TRIBBLE Maintenance and Release Notes - May 11, 2012
 

We will be bringing the Tribble server down for maintenance to apply a new update.
ST.17.20120423a.19

General:

• Updates the Tractor Beam for Federation Runabout Carrier Pets.
  • These pets will only be allowed to use a single Tractor Beam at a time, within a 4km radius.
• Super secret server stability updates.
  • Ok, they're not really secret. They're mostly boring, but secret sounds more fun.

oh yes fun indeed! :D

So only one at a time? So basically it's possible to be under the effect of a tractor beam constantly now as one after another Runabout fires off its tractor when the last expires?

Yes. Kinda. It's definitely "possible" but not 100% guaranteed.

This is intended to be an improvement... until this patch the Runabouts would all lock down a single target in simultaneous Tractor Beams, completely preventing their escape thru any means other than Polarize Hull. With this change, a single Tractor Beam can potentially be overcome through countermeasures such as Engine Batteries, Emergency Power to Engines, Evasive Maneuvers, etc.

Additionally, please keep in mind that this is a temporary fix. A band-aid solution to an AI issue that has been corrected in our upcoming code branch. Smarter AI won't require this artificial limitation, and we can work on a more elegant solution when that code is live.

Does this mean the AI in general may be getting on overhaul?

Wait, 4KM radius? Isn't that a little short, since Tractors can be activated from 5KM away? Should be 10, for now.

Ya, I was well aware of the "lockdown".

It's 4km from each other. That said... yes, the range may need adjustment. Try it out and let me know!

hey Borticus, probably not the place for this, but... have you guys considered changing the effectiveness of the tractor beam based on the masses of the two ships involved?

for example... a runabout puts a tractor beam on the Bortas. Shouldn't the Bortas drag the runabout around through space, since the Bortas is like 100x bigger, and has the engine power to compensate?


I don't know how hard that would be to do, but it would make things a lot more believable if a runabout (or even an escort) can't stop a big cruiser dead in its tracks.

On it.. And will do. :)



Doh! Foiled again! :p