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General Discussion / Re: Need help to counter frigate swarms
« on: May 14, 2018, 08:45:33 PM »But what make me surprised is why nobody think about things like tractor beams? which can pull smaller things toward you, so the large ship has some way to deal with those small fast flyers.In the unmodified game, the Graviton Beam already has the ability to send fighters or frigates spiralling out of control.
From a story perspective, perhaps gravitational technology isn't precise enough to lock onto attacking fighters. Or perhaps it's merely too slow, and the fighter will have launched its missiles before the tractor beam can grab hold. Or perhaps developing a tractor beam would be expensive, while building fighters and frigates of your own is cheap.
From a gameplay perspective, imagine playing against the tractor beam. You're flying your frigate at a giant behemoth of a battleship, shots whizzing by to left and right, and feeling pretty badass and confident. Then - WHONK - your controls freeze as the tractor beam grabs you, and all you can do is sit and watch as the guns you'd been dodging reduce your frozen frigate to a smear of space-dust. Doesn't sound very fun, does it?