I understand that you cannot force a large based ship to barrel roll or boost due to game issues (too strong effect). But I don't understand why they have no (other) punishment next to the agility decrease like small based ships.

A ship having a large base was to date not considered as advantage when affected by game effects, therefore also not considered in point costs (at least tractor beam semi-resistency was not considered)

Therefore I think it would be a good idea to punish large ships with other methods when being hit by tractor beam.

Maybe things like "you cannot boost or barrel roll next round" or "you cannot block enemy ship actions next round" would bring a bit of balance.

Why large ships now profit from being large when not considered before?

I am sure large ships stop people from taking tractor cannons (Defender title D and on others).

I've thought that having a Huge Ship upgrade (for Epic) that boosts (1-straight template) or BR's Large ships (single template width) AND doubles the usual effects on Small Ships (-2 Agi, 2-straight template) could be a good option to be released with the Scum Epic when (if) if comes...

...but I don't think any changes are required for the standard game.

Large ships usually have only 1 or 2 Agi, so losing one dice is a greater proportion (or all!) of their green-pool. Being reduced to 0 Api also has a flow on effect on not activating certain upgrades, so they do often get a secondary effect anyway.

Maybe they could do it like ion tokens, where they stay on until 2 have occurred, and then you can boost/br them.

I like SirCormac's idea. Maybe not be able to boost/BR them after 2 but maybe after 2-3 tokens they have to reduce the speed of their next maneuver by 1 to a minimum of 0, then they remove the tokens.

Probably too easy to land big bases on obstacles or put them in position to fly off the board.

I've said it before, but a Heavy Tractor Beam would be nice. Standard Tractor Beam shenanigans but it also deals damage as the ship's hull is crushed from the "pull".

This would be just as useful against large based ships as it is against small, no?

Heavy Tractor Beam (Cannon)

Attack: 3

Range 1-2

If this attack hits, the defender suffers one damage and is assigned a Tractor Beam token. Then cancel all dice results.

3 points

Thoughts?

Auto damage tbeam v large bases (rather than displacement,) would be nice

Really stick it to those fat pwts and make it not worthless v vt49s and vcx100s

Yeah, I like the idea of tractor beam cannons and kinda like the way they work in the game now but here's my shot at making a better tractor beam against large ships: (a "this card should read" fix keeping the -1 Agility effect)

1. You cannot perform TB attacks if the target is obstructed.

2. Large based ships are treated as "out of arc" of the TB attacker until the token is gone.

3. When a small based ship gets a token, the attacker chooses to either treat it "out-of-arc" of itself or the Barrel Roll effect.

2 points

I believe that the thematic us of tractor beams is in slowing down an opposing ship (-1 AGI), shaking them around (Boost/Barrel Roll effect), but also in dampening their power systems, which I believe is the crucial part missing. Its difficult to say "decrease maneuver speed by 1" because that gives a lot of ships an advantage, like Soontir Fel's green 2 turns.

Here's a fix:

Inertial Dampener Amplifier (Modification) (2)

After assigning a tractor beam token to an enemy ship, you may remove 1 focus, evade or blue target lock token from that ship.

Against small base ships its not so powerful, because how many of them can both be hit by a tractor beam and have more than 1 token in the first place? However, against the large-base monsters (Dengar, Dash, etc) removing a focus token after decreasing their already low agility can be a knockout, especially on the prominent Dengaroo list.

Decent builds would be:

Tansarii Point Veteran (21) - A nice sniper with crack shot to make it happen, could be used as a 'spotter' for 3 BSAs with Crack Shot and Black Market Slicer Tools.

Heavy Scyk

Inertial Dampener Amplifier

Tractor Beam

Crack Shot

or:

Glaive Squadron Pilot (40) - Gives you a great token-stripping jouster. Could be used with a 4x Black Squadron Pilots + Crack shot for some fun shenanigans.

Predator

Inertial Dampener Amplifier

Tractor Beam

TIE/D

Just FAQ it:

"If a large ship has at least 1 tractor beam token, it does not add its range bonus when attacking or defending."

Now it affects large ships, where you can fly right up to them, tractor beam them, and you get a range bonus and they do not.

Just FAQ it:

"If a large ship has at least 1 tractor beam token, it does not add its range bonus when attacking or defending."

Now it affects large ships, where you can fly right up to them, tractor beam them, and you get a range bonus and they do not. Since you cannot pull them into range 2 from range 3, or into range 1 from range 2, it makes sense to me.

It sure would be nice if Tractor Beams and Ion Cannons worked better against large base ships. Tractor Beam is held back so much because there are so many large base ships out there. It most definitely needs an additional effect against large base ships.

Because attacks that don't do damage are silly...

- Tractor Beam could do 1 damage to large base ships when it hits

- Ion Cannon could do 2 damage to large base ships when it hits

The idea that tractor beam could negate range effect bonuses for a large base ship is a decent idea too.

The tractor beam as it is already defies Newtons laws. Lets not make things any worst by having small ships pull large ships towards them or any other shenanigans as a mater of fact.

Tractor beam canon should have been a huge ship only upgrade to begin with.

