Do we think the tractor beam can misfire? And if so, could that damage one or both ships?
TL;DRLike most items, the tractor beam can misfire, more often when worn or damaged; the exact event isn't settled, but he expects it would just stop working briefly, possibly catastrophically in atmosphere.
Pretty much every item in the game will have the ability to misfire. So misfire is this base percentage chance of an event occurring. Every item can do it, and there's factors that can increase that chance. Wear and degradation being the main one that increases it. So the more worn something is, the more likely it is to misfire. Damage can do that. Distortion can do a temporary buff or debuff on it. We haven't isolated exactly what the misfire event for the tractor beam is, but I would expect it just simply stops working for a period of time. So you could be maneuvering a ship around, your very worn, trusty tractor beam misfires, the beam stops, that ship just keeps... it inherits the momentum that you had given it and it just carries on sailing, and when it comes back on again you've got to reposition yourself to get back hold of it before it disappears. If it does that in atmosphere, that could be pretty catastrophic.