Any changes to bailing chances/mechanics? - improvements in future update

[ZX9000]

As someone playing a bit piratey, I'm wondering if the npc bailing mechanics is roughly the same as the somewhat nebulous mechanics of previous games, or if things have been adjusted in any significant way? Not that I remember how it worked before, having usually played with mods with their own rules, but are old discussions from TC and AP still valid?

tld;dr: what does it take to get the big armored TSs to bail!?

[Aranov]

Have you tried asking politely?
Seems random bailing is a thing of the past, and now you need to ask your target to surrender. Been making bank of the new armored ts this way using just a nemesis.
Doesn't all ways work, some pilots are too stubborn, on the other hand some will jump ship before you even open fire.
Even if they don't bail at first, they will attack you making it easy to catch them as they won't flee. And still keep asking every so often as you shoot them.

[laux]

I can confirm that. I was asking a pilot for a mission and accidentally pressed the wrong button. The ship was instantly mine

[Cycrow]

normal bailing should work correctly in the next update.

the only real changes are that any of your ships in sector can now trigger bailing, and having System Override software can increase your chance of a bail

[Snafu_X3]

IIRC TC Bailing mechanics work thusly**:
*M3/4/5/8 combat ships, along with basic TS & TP types; there may be some others

Spoiler

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There is a random %age chance for any [randomly-spawned, not Plot- or story-critical ship*] to bail. This is modified by the below:

• If your ship is significantly stronger in class or weapon (potential) dmg you get a bonus**
• If you have decently high /fight/ rank you get a bonus
• If <target> pilot has sufficiently high morale, that counteracts your bonus
• if <target> has a significantly stronger ship than you, that counteracts your bonus (at least initially)
• Once <target>'s shields are down* & hull is reduced to <~87% <target> will start making bail checks at intervals each time their hull is damaged
• Once <target>'s hull is reduced to (IIRC) <50%, <30% & <5% <target> makes more bail checks**
• If a huge amount of hull dmg has been delivered in one blow (eg from a large missile strike or concentrated hvy gunfire) you get a bonus (there's a limited time window for this to avoid exploiting slow ship capture)*
  
  IIRC Cycrow stated specifically that comming to 'surrender' didn't work at all in previous vanilla X3 games (tho it certainly used to in X2); however it now does.. /once!/ Spamming 'Surrender!' multiple times won't help if the initial try failed

*This is mitigated if using Ion-D's against <target> shields, which results in an effective counter to your bonus (presumably <target> isn't that bothered by non-lethal fire)

**I'm unsure of the mechanics of how these work without spending a long time searching thru old threads: they may be a pilot morale reduction or increased frequency of checks; however the outcome is roughly the same

Once the game settles down from its initial release glitches & hence fixes I may do another Wiki page or two.. once I've researched things properly

[Ramdat]

normal bailing should work correctly in the next update.

the only real changes are that any of your ships in sector can now trigger bailing, and having System Override software can increase your chance of a bail

When will the next update be available?

[Snafu_X3]

When will the next update be available?

Soon (TM)

[fireanddream]

normal bailing should work correctly in the next update.

the only real changes are that any of your ships in sector can now trigger bailing, and having System Override software can increase your chance of a bail

God damn I love you guys.

[Xe-131]

Spoiler

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IIRC Cycrow stated specifically that comming to 'surrender' didn't work at all in previous vanilla X3 games (tho it certainly used to in X2); however it now does.. /once!/ Spamming 'Surrender!' multiple times won't help if the initial try failed

I've had a pilot refuse to surrender at ~50% when I demanded it, and then when I asked again at ~15% they did! Maybe the "spamming" part onl doesn't work if you don't do any extra damage inbetween "requests to the pilot"

[ZX9000]

Lots of good info here, thanks. Looking forward to the update Never thought about using surrender, forgot it was an option. From a very small sample size it seems hull damage affects chance of acceptance. Which is natural.