Version When Wrote: 1.3.2Beta
Still Applies in v1.4
Introduction:
(Important) Buying The Tractor Beam:
Okay, so you have a station you want to move nearer a complex. How do you do this? With the tractor beam! It can be fun to use, as it can a nuisance. It can usually be found in Split and Paranid sectors. The one I know of is in Tharka’s Sun. They are about 700,000Cr so they aren’t the cheapest bit of hardware, so make sure you will make use of it.
(Important) What Ship I use:
Even though you can use transports for the job, I find it easier with the smaller ships, e.g. the Centaur, which is what I’m using, it allows you to get a sense of size, and distance… it’ll also make some of the future stages easier.
Using The Tractor Beam:
There are a number of steps you have to take in order to move a station successfully. And some can be complicated, or easy, depending if you practice a lot. I decided that it would be beneficial for me to attach the tractor beam onto my Rear turret of the Centaur, making some future steps easier.
Lining Up With The Station:
Firstly, you need to line up with the station, how I do this is I pick where I want to move the station, then I line up with the Target Box that surrounds my station, and point in the direction I want to go in, and to the destination. This usually takes about 5 minutes, but may take less with practice. (See Screenshot Below For Example of Lining Up). Then simply shoot the tractor beam once (a quick tap, it latches on, and you can then continue).
[ external image ]
(This image basically shows you the process I use to line up… the lines where drawn on after just to show you that I’m quite accurate
…there is no need really to be too accurate).Moving The Station:
This is the easiest part, and the slowest, so patience will help a lot here. Now I found problems with tugging when I started doing this, but this is another story (see end of guide).
Basic Guidelines:
-If you attach to the station at 2.70km, then you have a rough margin of 500metres before the laser detaches, and you start over. Making the detachment point roughly 3.20km. If you attach at 1.20km, then the laser will detach at 1.70km, do you get the idea yet?
You can tell when you’re pushing the limit as the laser changes colour, it starts at green, goes to amber (yellow) then to red (or orangey-red). I suggest when it gets to red; you stop and let the station catch-up. Don’t worry it won’t hit you, it’ll return to the distance you started at, and then stop, ready for you to continue.
Now you may be wondering about what speeds to be going at? Well, in the centaur, I found that going at 6m/s was just perfect, the station takes a little time to speed up, and then match your speed, allowing for continues moving. You can even go as fast as 10m/s although the station may give a little wobble on its axis, and then smooth out.
Note: It is possible to push the station, and the speed limitations still apply, although I haven't practiced this technique, I imagine its the same process as above, apart from pushing the station, not tugging it.
Using SETA:
At first I had problems using SETA like the station would start spinning like a globe on an axis, when I learnt to line up properly, then it would do this just a little, and even once finally settled. If you suffer problems at x10 SETA I suggest you turn it down to x5, and practice on that, once you think it works fine put it up to x7, and try that out, if that works fine, bump it back up to x10. You should have perfected the technique of using the tractor beam, and shouldn’t need to change SETA compression ever again.
Added: Limitations!
You are limited to using the tractor beam on your stations, you can't pull any AI stations or Asteroids. At some point you may be able to use it on your injured ships, although it is not currently possible. Also you're not able to pull stations through the Gates... although this is theory, I haven't tried it, but most stations look too big to fit through the gates. It is also not possible to move complexes, due to the potentially giant scale they have become unmovable, there'd be alot of problems to move 5+ stations through a sector... due to other "smaller" obstacles.
Distance Limitation:
I have found that there is a limitation of 2km from the stations hull. Go over this and it will not work, this does not mean you have to be 2km, from the stations core, which is what the target box is homed in on.
Graphics Problems:
[v1.3.2Beta]
I suffered graphics problems without knowing it, the tractor beam on my game was constantly on Orange, later I changed my Shader Detail to High, from Medium, and it works fine, having the Shader at medium detail also caused problems with other things non-tractor beam related.
Extra's:
As we all know there are numerous problems with the tractor beam, especially moving mines and large stations (although there's not many of them). So in order to aid these problems, the scripting community has been "tampering" with the files. Here I present to you, one of the more known scripts - apricotslice's Tractor Beam Range Mod
Tractor Beam Guide in Other Languages:
- French/François
It'd be pretty sweet to be able to move a few fat rocks next to each other to put into a complex. 
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