Robbing Multiple Ships

I've been trying to find information about the Privateer Rob mission,
and while there are lots of things saying how to use it strategically
and tactically, I'm having trouble finding definitive answers about
how to use it mechanically.

Let's say there are 3 MBRs at a location (arrived cloaked).
There's also three SSDs there.

If the 3 MBRs set mission to Rob, what happens?
How is this affected by the MBR friendly codes, if at all? (Do they
rob in order, like they would attack in order? Or FC=enemy ID?)
Does the MBRs set the friendly code equal to one enemy ship ID to
target (or something like that)?
Do each of the MBRs automatically rob the lowest ID ship?
Will they each automatically rob every ship until full (fuel, money,
and cargo)?
Do they each somehow rob a different random ship, or maybe just a
random ship so it might overlap?

Would it be different if the MBRs were ship IDs 1,2,3 and the SSDs
7,8,9, vs, MBRs 2,4,6 and SSDs 1,3,5?

If there's a web page somewhere that really answers these questions,
feel free to point me at them, but so far all I can find are things
saying, "Make a wolfpack!", not "Set your friendly codes like this,
and you can only rob the lowest ID ship" etc.

Thanks much for any help.

Thanks greatly to both of you, that was very informative.

Until I thought to ask the questions, I'd been unconsciously assuming
one ship could not rob multiple enemy ships at all, which is why I was
wondering how you picked which enemy to rob (or if you ended up only
being able to rob one ship, the lowest ID, or something weirder).

On Jun 8, 12:18 pm, Stefan Reuther <stefan.n....RemoveThis@arcor.de> wrote:
> Jack wrote:
> > Let's say there are 3 MBRs at a location (arrived cloaked).
> > There's also three SSDs there.
>
> > If the 3 MBRs set mission to Rob, what happens?
>
> First MBR robs all the SSDs in Id order, until it is full. Then, second
> MBR does the same. Then, third MBR.
>
> Put in other words: if you have much more cargo capacity than the enemy,
> the robbed cargo will accumulate in your low-Id ships; if your enemy has
> much more cargo than you have room, you will rob his low-Id ships, his
> high-Id ships will keep their stuff.
>
> > How is this affected by the MBR friendly codes, if at all?
>
> Not at all. Matching friendly codes do not help, and battle order has no
> effect either. However, you don't rob allied ships.
>
> > Do each of the MBRs automatically rob the lowest ID ship?
> > Will they each automatically rob every ship until full (fuel, money,
> > and cargo)?
>
> Yes, yes.
>
> Interestingly, they seem to steal stuff in different order in PHost and
> Host (PHost: NTDMS$, THost: NMTDSC$).
>
> > Would it be different if the MBRs were ship IDs 1,2,3 and the SSDs
> > 7,8,9, vs, MBRs 2,4,6 and SSDs 1,3,5?
>
> No.
>
> > If there's a web page somewhere that really answers these questions,
> > feel free to point me at them, but so far all I can find are things
> > saying, "Make a wolfpack!", not "Set your friendly codes like this,
> > and you can only rob the lowest ID ship" etc.
>
> That's because there are no such rules.
>
> Stefan