Shipwright Archive
Thread: Stupidest question ever asked.
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jafo1
Sat Oct 08, 2005 7:06 pm
#1
Tractor beams. Do they extract Asteroid resourses? or just draw them closer to shoot them. I see the Rate of extraction is upped. however everytime ive used them. It dont seem to do Squat.
Thanks.
Thanks.
Ashtirael
Sat Oct 08, 2005 9:47 pm
#2
Tractor beams pull em into your hold after you use a mining laser to cut a piece away and then into a small enough chunk for the beam to pull it into your hold.
FilanVader
Sat Oct 08, 2005 9:54 pm
#3
now if only they could be used on enemy ships as well, pull that wascally intercepter into the perfect gun range..............
Olaff421
Sun Oct 09, 2005 3:30 am
#4
Actually the stupidest querstion ever is, 'How do I make the JSF? The schematic won't show up in my crafting tool."
Enagroom
Sun Oct 09, 2005 5:54 am
#5
I get tier 2-3 Rebel and Freelance pilots wanting me to craft JSFs for them all the time.
jafo1
Sun Oct 09, 2005 10:54 am
#6
Best emails i ever got were i had a Lamda Shuttle Rental in front of my Shop. guy wanted me to make him one. The next was Wanted me to craft him a Imperial Pilot Armor. Whne asked What does he mean he wanted me to make a ATST suit. DOHHHH!
How Small Do the Chunks have to be BTW?
How Small Do the Chunks have to be BTW?
ItemCreator
Sun Oct 09, 2005 11:58 am
#7
jafo1 wrote:
How Small Do the Chunks have to be BTW?
About this <-------------> small 
Its the ones that split from the chunk you've shot off the mother 'roid, trying to tractor in the big asteroid chunk doesn't work (I know, I've tried 
)
FilanVader
Sun Oct 09, 2005 4:35 pm
#8
hmm what is a lambda shuttle rental? is that in inside item or does it take a lot and sit outside?
jafo1
Sun Oct 09, 2005 6:08 pm
#9
FilanVader wrote:
hmm what is a lambda shuttle rental? is that in inside item or does it take a lot and sit outside?
Well its a static item placed in Outside. Just a landed shuttle. You get them from the Event Perk rentals in the hotels. Lasts 16 hours then Poof gone.
jafo1
Mon Oct 10, 2005 12:47 am
#10
ItemCreator wrote:
jafo1 wrote:
How Small Do the Chunks have to be BTW?
About this <-------------> small
Its the ones that split from the chunk you've shot off the mother 'roid, trying to tractor in the big asteroid chunk doesn't work (I know, I've tried
Well the little ones didnt work last time i tried. It just out a dent in my ship. Good thing Im a SW with Fixadent kits.
ItemCreator
Mon Oct 10, 2005 3:41 am
#11
jafo1 wrote: Well the little ones didnt work last time i tried. It just out a dent in my ship. Good thing Im a SW with Fixadent kits.
You were keeping the tractor beam on all the time you were pulling them near?
The only times I've been unable to tractor in chunks has been on Naboo Carb 'roid 1 (the chunks often go out of bounds and become immortal) and when my boyfriend was downloading files on his pc causing my connection to lag like crazy (I now make sure he isn't tying up the broadband before I go mining!)
Baikee
Tue Oct 18, 2005 8:58 am
#12
Not at all a stupid question... tractor beams are not, despite what you may have heard, obvious.
If you want to be effective with a tractor beam, you have to get good at using it on the small chunks (the only chunks it works on, btw) by getting a feel for how it grabs on to those chunks. If you have a chunk going directly away from you, you can hit it directly with the tractor and it will swing around and come right back to you. However, if it's going away from you at an angle, it simply will not come to you if you hit it square in the middle. You have to aim around it; that is, you have to aim so the beam passes very near it but doesn't touch it. Only then will it swing back to you... it seems counter intuitive, but the tractor beam requires some finesse to use because it's just not as "grabby" as you'd think it would be.
Here's what I do to get the small chunks into my hold the quickest. I use a Rihkxyrk (tier 4 freelance ship, 3 weapon hardpoints) equipped with 2 Mark 3 Mining Lasers and a crafted Tractor Beam. I bind both of the mining lasers to "1" and the tractor beam to "2". I can have my 1500 hold full in under 5 minutes this way:
-Get up close to the target asteroid, 300m or less.
-Blast it until a medium chunk flies off. Watch the radar for a white dot that appears suddenly near you.
-Target the medium chunk by pointing my ship at it and pressing "x".
-Press "F1" to follow the chunk, hold fire until I am matching speed on a trailing course. This will usually put me within a few of meters quickly.
-This is the key to my success: when I'm following the medium chunk and have matched speed, hold down "2" (tractor beam on), then press "1" to fire the lasers. The medium chunk will be blasted into small chunks, most if not all will be pulled in by the tractor beam in a millisecond.
99% of the time I can snag the small chunks instantaneously, then I whip around and have at the asteroid again. This method keeps me within about 750m of the asteroid at all times, which is also key to being able to mine quickly. The lest time you spend traveling back and forth the asteroid, the less time you will spend mining.
-Get up close to the target asteroid, 300m or less.
-Blast it until a medium chunk flies off. Watch the radar for a white dot that appears suddenly near you.
-Target the medium chunk by pointing my ship at it and pressing "x".
-Press "F1" to follow the chunk, hold fire until I am matching speed on a trailing course. This will usually put me within a few of meters quickly.
-This is the key to my success: when I'm following the medium chunk and have matched speed, hold down "2" (tractor beam on), then press "1" to fire the lasers. The medium chunk will be blasted into small chunks, most if not all will be pulled in by the tractor beam in a millisecond.
99% of the time I can snag the small chunks instantaneously, then I whip around and have at the asteroid again. This method keeps me within about 750m of the asteroid at all times, which is also key to being able to mine quickly. The lest time you spend traveling back and forth the asteroid, the less time you will spend mining.
I don't see many people using tractor beams, and I don't understand why. Many ships have multiple hardpoints, and a decent (even non-master) pilot should be able to defend themselves with a mining laser (at least a mark 2) from asteroid bandits if they get into trouble. If a lack of defensive weapons makes you nervous, mining lasers and TBs are light compared to other weapons, so use the extra mass to compensate with beefier shields and armor. Besides saving a lot of time, TBs give you higher yield per small chunk than blasting it with a mining laser (I believe it's double). So is there a good reason not to use one if you are serious about mining?
neilrh65
Wed Oct 19, 2005 4:28 am
#13
I use the tractor beam toggle macro. When I get to the mother-rock, toggle it on and start vacuuming (oh and turn the sound down on the speakers- that woowoowoo can get real annoying). Very heavy shields and armour help big time, I can take 8 Tier 1 asteroid raiders pounding me with no appreciable shield loss- actually it takes me longer to waste time on them than it does to fill the cargo bay and jump out.
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