Database backed up.. risky experiments time.  
I've tried to build a circle of tractor beams. Unfortunately, ResolutionMnt 004 cannot tractor Agincourt 002. For that matter, the other tractor beamed ships don't even show up in the dropdown list of tractor targets (but my shipyards do)

I removed Agincourt 003 and 004 and 005 from the task group, breaking their links.
Weird behaviour ensued.   Task group speed is now 0 ( I've never seen a 0 speed anything)
http://i253.photobucket.com/albums/hh47/jon_seah/AuroraTractortest3taskgroup-1.jpg

F6 window: Selecting Agincourt 002, I cannot find ResolutionTnk 004 in the tractor beam target list.  I can find ResolutionMnt 004 though...  But Resolution Mnt 004 has 003 tractoring it.  

I think I can figure out the rule(s) here.  
1. A ship can only have 1 tractor beam target.  
2. A ship that is tractor beaming something cannot be the target of a tractor beam.  
3. A ship can be tractorbeamed first, and THEN tractorbeam other things.

Aw, no tractorbeam loops.  XD

Also, can we please not take that out?  ^^  I want to make a modular fleet now.  
Why not just consider total engine power of all tractor linked ships and their total mass then get the speed from there?

EDIT: lolz, I could quite easily make capital ships go zoom as fast as fighters go... zoom...
Hey... Can fighters mount a tractor beam?  *evil grin*

FACs certainly can.  I now have a two stage tractorbeam FAC that can make any number of tankers go at 10 kkm/s  =P

Relink:
http://i253.photobucket.com/albums/hh47/jon_seah/AuroraTractortesttaskgroup.jpg

SM mode testing to create a fleet of tankers with tractor beams. It works.
Pics here:
http://i253.photobucket.com/albums/hh47/jon_seah/AuroraTractortest2taskgroup.jpg

I have discovered that you can drag to set the length of columns.  Interesting.  Each ship is apparently linked to two others.  
Moving the fleet... works.  I've moved them from my homeworld to my naval shipyards.  

Interesting to see that the effect Elouda mentioned is around.  The speed of that fleet is 9191, which is the standard max speed of my tug boats.  

Fuel test... Only my tug boats consume fuel.  Which is a massive fuel hog of course.  

EDIT: The ResolutionTnk class is a tanker class, fuel... and nothing else.  The ResolutionMnt class is a maintenance base, 2x maintenance module and nothing else. 

I just installed last week.   v5. 20  I think it's 5. 20 at least.   
For reference, ship design looks like this.   

King George class Cruiser    19,900 tons     2107 Crew     5194. 6 BP      TCS 398  TH 1275  EM 1800
6407 km/s     Armour 4-65     Shields 60-300     Sensors 1/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 32     PPV 195
Annual Failure Rate: 143%    IFR: 2%    Maint Capacity 3589 MSP    Max Repair 377 MSP    Est Time: 3. 15 Years

Magnetic Confinement Fusion Drive E8. 4 (17)    Power 150    Fuel Use 84%    Signature 75    Armour 0    Exp 16%
Fuel Capacity 250,000 Litres    Range 26. 9 billion km   (48 days at full power)
Delta R300/15 Shields (24)   Total Fuel Cost  360 Litres per day

Quad 20cm C5 Ultraviolet Laser Turret (5x4)    Range 256,000km     TS: 8000 km/s     Power 40-20     RM 4    ROF 10        10 10 10 10 8 6 5 5 4 4
Fire Control S08 128-8000 (1)    Max Range: 256,000 km   TS: 8000 km/s     96 92 88 84 80 77 73 69 65 61
Magnetic Confinement Fusion Reactor Technology PB-1 AR-0 (20)     Total Power Output 100    Armour 0    Exp 5%

ECM 10

This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes

Let me confirm that tractor beam chain again. . .  . . .

Confirmed.   I've chained my tug boats together in orbit.   
Pic here:
hxxp: i253. photobucket. com/albums/hh47/jon_seah/AuroraTractortesttaskgroup. jpg

The Agincourt class is a tugboat that is nothing but engines and a tractor beam.   From the F6 screen, I selected Agincourt 002, tractor linked it to Agincourt 003.   Selected Agincourt 003, tractor linked it to Agincourt 004 and so on.   

