22 replies to this topic

[feld]

Hi all! (first post)

Before I get to my question, a word of thanks. I've got to thank PR for turning EAW/FOC into the Star Wars game I've always wanted to play. Just seeing an ISD open up with all the batteries it's supposed to have made my day! Thanks!

On to the question: why did the design team choose to remove the CARRACK's tractor beam projectors?

I noted that the website stats of the CARRACK class don't list tractor beams and the few times I've used CARRACKs in combat they've not displayed them. The Wookiepedia, and all the RPG stats I could find for them list 5 tractor generators. I don't miss them and am not asking for them. Just curious really: from the quality of PR's research, I'm pretty sure that he didn't drop them by accident...

R/
feld

Edited by feld, 05 November 2008 - 03:26 PM.

[Kaleb Graff]

Hi all! (first post)

Before I get to my question, a word of thanks. I've got to thank PR for turning EAW/FOC into the Star Wars game I've always wanted to play. Just seeing an ISD open up with all the batteries it's supposed to have made my day! Thanks!

On to the question: why did the design team choose to remove the CARRACK's tractor beam projectors?

I noted that the website stats of the CARRACK class don't list tractor beams and the few times I've used CARRACKs in combat they've not displayed them. The Wookiepedia, and all the RPG stats I could find for them list 5 tractor generators. I don't miss them and am not asking for them. Just curious really: from the quality of PR's research, I'm pretty sure that he didn't drop them by accident...

R/
feld

I don't know, but they shouldn't be too hard to add.

[feld]

I don't know, but they shouldn't be too hard to add.

Agreed but it was more of a canon/gameplay balance question: I noticed that they were there in the sources I had and wondered why PR left them out. Figured it'd be a balance thing...but was also curious to know if there was a source that I hadn't read that PR favored for some reason. Like I said: I don't particularly care if they're present or not.

r/
feld

[Tropical Bob]

It looks like it's added when you research the Carrack-class Mark II.

I'm not sure why it was left out of the Mark I...Perhaps the first level was considered a sort of prototype to the class more than the actual Carrack-class itself. Meaning that the first generation might not have included the tractor beam for lack of design addition, or inefficient reactors, or something along those lines.

Or maybe it was forgotten when the Carrack-class was coded in.

[feld]

It looks like it's added when you research the Carrack-class Mark II.

I'm not sure why it was left out of the Mark I...Perhaps the first level was considered a sort of prototype to the class more than the actual Carrack-class itself. Meaning that the first generation might not have included the tractor beam for lack of design addition, or inefficient reactors, or something along those lines.

Or maybe it was forgotten when the Carrack-class was coded in.

Thanks! That's answer enough for me.

PS - Apologies. I probably should have waited to ask until I finished a full campaign...better to have the modders working on new mod than answering n00b questions.

[Tropical Bob]

Oh it's no problem really. I personally think that a good mod will have a good team that actually spends time catering to the public a bit. Part of what turned me off of UEaW was that their mod team and a lot of the members are rather rude.

Also, I'm not on the mod team. So it didn't detract any.

Edited by Tropical Bob, 06 November 2008 - 10:07 PM.

[feld]

Doh...if I'd done my forum search spelling Carrack correctly, I would've found the 2007 post where PR explained about giving the Carrack her tractors back

Question about the Carrack and CC-9600 (7 OCT 2007)

Edited by feld, 07 November 2008 - 07:45 PM.

[Casen]

Considering the Carrack-Class has no hangar bays...tractor beams wouldn't be that necessary.

[Tropical Bob]

I'm pretty sure the Carrack-class has a hangar bay with a squadron of four TIE Fighters.

Plus, it's much easier to shoot and kill what you can keep still.

[Phoenix Rising]

On to the question: why did the design team choose to remove the CARRACK's tractor beam projectors?

