Okay, the Tractor beams gotta go.....

fl219 · November 2016

I was held in a tractor beam by the SAME ship for an extended period. (well beyond what it normally is) These tractor beams have got to go. The the Dev's have over steped the bounds in this. Getting tractor beamed is one thing. Getting dilibretly held for a way longer time is totally another. Then on top of it, I was useing my T6 Dreadnought and had used the lance. For some unknown reason my ship would not turn afterwords. Practically the same thing is happening to my Pilot Escort (another thread).
If this is what they call "improvement", They are heading in the wrong direction.
If they are going to abuse the tractor beams, then they need to be removed completely. Because this is total (descriptive narrative)......
Add in not getting the marks I selected and well you know....

dragonsbite · November 2016

And as pointed out in your other threads stay >5km away. Seriously dude the game is fairly easy. Can you please refrain from making posts like yours that just show you don't quite grasp the concept of how to play this game. Apologies, not trying to be mean here. And understand that some of this is on your end as well such as your pc and or internet/isp.

marcusdkane · November 2016

Have you only just started playing the game? How easy do you need/want this game to be made for you, so you can play it without effort or it being challenging?? First you panic about your shields getting drained, and now you're complaining about tractor beams?? Do you even know how to set your ship up and fly it effectively?? :-\

Tractor beams, even from multiple sources, are Easy to deal with... In your other thread, I advised having Polarize Hull as your Science Boff ensign skill... This is another reason why you need it as a default ability; Polarize Hull weakens beam(s) grip on the ship... But you don't want to keep tripping it as soon as it cools down each time, because if a tractor beam hits you once the ability has been triggered, and has gone into cool down, it won't make any difference, and you're stuck, taking damage, so you need to (as much as possible) keep it untouched and ready to trigger for after you do get hit with a tractor beam... Once you're snared, that's when you polarize the hull, and depending upon your mood, you can either:

-Rotate the ship within the beam's (weakened) grip till a weapon comes to bare, and then start shooting to try and disable the attacker, or,

-Hit Evasive Maneuvres, and use the burst of speed to break free completely, so you can get some distance and refocus...

A couple more tips for you:

-Have a decent aft weapon (I would recommend a beam, because it's a faster recharge time than a torpedo)

-When you get hit by tractor beams, or drain drones (and they tend to flank from the rear or the side) rotate your view so you're looking at what's attacking you, then right click on the thing making the attack to target it, fire your aft beam weapon, and once it's destroyed, then re-acquire your primary target... If there's more than one tractor beam/drain drone, take them all down one by one, before returning your attention to the primary target...

These are basic skills which you need to master, or you won't be able to progress through the levels... :-\

PS Don't worry if you get blown up and respawn... It's not the end of the world, not the death of your crew or the end of your ship, just think of it as a critical explosion which has disabled it, and will take a moment for damage control teams aboard to get under control...

angrytarg · November 2016

There are like a dozen abilities that grant partial or complete immunity to tractor beams or break you free. Of those at least half a dozen are available to everyone (Evasive manoeuvres, Polarize hull, Aux to Inertial dampeners, Emergency Power to Engines, Scramble Sensors, photonic shockeave).
Seriously as a player who'd love to see tractors being efficient in any way I have to tell you they aren't...

protoneous · November 2016

Polarize hull 1 and/or evasive manoeuvres and you're free. Also, you have enough engineering abilities and hull in a dreadnought to tank it out until they're done. Aux2SIF, Engineering Team, reverse shield polarity... Aux to dampeners is another suggestion and would make a big ship like yours quite nimble (and there's even a nice active duty doff for it). Attack pattern omega...

For giggles you even have room for feedback pulse 1 to make their day while tractored if they're firing at you. I think I might have seen your other thread and all options were covered with the suggestions given. Try them out. These are just from my perspective if I was flying your ship.

Assuming you're referring to PvE.

saurializard · November 2016

Evade Target Lock also completely cancels the beam if your ship handles Intel abilities.

turbomagnus · November 2016

And if you have the T4 Exploration Cruiser Refit (Venture), there's the Antimatter Spread console to break tractor lock, for that matter.

spacehermit · November 2016

turbomagnus wrote: »

And if you have the T4 Exploration Cruiser Refit (Venture), there's the Antimatter Spread console to break tractor lock, for that matter.

For that ANTImatter!

angrytarg · November 2016

turbomagnus wrote: »

And if you have the T4 Exploration Cruiser Refit (Venture), there's the Antimatter Spread console to break tractor lock, for that matter.

