Newbie Tractor/Repeller question

[SgtBigG]

I'm pretty new at SE IV. I have a quick question. I built a DN with a tractor, several rippers, and a repeller. When it fires it tractors the ship in and that's it. The other weapons don't fire. If it still has movement left I can move it away and then fire the rest of the weapons. Can anyone tell me what's up with this?
Thanks,
Mike

[TerranC]

Tactical combat relies on range; the tactical map is made from many squares, with one of them making the range of 1.

Tractor moves the ship to your ship.
it probably moved it right to your ship.

All weapons have range, but none of them can find point-blank. After you pull in the ship, you need to move at least 1 square away from the ship to fire your weapons in order for it to fire as it is not programmed to fire at range 0.

You can see the range of a weapon by looking at it's statistics. (Right Click)

Edit: damn spelling errors.

[ May 31, 2002, 01:21: Message edited by: TerranC ]

[Baron Munchausen]

Originally posted by SgtBigG:
I'm pretty new at SE IV. I have a quick question. I built a DN with a tractor, several rippers, and a repeller. When it fires it tractors the ship in and that's it. The other weapons don't fire. If it still has movement left I can move it away and then fire the rest of the weapons. Can anyone tell me what's up with this?
Thanks,
Mike

What's up is you have found a bug. It's not supposed to pull the ship right on top of you, but only to an adjacent square. What Version of SE IV are you using? If it's the latest Gold patch, 1.67, then report your finding to MM so they can fix it.

[Shadowstar]

I am wondering what exactly is so useful about tractor/repellers? I just dont see a great need in combat to move the enemy around much, at least not when I could have a weapon in that slot instead that actually does respectable damage. Hmm, maybe it could be useful for pushing ships into planets? Does that work?

[ June 01, 2002, 07:26: Message edited by: Shadowstar ]

[Phoenix-D]

It's wonderful when using things like Ripper Beams (good damage, 20kt, crap range). Yank the enemy into range, shoot him up, knock him back out of range

With long-ranged weapons, a Repluser can keep the enemy out of their effective range or disrupt his fleet, letting you concentrate fire on one or two ships while taking less return fire (since his ships are knocked back).

Wormhole beams are fun too. Completely random movement. he may move one space closer, he may end up in the opposite corner. Great for keeping pesky ships away from fighterless carriers.

Phoenix-D

[oleg]

Tractor beams might be usefull to boarding ships too, for all too obvious reason.