I'm 90% certain they're working properly, and responding to Protections properly... as always, notify me of any errors you encounter.

To answer a few (but not all to keep up the suspense) of the questions you'll all be wondering, these TBs fine less often, and for much less than the old ones. They will not, however, notify the person stolen from every time they are used. Only sometimes. So if you notice a large amount of Sparks missing suddenly, it was probably a Tractor Beam. .::Still suspects that'll be a problem, but will work it out later::.

so sometimes people won't even know if they've been stolen from? That's good, less chance of getting caught...

Heh. Also more chance for problems... the Logs still record everything, so Admins can check on who stole from who, though I don't want everyone...

I have a solution. 20% of the time it'll say who stole from you, and the other 80% it'll just notify you that you were stolen from.

Edit: Tractor Beams successfully updated. They will now always send a PM if you were stolen from, but there's only a 20% chance you'll find out who done it.

At least it's still anonymous most of the time...
and one of the tractors died on me... and I stole with another one to get enough for it...

The weaker ones have a higher failure rate than the stronger ones. I'm going to go calculating out the numbers and figures later to make sure they're all strong enough, but in the meanwhile... well, I'll let our resident Rogue Phoenix have his fun, .

it was a v4.1 too...
I really should change my title to "Rogue Phoenix"...

All of them can fail. Just let me know if there's an absurd number of failures, as that might mean I messed something up while fixing the Protection response part of it.

The Protections do make the TB less likely to succeed, by the way. Only a couple of people have them, but just letting you and everyone else know. The weaker Protection isn't very strong, certainly not in testing, but the stronger Protection comes at the cost of being able to use TBs. I might tweak their prices later.

It is always possible to succeed with a Tractor Beam, though. Both Protections alter the success odds in different ways, but you could get a TBv4.2 through against someone with an active Cloaking Device (granted, you have about the same odds of it failing or you being fined, but even the rich aren't completely protected).

another one just died...
it was a v4.0 though so it was the weakest one...

.::Checks Logs::. One out of three working isn't bad. And just so you know, the person wasn't notified as to your identity (of course, once he checks this thread, he'll probably put two and two together, ).

Hum... .::Rechecks odds::. They have low failure rates... I'm surprised those two failed. .::Shrugs it off, for now::.

I think you should make the TB v4.0 restock again so I can do more "Testing".
And I stole from someone who already is plotting against me so I'm doing prestrikes, like my shot at marik

Two more stocked. I just took a glance at the coding, and it looks fine... so... I think your failures are probably just the odds adding up to why it took it so long to fail against me when I had Protection.

wow. An admin listened to me.
Who are you and what did you do with Shattered?

Don't worry, he'll wake up in a few hours once the chloroform wears off.

And besides... I need to get TBs fully debugged, assuming they're not already. Once there's a working system of Items, it'll be up to everyone to be active, rather than waiting for Marcus and I to realease the next Item (that, and the Pet system is going to take a long while for completion...).

well I got a v4.0 and it worked, then a v4.1 and it worked, so now I'm deciding who to use the v4.2 on

Then all is well.

Well I used the v4.2 to kill one of the richest members...
I think I stole 120 sparks

.::Sets about editing TBs so they're not as uber-powerful as they were before::.

Just so everyone knows: This is why Frisbees exist.

They exist because when I get bored people lose a lot of sparks

Exile, why do you insist on stealing from me at every possible oppotunity?

At least steal from me once I get into a usergroup....

Since you complained so much I dropped you off the richest member list
now I won't steal from you since I only steal from members on that list

Have fun stealing using the edited Tractor Beams. They're less likely to succeed than before, and have lower amounts that can be stolen (costs changed a little, too).

'course, they're still probably overpowered... but I'll determine that in a little while.

EVIL! EVIL I TELL YOU!
You wrecked my fun...

They're still decently powerful. I just need to make sure that it's not the same problem as when the Forums started, when Tractor Beams kept everyone hoarding Items so that they'd have Sparks.

I'm still hoarding items over here...
too many people want to hurt my sparks...

The wonders of the curse of being a thief, .

Please sir, I only have little sparks here, spare some for me?

Next item: Safe. Spectre item, but they can be used by everyone =D

I thought it was going to be Spark Fuser? (And they were only going to be dismantlable by everyone, not useable by everyone.)

My Version 4.2 failed. And I wanted to steal Shattered's sparks, too. Someday...

Be careful about going after an Admin's Sparks, . And these TBs are failing too often, o.o. .::Checks the Logs again to see if there were some successes he missed::.

Why? Is it harder to steal an Admin's sparks?

Not unloess they have a cloaking device... which they probably do
They also always know who hit them and can hit back a lot harder...

I only have a... the other one. Which made Sara's 4.2 TB have only a slightly better than half chance of stealing from me.

TB's are having bad luck... that should quickly turn around, though. I'm still fairly certain they were coded right.

Another tractor failed on me...
That's 5/6 that have failed...

It'll balance out eventually... maybe.

I think you nerfed them so people who use all their sparks to steal end up with nothing

Meh, they took a long time when I used them to prove that they were actually working by the right odds. Granted, the results you're getting are a bit odd, but nowhere near enough have been used to prove something's actually wrong in the coding.

yet another one failed on me...
a v4.2 too...
6/7 have failed

Remember, the formula to find margin of error is 2*sqrt[p(1-p)/n], where P equals current percentage of luck, and N is the number of tries. 6/7=.8571428

Hence, 2*sqrt[.8571428(1-.8571428)/7]=
2*sqrt[.8571428*.1428572/7]=
2*sqrt[.122448979/7]=
2*sqrt[.017492711]=
2*.132260014=
.264520028=
~26%

o.o... now I can't remember whether I'm supposed to divide that by 2 for the plus/minus of ~86%, or not... but why do those numbers seem off, o.o? .::Checks TB coding versus what the TBs are set at to do::.

uhhhh......
I have no clue what you just said
I'm sure I'll understand it in a few years after High School

The amount you're trying to steal affects success rate, so you might just be very greedy

Actually, it shouldn't. These TBs were built from scratch by me, based slightly upon what the old models did. Everything's much simpler, and while Exile had a great run of luck while they were slightly more powerful, he's had horrible luck since then.

Oh... that's information that's always good to know

Great...
Shattered all Tractor info is supposed to go only to me ;P

Remind me how many Sparks you stole with them? Someone needs to keep you in check, .

I simplely placed the balence between Frisbees and Tractors back in order. When I started 10 or so people had over 100 sparks, now only 4 have. My work is going well
And when are you going to give me a title changer or change my title to "Rogue Phoenix"

When you go and buy one from the Store.

*sigh* I was but they're not in stock for another day and i had to spend my sparks so people don't steal it...
EDIT:another one failed!!!!!v4.0 trying to steal 27 sparks!

Well, my v4.0 stole 35 just now

Good for you
More for me to take.