Tractor/Repulser Beam
 

Do you folks use those things? During ship design I have mostly just stared at them, can't really think of a practical use for the beams. Their range (4 I think) seems to be a tad short. Do you guys have good strategy/combo to use with them or are they mostly just neat on paper?

Re: Tractor/Repulser Beam
 

Massive mounted tractor beams + massive mounted ripper beams on a starbase defending a warp point. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/evil.gif Or perhaps on weapon platforms, but they don't have much range there...

Re: Tractor/Repulser Beam
 

I don't get to correct you often but you can't put tractor beams/repulsor beams on a platform (unless there is some mod I don't play).

I'm probably one of the few who like repulsor beams. I like them in a fleet where I suspect I might get outnumbered. On a big ship, though the range is small, I can push ships (lots of times) to the edge (or even out of range) of the battle and not be swarmed by ships. This gives me time to handle a smaller group of ships...kind of like a juggling act. Especially nice on baseships (pushing 20 away). Just remember the ships size matters when using them.

Re: Tractor/Repulser Beam
 

I know that tractor beams won't work if the target is bigger than the tractoring ship. Are you saying that the same is true for repulsors?

Slick.

Re: Tractor/Repulser Beam
 

Yeah, Slick, same thing. Source ship has to be equal to (I think) or larger to push/pull the target ship.

Re: Tractor/Repulser Beam
 

They go on battle stations or starbases, where their range enhanceing mounts provide an advantage. One tractor beam, a bunch of rippers or null space, then 1 replusor or 1 wormhole beam.

Drag a guy close, punch him in the gut a half dozen times, then fling him across the map.

Then wait as he slowly staggers back for more.

[EDIT]
Thanks Fyron

Re: Tractor/Repulser Beam
 

You can delete double Posts, you know. Click on Edit, then use the delete option towards the bottom.

Re: Tractor/Repulser Beam
 

The only time I ever used repulser beams was when I was playing against one of my friends, and I was pursuing a fighter-heavy strategy. He built a bunch of dedicated PDC ships and sent them after my fighters while his fleet hung back and waited to go after my defenceless carriers.
I ended up building a couple Repulser Ship and I sent those in just in front of my fighters. They knocked his PDC ships out of the way and my fighter squadrons raced through the gap and wasted his fleet. Sweetness. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/evil.gif

Re: Tractor/Repulser Beam
 

I built a defensive base using tractors, direct fire engine destroyers and repulsors in that order. I'd pull a ship close, destroy the engines, toss out into oblivion.

I couldn't kill them, but they weren't very useful to the enemy either. 'course, I lost the base when I ran into the AI using a pure missile strat. Engines or no engines, his little fleet could still volley my base with missiles -_-


I'd say the biggest use is either to reduce the amount of ships coming at you at once, as someone said, or use tractor/direct fire weapon of choice/repulsor. Pull close, fire, reject (... reminds me of a relationship I once... err...). You'd get the close range accuracy bonus, but if everything goes as planned, he wouldn't on his next shot.

Re: Tractor/Repulser Beam
 

As far as repulser beams go- I prefer to use Wormhole Beams. Mainly because most of the time the enemy gets tossed a hell of a lot farther that way, and I don't think Wormhole Beams rely on ship size.

Re: Tractor/Repulser Beam
 

The classic use, extremely effective in SE III but not so much so in SE IV, is to place them 'around' a short-range weapon like the Ripper beam. The order that weapons are placed in a ship determine the order that those weapons are fired (not considering range limits of course). So, this was a way to over-come the range limits of the Ripper beam or another short range but very powerful weapon like the Graviton Hellbore. Putting a tractor beam first results (hopefully) in the target being pulled into range, then they get mauled by the short-range but very powerful weapon(s), then putting repulsor beam Last results in the mauled target getting pushed back out to long range where their own weapons are less effective. This is only useful in 'turn based' combat of course. It will be a completely ineffective strategy in SE V.

Re: Tractor/Repulser Beam
 

As it should be. It is just exploiting the absurdities of turn based combat. There is no logical reason why this should work. Just because you are in a tractor beam doesn't mean you can't fire your weapons. Pretty much every sci fi universe with tractor beams has plenty of examples of the tractored ship still firing its weapons, especially at the tractor beam emmitters. Assuming it is a case where the tractored ship is still more or less functional, of course.

Re: Tractor/Repulser Beam
 

Functional, and hostile.

It would be really awesome if you could use repulsor beams on your own ships, to say, slingshot a ramming cruiser into the enemy lines at incredible speeds, or pull crippled ships to help them keep up with the fleet or get them out of the line of fire.
Perhaps even to just tow into weapons range your super-massive gun platform that was designed with just barely enough engine power to traverse warppoints.