Make it easier to pick up items, its so annoying when you need to pick up loot but dont have the time to aim yourself at it perfectly just to pick it up. For example Earth and Beyond had a tow so once you targetted the item and clicked a button it would be slowly pulled towards you and then put into your cargo. Is this or something similar a thing that could possibly be implemented?

Just A Suggestion
Hackez ~

I don't know, I sort of like it the way it is now. After awhile you can pick up cargo easily without really thinking about it.

It could be a feature of some form of tractor beam if the devs ever decided to put something like that in the game though.

As it is, this sounds like it would take a fair amount of time to accomplish and there are much more important things IMO that the devs could work on. Like mining and cap ships and etc. A little beam to collect cargo because you cannot fly straight is an interesting novelty IMO but not really neccisary or needed.

Although not necessary or needed, it is cool little features that add to a game. I know in my country we cant drive into that old lady and use the excuse "I was just picking up her shopping officer"

Well if you're going to make a tractor beam, why not go all the way and make it a weapon that not only drags in cargo in front of you, but it drags, holds, or slows down enemies withing a 100m range. I wouldn't make the range any longer than that, because the way I see it, most PvP takes place between 200m and 100m. After 200m, many weapons travel too slowly to hit a wildly evading target, and under 100m, many targets are travelling faster than you can maneuver, making hits difficult. So under that 100m range, there is a weapon that slows down an enemy. Of course, the drawbacks are that it deals no damage on its own, draws power froom the battery, has pretty limited range (so you can't drag someone from 600m or whatever), and takes up a full weapon slot.

I don't know if I'd advocate such a weapon, but I figured I'd just throw the idea out on the table while I'm thinking about it.

A "portable gravity generator" might be an interesting idea.

You could use it to suck in cargo, accelerate yourself towards people running away and vice versa, and also any passing rockets or lasers can get sucked into your hull while you've got it on.

Does the current physics engine support multiple forces? Except when you bump stuff, the only forces acting on a ship are the engines and thrusters. I guess forces like gravity could easily be added, but every ship/crate/missile would have to consider every other object to find the sum of the gravity forces..

Oh well, not my problem. =) Gravity would be a nice feature in general if you'd be willing to add it. It would be particularly neat to pick up speed and slingshot around a massive roid.

All explosions have "force"...

I'm all for a tractoc beam, weapon or otherwise, good idea.

Freelancer had a tractor beam just like the one you are suggesting, it was very useful. There is nothing worse than fight guys and have to stop and look around for cargo. I really nice just to be able to press a button and have it all come to you right away.

i hope it eats battery at least as much as your turbo does ;)

oh, and if you have it on near station or asteroid, you should crash into it with a nice sound! (you know, if mountain does not come to you...)