Tractor Beams

[Master_Xan]

Can anybody tell me what, exactly, do tractor beams do in Rebellion? I've always sort of assumed they make it easier for a ship to hit fighters... but I got to wondering today if that's actually true, or just my assumption-that's-totally-wrong. For instance, I thought maybe they make it harder for a fleeing ship to, you know, flee. As in, slows 'em down or something.

 

So, who's got the answer?

[DarthTofu]

Tractor beams allow larger ships to stop smaller ships from moving around so much. Thus, an ISD can grab a carrack and leave it helpless, so I think that your fleet will take longer to flee/ you will lose the carrack if you try to leave whilst under fire.

[Master_Xan]

Hmm... Tofu, what have you been doing, that an ISD would be up agains a Carrack? Alright, cool. Although I haven't noticed much effect if I take it out, so it must not be that powerful of a mechanic.

[DarthTex]

During the tactical battles, if you see any capital ships with the "glowing blue sphere" around them, that's the tractor beam on them. Like Tofu mentioned, it usually the larger capital ships "holding" the smaller capital ships steady so they can pound them. It doesn't completely stop them usually (depends on bigger vs smaller ships), unless more than one ship grabs them (but then how can you tell? A glowing blue sphere looks like the next glowing blue sphere). Have you never noticed the "glowing blue sphere" around capital ships during the tactical battles before?

[Master_Xan]

Heh, I have noticed that. Always thought it was the effect of ion cannons, which temporarily shorted out the ships engines. The things you think you know...

 

So how, exactly, do ion cannons differ from turbolasers and lasers then?

[DarthTex]

So how, exactly, do ion cannons differ from turbolasers and lasers then?

I believe the ion cannons take down shields faster than turbolasers/lasers. Lasers are darn neither worthless unless going against fighters or the smallest capital ships (I wonder how many corvettes it would take to knock out a SSD ). Ion cannons (after shields are out) help take out the target ship systems, but I don't think they do any "real" structural damage.

[Master_Xan]

Yeah, I already knew about lasers and turbo lasers. And I guess I did know ion cannons, just mistook the visual blue glow for them when it was tractor beams. Actually, I've noticed that repeated laser hits from, say, Corellian gunships, can make it easier to take out a capital ship. It makes it hard for the enemy shields to regenerate while your heavy hitters recharge their turbolasers in-between shots, even though the lasers would never take down the shields on their own.

 

And to answer your question, it takes 93 corvettes, though having a few more helps with the occasional problems inherit with such a large fleet action (like sometimes accidentally leaving a ship outside of it's combat range). That's assuming a good admiral for the corvettes, positioned away from the battle on an unarmed transport, no command staff for the SSD, and no fighter support for either side. If Rebellion's engine could re-target faster, it would probably take many, many more...

 

And if you believe that, then I'm a better liar than I thought!