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  • Baldric Miner
  • Caiman Miner
  • Demeter Miner
  • Enhanced Mercury
  • Lotan
  • Mercury
  • Mercury Hauler
  • Mercury Prototype
  • Mercury Super Freighter
  • Mercury Super Freighter XL
  • Mercury Tanker
  • Mercury Tanker XL
  • Mistral
  • Mistral Super Freighter
  • Vulture Miner
  • Vulture Prototype

Commentary

A laser made by the Paranid able to tether player owned ships and stations or abandoned ships to the player ship. When an object is tethered the maximum speed of the player ship is capped at 80m/s and the tethered object will be pulled towards or pushed away from the player ship to try and maintain the 2km range. Generally it is easier to control the direction objects move in when pulling. Tethered objects have inertia meaning they will take time to accelerate to full speed in the direction being pushed/pulled and take time to come to a stop when no longer tethered. If the distance between the tethered object and the player ship exceeds 2.5km the beam link between the player ship and the object will be broken however the beam will change colour from white to amber and then red to warn the player if the tether distance is getting too long. The Tractor Beam attaches to specific points on the geometry of the model used by the object meaning that the object will turn over time so that the attachment point faces the direction of force applied allowing stations to be rotated in the desired directions over a distance. Only one Tractor Beam is required since it can only be used on the player ship and the effects do not stack. The most common uses for the Tractor Beam is hauling mines that have been built on asteroids so that they are tightly clustered together in preparation for constructing complexes and towing badly damaged ships for Return Ship missions. The Tractor Beam can be used offensively by placing a cheap station (usually a Wheat Farm M) so that it collides with a NPC station that the player wants destroyed and then twisting the player owned station using the Tractor Beam so that it does massive collision damage. Although TM and TS ships can equip a Tractor Beam, a lack of laser energy regeneration prevents them being able to use it effectively. It is recommended to buy a Tractor Beam early on since the GOD engine can remove often removes all NPC factories and the equipment docks that do stock it are quickly depleted.