I understand that you cannot force a large based ship to barrel roll or boost due to game issues (too strong effect). But I don't understand why they have no (other) punishment next to the agility decrease like small based ships.

A ship having a large base was to date not considered as advantage when affected by game effects, therefore also not considered in point costs (at least tractor beam semi-resistency was not considered)

Therefore I think it would be a good idea to punish large ships with other methods when being hit by tractor beam.

Maybe things like "you cannot boost or barrel roll next round" or "you cannot block enemy ship actions next round" would bring a bit of balance.

Why large ships now profit from being large when not considered before?

I am sure large ships stop people from taking tractor cannons (Defender title D and on others).

-1 agility isn't enough?? It simply kills any large ship with agility.

Aggressor at 2

Millenium at 0 (no C3PO)

Dengar at 1..

I could see a Tractor Beam hardpoint upgrade for Huge ships that barrel roll Large ships, and maybe force a 2 straight barrel roll for Small ships.

That also a good reason to delay releasing a Scum Epic expansion. Once each faction has 2, there's little need for more, but that means Epic would fail to keep pace with the rest of the game. That's probably when we'll see a spacestaion or orbital defense satilite.

The tractor beam as it is already defies Newtons laws. Lets not make things any worst by having small ships pull large ships towards them or any other shenanigans as a mater of fact.

Tractor beam canon should have been a huge ship only upgrade to begin with.

Using physics as an excuse in Star Wars is... an interesting choice.

Reminder: Pew Pew Lasers and Space Wizards.

So since the smaller object is unlikely to be able to move the larger object, i suggest that if a small ship "attaches" itself to a large ship, instead of the current effect, it increases its own agility by 1 and can perform a free barrel roll or boost! XD

That's like a planetary slingshot maneuvre employed by NASA in order to accelerate their ships then...

Aren't there only 2 ships currently that suffer no effects; Ghost and Decimator (unless you're using Kenkirk?). I think reducing agility of self wry other ship is fine. Adding auto damage and or movement of big ships is too much.

So since the smaller object is unlikely to be able to move the larger object, i suggest that if a small ship "attaches" itself to a large ship, instead of the current effect, it increases its own agility by 1 and can perform a free barrel roll or boost! XD

That's like a planetary slingshot maneuvre employed by NASA in order to accelerate their ships then...

I find the idea interesting that if you tractor beam a large ship, instead of him, if you are a small base ship YOU can make a free barrel roll or boost

Personally I think -1 agility is good on its own it ensures cards like creepio never again warp the meta.

I have no issue with the -1 Agility it's good and tbh.

My issue with Tractor Beams are they are a bit weird when it comes to list building sometimes. The actual shot does no Damage. So for it to do anything against Large ships, you need the carrier to be at a higher PS than the rest of your list and you also have to be able to get multiple ships pointing at the same target.

But hell it's a 1pt Cannon, if you have the slot, it's fine to take a risk on it never being useful.

How about:

at the end of turn, instead of removing tractor beam tokens from large ships, place them instead on the ship's pilot card.

If a ship had no tractor beam tokens placed on it's pilot card in this way, then remove all the tractor beam tokens.

While on the pilot card, the tokens no longer reduce agility, but can be spent by the attacker for other effect.

Then I'm thinking the attacker can spend these tokens in a few ways to reduce the options of the ship during the activation phase.

Speculative examples;

spend 1 token to cancel a boost or barrel roll action. (the action still counts as being performed, but the ship may not move).

Spend 2 tokens to prevent the 180 degree rotation at the end of a k-turn, sloop, or talon roll.

Spend 3 tokens immediately before a dial is revealed to force a 0 stop maneuver (difficulty of the maneuver is the same as the maneuver on the dial).

Personally I quite like the idea of the mechanic, but I'm not 100% sure on the effects. May be they're a bit much, but the effects (and their costs) can be tweaked to suit the mechanic fairly easily.

How about if you're tractor beamed you can't shoot outside your arc (cos the tractor beams locks your turrets)?

The tractor beam as it is already defies Newtons laws. Lets not make things any worst by having small ships pull large ships towards them or any other shenanigans as a mater of fact.

Tractor beam canon should have been a huge ship only upgrade to begin with.

Nah, it's fine. I talked with Mr Newton and he was okay with the Tractor Beam after I explained to him how

- starfighters maneuver in vaccum as if they were in atmoshpere.

- starships maneuver in vaccum as if they were floating in water.

- sound transmits thru vaccum.

- ships jump from one point in the galaxy to another in matter of seconds.

- light swords have a finite blade.

- the Force works.

- lasers behave nothing at all like lasers.

- the Starkiller base can fire red stuff at planets, and the whole galaxy can see it at realtime.

- the Starkiller base can swallow a star hundreds of time bigger than itself, then explode leaving behind a star as small as itself.

"That tractor beam sounds fine, then", he said. And he kept on spinning in his grave. When I left, Mr Tesla had attached a few magnets and a coil on him, and was lighting up the whole neighborhood with Mr Newton's spinning.

This would be just as useful against large based ships as it is against small, no?

Heavy Tractor Beam (Cannon)