Captains Matter

Captains Matter is a gameplay enhancement for Starfield that makes ship captains and pilots more than just another crew member, giving them a pivotal role in post-boarding encounters. Subduing a captain may cause the crew to surrender, while killing a captain strands the ship and crew, preventing the ship from returning to combat.

This immersive mechanic enhances the usefulness of social skills (Diplomacy), adds another non-lethal combat resolution option, and gives players a more satisfying conclusion to boarding engagements.

How It Works

When you board a hostile ship, you normally have two choices:

Leave.
Eliminate the crew. Once the crew is gone, you can either capture the ship for your fleet or abandon it.

Problems with the vanilla system:

Captains are the same as crew.
Killing the captain and then undocking allows the ship to regenerate shields and continue fighting.

With Captains Matter:

The crew will have a chance (configurable in Game Options) to surrender if the captain is:

Killed
Unconscious
Persuaded using the Diplomacy social skill.

Default surrender chances by faction category:

Unorganized: 75%
Organized: 45%
Disciplined: 30%
Fanatic: 15%
Other: 90%

If a captain is killed and the player leaves, the crew will remain permanently stranded as they cannot pilot the ship... You sadistic monster.

If the captain is alive after surrendering and the player leaves, the ship will grav jump shortly after undocking.

Captains Matter also introduces a chance that Captains Lockers will actually be locked. These can be unlocked via Digipick or by successfully using Diplomacy on the ship captain. Whether or not the crew surrenders, if Diplomacy was successful the Captains Locker will be unlocked. The likelihood and lock level are chance based, influenced by faction category.

Compatibility & Extensibility

Captains Matter was designed with extensibility in mind. Authors can add their own new factions that appear in generic boarding encounters (when BE_Objective quest is active) to the appropriate Captains Matter form lists. Confirmed to work with Watchtower generic boarding events.

Built-in patchless compatibility with Non-Lethal Framework (not required).

Recommended: Social Skills Extended for easier use of Diplomacy (not required)