Boarding orbital targets

[Porjate (OP)]

So an NPR borders my home system, and has recently sent geo-survey ships in to scan the planets in my system. I thought this would be a good opportunity to attempt boarding and see what I could learn about it; while my drop ships are in no way meant for ship-to-ship boarding, I figured that because the surveyors were orbiting it would result in 0% losses. So, loading up some random (unfortunate) assault battalion, I initiated boarding action against a geo-survey ship in orbit of my home world. After the 30 or so seconds it took to confirm orders, the drop pods launched at the stationary vessel, only for every single soldier to end up dead, and not on the ship.

So do orbiting targets still keep their max speed, even they are listed to have no speed? I don't have the capability to make fast boarding ships yet, so I was hoping that I'd be able to drop a battalion or two onto a slow ship with 60 something crew just to see what happened.

[Garfunkel]

Yeah, unfortunately the ship can still "dodge" missiles and marines with its max speed even if it essentially stationary.

[alex_brunius]

You can always think/reason around it as that the ship will detect your approaching forces and use maximum available evasive maneuvers around the location even if it does not travel in any set direction.

[Barkhorn]

This reminds me.  Orbital contacts also run their engines just as hot as they would at max speed.  You have to manually set your speed lower on the taskforce screen to reduce thermal signature.

[alex_brunius]

This reminds me.  Orbital contacts also run their engines just as hot as they would at max speed.  You have to manually set your speed lower on the taskforce screen to reduce thermal signature.

Perhaps this could be a bug to report ( unless already reported ). Since ships consume no fuel when orbiting or stationary they should also have little to no thermal signature from engines ( logically ).

[sloanjh]

Perhaps this could be a bug to report ( unless already reported ). Since ships consume no fuel when orbiting or stationary they should also have little to no thermal signature from engines ( logically ).

WAI - The "picket" command was added by request so you can drop your speed to 1 if you want to.  I don't recall (actually I don't think I ever knew) Steve's reasoning for keeping engines hot when not moving, but it's definitely a conscious choice.  So it might be appropriate in Suggestions (based on the logic argument), but not a bug.

John

[Steve Walmsley]

WAI - The "picket" command was added by request so you can drop your speed to 1 if you want to.  I don't recall (actually I don't think I ever knew) Steve's reasoning for keeping engines hot when not moving, but it's definitely a conscious choice.  So it might be appropriate in Suggestions (based on the logic argument), but not a bug.

John

The hit chance in combat is modified by the target speed. If you set a picket speed of 1 km/s, that speed is used in calculating the chance to hit your ship. In effect, you can reduce thermal signature at the cost of being a sitting duck.