I'd like to have the player rely on taking ammo from derelict or disabled ships. Is there a way to force a certain quantity of certain things to be present on a boardable ship? I feel like that AI ships will only have some random amount of ammo for only the weapons they are equipped with. Furthermore, I think that the player is only able to 'liberate' the ammo that he or she already has a weapon to use it with. Are these assumptions true?

To be more specific with what I am trying to do, I'd like the player have to go through a point in the story where critical ship parts can only be found by scavenging through the wreckage of a battle. The PC would board different derelict vessels, trying to capture "parts" (which would really be ammo for fake, useless, and invisible weapons) in order to get back to safety. So my question really is whether it is if this system would become a dead-end for the PC due to the wrong "parts" being scavenged, or in insufficient quantities, or not showing up at all.

Any tips on how to go about this?

Werhner

You can't control the exact numbers that boarded ships have available when you capture their ammo; however, you could have the derelict ships be mission ships, and control the boarding that way (this also lets you make boarding descs if you want).

- Bob

Your assumptions are spot-on.

If you make the "competition" of a government that will board disabled ships, they will also board. However, if they are enemies with you, there's a good chance that they will just attack you, which may be what you want I guess. Furthermore, the ships the AI boards will give the "you can't board this ship" message if the player tries to do so.

Thanks for the quick response guys. I'm going to try a few things out before I try using mission ships, but that might end up being the best solution.

Werhner

Well you won't get that message if you're supposed to disable it. Think about the missions you have to capture traitors for the Federation. Those are technically mission ships, I think.