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Allowing mercs to board EVE ships, frankly, isn't practical for either game. The lore behind EVE ships is that capsuleers, by themselves, can command any ship with minimal space for life support, living quarters, etc as they need only a minimal crew. The "capsule" itself allows the capsuleer to command any ship virtually by himself, and renders him effectively "at one" with the ship. If a capsuleer needs none of that space, he can fill it with extra modules, or cargo, or whatever. This means that there would be hardly any space for a dust merc to board or fight.

Just because one person is in a pod doesnt mean the rest of the ship is deserted. This is indicated in the novels, as well as on EVElopedia. Depending on the faction and ship size, there are various support crews. The beginning of the Empyrean Age novel starts with an infiltrator on an Amarr ship, with the crew reacting.

For the time being however, boarding ships isnt practical. What needs to happen though, to give that CQB feel, is to make it mandatory for an eve alliance to take a station/outpost, would require the use of DUST mercs to gain entry and take objectives. Otherwise, the only option is to destroy the station, somethign eve players have been begging for, opening the option to punative conquests.