ECM/Inty complete rework

To quote Wikipedia:

 

“An  electronic countermeasure  ( ECM ) is an electrical or electronic device designed to trick or deceive radarsonar or other detection systems, like infrared (IR) or lasers. It may be used both offensively and defensively to deny targeting information to an enemy.”

 

ECMs don’t do the job of an electronic countermeasure unit, or where they do they do so by accident.

 

White Noise Jammer is, ironically, the only offensive module we have that is actually an ECM module. It knocks out a ship’s targetting systems. Flares are a defensive ECM, but everyone can have them.

 

What might make ECM more interesting is if it were an “anti-Recon”. Consider what the Recon does:

 

  1. Paints Targets - Spy Drones remove any and all possibility of a stealthy approach by a tagged ship.

  2. Steals Shield - Parasitic Remodulator can spell death to an enemy who is caught short by it, either by the Recon landing the kill or making it vulnerable to supporting ships.

  3. Area Denial - Their beacon (forget the name) prevents all ships in the area using cloaks, giving the Recon and its allies greater situational awareness.

  4. Battlefield Presence - Recons are insanely fast due to Microwarp and can briefly cloak. These attributes mean that they can be anywhere on the field and can exploit a vulnerability as and when it appears.

 

So… what would an anti-Recon do? Well, by and large the Recon’s abilities are about forcing defensive play from the enemy due to threat of failure. If you attack while Spy Droned, you can’t heal. If you attack with a Recon buzzing you he’ll steal your shield. If you attack without proper co-ordination you’ll leave the rear vulnerable to a warp-in. Enemy Recons essentially force you to fly conservative, so allied ECMs should encourage you to fly reckless, or at least more aggressively. So, how can we do this?

 

  1. White Noise - They can knock an enemy ship’s targeting systems out temporarily to give allies a window of opportunity. Particularly in higher tiers, modules matter. A Recon that can’t lock-on can’t plant spy drones. A tackler that can’t lock-on can’t debuff. Hitting small or agile targets, especially with slow guns becomes a nightmare.

  2. Radar Countermeasures - Give the ECM the ability to conceal itself and others from enemy sensors. Not a total cloak like the CovOps, but something that reduces enemy sensor range. It could even work as a “Jammer Drone” affair, launched like the Recon Spy Drone. When hit, your sensor range plummets by 25% - 50%. That makes it a lot harder for Jammed ships to spot attacks coming.

  3. Misdirection - Give the ECM a “holodrone” that creates a false ship. The drone looks real (it appears to be one of the ECM’s allied players) and acts real (it attempts to capture beacons, shoot enemy ships, etc) but it does no damage and only has a small amount of health and shields. Tagging it with a Spy Drone might reveal it for the fake it is, which would be a cool element of counter-play between the classes. Imagine how scary it would be to approach a beacon and see an ECM and a Guard Frigate loitering there with no way of knowing if that Guard was real or not… or if all else fails, just seeing two ECMs and not knowing which one was the real one.

  4. Damage Control - The Recon, as said, can exploit a hole in the line and play merry hell on your back line. The ECM, therefore, should offer some way to retake the initiative. One idea; the Firewall Drone. Drop this and all enemy ships in the area of effect have their beacon capture, bomb capture and bomb placement speeds reduced. This could buy your team the precious seconds they need to turn around and chase the enemy Recon off their Beacon.

 

Now for a new idea on the Special Module. I wanted to call it “Target Painter” but… it’s taken.

 

Target Designator:

Use this when locked onto an enemy ship and they get a bright red “locked” emblem above them. For every ship locked on to that ship (including the ECM) their Resistances drop by 10.

 

This produces a pretty damn scary ability - not only can an ECM knock out enemy systems and generally mess up plans, but they can focus-fire the team. You spot an enemy with the red crosshair next to their name you know to lock-on to that ship now and kill it dead, because it’s vulnerable as hell.

 

This ability also has a lot of very nice synergy. an ECM-Recon tag-team could, with the suggestions made, make a nightmarish wolfpack. Consider:

 

  • ECM Target-Designates, deploys Jammer-Drones and pops the White Noise Generator. Target is now more vulnerable to fire, has to get closer to lock, and temporarily has no means to lock-on.
  • Recon pops Spy Drone and Parasitic Remodulator. Target ship is now lit up and cannot break the Target Designator even if it escapes the ambush. ECM can maintain the lock until an ally achieves the kill.

Really, I feel like the CovOps has totally messed up how people view Interceptors. CovOps is a solo-pilot’s wet dream, and it seems to generate the idea that all Interceptors, if not all ships period should be able to kick-xxxx flying solo. Indeed, a lone ECM is more than capable of ruining people’s day even if they don’t get a kill - their abilities cause a huge amount of disruption and harassment. The issue lies in it not being fun to play against it.

