Well, there'd be the two types of XP, combat XP for destroying the ship, or Piracy XP for disabling & boarding it. So you can't really say they'd get less XP for disabling and boarding an empty ship than they would have gotten for destroying it, because it's an apples-to-oranges comparison.

There would also need to be Piracy missions, which (like the combat missions) would be the primary source of Piracy XP.

I think the timer idea is good.Because people would get board very quickly waiting for a weapon to charge up.And it would also mean that one pirate can't go and raid a whole fleet of unarmed trading ships.And if anyone tries to get smart by getting alot of non-pirate and pirates together to get XP, we can use beolach's idea of PKs.

Thats an exelent idea Beolach.That would also make a real underground in Vendetta.Where non-pirates and pirates battle in a number of ways.Boarding one of them.The pirates make raiding/boarding strikes at the unarmed convoys, steal their cargo and the non-pirates have to get it back.And to prevnt it from happening again they would hold missions for non-pirate players to gaurd the convoys on their journeys.and then the pirates have to get strategy to crack the defenses.

i would just type /explode while u were in the ship so neither would get the cargo

The way I described it, that wouldn't be an option, Space man 3, because once the ship is disabled, the pilot is sent back to their home station, as if the ship was destroyed. Even if the player had the option & choose to stay with the ship, the ship is disabled, and cannot /explode. You could /explode before I disabled your ship, but I'd suggest that if the ship is more than 50% of the way to being disabled, then using /explode should effectively be the same as being disabled, and the pilot is sent back to their home station.

Bringing this back up, because it's a great topic: Here's what I was GOING to post in a new thread -
So I was thinking about the other day, and a well-designed ship boarding mechanic would solve 2 of VOs commonly discussed topics: The legitimacy of piracy over griefing (that is, taking something instead of just blowing people up), and the across-the-board PoS issue.

Here's what I'm thinking:

Design a system where ships can be disabled and boarded (or boarded without being disabled, should the pilot slow to a stop). Once boarded, an interface would appear for the boarding party, allowing them to strip the boarded ship of parts and cargo, leaving the pilot stranded, or even take the entire ship, leaving their old ship behind (obviously taking their power supply with them to replace the damaged one on the disabled ship). The disabled player, once the boarding party has left, would be able to call EMS or any friendly player for repairs/part replacement, or if they don't want to wait, just /explode back to home. This mechanic would serve to add a level of legitimacy to the pirate profession, in addition, it would give an opportunity for pirated players to call in backup before and while they're being boarded in the hopes of someone coming to the rescue.

This could be easily tied into the faction system, by allowing NPCs to board player ships for inspection. Should an Itani player be traveling through Serco space, and come across a Serco patrol, they could hail the player, demanding they come to a stop and allow boarding for inspection. If weapons or other "illegal" cargo is found, the cargo is removed, the player fined, and their standing reduced. If they try to run, reinforcements are called in, the player is attacked, and standing is lost. If the player is doing nothing wrong, they are allowed to go on their way. This would happen to any player in non-home-nation territory, regardless of standing.

There's obviously a lot to hammer out in the details of such a system, but it is something I would love to talk about with anyone who has an opinion on the matter. Thoughts?

EDIT: As pointed out in in-game chat, disabling a player ship should be harder than blowing it up, as disabling a ship provides rewards to the attacker, while blowing them up would not provide as good rewards (no cargo drops? Smaller cargo drops? What have you). Also, with the timer on the /explode command, this would help with some of the problems mentioned earlier in this thread.

I have considerable notes on a boarding system for taking player-owned capships and stations. Easier, since they have.. docking bays. I figured we wouldn't really need it for fighter ships.

I do welcome input on the topic, regardless.

I'd say boarding for most player-controllable ships seems kind of a strange idea. I allways figured one would enter a Vulture by opening the cockpit. That would be kind of ... a bad idea in space ;)
It would, however, be nice to have a boarding feature for larger ships, let's say a Behemoth Heavy and anything larger.

-Pasquel

If we could tow ships then Simply surrendering the ship and being returned to station would work well...

Well, the way I see it, part of it is about adding depth to the game, right? I figure, having a boarding system for more than just player-player interactions could shore up some of the issues people have with the proposed changes to faction balance that are coming. If we look at this like a kind of real-world simulation, you SHOULD be able to play both sides of a war, just not without side-effects, like getting boarded.

I do like PaKettle's towing idea though. Would allow for a similar overall mechanic without the need for a full-on boarding system for smaller ships.

The idea for me, though, really stemmed from being an Itani flying through Serco monitored space. Like, great, so an American citizen goes to Russia during the cold war and gets popular for cleaning up some of the slums. Sure, they'll let him/her stay, but you better damn well be certain they're gonna frisk him at the airport, and keep his phones tapped, lol.

I'm not saying either of these ideas are good, but they are ideas, please feel free to shoot them down:

If another ship is within 50m and has less than 30% health, it is possible to "open" it (somehow) and transfer cargo from its hold to your hold.

Also, as the cargo hold part of the ship gets damaged shouldn't the cargo in the cargo hold get damaged too, and "deplete"? (likewise damage to engines, navigational equipment, sensors, decreased efficiency of jump drive, HUD, weapons, although decreasing ability to fight because of damage will make things unbalanced and hence should be avoided, battles should not be "whoever lands the first lucky shot wins")

There is a thread with many thoughts on docking with other ships and how that would work, and not in someways:

http://www.vendetta-online.com/x/msgboard/3/19728

Enjoy!

I think Celebrim was and is right.