Tractor Beam Prototype 2 - Bigger, Stronger, and Pushier!

Walt

Thanks to everyone who gave feedback on my first Tractor Beam Prototype! I've made some changes based on that feedback and my own instincts, and I'd really appreciate getting your feedback on those changes:

The tractor beam itself is a lot larger: 5x6 (was 4x4)
The strength and power usage has been increased by about 75%.
It has a limited arc of 150 degrees (was 360).
It costs $40K (was $25K).
It now has a push mode! The push mode gets stronger the closer the other ship is. (Like a spring.)
Updated beam VFX to be cooler.

Download Tractor Beam Prototype 2

Some additional notes about this prototype:

ALL of the art is TEMPORARY. It is just "programmer art" that I'm using to test the code and mechanics, and it will be updated to look way better before the release candidate.
The size, cost, and general balance of the tractor beam are also highly preliminary. I welcome your feedback on all of this.
Tractor beams are targeted a bit differently than normal weapons. By default, it's set to hold fire (though you can change it to "at will" just like any other weapon). It will also ignore any ship-wide targeting commands (though you can still select the tractor beam and give it an individual target). Instead, if your ship has a tractor beam, you will have a couple extra buttons on your HUD that will allow you to target the tractor beam(s) on an enemy ship or cancel its target. By default the tractor beam targets the center of the targeted ship, but if you hold Ctrl you can target a specific part.
In pull mode, the tractor beam has a 200 range but, once firing, can stretch up to 400 range. As the range increases, its pull strength and power consumption increases, making it act kind of like a rubber band.
In push mode, it has a range of 200 and cannot stretch. As the range decreases, it push strength and power consumption increases, making it act kind of like a spring.
Shields block the tractor beam, but will have their power drained by the tractor beam. (The amount drained depends with range.) I am unsure if this is a good idea, or whether it would be better to have them ignore shields. (Tractor beams have a very high power cost per point of shield drain, which I think will make them ineffective anti-shield weapons, except that they have so much power capacity that at long range their burst anti-shield damage is actually quite high. Unsure if this is bad or actually kind of interesting.)
It's the first roof-mounted "weapon", huzzah! The 0.14.8 update will come with full modding support for roof-mounted bullet and beam weapons.

Let me know what you think!

jbox1

Walt It's the first roof-mounted "weapon", huzzah! The 0.14.8 update will come with full modding support for roof-mounted bullet and beam weapons.

Does this mean we no longer have to use workarounds with weird same ship ignoring mechanics with bullets?

Also, you're late to the party, roof weapon meta was last year XD

Ultranova

Walt

'Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger' intensifies

Nordwolf

Walt I have only and only but quite a big issue with making it have a 150 degree arc - It's much less viable for diagonal ships. Maybe as a countermeasure (if one is even needed), it should lose power for each friendly block that it passes through?

Also I kind of like them being pull only, but it's more of a personal opinion on their balance.

Walt

jbox1 Does this mean we no longer have to use workarounds with weird same ship ignoring mechanics with bullets?

That's not a workaround, that's just how it works. Now it works for beams too.

Cosmopyr

Seems a little ridiculous for the beam to need three reactors. I also think that shields shouldn't be able to block beams because then ramming ships can just avoid being pushed off by having a couple shields.

BeamBoys1998

Walt

Cosmopyr I also think that shields shouldn't be able to block beams because then ramming ships can just avoid being pushed off by having a couple shields

Yeah, I'm leaning towards not having shields block tractor beams. They are a very hard and not very interesting counter.

Nordwolf I have only and only but quite a big issue with making it have a 150 degree arc - It's much less viable for diagonal ships.

Hmm, I'll think about it. I worry that without an arc, tractor beams will be too hard to counter with fleets. Maybe a low turret speed would help?

Nordwolf Also I kind of like them being pull only, but it's more of a personal opinion on their balance.

Can you elaborate on why?

Lafiel

Maybe shields should have a counter parameter similar to penetration but verses tractor beams. It would make more sense and modders would be able to use / create different weaknesses.

thebuilder

Walt I must admit, the joke is quite funny, but eh, WHY GREEN?

dieaready

Walt Yeah, I'm leaning towards not having shields block tractor beams. They are a very hard and not very interesting counter.

Like I suggested, the beams should penetrate shields but be weakened by it.

Also I'm surprised no one has yet stated the most effective tactic with tractor beams: spinning the enemy ship around so you can avoid the heavily armoured/armed front.

Nordwolf

Walt Can you elaborate on why?

For the reasons Dallas already stated
I don't want it to devolve into a tug of war between ships that pull and ships that push
2.1 Therefore defense and offense should be different from each other
2.2 If a ship wants to protect itself from clinging, it would need heavy investment into beams, but it wouldn't be able to reasonably compete with cling ships, because they would have those as their main focus.
2.3 If the balance is in favor of pushing, ship shape becomes less important for combat.
Thematically.... how does pushing even work? The part should only really be able to do one thing, and pulling has the most sense to me, in sci-fi tractor beams always bring in stuff from outside in.
You can already push people with your weapons somewhat.
The tractor beam mainly works as an escape prevention mechanic, as it has much lower pull effectiveness on lower distances, so there should be no need for protection from tractor beam clinging.

If you want a pushing mechanic, how about a very short range external fixed direction weapon similar to an ion beam, that has great power in it's range (fading into its length) and maybe a very slight arc? It should not be more expensive to operate or to buy as an ion beam, maybe even slightly cheaper. Alternatively, it can work like energy shield (doesn't have to be external), but it's strongest force would be right in front of it.
Something like this, I'd say about half of that arc:
https://clipground.com/images/electromagnetic-waves-clipart-14.jpg

barsnik96

SpaceCat This can be based on the mass difference of the ships. So, light ship can't pull/push heavy, or it should take more energy.
Also, counter tactics for this weapon can be based on a mass generator part. It would be nice to add.
So, if you use mass generator, enemy ship cannot push/pull you if your mass more. But the turning speed of your ship is greatly reduced. It's balance.

Walt I was thinking about improving physics.
Why ships do not damage each other by ramming? Also with the update the crew would be nice to add a boarding attacks.

Lafiel

dieaready Has been said every single time tractor beams came up so nobody bothered this time before your post. 😆

mleise

The current scientific progress with tractor beams (taken from Wikipedia):
2011: https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-15535115
2013: https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-tayside-central-21187598
2018: https://www.osapublishing.org/DirectPDFAccess/B1DDF11F-B19D-415F-4ABCAF26DBEC8C27_386023/optica-5-5-551.pdf?da=1&id=386023&seq=0&mobile=no

SpaceCat

Found no time to test this but curious: If 2 ships use the tractor beam, one in push mode one in pull, is the outcome zero effect or is there still some interaction like they are linked with a fixed rigid beam?