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When the player ship attacks NPC M5/M4/M4+/M3/M3+/M8/TS/TS+/TP ship it is possible that the pilots will surrender the ship and bail allowing the player to claim the neutral ship using the Spacesuit or System Override Software. This section lists factors that affect the probability of bailing.
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Bailing Chance
The default percent morale of NPC pilots is determined by the job they have been assigned to by the Jobs.pck file used by the game ranging from 5-100% of 30. The following factors increase or decrease the morale of the pilot
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There is then a random number from -5 to -10 applied each time the game is loaded
To check for bailing requires the shields of the ship being targeted by the player ship to be <1% and <1000 . If pilot morale is high they will never bail. J. After enough periodic bail checks the pilot will never bail however the player would have to been harassing the same ship for over 14 minutes. Ion Disrupters only have 4% chance of triggering a bail check on hit.
- First Bail Check: target current hull ≤ max hull*(1 to 8)/8
- Subsequent Bail Checks: Each subsequent hit after a delay which cycles through 60, 120, 240, 480 then 30 seconds
Bail chance (%) = (30*+Hull Factor - Morale Penalty - Target Strength Penalty - Number of previous bail checks)*Kha'ak Penalty
- Hull Factor (applied with 1 0 to 10 range) = target max hull/(target current hull*4)
- Morale Penalty = target pilot current morale (range 1 to 30)
- Target Strength Penalty = 5 if player ship ƩInstalled lasers OOS shield + hull damage + Max shields + Max hull ≤ target ship ƩInstalled lasers OOS shield + hull damage + Max shields + Max hull
- Kha'ak Penalty (only applied to Kha'ak owned ships) = (Player Fight Rank - 5)/25
This means bailing chances are highest if target ships are reduced to <2.5% hull with Mass Drivers before knocking the shields down.
Wares Kept
When the pilot bails, 90% of equipped lasers, missiles and shields are destroyed. Kyon Emitter type lasers only have a 50% chance of destruction. Of the remaining equipment and wares in the cargobay the amount kept is determined by two sequential number generators. Jump Beacons are exempted and always kept.
Round 1 = 0 to (Ware Number+1)
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Round 2 = 0 to (Round 1 Number+1)
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- Chance to roll for equipment damage on hull hit (%) = 5 + 35*(1-(Current hull/Max Hull)) + Weapon Damage Bonus
- Weapon Damage Bonus = (0% to 20% for Equipment and Missiles and 0% to 15% for Lasers, Shields and other wares based on the hull damage of the impacting weapon (details needed) and reduced by the shielding of the target (details needed)) = (((0 to ƩInstalled laser IS shield + hull damage) + 10)*100)/target Max shield
This means having high damage per shot but low rate of fire weapons equipped but not firing will increase the chance of destroying target equipment with low damage but high fire rate weapons and destroying shield generators will further increase the chance.
A ware type is then chosen to be damaged.
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