True, but every confuse will do. Scramble Sensors for example. Another way would be to drain the target of Aux power, either by beam: disable or a potent leech.

redeyedraven · November 2016

Bottom line is, there are plenty ways to deal with TB. My personal favourites being PH and TBR - the latter ones can also actually hurt things that tractor you. Pure awsomeness.

markhawkman · November 2016

Note: TBR breaks tractor beams by forcing the ship tractoring you to move out of tractor beam range.

jaguarskx · November 2016

LOL...

First shield drain, now tractor beams? Maybe you should start a thread about Crystalline Catastrophe Advanced / Crystalline Cataclysm Advanced taking far too long to complete the mission...

"CCA too hard, please NERF".

There are plenty of ways to counter / diminish the effect of tractor beams as long as you are willing to learn how to do so. That includes just dealing with it. In fact, last night in CCA I was being a Tholian ship about 2km away tractor beamed my Bird of Prey in my forward firing arc. You want to know what I did?

#1 - Tactical Team
#2 - Torpedo Spread
#3 - Cannon Rapid Fire
#4 - Attack Pattern Alpha
#5 - Fire On My Mark
#6 - Gravity Well

mkm1911 · November 2016

(Play one x1)

Yeah, I use a t6 defiant, used a t4 defiant too, got so sick of getting held in place and pounded.

So now I use polarize hull and keep that as my quick button. They try and catch me now I just polarize turn and f**k them up.

autumnturning · November 2016

Shorter OP:

I am Scissors.
Paper is fine.
NERF ROCK.

quebraregra · November 2016

go ahead, put a tractor on me.. now I have you right where I want you

Nadion bombs, grave well, energy drain, and tops& beams to the face, buh-bye!

bossheisenberg · November 2016

I thought this was gonna be a thread like, tractor beams are useless let's get rid of them, not "help I'm in a tractor beam and can't get out". LOL

nikeix · November 2016

"Halp! I'm stuck in a tractor beam and I'd rather they change the game than learn how to counter it."

Why do these people even open their mouths? Seriously: Stop. Broadcasting. Your. Ignorance.

davefenestrator · November 2016

Cryptic should sell an "I WIN" console for 10,000 zen. A clicky that vaporizes every ship on the map except yours.

theotherscotty · November 2016

As mentioned upthread, it's pretty simple, really: stay out of tractor beam range, use Polarize Hull and/or Evasive Maneuvers and/or Jam Targeting Sensors to get out of it, have your ship set up right, that sort of thing. If you run into problems, just ask politely as there are plenty of very knowledgeable people here in the forum who'd be delighted to help.

jexsamx · November 2016

To summarize the posts thus far...

git gud

nccmark · November 2016

The only thing tastier than a crybaby is seconds.
Thanks for the repeat episode.

rattler2 · November 2016

As others have said, there are counters to Tractor Beams, one of which is simply just staying out over 5km from the ship. Also... if you were fighting say... Breen Plesh Brek frigates... depending on their positioning... the typical group of 3 could actually chain their tractor beams.

So... now for the sarcasm... what bad ship touched you? A D'Deridex?

In all seriousness... counters and learning your opponents is key here dude. Know what you're getting into. That's why many people struggle when a new enemy group is introduced into the game. Because we don't know what to expect. The main groups that use Tractor Beam are Breen, Borg, Tholians, and Federation/Mirror, with Romulans on the side. Klingons have an ability that can nuke your turn rate for a time on one of the Raptors.

breadandcircuses · November 2016

davefenestrator wrote: »

Cryptic should sell an "I WIN" console for 10,000 zen. A clicky that vaporizes every ship on the map except yours.

I think there are actually plans for that. They will likely offer it for a limited time once the Mac client is fixed up, listed under "iWin" in the store.

Otherwise... yeah, Tractor Beam can be a pain if you don't know the counters, but there are a lot of counters.

Any disable, placate, confuse, or Aux Offline will interrupt the Tractor Beam.
The death of you or your opponent will end the Tractor Beam.
Drains can interfere with its effects, as can investment in Control Expertise and equipment that improves that skill.
Full immunity is available from Polarize Hull, and Attack Pattern: Omega grants immunity to the movement restriction (though not the damage).
Movement enhancements abilities and effects (Evasive Maneuvers, Singularity Jump, etc.) can be used as a soft counter, allowing you to move out of range (5km).
+/-Repel abilities can push or pull your opponent out of range, including things like Photonic Shockwave (which also disables), Tractor Beam Repulsors (unless you've got it DOffed), Projected Singularity, Gravity Well on a different enemy, etc.
Long Range Targeting Sensors helps with energy weapon dropoff, allowing you to simply stay more that 5km away in the first place; you'll get used to which enemies require this with practice.

warmaker001b · November 2016

We're complaining about Tractor Beams now?

