Cruiser Command

Yeah, I know, everybody's got a nit to pick with the Tractor Beam... so let me just post mine as well.

Right now, Tractor Beam is a very heavy cost ability with poor results that causes it to be rarely used. I think it's simply the lack of utility that causes it to be overlooked most of the time. So, I'd like to offer a suggestion or two.

1. Make power consumption on tractor beam relative to the Push or Pull currently exerted by the battlecruiser.
2. Allow the tractor beam to latch on to allied targets in order to allow small ships to more easily travel alongside the battlecruiser during high speed chases.
3. Tenative suggestion, but perhaps allow the Tractor Beam to lock onto multiple targets. Apply the same pull/push to all targets, drain energy for each target, and you must cancel all locked beams or none at all.

I believe it would add a lot more potential to the metagame without messing it up too much. It'll also open up a variety of small ship strategies which I feel can't be used due to the high speed chases that occur during the late game. Just a thought, all in all.

I think these are nice suggestions that will work well with the possible CC direction change that we're currently discussing. Being able to latch on your friendly ships will be very helpful if you got more ships out.

multiple tractors is an interesting idea

1. I like this, but I don't think it would change much, because I'm not sure what the advantage of tractoring someone at half max strength or zero strength is.
2. This would be very interesting to see. My only worry would be putting a tractor on your own destroyer, making it impossible to be separated from the BC (the BC can pull it around too while running). However, that would be counterable with the tractor beam, so, it might be fine.
3. I don't think I've ever been in a situation where I wanted to tractor 2 things at once. There's just not enough ships out there.

The main reason I overlook it is the 30 kerm cost, which early game is pretty killer. Late game the only thing worth tractoring is the enemy destroyer and chompertank if there is one. It's still a very effective tool if used properly, it's just not popular because its not very effective on the battlecruiser and it's not very popular to use your battlecruiser to hunt things that aren't the enemy battlecruiser.

DumbMarine wrote:3. I don't think I've ever been in a situation where I wanted to tractor 2 things at once. There's just not enough ships out there.

This is running under the assumption that the Cruiser Command Direction changes making the games more small ship oriented. Maybe it wouldn't change much, but I feel like it opens up a variety of new strategies still.