A feature unique to the Albion Skunk is its ability to employ a Marine Officer for use in boarding operations. When equipped with a number of marines
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<player> can execute the "board" operation against L and XL ships. If successful the Marine Officer and all surviving marines can be found onboard
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the (now) <player>-controlled ship and ordered back onboard either remotely or in person. If unsuccessful both Marine Officer and all accompanying marines are permanently lost.
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Mechanics
Boarding begins with the <player> first disabling the ship sufficiently for drop pods to be launched. This requires that all Matter/Antimatter Drive components and the Jump Tunnel Device component be in a destroyed state. Once achieved, boarding pods will be launched.
Boarding pods are small ships with low top speed and hull which make their way to a seemingly random point of the target's physical hull. Each marine assigned to the Marine Officer is given its own boarding pod. It is unclear if the Marine Officer is physically in any of the pods or if he magically teleports as long as at least 1 boarding pod makes it. Boarding pods are subject to ship combat mechanics and so can be destroyed if their hull reaches 0% resulting in the loss of the carried Marine. If at least 1 boarding pod makes it to its destination point the boarding operation can continue, otherwise the operation will be a failure. After the last boarding pod leaves space by either arriving or being destroyed the operation will continue and fighting will begin.
Fighting has both a passive and active mechanic. Passively the Marine Officer boarding strength is periodically pitted against the ship's boarding resistance potentially resulting in marine losses. Actively the player is set boarding challenges to complete in a timely manner in order for boarding to progress. Boarding succeeds afters all active goals are achieved and several passive rounds are survived. Boarding fails if all marines are lost.
Passive combat loss results are determined by the difference between boarding strength of the Marine Officer and boarding resistance of the ship. No losses will occur as long as boarding strength is considerably larger than boarding resistance. An instant wipeout of all marines can occur if boarding resistance is considerably larger than boarding strength. Losses will also occur if the <player> takes too long to perform a set boarding challenge.
Once boarding succeeds the target ship ownership is immediately transferred to the <player>.
Boarding Resistance
Boarding resistance of a ship can be viewed under the target's info panel. The resistance is calculated from many factors which the player can influence. Nearby supporting ships such as drones, ship hull and shield percentage as well as active ship components raise boarding resistance.
Marines
For the board option to be available the player must first acquire a Marine Officer and a number of Marines. How many Marines in his command helps determine his boarding strength for the passive boarding mechanic. The Marine Officer can be assigned up to 50 Marines in total.
Marines come in 3 different variants of increasing power and value. After successful boarding operations there is a chance that surviving marines are automatically promoted to a more powerful variant for free.
| Type | Strength | Value |
|---|---|---|
| Recruit | ? | ? |
| Veteran | ? | ?1 |
| Elite | ? | ?1 |
- Although a price is listed in the encyclopedia there does not seem to be any place that trades these Marines making successful boarding operations the only way to obtain them.
Tips
Although possible to board some freighters with very few Marines, there is really no reason not to use the full 50.
Friendly NPC ships seem to completely ignore your boarding operation. They will keep firing at the target while your boarding pods are in transit which can potentially cause friendly fire losses. They will also not hesitate to destroy the target in the middle of a boarding operation which will result in the loss of all Marines and the Defence Officer. For this reason it is advisable to only board L and XL ships away from friendly NPC ships where you can conduct the boarding operation in peace. With tougher XL ships it is perfectly fine to board while 1-2 NPC fighters are hammering it as the hull regeneration can often be larger than their damage output. It is practically impossible to board a ship when an NPC L or XL fight ship is attacking because their damage output will usually kill the ship long before the operation completes from when the hull is at a safe percentage to board.
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NOTE: if you remotely recall the MO (or have boarded a K in v4) to the Skunk you must enter the backroom & tell the MO to 'Work on board.." in order to use them again. If you land on your prize & ask the MO to "Come back on board" this step is unnecessary
Guides to boarding capital ships can be found on the wiki here.