Why is every boarded capship broken IS?

[LameFox]

Since the beginning of the game I've had this issue with them. I board a ship, give it time to repair engines, and prepare to drive off... but lo, the engines cut out every few seconds as if I've rammed something. I used to think it was having too few crew to man it, but I started transferring them in from my boarding ship, and it still happened. Then I thought maybe it was the boarding pods, which would explain why the ship works OOS, but sometimes they seem to vanish even while I'm IS and still this issue persists.

What is left at this point? Saboteurs among the weird enemy crew who are not technically here but still linger in the ship? Why do I have to fly away from every boarded L or XL ship to make it start working?

[Alan Phipps]

It appears that the inertia of drones can be greater than that of the capital ship for some reason (see here) and that might explain why the capital is having difficulties if it is colliding with its own repair drones - and especially if one or more are stuck in the ship superstructure.

[LameFox]

Could be. They are all dead and I try to strafe out of the wrecks but it would be hard to tell if one was stuck inside if it's not alive.