What's next? Enemy ships are shooting at us?

salazarraze · November 2016

The OP clearly deserves TRIPLE the marks for having to deal with all these tractor beam issues.

fl219 · November 2016

For starters. I'll "refrain" from posting here when they actually fix this game! Second, I was literally held in a tractor beam by ONE ship a good part of the Crystaline Entity TF. By the time it occured to this game to "release me" the entity was almost dead. I was held when it was a better part of 80%! We all know it takes a bit to kill the entity. Hense my complaint.
I just did a Starbase Fleet Defense. I literally watch my hull start droping with 100% shields! And for once, it wasn't from a Plasma Fire. Then on top of it my shields where being drained from what appeared to be THIN AIR.
How can I not claim foul with all this happening?
I say again, I will "REFRAIN" from posting on the forum when they fix this game! Because the bug report way yields no results. Maybe if I make enough noise, the dev's will actually fix something! Instead of makeing things worse. It's not rocket science.

How can anyone claim this game is "easy" when basic player commands get ignored. Not only do you have to fight the NPC's, but also the game itself.

salazarraze · November 2016

Covariant and Regenerative shields allow 10% damage bleedthrough meaning that with 100% shields up being hit by 10,000 damage per second, your hull will take 1,000 damage per second. Resilient shields allow for 5% damage bleedthrough so that amount would be reduced to 500 damage to your hull per second. This all assumes 0% damage resistance.

So these issues that you bring up aren't "game issues." The issue is your understanding of how things within the game are supposed to work.

nccmark · November 2016

The problem is that snowflakes melt under the stress of tractor beams

warmaker001b · November 2016

fl219 wrote: »

For starters. I'll "refrain" from posting here when they actually fix this game! Second, I was literally held in a tractor beam by ONE ship a good part of the Crystaline Entity TF. By the time it occured to this game to "release me" the entity was almost dead. I was held when it was a better part of 80%! We all know it takes a bit to kill the entity. Hense my complaint.
I just did a Starbase Fleet Defense. I literally watch my hull start droping with 100% shields! And for once, it wasn't from a Plasma Fire. Then on top of it my shields where being drained from what appeared to be THIN AIR.
How can I not claim foul with all this happening?
I say again, I will "REFRAIN" from posting on the forum when they fix this game! Because the bug report way yields no results. Maybe if I make enough noise, the dev's will actually fix something! Instead of makeing things worse. It's not rocket science.

How can anyone claim this game is "easy" when basic player commands get ignored. Not only do you have to fight the NPC's, but also the game itself.

You also had issues with Borg Shield Neutralizer / Shield Strip.

You also had problems surviving in Pilot Ships which are some of the most survivable ships in game with a very OP and very useful gimmick on a very short CD.

rattler2 · November 2016

fl219 wrote: »

For starters. I'll "refrain" from posting here when they actually fix this game! Second, I was literally held in a tractor beam by ONE ship a good part of the Crystaline Entity TF. By the time it occured to this game to "release me" the entity was almost dead. I was held when it was a better part of 80%! We all know it takes a bit to kill the entity. Hense my complaint.
I just did a Starbase Fleet Defense. I literally watch my hull start droping with 100% shields! And for once, it wasn't from a Plasma Fire. Then on top of it my shields where being drained from what appeared to be THIN AIR.
How can I not claim foul with all this happening?
I say again, I will "REFRAIN" from posting on the forum when they fix this game! Because the bug report way yields no results. Maybe if I make enough noise, the dev's will actually fix something! Instead of makeing things worse. It's not rocket science.

How can anyone claim this game is "easy" when basic player commands get ignored. Not only do you have to fight the NPC's, but also the game itself.

The Crystaline Entity has a debuff with its main attack that can hamper your turn rate, usually visually appears on your ship as arcing green energy around your nacelles. Science Team clears it.

And like nccmark said, the Entity melts under tractor beams. Its not uncommon for that thing to drop before it unleashes its first shockwave when you have a high DPS group.

As for your other concerns rgarding hull and shield drain... that might be more a problem with your build than the fault of the game. We'd need more information on how your set up before we can say for sure its a bug. I don't think we've been experiencing this phantom drain or hull melting like you're describing.

Okay, the Tractor beams gotta go.....

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