I’m sure we all aggree that it’s no fun to be on the receiving end of an ECM, especially if there is a horde of them. Unlike most other debuffs, ECM can make us totally helpless by shutting us down or draining us to the point we can’t do anything.
Here what i propose:
Ion Diffuser: Instead of disabling us completely, it makes our ship malfunction. Guns randomly refuse to shoot (ie some guns don’t shoot while the rest still do), ship randomly refuse or turn on it’s own, active modules get paused (ie stop working but resume afterward). To keep it fair, not all the effects can happen at once, only 2 effect simultanously. That way it cripple us, but don’t make us totally helpless.
Metastable energy field generator: I’d keep the ecm effect, even make it a bit longer. However, the ECM is no longer invulnerable or immobile. Instead it get a high resist (how high is debatable) while it charging up and can only fly normally (no afterburner or module use, no self repair/shield recharge, no capture or weapon use). Can be cancelled.
Energy Absorber: Instead of draining capacitor, it divert a % (say 50% to 70%) of the targets produced energy to you. However it becomes an active module that continuously drain the target. The absorber need a large amount of energy to start however (meaning that if you used your afterburner to get to the target, you may not have enough to trigger it), but cost nothing once activated. Only one ECM can drain a target at once.
There is not a single negative effect in teh game that makes you go “ooo look! this xxx affecting me right now, oh man this is fun!”
It is irrelevant if it s ECMs effect or IR pulsar effect, Engine Suppressor or w/e. Negative effects are not fun and they are not made to be fun, but it does not mean game should not have them.
There is not a single negative effect in teh game that makes you go “ooo look! this xxx affecting me right now, oh man this is fun!”
It is irrelevant if it s ECMs effect or IR pulsar effect, Engine Suppressor or w/e. Negative effects are not fun and they are not made to be fun, but it does not mean game should not have them.
Well, i guess i worded it wrong. It’s not so much about fun but about not aggravating us to the point we want to flip our desk. The most frustrating debuff effects we can put in a game are the ones that completely remove control from the player. Those should be avoided, or difficult to pull of / counterable. The way ECM currently work makes that whole class despised by most players and that is a bad thing.
Actually, there are negative effects that are fun. Taking damage, for example.
Being hit with weapons in a Guard is great fun, because you just switch your shield resistance and then laugh at your enemy while blowing them out of the sky.
Tanking damage in a Styx, or other Engineer that just won’t die, is also immensely satisfying.
Scrubbing missile locks by jinking behind rocks, or outrunning them, is also satisfying; you get the feeling of having “outsmarted” your opponent and/or the missile targeting system.
Blowing an Engineer’s / Tackler’s drones out of the sky is also quite satisfying, especially when you know or suspect the player is heavily reliant on them.
Breaking a Tackler / Recon debuff and then mauling the guy is nicely satisfying.
Throwing off a Recon Drone and then cloaking before counter-attacking? Satisfying!
Baiting a CovOps into self destructing, or wasting plasma arcs / webs when you know they can’t drop you, is soooo satisfying!
In short, any ability that can be countered through your own abilities, or smart tactics, is satisfying to face. So why does ECM get so much hate? Because none of their abilities can be countered. They can be survived, hopefully, but not countered. Thus, there is no counter-play, and thus there is no satisfaction drawn from being the target of these abilities.
Secuse me but there is no counter for when a Covt op hits an ECM with White Noise… so now that poor ECM can’t lock on to anything for quite a period of time… ( whole lot longer the measly 6.9 secs) I tell you.
So to me that would be considered as a COUNTER against an ECM as the ION and Statis and energy drain requires lock on for the modules to work.
I don’t believe there is an implant that will shorten the White Noise time
The LRF IR whatever it called also renders the target lock useless if the ECM attempts to lock on an LRF that has emmited it’s BRIGHT RED look at me tag.
The only ECMs module you have to “survive” is stasis, all others do not leave you “helpless” you still can do plenty of stuff, well unless you are in Jericho guard, that can to do plenty even if it is not disabled.
