#Towing rope

25 messages · Page 1 of 1 (latest)

short pike
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The towing rope would be a 2 x 1 part made from steel and copper coils that would mainly me used for towing shipwrecks and maybe small asteroids, but it could also be used in combat.

It would shoot a short range rope straight from the thinner side that would attach to a tile it hits, then the max length of the rope would stay the same, but could shrink and rotate. The impact of the rope would do minimal damage. It would have one battery slot, and would consume it when fired (it would continue to be attached even without a battery), but it wouldn't need crew to operate it. The rope would be controlled by a button from the ship controls like mines by default, but it could also be set to fire when in range of an enemy, so that ai can use it.

To not make it overpowered and way stronger than tbs in combat, it would have one major drawback. If any projectile passes through the rope or hits the towing rope part itself, the towing rope part would lose 1k hp (assuming the max hp would be 2k), the rope would get broken and it won't be able to fire until it's repaired.

forest jacinth
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Sooooo... just a different tool to do a job you can already do with TB?

short pike
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Kinda, but tbs are very big and very expensive, and they're meant for combat, while this would be small and pretty cheap but would be really hard to use in combat. I'm mainly suggesting this to make towing shipwrecks easier.

forest jacinth
short pike
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I think the rule that the rope breaks when a projectile flies through it would also apply to the sun

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Plus you can already do sundiving without tbs

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Since you can use mining lasers and resource collectors

forest jacinth
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You failed to get my point. I'm saying that if it's already possible to achieve what you're offering with what's currently available, then you shouldn't get your hopes up

short pike
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What about rescue missions? If they get added you shouldn't need a tb for them, because then they couldn't exist in low level systems

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There should always be a way to do stuff even in low level systems that doesn't require very expensive parts

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And I intentionally gave the rope a very big disadvantage in combat

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So that it's not op

vague shuttle
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I would love this, as someone who mainly plays co op, having my buddy's engines get blown up and having to wait for the supply ship to slowly fly across the galaxy so he can repair sucks. Having a towing cable would be great since we could dispatch a small, cheap, fast tugboat woth a couple towing ropes to go rescue his craft. We already design our rear and front of our ships to be a wedge that can lock into each other's ships to tow but this would make it do we could design more diverse craft.

Sorry for wall o' text

kindred timber
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I feel like this could be useful but only for the early game. Once you get a tractor beam you can hold something in place and drag it as you fly. But I also feel like in the future when we get docking and transformer ships some people might have a connector on their ship for stuff like this. But either way if this did get added it probably would be really really weak and couldn’t pull a lot of weight without breaking. On top of it breaking if anything were to even touch it

vocal loom
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I love the idea of a cheaper alternative to TB. I love hauling some ships around, or hauling asteroids, but don't like having to dedicate a handful of crew just to operate a TB. If other areas of the sci-fi world can allow cable attachments to objects, then I don't see it as a bad thing to have the same included here

minor schooner
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I really like this idea!
You could make them have a narrow fire angle like flaks to further desensitise their use in combat.

wide relic
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I quite like this idea, with the addition of a maximum weight each rope can pull, beyond which it snaps. so that it is useful for smaller things you mightn't want to dedicate a whole TB to pulling (or just earlier in the game when things are small) while still not totally overtaking the TB in usefulness

agile gate
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Seeing other people’s thoughts on the towing rope i think i misread or rather misinterpreted the idea.
Apart from the idea of using it to pull ships i thought of it as a tool to connect two ships. For example: a slower ship to a faster ship, a smaller drone to a carrier.
you could also use it to stick your own ship to a blind spot of an enemies ship.
thats also why i don’t like the addition of a maximum weight since i don’t see it as an early game TB at all. TBs are great at tilting and pushing enemy ships. Towing ropes can’t and because they are destroyed by any projectiles passing through to rope so that they can’t be used head on. They might also move slower than lightspeed. pulling in the rope also takes its time and the range can be limited (maybe it consumes a coil for every few meters limiting the range by the coil stack limit?)
Problems: sticking stuff to thrusters is easier, most of things i want to use it for will be solved by docking (except docking will also include moving crew between the two ships, shared hyperdrive, etc. and is thereby more useful)
I still think towing ropes are a nice addition. they do things TBs cant and can’t do most things TBs can

short pike
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yea I agree with you, for the docking I think that will only be usable if both ships are operational and have the docking port, but the towing rope would mostly be used to attach inoperable shipwrecks

prime ocean
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Hahahaha physics engine is going to love your towing rope idea

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Going to love it getting caught over so many asteroids

short pike
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Ehh I think it should be alright

prime ocean
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As long as you don’t have the rope be too long or be able to have a spot to place it near thrusters sure

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Wait is it going to be a rigid rope or a ropey rope since it’s made from steel plates or you making it from coils for some reason?

short pike
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I think it will stay straight but only rotate, and if you get closer to the ship it will retract