Thanks for registering! As for your question, when I was researching the Carrack, I saw it sometimes listed as having tractor beams and sometimes not, so keeping them off the original was my way of retconning that discrepancy. The Carrack is an old and venerable design that probably launched around 40 BBY, so it's not unreasonable to expect it to have been upgraded by the Empire at some point, even if the EU authors don't comprehend the universe well enough to assign a name to such an upgrade (I called it the Mark II for the sake of simplicity). I likewise used the Mark II upgrade to explain the canonical inconsistency in speed (68 MGLT from XWA and 80 MGLT from the top speed of a T-65B) and provide it with some additional shielding, since the RPGs seem to consider the Carrack to be tougher than the Nebulon-B, instead of it being the other way around as in XWA.

Considering the Carrack-Class has no hangar bays...tractor beams wouldn't be that necessary.

They're offensive tractor beams. I read somewhere (NEGWT, I believe) that most ships with hangars have some kind of tractor beams, but that they're not always powerful enough to be used in combat. The ones listed as armaments are. So it's kind of like particle shielding, I guess. But that's also from the same source that said seismic charges create "a temporary vacuum in space", so take it as you will.

I'm pretty sure the Carrack-class has a hangar bay with a squadron of four TIE Fighters.

Well, it has an external rack, but that probably wouldn't necessitate the addition of tractor beams.

[Tropical Bob]

Considering the Carrack-Class has no hangar bays...tractor beams wouldn't be that necessary.

They're offensive tractor beams. I read somewhere (NEGWT, I believe) that most ships with hangars have some kind of tractor beams, but that they're not always powerful enough to be used in combat. The ones listed as armaments are. So it's kind of like particle shielding, I guess. But that's also from the same source that said seismic charges create "a temporary vacuum in space", so take it as you will.

Like I said: it's much easier to shoot something when it can't move.

I'm pretty sure the Carrack-class has a hangar bay with a squadron of four TIE Fighters.

Well, it has an external rack, but that probably wouldn't necessitate the addition of tractor beams.

Ah. My mistake.

[Casen]

I just hope to god the tractor beams are changed to a more appealing coherent blue beam than the eye raping spiral thing in the vanilla game.

Because honestly I hate the current tractor beams.

[TheEmpire]

I just hope to god the tractor beams are changed to a more appealing coherent blue beam than the eye raping spiral thing in the vanilla game.

So true they really need work. Petro should have known how ugly they were, then again they should have known how overpowered Tyber was.

[Casen]

Yeah I mean they could have opted for what I said which would look better AND be easier to make, seriously.

Also yeah Tyber, I find it hard to believe that a crime syndicate, no matter how powerful, could even match up with the Rebellion or especially Imperials.

[Phoenix Rising]

I just hope to god the tractor beams are changed to a more appealing coherent blue beam than the eye raping spiral thing in the vanilla game.

Thanks for reminding me. It's been addressed.

Also yeah Tyber, I find it hard to believe that a crime syndicate, no matter how powerful, could even match up with the Rebellion or especially Imperials.

Especially one that's never been heard of before FoC. Meh, I could've believed it if it were Hutts - at least they control not only entire planets, but also a significant portion of the galaxy in the Slice. They probably had more resources than the early Rebellion.

Edited by Phoenix Rising, 29 November 2008 - 11:04 PM.

[Tropical Bob]

The Black Sun would've been more believable as well.

[Casen]

Especially one that's never been heard of before FoC.

Exactly what I've thought of all along. It makes absolutely no sense that this huge force just is placed in a very well-versed area of the Star Wars saga, that is the Galactic Civil War, and was never heard of until now. It makes little sense.

[Pred the Penguin]

They definitely should have used Black Sun, but I wonder how that would work out in a strategy game. O_o

Anything is better than Tyber....

[Phoenix Rising]

The Black Sun would've been more believable as well.

BS would've been more analogous to what ZC was, with corruption and whatnot; they never really "held" planets per se. I would doubt their ability to directly confront the Empire though.

[anakinskysolo]

Yeah, and considering Prince Xizor was supposedly an ally of the Emperor, it wouldn't have made so much sense.