Accepting surrender, yay or nay ?

[bolterplop]

Hi,


Last time, when I was playing FTL, I wondered about something :

What do you think is better ? Accept surrender of the ennemy ship, or cripple him to death ?
I'm asking in term of rewards. Do you get more one way or the other ? Is it random ? Does one way may give you more interesting stuff ? (Add more related questions here.)
Of course, slavers are out of the discussion, because you always want one more guy (or alien, whatever, we want everybody aboard the ship - except for these sneaky boarders).

Thanks for the time you took to answer

[xdiesp]

My preference is this: board > accept surrender > destroy. Because boarding gives me the most scrap, while surrender gives the least but also plenty of items which would cost way more at a shop, than what scrap more I would gain from destroying the ship. There are just ships which makes causing surrenders that much easier and fast, that you keep rolling with it and don't bother with the rest.

[SushaBrancaleone]

the way I tackle this is case to case.

generally speaking when accepting surrender you receive more resources (fuel, missiles, drones or even weapons) and a bit less scrap than if you destroy the ship.
Still this isn't always true, particularly so in the last sectors where rewards are greater and sometimes by refusing surrender you receive more of what you were offered.

Towards end game it seems more rewarding to kill ships, while in early game it is often better to accept surrender to receive resources you need. You can refuse if you are offered drones and you dont intend to use them or if your in a hurry to accumulate scrap. it all depends ofc.

other cases where surrender is best. if you rely on missiles and are short of them. If your shields are breached or you've screwed up and similar scenarios.

Cases where you SHOULD kill, beacons on suns and asteriod fields, as most often they die anyways. Unless they offer a great deal.

Summarizing; use common sense, like everything in life and you'll do fine.

[spacecadet13]

Depends on how I'm doing, what I need, and what kinda mood I'm in.... If I get a surrender offer of 4 fuel, 4 missles and some scrap, more often than not I'll take it, unless I've got plenty of fuel & missiles on hand (or don't have missile/bomb weapons) and want/need scrap to spend for upgrades and stores, even if the total scrap gained for blowing the ship up is less than the actual value of the fuel + missles + smaller scrap surrender amount.

Sometimes the surrender offer is pitiful, so you don't even consider it, other times its 50/50, and some times they are just too good to turn down. On the times its 50/50, more often than not, in my experience, you get significantly less fuel/missiles/drone parts for ignoring their request, but more scrap, while accepting the surrender gets you more of the f/m/dp but less scrap, BUT a higher scrap "value" overall, taking into account the store prices for the f/m/dp. So, you either get to the next store needing to buy less consumables, but with less scrap to get that Burst Laser MkII and Defense Drone, or with plenty of scrap but probably having to commit a chunk of it to consumables.

Can also depend on how you are playing - some games I'll set out to just destroy as many ships as I can and damn the consequences, so all surrenders will be ignored, other games I'll decide I'm gonna accept them all. Games without those 'conditions', it really is case by case. Short on fuel, no forward scanners? Any fuel offer starts to look good. Same with a missile/bomb dependant build. In a battle you are winning, will win, but taking some damage? A surrender offer - even a very average one - can be a godsend.

So, to answer your question - Yay - AND Nay!

[icepick]

I try to accept surrendur usually. I had an amazing (achievement earning even) run this way. And I wasn't even hurting for scrap, ever.

So depends on preference obviously. But both are legit, so just depends on what you want/need.

[OmegaJasam]

I found surrender to generaly be very poor later on, it seems to me (antodatal evidance warning) that the scaling of the scrap ewards causes the destruction reward to getaly exceed the surrender reward in the last few sectors.

Generally though, borad > all, unless i really need what thye offer. Especaly with the slavers, since a bording kill > surrender rewardfor that event

[Sovereighn2280]

Surrendering is somewhat random. Sometimes, I've been given a surrender event, but when I kill them I get more or less than what they offered. However, you will have a higher chance of getting a new weapon if you board or accept surrender. But, 9/10 I just destroy the ship.
Anyway, if you're low on fuel, accept the surrender if they have fuel. If you're low on missiles (and they're your primary weapon) accept the surrender if they offer missiles. If you use drones and are low on drone parts, accept the surrender if they offer drone parts. If you think you will die if you continue to fight, accept the surrender. If they have a (good) weapon, accept the surrender.
So long story short, surrender events are iffy.

[jamotide]

Most of the time its a pretty easy decision, you know how much loot your usually get where you are, so you can tell if the surrender offer is bad or not. Sometimes they even offer extreme rewards, like 8 missiles or drones. And sometimes its just 1/1/1/12 or so.Often a no brainer.

[bolterplop]

Thanks everyone for your answers, that's more or less what I was thinking

I've never boarded except the final boss, because I kind of feel like it's a little bit too risky for the crew members I'm sending in. I guess it's all about micro-managing them when they're in.

[Madhax]

Thanks everyone for your answers, that's more or less what I was thinking

I've never boarded except the final boss, because I kind of feel like it's a little bit too risky for the crew members I'm sending in. I guess it's all about micro-managing them when they're in.

Boarding isn't hard once you get the hang of it. With level two sensors, you'll have a good understanding of whether or not you can take those guys. Beaming two humans onto a ship manned by four mantis won't work, for example.

There are several boarding guides on this forum if you're interested, they might be helpful. Boarding gives you the best scrap rewards, as well as improving your chances for freeing a slave from a slave ship, or finding weaponry/augmentations.