The difficulty with doing something like this is that it throws off the balance of ship production costs, and those will have to be adjusted to compensate. The reason why most games don't do it is that production is abstracted to not really have this kind of factor, so it works in a uniform and predictable way.

Would be pretty cool if you could put a boarding team module on your ship or something to try and capture enemy ships though. That'd be neat.

I agree, this would be an excellent idea.

Infact, this made me think of somehting, as I really want some improvements in combat to begin with (like control) mayby targetabgle vitals and systems, that way you could disable engines and use salvage craft to steal the ship.  Knock power off line, drag it back to a space dock or planet, if the crew won't surrended, easy enough,blow a small hole in it and space them, few turns for a repair and you are golden with a brand new ship.  Or leave it at a base and have it reverse engineered to salvage technologies form the newly "appropriated" ship.

Yeah, exactly, I agree 100% there, I dig my idea still, but if yours was implimented, i'd be happy.  As long as you cvould have **some** control there, like science modules and salvage modules on vessels.  Higher the science rating of the fleet the higher chance of finding tech, possibly relating that to how many ships were in the enemy fleet or its size.  As I wouldnt want an exploit from having a huge fleet tackling lone scouts/explorers, and at the same time, if I take out 4 largest chassis based ships there SHOULD be more opportunity to find something usefull nabbing 1-2 small ships.

Wow I like this idea. This reminds me of when the Japaneese bought all our scrap metal after world war 1. I guess a rebuilt ship would not be as good as a new one. I never could understand why the Dominion of Korx or the Drath didn't have this technology. The Yor probably hack into the computer better, and maybe the Iconians. This should be researched with a tech or build with a superproject. I think this should improve your research. Remember this wouldn't just be for someone at war but someone who got their first. Getting a technology should only apply to if the ship was more advanced than the technology  u have.

A second idea that came up is ship capturing I like that. I think the Arceans, Drengin. Korath. and the Krynn should be good at this.

I always like espionage; just don't have anything to add. This reminds of Star trek undiscovered country when they trabsported aboard a Klingon vessel and assignated the ambassador. Transporters is one way to make boarding possible.

Also U could drill through the hull with a ship of equal speed. Tow the ship home and fix it. U would gave the cargo intact that u could use or sell. This was done in starwars in the books.

Well, I can't imagine why the attacker would abandon its metal, considering that anything good would automatically by looted by the attacker.