quote:
Originally posted by WhiteHojo:
Personally, I've never seen a valid use for the tractor beam or repulsor beam... if anyone else has used em let us know. To me, they'd just be wasted space.
I haven't been playing long but in my first game repulsor/tractor beams saved my butt.
The problem I was having was that the enemy ships would move right next to my space station and launch their missles, which would then explode against my station before my PD would get a chance to shoot them. Anytime they came in range I would shoot them with everything except repulsors and then repulse them.
Later I adapted the strategy to work with my ships. I would tractor them in, move one space and fire everything except repulsors then repulse them and move the rest of my movement away from them. They had to perpetually fire from longer ranges and I always got point blank shots. Works great when combined with high damage low range weapons. Missing the all-important repulsor shot almost never happens (point blank range). In strategic combat it's a little more difficult as the ai doesn't think of them as anything other than weapons, but it could still work if you are very careful how you design your ships: Tractor beam first, next ALL Other normal Weapons, and finally Repulsor beam. I haven't experimented much with the ai but I doubt that it will use it's own movement effectively in conjunction with repulsor/tractor weapons.
Tractor/repulsor weapons are great for dispersing the enemy fleet, for example you can repulse one ship behind you and the others in front thus isolating one ship at a time.
[This message has been edited by Felan (edited 13 March 2001).]