[Stormkeeper]

If you could get man size objects into an enemy ship I'd suggest you send a Helios rather than a marine.

I agrees, but the whole point is to capture, not vaporise.

[foolfromhell]

You disable it, blow the reactors, let life support go, everyone suffocates, then send in a boarding part with minimal troops since the enemy is already dead.

[Blue Lion]

They would blow the ship before they let themselves suffocate

[Stormkeeper]

Why not bombard the ship with cobalt radiation weapons ? Kill the crew while leaving the ship undamaged.

[Blue Lion]

I would assume most crewmen are not of the same caliber as Marines and would surrender once the ship was boarded.

Once you start killing the crew every time a ship is disabled, expect every other ship to go kamikaze on you.

[Stormkeeper]

Ion disruption fields + scrambler viruses + emp weapons + energy leeching weapons + cobalt radiation weapons = easy capture and no kamikaze!

[Blue Lion]

That sounds completely easy.

[Stormkeeper]

... Not really. You realise that the more you devote weapons space to disablers and radiation weapons, the more useless it becomes in ship-to-ship combat and its point defense probably won't be too hot either. So the disabler will need to be escorted by other ships and fighter wings, or have very good ECM and the ability to jump with pin-point precision, e.g into the victim's blind spot.

[Blue Lion]

Or you could just disable/disarm it and send in Marines, like we've been doing forever.

You're going to need to keep the crew alive because if it becomes known that you're killing all the crews, they'll fight to the bitter end to keep you out, even at the expense of blowing up their own ship.

You're also not going to want to blow holes in the side of the ship.

[Droid803]

Well, either way would probably completly fail against Shivans.
Marines get slaughtered by Shivan crewmen, as witnessed in hallfight. Shivans also walk around in space with no need for suits...which means they're pretty radiation-immune to begin with...

[ShadowGorrath]

But you forgot one thing - who would crew the ship once you capture it ? You'd need another crew in the friendly destroyer, and it'd become overcrowded. And the hostile crew of the captured ship would be too hard to look after, and they'll be in control of the ship ( which means probs for the marines ).

[Gamma_Draconis]

Well,

1) The ship wouldn't be exactly free. It'll still take a month or two to repair all the damage. If it's an alien ship, then it'll take even longer because scientists and technicians would have to study and possibly reverse engineer several of the controls. Hell, they'll need to study the alien language first as well.

2) I'm pretty sure every ship, or at least every destroyer are stationed with their own marines for such scenarios. Just look at the menu screen, you can see armed marines guarding doors.

Unless you have specialized tools, it won't be an easy task.

[Stormkeeper]

But you forgot one thing - who would crew the ship once you capture it ? You'd need another crew in the friendly destroyer, and it'd become overcrowded. And the hostile crew of the captured ship would be too hard to look after, and they'll be in control of the ship ( which means probs for the marines ).

Creating some sort of computer device that will give enough control that the capturer can remotely pilot the the ship to a safe haven would eliminate the crew problem.

Well,

1) The ship wouldn't be exactly free. It'll still take a month or two to repair all the damage. If it's an alien ship, then it'll take even longer because scientists and technicians would have to study and possibly reverse engineer several of the controls. Hell, they'll need to study the alien language first as well.

2) I'm pretty sure every ship, or at least every destroyer are stationed with their own marines for such scenarios. Just look at the menu screen, you can see armed marines guarding doors.

Unless you have specialized tools, it won't be an easy task.

Capturing anything has never been easy.

[ShadowGorrath]

If a ship can be controled by a good AI, then why the hell are ships crewed ? And you need so many crew members for a reason. So no people to crew another ship.

[Stormkeeper]

What i meant is that the computer is only powerful enough to pirate the ship's movement systems.

Ships are crewed because computers would never have been able to come up with and pull off the Keyes maneuver. 

[ShadowGorrath]

There's also a reason why the GTVA never tried recapturing the ships stolen by the NTF. Because if it was possible to capture them, I'm sure the GTVA would've tried.

[JGZinv]

It was because of the food they stocked the galley with... 

I'm for the "blast ship, vent atmosphere/poison crew, upload AI to pilot the hulk" method myself.

[ShadowGorrath]

But how can you do it ? The hostile destroyer will have the same amount of marines as your destroyer. You will need more troops than the destroyer has. And that's a lot. Besides, it's 14'000 total crew, right ? Just not worth it. Unless it was canon.

[Stormkeeper]

But how can you do it ? The hostile destroyer will have the same amount of marines as your destroyer. You will need more troops than the destroyer has. And that's a lot. Besides, it's 14'000 total crew, right ? Just not worth it. Unless it was canon.

Honestly speaking, I wouldn't attempt to capture a destroyer with just one destroyer of my own. Possibly, one destroyer and two escort corvettes, plus two disablers, a EWACS and a troop transport. Its , yea, but you wouldn't go after an enemy destroyer unless there was something you absolutely wanted onboard.

And actually, I thought we were discussing ships in general, and you're more likely to capture lighter ships than go after a destroyer.

[ShadowGorrath]

Well. . . Destroyers are flagships, so it's much more important to capture it. Oh well. . . I just don't think it's a combat solution. Now if you did it secretly and not in battle, then it could work.