Shipwright Archive
Thread: Is really tractor beams better?
Ok. Here's the results of my test tonight. My Tractor Beam which is in the same weapon group as my Mining Laser DOES come ON everytime I pull the trigger for that weapon group. When I STOP firing the Tractor Beam turns OFF same as the mining laser does. Works just like a charm. I am using a programmable joystick and have different buttons programmed for the different weapon groups. Ido NOT use the CYCLE thruall weapon groups command. Everytime I fire the Mining Laser/Tractor Beam combothe tractor beam turns on and works just greatpulling up all those little chunks immediately after the medium chunk is blasted. So...yes this system works just fine for me. I have no problems grouping the tractor beam within a weapon group. All I can say is try it. Decide for yourself if it is easier havinga separate button to toggle the beam off and on versus just firing at will with the mining laser knowing the tractor beam is there to do its job at the same time. There's obviously more than one way to skin a cat. 
The tractor beam does work much better. I can fill a large fighter cargo hold in just 15 minutes with one Mk III mining laser and a tractor beam. I keep one of my fast blasters for killing of the higher tier asteroid bandits. (Having three gun slots is great.)
Oddly enough, I don't seem to use the tractor beam quite the same as other people. I have the TB in weapons group two all by itself, with the mining laser and the blaster togetherin group one. I follow behind the asteroid and blast it, then press the thumb button on my joystick (weapons group two) to activate the TB. With practice I can scoop up most of the small pieces in a few seconds. It never occurred to me to leave the TB on all the time. I am not sure that I can see any real advantage to that.
Slysix wrote:
2. Make sure that you do not have the tractor beam listed in any of your weapon groups
1. Rebind a key to allow you to toggle the tractor been on or off. This will allow you to leave the tractor beam on while your mining.
2. Make sure that you do not have the tractor beam listed in any of your weapon groups and it is toggled on. (Yes it can get a little noisey but you mine alot faster)
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I have two macros set up. one for a targetasteroid - pause.5 - follow. and a second one for toggle weapon group on and off. i dont worry about distances and speed, i let mr autopilot1000 do that. once i break medium toid from mama toid and hit the marco to target and follow, once i line up at whatever distance and heading autopilot settles into the same for the toid targeted, i hit the macro to toggle the weapon group on (constant tractorbeam). i then blast medium toid with 2-3 single hits from the mark 3. this means, as its breaking into small toid chunks, the tractor is already on and i gobble up most of the small guys right away, sometimes they spray like a clogged faucet and i have to macro target/follow those.
this makes it so i dont even touch my joystick to fly once i break medium toid from mama toid off. sure this may take some of the "excitement' and "playability" away from the whole mining experience... but i find mashing a few f-keys continously is more efficient thant trying to calculate speed, distance and heading.
a full hold in 12-15, sometimes less than 12, is about as refined as i can get it. untill you can net the medium toids with the y-8, this is about as fast as you can get imho. if you can show me a faster way in a two weapon hardpoint ship, make a character on my server, ill outfit ya properly and id love to share techniques up in nograv.
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Extraction rates are:
(damage)/100 perrock for the lasers
and 20 per rock for the tractor beam
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i found this about 20 minutes after i posted my reply. darn search feature needs to work more than it doesnt work. but no worries, after the study i did myself, i am confident enough in my technique with the given resources and tool to be able to maximize my efficiency.
jaissen dunan
Drecki wrote:
Slysix wrote:
2. Make sure that you do not have the tractor beam listed in any of your weapon groups
Where do I set this up?
To set up weapon groupings press 'g' and this will pull up a weapons grouping window.
To set up the toggle tractor beam on/off you have to use 'ctrl-o' then pick keybindings. Under the tab ships....scroll down till you find toggle tractor beam. Assign a key/button to the function.