Ah, I see...
Soooo..., relative velocities and positional vectors in space combined with magnetic clamps/cables or universal docking mounts for proximity operations are concepts that don't exist in the BT universe.
I work in the space sector. In fairness to whoever developed the boarding rules, in the real world, rendezvous and docking even with friendly, cooperative spacecraft is an agonizingly slow, delicate, dangerous procedure that sometimes results in collisions and near-misses even under the best of conditions:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progress_M-34https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DART_(satellite)#Mishap_investigation_boardWe're conditioned to think about boarding in bluewater terms (Greek triremes, Viking longships, Age of Sail and modern pirates). But that takes place between ships moving in two dimensions at low tens of miles per hour at most, in a medium (water) that constantly ****** their movement, in a forgiving environment where no one dies quickly if hulls are punctured or someone falls overboard.
In theoretical blackwater boarding, spacecraft are moving in three dimensions at tens of thousands of miles per hour at least (with complex gravitational effects thrown in for fun), with nothing in the vacuum to slow them down, which also happens to be an environment that kills in seconds from depressurization.
Of course, maybe game fun should take precedence over realism in game mechanics. But rendezvous and docking with an uncooperative spacecraft should be an exceedingly difficult task.
It doesn't matter what your thrust is in TO as you can only even make the attempt on immobile targets..
This makes sense to me. In the real world, a puff or two from a couple hydrazine thrusters and the target spacecraft will push or spin rapidly away from the boarding spacecraft. The target spacecraft's ability to thrust and orient should have to be disabled (which could be through engines, controls, power, or cabin) before boarding can be attempted. Otherwise the target spacecraft will always be able to juke or spin away from the boarding spacecraft. Even grappling equipment would become useless or even dangerous to the boarding spacecraft if the target spacecraft decided to spin at a few g's.