The Trouble With TB's

V^^^^V · Post by **V^^^^V** » Mon, 11. Apr 11, 01:18

I have a silicon mine that needs a slight repositioning because it's docking path is to close to other asteroids. AI ships have a very hard time landing.

After going halfway across my known universe, spending hours and loosing one of my favorite ships(poor Peaches, Nooo!) trying to get the Parinids to let me dock, I finally got the coveted TB.

I installed the TB on one of my Mercuries backed up to my mine targeted it and poof nothing.

I read this;

http://forum.egosoft.com/viewtopic.php?t=133122
and as far as I can tell, I have done everything right.

Once I even crashed into the mine and made a pretty fire ball..OOPS,

When the TB targets the mine, does it matter what part of the asteroid I try to lock onto or does it have to be the actual mine/structure itself?

I'm not playing wit any MODS at this time and probablly wont until I get tired of the standard game. Thanks for any help

perkint · Post by **perkint** » Mon, 11. Apr 11, 01:34

Despite the fact that the mercury can fit the TB, it can't actually fire it! You need (I think) 1000 units of laser energy to be able to fire it and only about 1 TS can. You'd do better with a bigger ship...

Tim

V^^^^V · Post by **V^^^^V** » Mon, 11. Apr 11, 03:45

Holy Jaws Batman! Thanks. I have bigger ships so I'll try one of them. Thanks!

Gold Dragon · Post by **Gold Dragon** » Mon, 11. Apr 11, 04:06

Pretty much any M6 can fire the TB. Miner TSs should be able to fire it as well.

Tractor Beam, Repair Laser, and Mobile Drilling System share the same slot, which is why some get fooled into thinking the Mercury can fire it.

Progress-M · Post by **Progress-M** » Mon, 11. Apr 11, 04:54

In my first game I had the tractor beam fitted in the only big enough ship I had available - a Boron Thresher. Please don't do the same.

Snafu_X3 · Post by **Snafu_X3** » Mon, 11. Apr 11, 06:22

Progress-M wrote:In my first game I had the tractor beam fitted in the only big enough ship I had available - a Boron Thresher. Please don't do the same.

<g> Lemme guess - death by station?

V^^^^V · Post by **V^^^^V** » Mon, 11. Apr 11, 06:40

What is the cheapest ship I can buy to do this? I tried the Magnetar
and failed again. It was cool docking my fighters with it but why would I ever want to? NM that's OT.

I'm going to try the Caimen Miner. My mine is in the Ore Belt and the Split aren't too far from there.

Progress-M · Post by **Progress-M** » Mon, 11. Apr 11, 06:44

Well, death by station/asteroid/random item Y who you could swear was about 7 km's away on your starboard side...

Thresher turns nicely enough that you forget that it's actually 8 times wider than any Terran station...I heard someone once measured Thresher's wingspan and came up with something like .2 parsecs...

V^^^^V · Post by **V^^^^V** » Mon, 11. Apr 11, 09:24

Victory is mine!(silicon)

I got it moved and then I couldn't release it. I even tried going full speed. To stop the tractor beam, I had to uninstall it.

_Zap_ · Post by **_Zap_** » Mon, 11. Apr 11, 09:58

usually you just have to fire into empty space with it again.

V^^^^V · Post by **V^^^^V** » Mon, 11. Apr 11, 10:12

http://i187.photobucket.com/albums/x300 ... 0026-1.jpg

{Oversize image replaced by link. Please review the forum rules on image posting before doing so again. - Nanook}

weeeee!

Thanks for the help. I am loving this game even more than it's predecessors. I have about 8 UTs scattered around and the S mine in the Ore Belt. As i was trying to get this done, I made it up to 5mill Cr. Things are looking good now.

zazie · Post by **zazie** » Mon, 11. Apr 11, 11:12

Progress-M wrote:...I heard someone once measured Thresher's wingspan and came up with something like .2 parsecs...

SIMON POPPLEWELL · Post by **SIMON POPPLEWELL** » Mon, 11. Apr 11, 11:47

Progress-M wrote:Well, death by station/asteroid/random item Y who you could swear was about 7 km's away on your starboard side...

Thresher turns nicely enough that you forget that it's actually 8 times wider than any Terran station...I heard someone once measured Thresher's wingspan and came up with something like .2 parsecs...

You also have to be careful you don't get impaled on the tail spike.

StarSword · Post by **StarSword** » Mon, 11. Apr 11, 21:26

SIMON POPPLEWELL wrote:You also have to be careful you don't get impaled on the tail spike.

Yet another reason why the Panther is a better ship -- it's not wide, and most of its length is ahead of the bridge.

That's what I use whenever I need to reposition something (usually a mine). I have the front turret set so that bay 1 is part of groups 1 and 2. Whenever I need to move something, I maneuver from the bridge to point Voyager's bow at the mine's dock. Then I hop into the front turret, switch to group 2, and swap the ISR in group 1 for a tractor beam. I then use the joystick throttle to move into TB range, tractor the station at the dock*, hop back to the bridge, and start hauling. Whenever I get to where I'm going, I drop the CCK from my TL, and wing my way clear of the station.

* You guys didn't answer the OP's other question: the effect of tractoring specific points on the station. The answer is simple: The point you tractor is the point that will be furthest forward with respect to your ship, once you start moving. (In other words, the TB will lock onto that point, and since it wants to be as short as possible, that point will rotate until it is facing your ship.) That's why I move mines by targeting the docking spike: it points the dock (and the complex tube connection points, more importantly) towards the rest of the complex.

V^^^^V · Post by **V^^^^V** » Mon, 11. Apr 11, 23:46

I now have a Solar Plant hooked up to my mine. Everything seems to be working ok. Auto docking for the AI ships is no longer a problem. I am thinking of hooking a Chrystal Fab to them next.

The only problem I had was the Mammoth dropped my solar plant in the middle of an asteroid field. It took me a while to tow it out of there and get it close enough to the mine to connect.

Before I get too carried away, I guess I should read up on complex building.

The only thing this game is missing that I'd really like to have is ship designing, from the keel up.

Progress-M · Post by **Progress-M** » Tue, 12. Apr 11, 02:02

In all seriousness, the Vidar is a pretty awesome tractor ship, it's small and agile and does the job well.