Quoting Kedren, reply 5Boo. I thought that being able to capture structures with Boarding Party was awesome. I just wish it worked more often (i.e. AI timing: send a troop when the target is likely to be capped and not destroyed), and that it had a faster cooldown (maybe fewer marines, more parties). But anyway: boo. Structure-capping is fun.
Just because it was 'fun' doesn't mean it helps gameplay. That said, I didn't know I could (would) do it. I can't remember what structure is was, a small one. But in a large battle I noticed one of my 'troops' wasn't moving. Didn't recognize the icon right away and zoomed in to find it was a structure (I think it was a mine (diggy not xplodey), since for a second I thought it was capped by a colony ship in some strange ability I was unaware of...then I saw the "boarded".)
But my armada was on a heavy system push to get to the AI nova-cannons...so I'm not sure what happened with it... Not sure if my colony Cap took the planet or we left it razed. So I have no idea if the structures work for you, work for you despite zone control, how detonation works or anything. So I have no idea if this was OP or a waste of the Cap's boarding ability.
THAT said, I like the idea of it and I think I would prefer it was in the game if-it-works. But I suppose torp-ships are supposed to be the bunker busters, capping may be considered too easy.
I entirely agree: just because something is fun doesn't mean it aids gameplay. But I think it does. Anything that aids you and hurts your enemy is a good thing, right? So, you steal his hangar defence, or rail gun, or mine, or whatever you happen to steal: it's an immediate loss for them, a bonus for you (since, if you take the planet, you don't have to build it or you can scuttle it for cash), and if it gets blown up then you've still lost nothing.
I think that keeping the ability to capture stations as well as ships - actually, the ability to capture anything except planets, essentially - would be a neat thing. It might take lots of Corsevs, it might take lots of tries and probably wouldn't work, but how cool being able to grab an enemy starbase?
