Follow up I guess.
"Shields" in any sci-fi are fully and firmly on the fiction side, they are plot based shorthand for delaying consequences and have exactly the same basis in science as demonic summoning.
Next, a bit of a rundown.
Star Trek shields don't stop boarding craft, just teleportation. Just because they prefer to teleport doesn't mean boarding shuttles don't work.
Star Gate shields don't stop boarding craft and honestly I can't remember if they stop teleportation or not but since aurora boarding doesn't work that way... *shrug*
Star Wars shields, like all the other tech in that IP are super inconsistent at best and more often than is reasonable, outright contradictory. *cough* hyperspace *cough*
WH40k shields don't stop boarding craft, just teleportation.
Not only do shields not stop boarding in these works but they don't even hinder it. In some cases boarding is seen as a way of bypassing them when necessary.
And because someone will inevitably feel the need to ask.
How do I know that auroras boarding combat is not teleportation based?
1. The ships involved need to be co-located exactly. Teleportation would almost by definition require separation.
2. Relative speed is a factor. Teleportation without the ability to also control your reference frame is worthless.
2a. No, Star Trek teleportation doesn't care about relative speed ether. Ships moving at impulse have always been able to teleport between them. Warp speed would be analogous to transiting a jump point.
Now all of that is just RP stuff which is subjective. I guess I was hoping that making my disbelief harder to suspend would be a more compelling argument than it turned out to be.
How about this one. Game balance.
Is boarding combat so brokenly powerful that it overwhelms that meta? No.
Is a boarding only doctrine viable? With enough min maxing and cheese, maybe? Probably not though.
Are you at a significant disadvantage if you don't use boarding combat at all? No, not really.
Is boarding impossible to counter? More speed, more guns, more ships, smaller ships, bigger ships (yes, both are counters in their own way.) embarked marines, counter boarding ships, Mesons to disable engi..... etc.
If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
Lastly, if none of that is enough of a reason, here is one just for Steve.
False bug reports.
Boarding craft being able to bypass shields is a big enough trope in sci-fi, not to mention that it is the way they work now, that if they are changed even just to hinder boarding actions, some will see it as a bug and report it. Examples might include:
-10kms faster but boarding still fails?/? PlZ hALp!
-I ran the numbers 3 times and I am losing more marines than I should be. I think something broke the combat formula.
-I immobilized an enemy ship so I sent in my boarding craft from a few systems over but when they got there the game bugged out and all my boarding troops just died before combat even started.
-Just came back to aurora after a break so I used some ship designs from my last play through that worked well while I get back into the swing of things but my boarding craft don't seem to work anymore. All I can think of is that the game thinks my ship is much slower than it is. Maybe the calculation got messed up somehow... maybe some data got overflowed...
Sorry this turned into such a ramble/rant. It really wasn't meant to be. I guess I just don't understand why you would want to change it in the first place.
