This is a very cool idea in my option that other games have done well with (Armada/Armada 2 or even Master of Orion 2 come to mind). Obviously you need to have the crew available to launch at the enemy, but taking over their ships could be a gain worth the risk of them getting shot down by point defense.
Please read the forums, man. The idea has been suggested time upon time.
Sorry man, I did but I didn’t delve so I guess I missed it.
i agree with this idea full-on (i also suggested this myself before :S)
I dislike it and would oppose it greatly.
HOW DARE YOU OPPOSE GOOD IDEAS! XD
The scenario is played to annihilation. There are no style points or other victory conditions.
Therefore, the only ships worth capturing are the ones that are still functioning. It’s not worth it to capture a flaming cruiser with half a missile launcher left - and you can bet the resulting AI will do that a few times - and not firing on ships for any reason is a dangerous proposition.
The only way capturing is generally going to work here is if it is an absurdly quick process.
I’m not sure I like the idea of that.
It’s goofy for a number of reasons. I suppose the tiny pod of invaders landing on a hull, then cutting through is one possibility, but their chances would be about nil even if they survived the approach.
Full sized ships doing it—“put me along side her at pistol shot, and we’ll board her through the smoke!”—would be cool, but again, the ships would pretty much need to be disabled to the point of being immobile.
The only type of “boarding action” I’ve seen mentioned in the various threads that seems to match with the overall feel of GSB is more of a raiding or sabotage idea. Launch a pod of guys at the enemy - if the pod survives the inevitable barrage of point-defense fire, the guys slip onto the ship and wreak havoc until they’re butchered by the defenders. Basically a “damage-over-time” type of weapon not unlike the radiation guns Cliffski has mentioned, differing mostly in the description of it.
Capturing ships really doesn’t fit well with the “shoot on sight” MO that GSB fleets usually have.
What about a giant, ‘transporter bay’ like on the old Star Trek, but which can transport 50 or 100 marines at a shot? Then, you could have defensive marine squads too.
A new type of crew pod.
Red Shirt Pod - Paired with the right module enables boarding parties (ammo is the number of troops) if any board a ship then specific modules are targeted and taken out. Upgradable to Marines
Sliders for Red Shirt Targets - Weapons (random) Engines, Repairs.
Security Crew Pod - reduce boarding party effectiveness with chance to eliminate boarding action (upgradable to marines)
no one likey…?
well I thought it was a good idea :o)
me too! 
I once played a game (VGA Planets), that had a race that had boarding as a specific tactic. Their weapons would do less damage, but kill more crew. If all the crew was killed but the ship still in one piece, they could board it and fly it themselves. Without a full complement of crew the ship would of course only be partially operating.
I think that in GSB it would mean bringing a lot of extra crew on your vessels. and having specific crew kill weapons like the Order’s radiation things.
I am part of thase thinking that boarding would be cool (with some cool little shuttles or huge ships glueing to the victim)
It might make a good scenario variant too, if for a latter version/extansion of the game convoy where implemented. A scenario could be to steal cargo from someone. With 2 basics strategies : Take the whole ships ; or go in, take the stuff and leave (if the “cargo” is a small such a person or some prisonners for example).
See thread about convoy mission suggestions viewtopic.php?f=25&t=4448
this would have to be a MAJOR expansion, but you could add boarding as a component of a progressive campaign whereby the player has limited funds/crew to spend on the campaign and the same ships would progress through each mission (kind of like nexus: jupiter incident"). Boarding would be essential to gain more ships and expand the fleet.
Please search or browse a page or so back before creating new topics, while its great to see enthusiasim for this game I think you’ll find that the issue of boarding parties has been discussed before not so long ago and has several pages.
I for one would like to see it in the ideas I outlined.
Hmm. New topic ? This one dates from last january, and you already took part of it 2 or 3 times Damage_13…
doh, serves me right for going straight to the last page on multiple tabs.
edit: deja vu
boarding parties wasn’t really the main point of this suggestion…