Tractoring in Privateer 1

Iceman16

Vice Admiral
Howdy all, I was just playing through Privateer and I saw that the pirate ships I was destroying were sending out little containers full of stuff when they were destroyed. I was wondering, how do you tractor in these containers? I got a Centerion with tail turret and tractor beam but I dunno how to use the tractor beam. thx for any help.

Iceman 16
 
Get close to the object, then turn around so you can see the object in your rear turret (F4 key) and make sure the object has targetting brackets around it.. Press the W key to make sure your turret "weapon" is set to the tractor beam. It helps to lock the target in case the thing flies past you. Then fire your tractor beam (not your guns!) with the Enter key.
 
You'll need to fly as close to the object you want as you can, stop, jump to the turret, switch to tractor beam ('w' key) target the little bugger and hit the fire key.
(I think it's like that, or you simply fire it like a missile...'Enter' key)

It's a bit tricky as the cargo keeps flying around (and you need to be careful not to hit them with your ship or they might go BOOM), but the tractor beam should have sufficent range to catch the little buggers even if they managed to get some 3000, 4000 and even 5500 klicks from you.

You'll see a blue beam catch the bugger from above it (??? I never got that...) and it's range should start droping until it gets down to 0 (when it gets into your hold)

You should stop your ship as if you don't and the bugger get out of range (even while tractoring) the beam will disengage and you'll have to start all over again. (I think it's range is around 6500-7000 klicks).
Also, if you fly at a high speed (only the centurion) the cargo might miss your ship (?!) and not get into the hold. in this case it'll keep flying by inertia until the tractor beam get over it and pulls it back in! (or it might even fly off after passing the 7000 klicks range... :) ). In short - go to a DEAD stop.

An alternative is to give up one of your warhead tubes for a forward mounted tractor beam emitter - in this case, put the cargo on your site, fly toward it down to tractor range and pull the fire button (the MISSILE fire button, not the GUNS...) and thats it. ;)
but for that you loose a missile tube so...
 
Actually, Privateer ships have the best tractor beams in WC. :) You can tractor anything within 10000 klicks (or whatever unit of measurement it happens to be), and you don't even need to stay in turret view to maintain tractor lock! It's great fun scooping up cargo while fighting enemies simultaneously.
 
awesome, thx all, I just got back from town and I tried doing what you said and it worked. yeah, its a great money maker, after you buy a tractor beam unit and all the stuff needed to fight the pirates enough so you can survive lol! thx

Iceman16
 
Nay, that won't make you too popular with the authorities. It's best to let the pirates do the dirty work for you (communicate option 3 repeatedly), then kill the pirates to remove the evidence. :)
 
just got to kill the merchants in out of the way places...

That doesn't really work... Privateer's faction system isn't based on whether or not it htinks it can see what you're doing (G)
 
yeah I know I figured that out the hard way a few times I played through....god damn omnipotent faction god....
 
not sure...it was nice however how your killboard broke down your kills...it always sucked when you pissed off confed so bad you couldn't even go near any major base...what can I say paradigms are fun to blow up!
 
The killboard didn't break down kills until Righteous Fire came out - they added the feature retroactively to Privateer CD.
 
Wedge009 said:
Actually, Privateer ships have the best tractor beams in WC. :) You can tractor anything within 10000 klicks (or whatever unit of measurement it happens to be), and you don't even need to stay in turret view to maintain tractor lock! It's great fun scooping up cargo while fighting enemies simultaneously.
Or missing your cargo only to have the tractor beam break the lock (never figured out why it did this, maybe because I didn't figure out you didn't have to hold down the tractor beam button till RF ;) ), which somehow accelerates the cargo to speeds you can't even catch in a Centurion! :) I've sent alot of cargo spinning through the void of space, just waiting to smack into some unsuspecting, unshielded fool.

C-ya
 
Bandit LOAF said:
The killboard didn't break down kills until Righteous Fire came out - they added the feature retroactively to Privateer CD.

Ok. I got Priv/RF/Strike Commander on one cd when I my family got a gateway 2000 (when it was still gateway 2000) it came with a game pack that also had armada and a bunch of other games...it's what basically got me into WC...
 
I found a good way of getting on good terms with the pirates was to sell a mercenery pilot into slavery (you can tractor in ejected pilots as well as cargo).

This makes the last few missions, in which you spend most of the time in asteroid fields, much easier. It makes life much easier to only have to fight bounty hunters and Kilrathi. There's not much you can do about the Kilrathi but Bounty hunters generally only attack you in open space, making them a somewhat easier prospect than pirates.
 
god did I ever hate those last few missions when you were on your way to the steltek derelict...asteroids galore
 
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