Better ways to do Tractor Beams?

[archer]

My Battletech mercenary group is named "Kzin Cousins" in honor of the Kzinti race and their emblem is a tiger's paw print.

 

I wish that Paramount could have used Kzinti but the legal battles surrounding THAT would have blown anyone's minds since they'd have had to deal with SFB and Niven (and maybe Niven's publishers).

[cbullard]

On 1/13/2021 at 9:55 AM, Tjack said:

   Why not?  You always saw them on Star Trek.  And it’s a limitation since it means you can’t do it secretly, or without say everyone on a nearby space station  or a third party spaceship knowing who’s moving what ship around.

In NextGen, yes.  In TOS, no.  In "Space Seed," we see the effect of the tractor beam as the Botany Bay stops tumbling and moves into line with the Enterprise, but we don't see the beam itself.  "Moving into line" could have been a matter of perspective, with the Enterprise changing her own alignment, but that would not apply to stopping the tumbling.
https://youtu.be/IGT9qf9lODM?t=37

In Star Wars, no.  When the Death Star captures the Millenium Falcon in its tractor beam, there is no visible source.
https://youtu.be/JGp_5gOww0E?t=89

 

On 1/16/2021 at 6:31 AM, archer said:

 

Workaround for that.

 

Give your ship megascale Stretching with an invisible power effect for it. 

 

Then buy the Clinging.  

 

If you want to have more than one target at once for your tractor beam, buy Extra Limbs.

 

< insert Klingon joke here >

 

Cling to the desired target with one limb. Cling to a nearby asteroids, planets, and/or ships with other limbs. 

 

Make the enemy ship have to tow everything along if it wants to get away. Or at least exceed your ship's STR.

Cool idea!

[cbullard]

On 1/18/2021 at 7:45 AM, archer said:

My Battletech mercenary group is named "Kzin Cousins" in honor of the Kzinti race and their emblem is a tiger's paw print.

 

I wish that Paramount could have used Kzinti but the legal battles surrounding THAT would have blown anyone's minds since they'd have had to deal with SFB and Niven (and maybe Niven's publishers).

Yeah, that would have been fun to see!  Maybe get dance-trained or gymnastics-trained actors to play them, to better convey that feline grace and power of movement?

 

As for the legal battles, just change the name.  It's not like SFB, Niven, Cherryh ("Chanur" series), or any of the others have a copyright on the idea of feline humanoids.