Then I open the F12 taskgroups screen and refresh the TG they were in by selecting it in the dropdown box again and I get this.   

SM mode testing coming up.   

I have discovered that tractor beams can chain. . .
A, B and C all have tractor beams.   

A1 tractors B1, B1 tractors B2, B2 tractors B3 <. . . >, B* tractors C, C tractors nothing

Which version are you playing with?  My recollection is that someone stumbled over this a year or so ago, and Steve removed it as an exploit - probably in late 4.x.  IIRC, the intent is that only 2 ships are allowed in a tractor chain, i.e. A tractors B, B tracktors nothing.

John

Anti missile i learnt the had way.

You need an Active Sensor that is R1 to see the missiles incoming as well as an R1 fire control.

I thought I only needed one but it would not fire cause I could not see the missiles.

but you can have that R1 Active Sensor on one ship and they all will work, but lose that ship you lose missile defense.

Thanks for the missile advice.   I. . .  think I'll reconsider though given how much more research I'd have to do.   I'll just pick my battles and only fight when outnumbering the enemy.   
Was useful in designing anti-missiles though.   

I've been plotting out the sensor strength to detection radius on Autograph, using the values given by the Active Sensor design page to reverse engineer the range equation.   

Detection Range = Sensor Range at rated size / ( (Target object size / rated size)^2 )
 - I assume I cannot detect things beyond the sensor range at rated size, as that would mean smaller res sensors win vs bigger sensors all the time.   

It strikes me that I have a massive gap in my detection ranges due to my arrangements of active sensors.   
~280 - 100 hull sizes are only detected at 192m km
~70 - 20 hull sizes are only detected at 85. 9m km

And the nature of the equation means that no matter what I do, there is always a gap unless I add a ridiculous amount of sensors.   =( 

Missiles only deal damage with a Warhead. Agility only increases hitrate, speed is keeping you alive.
For a decoy missile, a good idea might be a Mirv.
That way, you can have a size 2 missile spit out a size 1.5 missile that releases a size 1 missile, giving you three missiles of different speeds for just 2 MSP.
For your missile warheads, keep it squares. 1, 4, 9, 16... works better versus Armor.
If you ever hit Invaders (An advanced race), Lasers might actually be a good choice for Point defense.

The AI can counter Missiles pretty decently, like a human player; Theres really not much to it.
Decoys might work, but the best choice in my book is to swarm them.
Get reduced size launchers, say, 50%, and get big alphastrikes in to swamp their Firecontrols in contacs they can't possibly all beat, and rip them up with numbers. Keep in mind some enemies might have higher tech levels though, an enemy dishing out 3 missiles a second is not an uncommon sight.

Also, you can use beam weapons, if you got really good point defense, just wait until they expend their missiles, then hunt them down.
Cloaking technology is also a valid possibility.

Most people will limit which systems they reasearch to a plan.  Some weapon for short range point defense, a long range beam weapon, and missile tech.  There are a couple of ways you can go with the missile tech.  One is to pour your reasearch into the missiles and make them the primary shipkiller weapon.  The problem with this is that they are expensive.  While a great system for encounters with precursors, star swarms and small npr's you will quickly find out that keeping your fleets in ammunition is almost prohibitavly expensive.  The second way is to use missiles as a counter missile to thin out the incomming missile attacks so your other point defense can handle it.  For this you mostly need a moderate tech for the warhead, good agility and missile engine tech along with a reload speed of 3.  This will give you a 10 second cycle time for size 1 missiles which should be enough to thin out missile attacks.  For point defense the best weapon is the gauss cannon, while both mesons and lasers make a good multipurpose system.  Mesons are also a devestating short range weapon as they ignore armour and shields.  You will want at least some meson tech as they are the only beam weapon that can be sued through an atmosphere without being affected.  Lasers are good at all ranges depending on caliber, while particle beams are excellent for smaller ships to get good range and damage.  Railguns are devestating in close due to their high rate of fire, and early on make a decent point defense system as well.  The microwave system is harder to use but has the potential to knock out a ships fire control very quickly,  The main drawback is it does need to get through the shields before having any effect.

Hope this helps
Brian