J2/Proton wall Affects White noize duration and IR Pulsar (LRFs “white noize”)
Secuse me but there is no counter for when a Covt op hits an ECM with White Noise… so now that poor ECM can’t lock on to anything for quite a period of time… ( whole lot longer the measly 6.9 secs) I tell you.
So to me that would be considered as a COUNTER against an ECM as the ION and Statis and energy drain requires lock on for the modules to work.
I don’t believe there is an implant that will shorten the White Noise time
The LRF IR whatever it called also renders the target lock useless if the ECM attempts to lock on an LRF that has emmited it’s BRIGHT RED look at me tag.
Except for the fact that lots of ECM pilots run proton walls, so the white noise isn’t nearly as effective of a counter. After white noise runs out, you are screwed. And in the cases of ECM-spam, white noise only can affect one of the ECMs. The other ones will be all over you in the meantime. Sure, you could run 3 proton walls (if you have 3 cpu slots) and be the ultimate anti-ECM ship, but that is a waste of cpu slots.
ECM modules remain the only non-counterable active modules in the game (LRF IR Pulsar can’t be countered either, but it isn’t detrimental). Speed debuffs from tacklers can be countered, as can the energy drain, but the disabling modules cannot.
Secuse me but there is no counter for when a Covt op hits an ECM with White Noise… so now that poor ECM can’t lock on to anything for quite a period of time… ( whole lot longer the measly 6.9 secs) I tell you.
So to me that would be considered as a COUNTER against an ECM as the ION and Statis and energy drain requires lock on for the modules to work.
I don’t believe there is an implant that will shorten the White Noise time
The LRF IR whatever it called also renders the target lock useless if the ECM attempts to lock on an LRF that has emmited it’s BRIGHT RED look at me tag.
I would not call it “counter”… In my mind at least, a counter is something you pull after the enemy does his move, not before. To not be crippled by an ECM, you have to strike first, so it’s not a counter…
As for the white noise, it prevent you from locking other ships, but you can still fly, shoot and use most of your modules. It’s annoying for sure, but that alone can’t kill you.
The only ECMs module you have to “survive” is stasis, all others do not leave you “helpless” you still can do plenty of stuff, well unless you are in Jericho guard, that can to do plenty even if it is not disabled.
J2/Proton wall Affects White noize duration and IR Pulsar (LRFs “white noize”)
Not being able to control my ship or having all my energy drained does count as being helpless to me.
I would not call it “counter”… In my mind at least, a counter is something you pull after the enemy does his move, not before. To not be crippled by an ECM, you have to strike first, so it’s not a counter…
As for the white noise, it prevent you from locking other ships, but you can still fly, shoot and use most of your modules. It’s annoying for sure, but that alone can’t kill you.
Exactly. White-noise is temporary prevention, not a counter
Not being able to control my ship or having all my energy drained does count as being helpless to me.
Energy drain does not prevent you from flying and shooting, if anything it is fairly close to Tacklers Inhibitor Beam, but it has limited duration and cooldown on top of that, while IB is no CD, unlim duration.
Ions don’t block your maneuvering or AB at all, it doesn’t kill you, it makes you focus on your flying for awhile.
Those ECMs that equip proton walls and J2 implants hardly have much DPS - most of ECMs have only 1 CPU and J2 means no E2 equipped.
ECMs, like any other support disabler in any role based pvp game (see dota2, blood champions, HoN) could be annoying when played well, but well played tackler just as much if not more annoying due to his no cooldown slows.
Energy drain does not prevent you from flying and shooting, if anything it is fairly close to Tacklers Inhibitor Beam, but it has limited duration and cooldown on top of that, while IB is no CD, unlim duration.
Ions don’t block your maneuvering or AB at all, it doesn’t kill you, it makes you focus on your flying for awhile.
Energy drain may not prevent us from moving or shooting back, but it’s a death sentence for anything that isn’t an Interceptor because we can’t keep up with that ECM that is pocking us to death.
Why am I being deleted for no reason? It’s on topic goodness sakes. i think a certain forum moderator is abusing his powers *cough
Please:
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