Tractor Beams, Are they effective against Imperial shields?

Omega-13 · Post by **Omega-13** » 2002-09-16 09:16pm

Ok, here is the question, was just thinking.

If Ray shields and particle shields are seperate,
particle shields being only cm or mm off the hull, and ray shields being a bit higher than that. Well, wouldn't the ray shields stop the tractor beam from getting to the ship, and thus allowing the imperial ships to go on as they wanted? They tractor beam would be holding nothing in place, being nullified by the ray shield. Just a question, answers? anyone?

Post by **Mr Bean** » 2002-09-16 09:23pm

If Ray shields and particle shields are seperate,
particle shields being only cm or mm off the hull, and ray shields being a bit higher than that. Well, wouldn't the ray shields stop the tractor beam from getting to the ship, and thus allowing the imperial ships to go on as they wanted? They tractor beam would be holding nothing in place, being nullified by the ray shield. Just a question, answers? anyone?

The shields can be set any way you want them to be, generaly when facing Torp attacks moving Paritcule shields out is a good idea as your weapons still shoot but are protected from Concussion missiles

And you can always lock onto the shield...

Omega-13 · Post by **Omega-13** » 2002-09-16 09:29pm

Mr Bean wrote:
If Ray shields and particle shields are seperate,
particle shields being only cm or mm off the hull, and ray shields being a bit higher than that. Well, wouldn't the ray shields stop the tractor beam from getting to the ship, and thus allowing the imperial ships to go on as they wanted? They tractor beam would be holding nothing in place, being nullified by the ray shield. Just a question, answers? anyone?
The shields can be set any way you want them to be, generaly when facing Torp attacks moving Paritcule shields out is a good idea as your weapons still shoot but are protected from Concussion missiles

And you can always lock onto the shield...

no, the tractor beams lock onto ST shields, and sometimes the physical hull, the Rayshield would nullify any beam coming from the federation ship

EmperorMing · Post by **EmperorMing** » 2002-09-17 12:33am

Omega-13 wrote:
no, the tractor beams lock onto ST shields, and sometimes the physical hull, the Rayshield would nullify any beam coming from the federation ship

Does this happen in the SW universe between SW ships? I claim no knowledge of this in the EU.

Darth Yoshi · Post by **Darth Yoshi** » 2002-09-17 01:06am

In VOTF, Leia throws the Falcon out of control to prevent the Ishori from attacking. They tell her to lower her shields to assist with the tractor beam. It's implied that shields (unspecified) act as low grade ECM against tractor beams.

Crown · Post by **Crown** » 2002-09-17 01:11am

Wow, Darth Yoshi, I forgot all about that! What a memory!

EmperorMing · Post by **EmperorMing** » 2002-09-17 01:15am

Thanx for the info.

Darth Yoshi · Post by **Darth Yoshi** » 2002-09-17 01:31am

No prob. Crown, my memories not that good. I just remember stuff from Zahn books.

Patrick Degan · Post by **Patrick Degan** » 2002-09-17 04:40am

Darth Vader's stardestroyer was not able to grapple the fleeing Tantive IV until after the courier's shields were down. It could be that deflectors do interfere with tractor functioning whether the tractor functions as either a directed ray or a particle envelope coned outward to the target.

Omega-13 · Post by **Omega-13** » 2002-09-17 01:33pm

Guys, the problem with the tractor beam for SW universe could also just be jamming, the deathstar locked onto the falcon no problem, even if the falcon jammed, i doubt it can fool systems on a deathstar.

As for the ST tractor beams, they work on a different principle, and send some sort of beam to the target, if thats disrupted, then how can it lock onto something?

Connor MacLeod · Post by **Connor MacLeod** » 2002-09-17 04:08pm

Ask Wayne Poe. He had a quote from The Crystal Star where Leia's ship the Alderaan blocked a tractor beam with its deflectors (or the tractor beam was interfered with via deflectors.)

I've also always recalled somewhere (the Daley novels I think) where shields were reinforced to help interfere with/break up a tractor beam, but I can't recall where :S

We do know shields interfere with Subspace (HTTE) and Hyperwave/Holonet (Dark Empire and the AOTC ICS) signals. According to Lando Calrissian and the Starcave of Thonboka, deflectors can be configured for "camoflage" - obscuring the ship from sensor detection (something that is also true of planetary shields - ISB and I think the second SWAJ.) which presumably includes gravitic and FTL sensors.

And lastly, we know that some forms of gravitic weaponry exist (Tractor-pressor beams, mentioned again in Lando Calrissian and the starcave of Thonboka. Some WEG supplements such as "Galladiniums Fantastic technology" also list gravitic weaponry of some sorts.). Pulse-wave cannons (Tales of the Jedi Companion) are supposedly "spatial distortions" that inflict damage on ships, and were in use over 4000 years before the Battle of Yavin. That implies gravitic weaponry as well. Of course, they're rare (like railguns/mass drivers) but they still exist. Presumably the means to defend against them exists as well.

Akm72 · Post by **Akm72** » 2002-09-17 04:21pm

If jamming a tractor beam was just a matter of turning on the shields, Han would've done it to break the DS's hold in ANH, and the Executors atempt to snare the MF at the end of ESB would've been a complete waste of time.
The obvious reason is that shields have only a small effect on tractor beams, if any. It would also make the shieldless TIE fighters particularly vulnerable to the combat use of tractor beams, whereas we see no sign that the Rebels attempted to use tractor beams against the TIE fighters over Endor.

From canon sources, we've only seen two atempts to use tractor beams against resisting ships - the DS vs the MF and the Executor vs the MF. In the case of the Executor it was such a significant event that Piett felt it was necessary to alert 'all commands' that the atempt was being made. This strongly suggests that using the tractor beam to capture a SW ship the size of the MF uses a significant fraction of the Executors resources. The fact that the 'small' ISDs didn't even try to capture the MF using tractor beams during ANH or ESB means they couldn't. The smallest SW ship required to mount and power a combat-capable tractor beam is probably going to be the size of the Executor.

Master of Ossus · Post by **Master of Ossus** » 2002-09-17 05:00pm

The abilities of a tractor beam in combat appear to be limited not just by the mass of the target object, but also by its ability to maneuver. The range demonstrated by the DS's tractor beam was enormous, next to the range of the Executor's. The only difference appeared to be that the Falcon was maneuvering against the Executor, and was flying in a linear path towards the DS. This leads me to believe that a tractor beam's ability to track a fast, maneuvering object at range is exponentially smaller than its ability to influence the same target if it was not maneuvering at close range. This probably indicates that tractor beams are useful only for cooperative targets, during combat, or larger ships that have been disabled.

Andras · Post by **Andras** » 2002-09-18 10:17am

Remeber when Lukes X-Wing was almost captured by Thrawn? I believe his shields were still up at the time

Darth Yoshi · Post by **Darth Yoshi** » 2002-09-19 12:48am

Which time? In HTTE, Thrawn got the jump on Luke. In TLC, the debris blocked the tractor beams.

Andras · Post by **Andras** » 2002-09-19 01:33pm

HTTE, if shields prevent tractor lock, all Luke had to do was raise shields, if they were down. B/c he was caught in the tractor, and only got out by over stressing the fighter

Darth Yoshi · Post by **Darth Yoshi** » 2002-09-20 11:02pm

Well, the VOTF incident says shields really aren't that effective, but Leia wasn't going to take any chances.

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Tractor Beams, Are they effective against Imperial shields?

Tractor Beams, Are they effective against Imperial shields?

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