Tractor beam in a turret?

[jmatt]

Trying to drag a mine and roid. The TB will only fit in my rear turret. But since I can't assign a turret to a laser bank, how do I fire the beam?

I watched Cdr Dave's tutorial video, he mentioned something about being able to switch the player "seat" to the turret but didn't figure out how to do it himself.

I don't own an M6 or M7 yet, which is compatible with a TB in a laser slot, so I'm trying to do it the hard way.

[Zaitsev]

You can cycle through the turret cockpits by pressing F1. When you're in the right turret, just aim and pull the trigger and then use F1 to get back to the cockpit.

A protip: take it easy on the throttle, or you risk that the beam will disconnect due to stress. You have to break slowly too, or you risk getting rear ended by whatever you're towing. Also, you can't fly faster than 80 m/s while towing stuff or the beam will disconnect.

[garv222]

I actually can't remember ever having the tractor beam disengage. I've flown at top speed in my HV, both at 169 and 230 m/s and as soon as the tractor beam hits, my top speed would drop down to 80 m/s.

Definitely do watch out for dragging stations though. Leave room for the station to de-accelerate. One tiny nick is almost guaranteed to turn into a huge mess. The most important thing to ever do before you start tractoring stations around is.....*drum roll*....... SAVE ! You don't want to load to re-do your complex only to realize your last save was last night.

One other thing to keep in mind is that the tractor beam can be used to push as well as pull. I can only guess that the tractor beam tries to keep the distance between your ship and the tractored object at a certain distance and if your ship is moving toward the object, it gets pushed. Do be careful as it might be possible to ram yourself into your station and that would be be embarrassing with all the space flies watching.

[David Howland]

I remember my first experimenting with tractor beams. The first ship was my dragon player ship, after towing a few things around I thought it was good for most things but a bit lightweight for mines which I knew was my main use.
So I tried towing in my Elephant which meant turret towing but I could not get the hang of it at all!
I then tried M7s and felt these ideal for mine towing, I have a couple off shrike kitted out with a pair of tractors in the mainbank. I just switch to group 4, tractor the mine, turn around carefully, then I am away.
With mines I start and finish very slowly but mid tow get up to full speed.
With the Shrike I find the loss of the main lasers are hardly missed, as I carry a range of missiles and a hangar of heavy fighters to deal with interfering pirates. I find long tows is one of my usual SETA uses.
Happy Towing, have fun!

[perkint]

Yeah, you shouldn't be able to go fast enough to break the TB any more - one of the many issues with towing that was patched out a while back. I did pick up on something from the OP tho - you say it only fits in a turret & you don't have an M6...

From memory, don't a lot of TSs claim to be able to use the TB - since it is the same weapon class as the mining laser which they can use (and the repair laser, which you can't really get in vanilla, beyond the one in your suit)? Claim to be able to use it, you can install it, but then they don't have the laser power to fire it anyway

Tim

[AgamemnonArgon]

I regularly use the Skiron, rear turret tractor beam and right mouse to detach and attach beam.

[perkint]

@AgamemnonArgon - not sure what you're posting in response to

If in response to me, I was questioning whether it works in a TS, not an M6...

Tim

[Infekted]

Lots of TS ships can mount it, but they need at least 1k (iirc) laser energy to be able to fire it.

There are some out there.

I prefer using the fastest M6 I can lay my hands on. With turbo booster. Yes you can only go 80m/s whilst towing, but getting between tow sites contributes to overall time by a lot.

[StarSword]

I actually can't remember ever having the tractor beam disengage.

I can, but it took some doing. I was towing a damaged Centaur behind my Panther because it was moving slow, and failed to realize the engines on the Centaur were still running. (The M6 was being dragged sideways by Voyager, but its engines were still thrusting at 37 m/s.)

At one point, I disengaged the beam accidentally by ejecting from my captain's chair (don't remember why; might've taken a mass driver hit earlier and didn't notice). Centaur goes bonkers for a few seconds, gets its bearings, then heads for the gate. I get back aboard Voyager, re-tractor the Centaur, and start for the gate. The tractor beam flips the Centaur 180 degrees and it starts flying away from me. The beam runs through the rainbow and snaps.

But as far as getting the beam to snap dragging a station? Never happened to me. It might be due to the fact that Voyager is my usual tugboat, and doesn't accelerate as fast as, say, a Springblossom.

Lots of TS ships can mount it, but they need at least 1k (iirc) laser energy to be able to fire it.

There are some out there.

Actually, there's only one. The Caiman Miner. And it can only fire it for about a second.

Any M6 or M7 is a better (and usually faster) choice.

[jmatt]

Ah, F1 to switch seats. I'll give it a go.

Hmm, now that I think about it a week ago I was in a dogfight and switched to laser bank one. Suddenly my view changed and it seemed like I was going in reverse; I was very confused. Then I realized I must have hit F1 by accident and screwed up my view. So, that's what that was all about...

Thanks all!

[Capt_Newbie]

I actually can't remember ever having the tractor beam disengage.

I can, but it took some doing. I was towing a damaged Centaur behind my Panther because it was moving slow, and failed to realize the engines on the Centaur were still running. (The M6 was being dragged sideways by Voyager, but its engines were still thrusting at 37 m/s.)

I did that once, while towing a newly capped TS out of harms way, because it wasn't moving quickly enough itself. I then stopped to repair its hull and, as I ejected, was quite surprised to see it flying away.

The thing that really surprised me though, was when I left my TB installed accidentally when switching back (or so I thought) to all ten EMPCs in my Vidar. When I got in close to a pirate and pressed 'Fire', my tractor beam engaged, and I was dragging my target around, in as close a display of Newtonian physics as I guess you will get in X. I'm not sure how much practical use that was, though it would certainly slow a fast M5 down, I dare say.

I wonder if it works on missiles...

[perkint]

You can't tractor an NPC ship...



Tim

[Capt_Newbie]

I'm failry sure I did, though I haven't tried it with a ship that wasn't red. I'll have another go when I get a chance...

[David Howland]

Ho, ho, ho, now I remember the strangest thing I ever beamed!
When I was first playing with TB in my Dragon I saw a UFO. I jumped to the gate it was heading for and set up the TB. I held the UFO for nearly two minutes, had a chance to do a scan and move a little with it. It was a very interesting experience, at the time I did think if I could slow it for long enough I could maybe cap one, but never tried this.

[Capt_Newbie]

It does raise interesting EVA boarding possibilities, especially if a fairly weak turret gun is used to keep the target's shields down...

[Threesixtyci]

If you were trying to use a TS to tow, then that's was your problem. Most TS's in the game don't have enough weapon energy to keep the beam firing, so the lock breaks after a few seconds.

[pjknibbs]

If you were trying to use a TS to tow, then that's was your problem. Most TS's in the game don't have enough weapon energy to keep the beam firing, so the lock breaks after a few seconds.

Willing to be proven wrong, but I'm pretty sure that's not correct--the Tractor Beam doesn't require any weapons energy to maintain once it's locked on, so if the TS can fire it *at all* (most can't) they can maintain it for ever and a day if necessary.

[Virtualaughing]

I don't understand why the tractor bean can be mounted in weapon slots at the first place.....

Best way to use it to lock that turret view in the secondary window on the right.