"(in science fiction) a hypothetical beam of energy that can be used to move objects such as space ships or hold them stationary."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tractor_beam
Should be able to assign a zero manuever next turn, or rear 1 straight / banks maneuvers if the ship is in your arc. I'm just saying.
Edited by CloakerWith the ruling a ship cannot be pulled off the play area, of course.
You can do stationary moves with a tractor beam. Don't fire it. The target will stay exactly where it is.
Edited by Firespray-321 minute ago, Firespray-32 said:You can do stationary moves with a tractor beam. It's called missing.
It doesn't assign a zero manuever next turn. That's actually what I meant to say. Will adjust OP
That'd make it very similar to an ion token.
I'd be very surprised if moving the ship in any direction wasn't tested - it's a much more obvious implementation. For whatever reason they decided only forwards or sideways was the best way to do it from a game design perspective.
You're clearly not going head to head with it often enough. A boost is exactly right.
Yes and where do you see this type of weapon applied accurately? Capital ships.
But if you ever played Tie fighter, you would know the small based tractor beams (on fighters such as the tie defender) don’t have the power to completely stop a ship, but merely Lock it down so it can’t do any fancy maneuveres(the -1 defense die) and keep the ship in your firing arc (the boost or barrel roll).
they actually did tractor beam very well.
Given that X-wing is a game in which you get to pick your own dials, I feel they used Tractor Beam pretty well - other options would have left it little different to a Stress token on an Ion, and those two are already limiting enough.
A limited ability to throw enemy ships around and make it harder for them to dodge is probably the most elegant solution to the problem, given the design constraints they were looking at.
I would love to see a Huge ship tractor beam with a more potent effect.
Tractor Beam Array (Unique) (Hardpoint) 3 pts.
2 energy
3 attack dice, Range 2-5
Attack (energy): Spend 2 energy from this card to perform this attack against a small or large ship. If this attack hits, assign the 'Locked Down' condition card to the defender, then cancel ALL dice results.
Locked Down (unique)
Your agility becomes '0'. During the planning phase you cannot be assigned a maneuver dial. When you activate during the activation phase you execute a white <0 stop> maneuver. You may perform actions as normal. You cannot perform boost or barrel roll actions.
Action: Roll an evade die, on an <evade> result discard this condition.
The silly thing is that if you're putting a tractor beam token on someone who's flying away from you, you can push them away, but not pull them closer. Do folks think it would be fair if Tractor Beam could force a rear-guides backwards boost?
To that end, how awesome would it be if you could decloak with a backwards-boost? That'd probably be too strong...
19 hours ago, FlyingAnchors said:But if you ever played Tie fighter, you would know the small based tractor beams (on fighters such as the tie defender) don’t have the power to completely stop a ship, but merely Lock it down so it can’t do any fancy maneuveres(the -1 defense die) and keep the ship in your firing arc (the boost or barrel roll).
they actually did tractor beam very well.
Exactly this. The Tractor Beam in this game is meant to function like the Tractor Beam in Star Wars: TIE Fighter, as all things should.
Edited by DarthEnderX4 minutes ago, theBitterFig said:The silly thing is that if you're putting a tractor beam token on someone who's flying away from you, you can push them away, but not pull them closer. Do folks think it would be fair if Tractor Beam could force a rear-guides backwards boost?
To that end, how awesome would it be if you could decloak with a backwards-boost? That'd probably be too strong...
Pretty sure a B-roll can reposition a ship ‘behind’ it’s starting position, even if it’s half a base length and displaced to the right or left.
A boost or decloak to the rear would not be balanced. We already have blocking, which basically forces backward movement after a ship attempts to move forward, and denies actions. The ability to move your own ships backwards via friendly tractor tokens or decloak would be all kinds of crazy broken. Forcing a rear 1 boost on an enemy coukd also put a ship into position to hit a rock every turn or be ioned every turn or what have you.
Plus the Spacetug can go backwards.
6 minutes ago, Raltus said:Plus the Spacetug can go backwards.
I for one look forward to quad jumpers at tier 1 status.
10 minutes ago, FlyingAnchors said:I for one look forward to quad jumpers at tier 1 status.
I highly doubt they will be but it already exists the rear movement.
15 minutes ago, FlyingAnchors said:I for one look forward to quad jumpers at tier 1 status.
Tier 1? Pretty sure they are Tier Zero! That’s better, right?
5 minutes ago, Raltus said:
I highly doubt they will be but it already exists the rear movement.
Yes. Yes it does.
