull & it's got just about enough room for all of them. Also got much better docking & repair facilities, definitely worth considering now I'm using fighters to assist with the turrets.

[oddible]

Mostly use the single boarding ship approach for the sake of convenience. Much easier to transfer marines between ships in one big mob, rather than 1 by 1 into individual fighters (I just don't have that much patience). Yes, it is a risk keeping all my marines aboard one ship, but in practice it's a relatively minor one.

You don't have to - add them all to a fleet and you can do the whole fleet's marines in a single slider in one boarding screen.

[GCU Grey Area]

You don't have to - add them all to a fleet and you can do the whole fleet's marines in a single slider in one boarding screen.

Thanks, had assumed that if I used multiple ships with marines aboard they could all participate in the same boarding op, but had not tried it myself - good to have confirmation of that. However that's not the problem I was talking about.

Problem is how to get them into all those ships in the first place & how to get them back into those ships after each boarding op. Currently have 91 marines & after a boarding op can move them out of the captured ship & back into their boarding ship with a single Transfer Crew command - very quick, very easy. The idea of trying to transfer them to 91 individual fighters after every boarding op just sounds horrendously tedious. As I said, I simply don't have anywhere near that much patience. There's a reason why I didn't do any boarding at all until after mass crew transfers became part of the game.

[lordmuck]

Yes the AI is really crap at this/absolutely pointless to choose anything except stay at distance.
I see no reason to handhold the AI and when someone says "tuRn D TurReTs oFf" ...I'm sorry but the AI should be able to calculate outgoing fire, target hull % and when the F to stop shooting or shoot very very lightly to keep shields down. Before anyone screams "SkIlL lEvEl" I think a blind monkey with no thumbs can determine a target hull at 20% = may be a good idea to stop shooting.

I have done so many experiments with fleet boarding and fleet anything in X4. Every command in the boarding section does not work well/correctly.

And lastly, before someone says "Do iT YoUr SeLf" Why would we need fleets/more than 1 ship if I have to do all the work / Why would I need pilots, and just have a ship parked to teleport and take control of...
I am a fan of automating and setting up "orders" or priorities and watching whatever I own in a game do its thing following what I have asked it to do.

Rather than a DLC id love to see the AI fixed in multiple areas of the game.

[chew-ie]

Rather than a DLC id love to see the AI fixed in multiple areas of the game.

That is an ongoing process and happened again in the current 4.0 version. Egosoft is stating that more then enough already (in almost every stream they made)

You won't get a single year of AI development only as those guys are running a company and have to earn money.