[PsychoLandlord]

I thought the briefing made it pretty clear they were simply static. No movement, no reactions, nothing.

[-Sara-]

I'll have to play it again then.

[PsychoLandlord]

I could very well be wrong, and I'm getting really sick of not having FS2 on hand to back myself up.

[-Norbert-]

I think catatonic was even one of the words Bei used in his log. They were sitting at their stations just staring dead ahead, not moving a muscle (beyond the ones of the heart and lung obviously, since they surived.... kinda).

Oh, nothing so dramatic as boarding operations. I'd drill holes throughout the ships structural framework and pump gas directly into the ship - no need to control anything. They could fight back by compartmentalizing the affected regions, assuming they had power and working systems able to do that. But it would ultimately be a losing struggle.

Why pump in anything (unless it's to capture the crew alive)? Just drill the holes and let the air go out. Each compartment opened to the vacuum is one piece of the oxygen reserve gone and thus shortens the time till the crew runs out, or reaches the point were they give up.
Of course sending in drilling teams to get to the compartments furter inside the ship is a bit risky, since the enemy could start a counterattack wearing space suits, but then you could just use a really long drill from all the way outside I guess.
The noice of the drill would also be really jarring and thus doubles as psychological warfare I guess.

[Jellyfish]

Just drill the holes and let the air go out.

Explosive decompression will make the cleanup guys stay up longer...

[headdie]

not to mention the time taken to drill through military armour for each compartment on a multiple deck 253 meter long ship (fenris/lev)

[-Sara-]

I don't see ship theft happening beyond raiding a shipyard and taking a nearly-finished vessel with a skeleton crew on board.

[Nuclear1]

Well, ships are closed systems, with inherant limitations in life support. If you want to take crew alive, pump in a disabling gas. If you don't, make that nerve gas. Enough of it, and it'll saturate any possible scrubber system. The hulls may be tough, but the material used to fashion the ships is also workable, which means with enough creativity and time, you could compromise integrity, and with it the atmosphere.

I would think that a ship would have the ability to safely vent sections of itself that were being pumped full of toxic gases and fumes straight into space.

Most effective way to capture a vessel seems to be either forcing the crew to surrender before boarding, or take them the old-fashioned way:  boarding with a team of Marines armed with stun grenades.

[Jellyfish]

Or shoot a Helios and wait for the radiation to do its work. You'll have to work in NBC suits all the time, though.

[Nuclear1]

Or shoot a Helios and wait for the radiation to do its work. You'll have to work in NBC suits all the time, though.

On the inside or outside?

Helios on the outside the ship, it's likely it would all dissipate.

Helios on the inside...well, you've got bigger problems than radiation.

Besides, radiation sickness takes quite a long time to kick in.

[Jellyfish]

Inside, of course. Makes me wonder why none of the warheads in the FS universe (that I recall) are penetrators. Damage outside is annoying, but damage inside is dangerous.

[General Battuta]

They are. It's just hard to penetrate.

[Droid803]

Inside, of course. Makes me wonder why none of the warheads in the FS universe (that I recall) are penetrators. Damage outside is annoying, but damage inside is dangerous.

If you blow it up inside, something tells you'll be missing a part of the ship you want to "capture".

[Nuclear1]

Yeah, even Cyclops torpedoes are basically 21st century nuclear warheads x 100000, and if you want to set one of those off in the middle of a ship, it would probably wipe out most of the interior.

[Mars]

I assume some compartmentalization.

[-Norbert-]

not to mention the time taken to drill through military armour for each compartment on a multiple deck 253 meter long ship (fenris/lev)

But it wouldn't be any different if you were pumping in gas, to which I answered.
Also you don't need to drill into every single compartment most likely. If you know were in the ship the main and backup lifesupport is located, you can drill directly towards those sections and even if other compartments retain the oxygen already inside, that won't last for long.

And even if you don't know that, just drill towards the biggest concentration of lifesigns, untill the detected signs are few enough that you can go in with a comparetilvely small troop detachement to mop up/round up the last few survivors.
Also you won't need a 250 meter drill for a Fenris. For one thing you can drill from the sides and for another from both sides. Now if the ship is 50 meters in diameter, that would mean a 25 meter drill can reach every point in the entire ship. Opening every single compartment is going to take it's time, but as I explained before it won't be necessary.

[Jellyfish]

Inside, of course. Makes me wonder why none of the warheads in the FS universe (that I recall) are penetrators. Damage outside is annoying, but damage inside is dangerous.

If you blow it up inside, something tells you'll be missing a part of the ship you want to "capture".

True. By the time the warheads come out, it's long past capturing time.
Why not fill something like a torpedo with dudes and shoot it? Unless we're going too WH40K there

[-Norbert-]

Because of the risk to the poor troopers inside. The torpedo can be shot down, have an engine mulfunction causing anything from them being stranded to exploding outright. It might smash against the armor, failing to penetrate.
Not to mention the problems of inertia for the people inside at the moment of impact, even if the torpedo smashes through. Also such a torpedo would need to be much bigger than even an Eos, which makes it all the easier to shoot down.

So firing such a boarding torpedo during battle is pretty much out of the question in any sensible setting (there are many things WH40K is, sensible isn't one of them though) and if you already got rid of all the enemy guns and escorts, it's far easier to ferry the troopers over via transports or even space suits with attached manouvering thrusters.... or hell even fixing ropes between your and the enemy airlocks or the place were you burned through their hull and letting the troopers grapple over there.

[Destiny]

Drop pods and human warhead torpedoes are very, very different things. The Adeptus Astartes never fires drop pods into ships when they can simply lance them with holes with lances. Or call on the Imperial Navy's Nova Cannons to simply obliterate the thing. Space Marines are well-equipped, SUPERSOLDIERS, walking tanks...FS2 marines...nah. Look at 'em in the Shivan boarding party from FS. If they were Space Marines, the ship would belong to them.

For human warhead torpedoes...on impact = death.


Oh damn it ninjas.

[headdie]

what about long cables attaching to the hull and a massive electrical charge? i'm guessing not much effect on people but might do a number on their life support controls