Better tractor beam speed management about endless-sky

[Zitchas]

A combination of values comes to mind:

• Target mass (what size thing is this tractor beam most effective against)
• Target speed (how fast the ideal mass Target will be pulled in.)
• Below Mass Dropoff (how aggressive is the reduction in speed for things that weigh less)
• Over Mass Dropoff (how aggressive is the reduction in speed for things that are heavier)

For the mass Dropoff: 1 is default, current rate. 0-1 reduces the Dropoff rate, >1 makes it Dropoff faster, negative inverts it so it moves stuff the opposite direction.

This would allow a full range of variety, including being able to have it repel things. For instance for the Remnant and Korath. The Korath have a beam that attracts things <= 10, and repels stuff that is bigger, while Remnant could have the opposite that attracts things above 10, and repels things lighter than that.

[Amazinite]

Yeah. I'm thinking of changing it so that it takes the square or cubed root of the mass of the object being pulled, then reducing the strength of the current tractor beam by the same factor. Some minimum velocity applied to the flotsam regardless of mass would also work.

[SomeTroglodyte]

Best test case: Yottrite, imho. With an agile ship and a TB, you can "push it around", if desired, even in amusing patterns.

[Quotatron3000]

Just wanted to sound off on the tractor beam.

Currently, if an object is stationary, and your ship is making pace towards it, and the flotsam happens to be heavy, the tractor beam mechanics actually 'pushes it away' from you, making it take longer to retrieve or sometimes even malfunctioning and giving the flotsam additional unwanted acceleration.

The tractor beam needs to factor in the acceleration and angle of the ship itself also. So if I'm speeding towards the flotsam, it should include ship's acceleration + tractor pull rate to determine speed, not just tractor pull rate.