Anyone know the mechanics of how this works? I assume that it's something like "each time you conquer a colony, a morale check is run against crew grade for the enemy fleet, and ships failing the check surrender"?
I just took out an unguarded listening post, and suddenly three mammoth troop carriers (9 battalions each, with a full complement of drop pods) surrendered to me. Including the troops onboard, which were 9 Hvy Assault, 9 Mobile Infantry and 9 Assault Infantry.
Unfortunately, they were in random locations in enemy systems. One of them was attached to my explored network, so I was able to slip it out of there and bring it back for overhaul and inspection. The other two are deep in what I'm assuming is an enemy core system. Which I have no grav data for, so no jumppoints.
One of them was out in open space, so I'm sending it to the periphery of the system to hide for as long as possible. The other (the one bearing the Hvy Assaults) was in orbit of an enemy colony. Along with half a dozen armed warships. They're busy tearing it up as I type, even as I'm trying to combat-drop those battalions ASAP.
So. . . . hey, free ships and ground units, and if I rip it up I can get some good parts and/or tech research. And at worst, I'm depriving them of some ships and battalions if they blow them up. But it feels very random that ships in systems I haven't even found yet are defecting just because I took a single unmanned listening post.
EDIT: I should add that this seems doubly odd, as I can't even communicate with this race. So I can't even justify it as a propaganda victory.
EDIT x2: Yup, that one troop carrier got shredded before it could even load a battalion in the drop pods. This NPR has an orbital PD platform that mounts 14 gauss cannons with a ROF of 8. Scary thing up close. And of course, this was at point-blank range. Even then, it took about 40 seconds for that platform and a handful of PB-armed ships to chew through the armor and tear up enough internal systems to kill it.
