0.14.5 Tractor Beams Proposal

mleise

jbox1 It's what people above referred to as Newton's third law of motion.

jbox1

mleise m8, I know that. Why do you think I asked?

mleise

jbox1 Dunno. Since Walt already confirmed 3rd law behavior, I thought maybe it needed some clarification for anyone who 😴 through physics class.

Anyways I second the idea to keep the amount of micromanagement low with only pulling beams. I think there is a sweet spot where you can leave a ship unattended for a few seconds and it will not perform a lot worse than when targeting everything manually. I.e. right now the game automatically turns the side with the most potent weapons towards the enemy and targets weapons and reactors with priority over, say quarters. I could imagine this extended to tractor beams, so that when you attack and the enemy moves out of weapon range, the tractor beam would target its center of mass.

BattleCruiserCommander

There should be another option. The "Wave" button will do as follows.

It will first pull, but it will then push, and it will repeat this over and over. if you have a tiny ship, you could make your ship go 360*, turning the object controlled by the "Wave" Option, into a yoyo.

How this could work ingame.
Let's say you have a mod that has melee weapons, but the ship can't get close enough. You could have a ship with the tractor beam pull the ship with you. When an enemy approaches, you could activate the wave button at the right time, thus causing your melee ship to be launched at the enemy, causing massive amounts of damage.

Simplified
The button would be a risk-reward option. Do it right, and watch your foes (And maybe if you have slow-moving friends) fly off in a direction. For teams, this button could really work with heavy carriers, launching and pulling in fighters. For free-for-all, you could watch as your foes get turned into bowling balls, and get launched into the ring of death.

Lhama

Walt more guns like the railgun

Oneye

Lhama This is a thread for talking about tractor beams not more weapons. Please create your own thread if you want to suggest something. And also check the trello roadmap and comming soon to see if the thing you want is already planned.

GodoftheGrove

I wonder, because balance reasons, why shields would block tractor beams. Isn't that idea to drag someone into weapons range? Once you can disable shields, the usefulness of tractor beams would already be reduced.

I also wonder if a repulsar beam is a good idea, because of kiting.

Also, I still wonder why firing a tractor beam would drag yourself to the target. You're not shooting a rubber band.

Gyrfalcon5

GodoftheGrove
Newton's Third Law.

GodoftheGrove

Gyrfalcon5 Newton's Third Law.

But you tractor by sending out particles in a waveform that drift things toward you.

-or- the ships would go continually go up, because of the effect of the artificial gravity that holds the crew to the floor.

Catelyn

Maybe an idea if it would be 360 degrees, it would rotate slower if it is "locked on". This slower turning would persist for a few seconds after 'side strafing' out of the beam.

SpaceCat

Liking the concept of the original post so far.

Even though i would have seen it differently in the first place.
More like a forece field "triangle" then a narrow beam.

No "aiming" at all just a static area.
If you get into the field/area you are either pushed or pulled depending on the mode the tractor beam is operating. (Also no lateral force applied here.)

This idea is quite different so maybe these systems could be alternative Parts/Systems (or the tractor beam could also have a Forcfield option.)

Tractor Beam / Force Field.

@Walt

On to the original proposal i woud add/ask:

It feels like the Range of tractor beams should be rather short - as beeing pushed/pulled over huge distances would mostly be annoing i guess (?)
Also is it considered that the tractor beam pulls/pushes harder the closer you get (like a rubber band)?
Reading that tractor beams will: "exert an opposite force on your own ship" that means you also can use them as a kind of tractor-grappling-hook to pull yourself into position - is that right?

The only concern would be that pushing ships on one end and pulling them on the other could lead to awkward incomprehensible situations - so maybe push OR pull mode shoudl be systemwide-per-ship.

...already imagining two ships with tractor beams both pulling on either side of a bigger ship 😉*

This might be quite game changing - hope not too much - looking forward to it 🙂

Walt

SpaceCat More like a forece field "triangle" then a narrow beam.

This was my original concept for the tractor beam, but I think a thin beam will work better for the game mechanics as currently envisioned, specifically the ability to "stretch" it and the ability to block it with shields.

SpaceCat It feels like the Range of tractor beams should be rather short - as beeing pushed/pulled over huge distances would mostly be annoing i guess (?)

My current thinking is that the lock-on range will be short but you'll be able to stretch it to longer distances after initial lock-on depending on how well you can power it.

SpaceCat Also is it considered that the tractor beam pulls/pushes harder the closer you get (like a rubber band)?

It pulls harder the further you get, like a rubber band. IF there is a push mode, then it will push harder the closer you get, like a spring.

SpaceCat Reading that tractor beams will: "exert an opposite force on your own ship" that means you also can use them as a kind of tractor-grappling-hook to pull yourself into position - is that right?

Correct.

SpaceCat This might be quite game changing - hope not too much

Probably not as much as my idea for power conduits. 😃

(No, really, I have an idea for power conduits that I'm seriously considering. I may post about it later.)

SpaceCat

Walt This was my original concept for the tractor beam

many times the solution is BOTH!

Walt It pulls harder the further you get, like a rubber band. IF there is a push mode, then it will push harder the closer you get, like a spring.

Ok that might be good for gameplay or some ships would become super "sticky".
Allthought logically a tractor beam would always have more effect when it is near no matter if it pushes or pulls - like a magnet, unlike a rubberband.

Walt my idea for power conduits

Conduits! - that would be gamechanging indeed - no more carrying batteries unless the conduit is broken - phew!

(Where is this game going (?) )

excuse my confusion about rubberbands and magnets ... 0.o

Dalas120

Walt Probably not as much as my idea for power conduits. 😃

Now that sounds interesting, and full of balance pitfalls 🙂. Would it be the sort of thing that moves power from reactors to storages, but not directly into weapons?

SpaceCat

SpaceCat excuse my confusion about rubberbands and magnets ... 0.o

... but thinking of it a force-field that works like an electro-magnet that can change poles to push/pull would be nice ...

You could mount it at places where you simply do not want other ships to "clinge" or bump ... or stick poor small ships to your ship completely - the latter would probably be rather annoying ...

And what if two "magnets" with opposite polarity "meet" (?)

too many ideas 😉

Walt

Dalas120 Would it be the sort of thing that moves power from reactors to storages, but not directly into weapons?

I think I should start a new thread for this... may do that later today.