For more details about towing, see Tow Conflict Resolution.

Tow_strength =
   Engine_contribution + Movement_contribution
                    ...if ship has fuel
   0                ...if ship does not have fuel

Engine_contribution =
   Engine_tech^2 * Eff_engines * Warp_factor * TowStrengthEngineScale

Movement_contribution =
   Movement_distance * TowStrengthDistanceScale
   ...where
      Movement_distance = Min(Waypoint_distance,
                              Max_dist,
                              Max_allowed_by_fuel)
  • Engine_tech is the tech-level of the engine (i.e. 10 for Transwarp Drives)
  • Eff_engines is the number of engines the ship has, times two if the ship has gravitonic engines, plus an additional 2 if the ship has a Level 2 Tractor beam.
  • Movement_distance is an estimate how far the ship will move regularily this turn.
    • Waypoint_distance is the distance to the waypoint. For ships that hyperjump, this value is 350, independant from actual waypoint.
    • Max_dist is the maximum distance allowed by the ship's speed, as explained in the movement formulas section, e.g. 81 for a regular ship at warp 9.
    • Max_allowed_by_fuel is the maximum distance the ship can travel before running out of fuel. For the tower, the computation includes the towee's mass.
This is a testing version.
It may be incomplete, and have more bugs (or features) than the public live version at planetscentral.com.