20 hours ago, FlyingAnchors said:Yes and where do you see this type of weapon applied accurately? Capital ships.
But if you ever played Tie fighter, you would know the small based tractor beams (on fighters such as the tie defender) don’t have the power to completely stop a ship, but merely Lock it down so it can’t do any fancy maneuveres(the -1 defense die) and keep the ship in your firing arc (the boost or barrel roll).
they actually did tractor beam very well.
referencing a game that got much of star wars space combat wrong 27 years ago as evidence is a bit dubious.
I loved X-wing and Tie Fighter, but there were some seriously weird design choices (gunboat lol) which only really made sense within the limitations of early 90s computing.
Tractor beam in X-wing miniatures should have affected maneuvering. so should Harpoons
I definitely think tractor beam should be able to push or pull ship backwards as well as forwards. And I think for large ships if a second tractor token is applied then they should be able to be moved too.
Decloaking backwards seems cool but doesn't make sense to me. I would prefer it to be a boost or barrel roll using a one OR two straight maneuver OR NO MANUVEUR AT ALL. Why can't ships cloak then Decloaki without moving. Considering they have to decloak before people move I think it would make clanking easier and better.
59 minutes ago, Vontoothskie said:referencing a game that got much of star wars space combat wrong 27 years ago as evidence is a bit dubious.
I loved X-wing and Tie Fighter, but there were some seriously weird design choices (gunboat lol) which only really made sense within the limitations of early 90s computing.
Tractor beam in X-wing miniatures should have affected maneuvering. so should Harpoons
Harpoons should have just assigned a tractor token to the ship. That's what we use harpoons for right? Controlling movement of the target.
On 2/18/2018 at 1:46 PM, Cloaker said:"(in science fiction) a hypothetical beam of energy that can be used to move objects such as space ships or hold them stationary."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tractor_beam
Should be able to assign a zero manuever next turn, or rear 1 straight / banks maneuvers if the ship is in your arc. I'm just saying.
The target ship has engines and a pilot, who actively tries to break free from the beam. The tractor beams in the game just not strong enough to hold a ship in place, or move them backwards, against its thrusters. The boost/barrel roll game mechanics represents that the force from the beam throws the ship off of its original trajectory.
5 hours ago, Ubul said:
The target ship has engines and a pilot, who actively tries to break free from the beam. The tractor beams in the game just not strong enough to hold a ship in place, or move them backwards, against its thrusters. The boost/barrel roll game mechanics represents that the force from the beam throws the ship off of its original trajectory.
Yeah, I guess that's the premise.
8 hours ago, HolySorcerer said:Harpoons should have just assigned a tractor token to the ship. That's what we use harpoons for right? Controlling movement of the target.
Variable. The origin of the word more has to do with the barbs than the cable or rope, and very old harpoons are just barbed fishing spears. And the real Harpoon missile weapon is named that because it was thought to be used to kill "whales" (submarines) and doesn't use barbs at all.
So, they could have used it as a kind of tow cable effect, like what Legion has, but I think the idea is how to make "sticky" explosives without having to explain say, HESH rounds to Star Wars fans.
EDIT: Also, if you were to just shoot a regular harpoon out of a ship at somebody even with explosive propellant, that's called a "Harpoon Cannon". Which would be neat, but might be hard to distinguish from the regular Tractor beam. That and space magic beams make people ask less questions.
Edited by UnitOmegaThe thing about harpoon missiles and 'buzz droids' is that its just more efficient to have a missile explode when it hits its target. I get that its star wars and the whole point is the story and aesthetics, but still.
2 hours ago, UnitOmega said:Variable. The origin of the word more has to do with the barbs than the cable or rope, and very old harpoons are just barbed fishing spears. And the real Harpoon missile weapon is named that because it was thought to be used to kill "whales" (submarines) and doesn't use barbs at all.
So, they could have used it as a kind of tow cable effect, like what Legion has, but I think the idea is how to make "sticky" explosives without having to explain say, HESH rounds to Star Wars fans.
EDIT: Also, if you were to just shoot a regular harpoon out of a ship at somebody even with explosive propellant, that's called a "Harpoon Cannon". Which would be neat, but might be hard to distinguish from the regular Tractor beam. That and space magic beams make people ask less questions.
Then they should have had it do little damage on hit, and backloaded all the damage into the condition card. The weapon as is is a thematic and mechanical mess. It punches way above its weight class and doesn't make any sense because it explodes twice.
Pretty sure it only explodes once.
Or are you saying a projectile has to explode to do damage in the first place?