 

Now, on that note, let’s just go through and see where the fun lies in my suggestion.

 

  1. White Noise. Not much fun on paper, right? Well, what if we make it so the White Noise Generator requires line of sight? Now we have tactical options - it punishes players for being out in the open and alone. Counter-play comes from staying with the group (who will protect you during the WNG duration) or braking LoS and getting your systems back online.

 

  1. Sensor Jamming. This is a bit of a mind game, and here is where the fun comes from. When flying in a group this ‘debuff’ can be totally ignored - you have other ships to spot for you. But imagine if you’re flying an LR at the back, or a Recon / CovOps roving ahead. Suddenly, that blindness matters. Now you have to make a choice - do you run to the safety of the group or press on? Were you tagged for a reason? Is an enemy push going to come your way? Imagine tagging a Guard or LR guarding a beacon, causing him to become convinced a push is coming his way and recalling his squadmates only for that push to never come, or to come somewhere else. ECMs selectively blinding segments of the enemy map could cause their opponents to totally misread what’s going on. This leads us nicely too…

 

  1. Misdirection. Come on guys, you know this would be epic! Imagine an enemy CovOps flying toward your Captain only to see four Guards waiting for him. He takes a Pulsar hit and panics, dropping his nuke, plasma-arcing and suiciding. His efforts succeed in flattening a trio of fake ships and causing minor inconvenience to the only real Guard in the formation.

Or how about being a Recon pilot, warping to a Beacon you thought was unguarded and seeing an enemy Engineer or Tackler there. Do you press on? You don’t see an ECM around, but that’s no guarantee he didn’t fly-by and drop a fake. You could pop a Spy Drone, but if it’s fake you’ve wasted that ability and enemies might be closing fast on your position. That moment of uncertainty, of second-guessing yourself and your mission could be the difference between success and failure. Without ever firing a shot, the ECM has unsettled you. And if it is fake, and turns out to be fake a few times, you might get complacent and charge headlong into a “fake” enemy that turns out to be real this time…

 

  1. Damage Control. This is all about meta and mindgames. Does the ECM pilot drop the drone on a guarded beacon or an unguarded one? If one ship can’t get the job done with a drone present, can two? Or even three? If you can destroy the drone will that help? Will focus-firing the drone cost you because the ECM was still there, waiting to ambush whoever attacked his static area-denial system? Recons, again, have some potentially epic stunts they could pull here; attack a beacon, draw the ECM in, make him pop his modules and then just Microwarp to another Beacon and attack it safe in the knowledge the enemy ECM can’t stop you because he’s out of position and spent his abilities!

 

I don’t know about you, but this kind of ECM sounds a lot more fun than the current “turn invincible, capture the beacon, unplug everyone’s keyboards and fly away.” type we currently have.

I can think of about 20 modules for this role that wouldn’t be considered game-breaking. As it stands, ECM is very much broken compared to other ship roles. Hell, even CovOps are fine when compared to ECM.

How are they broken? only the stasis generator is better than what the CO has to offer.

How are they broken? only the stasis generator is better than what the CO has to offer.

Considering I can now kill Engineers and Guards, solo, with an ECM? Whereas, before, the Engineer would just out-heal me and the Guards would murder me? Yeah, balanced. Not to mention Ceptors are slaughtered by a well-placed ECM.

 

Also, Jasan, loved it. All of it.

@Jason that was a great post. More like that please.

Considering I can now kill Engineers and Guards, solo, with an ECM? Whereas, before, the Engineer would just out-heal me and the Guards would murder me? Yeah, balanced. Not to mention Ceptors are slaughtered by a well-placed ECM.

 

Also, Jasan, loved it. All of it.

That is the guards and engineers fault, not the ECM’s. 

A proper engineer or guard would never die to a lone ECM.

 

Also: Change name to EW(Electronic Warfare) and be done with it.

The ECM class is fine, and I surely don’t see it as broken.

That is the guards and engineers fault, not the ECM’s. 

A proper engineer or guard would never die to a lone ECM.

 

Also: Change name to EW(Electronic Warfare) and be done with it.

The ECM class is fine, and I surely don’t see it as broken.

You still remember our 1 vs 1? :slight_smile:

You still remember our 1 vs 1? :slight_smile:

I do. 

Your engineer wasn’t gonna die any time soon there.

 

But like I forgot to say:

I do not disagree with slight tweaks to ECM’s, but complete revamps? No thanks.

I do. 

Your engineer wasn’t gonna die any time soon there.

 

But like I forgot to say:

I do not disagree with slight tweaks to ECM’s, but complete revamps? No thanks.

And I also failed with my ECM on your engineer.

I also agree on some slight tweaks.

That is the guards and engineers fault, not the ECM’s. 

A proper engineer or guard would never die to a lone ECM.

 

Also: Change name to EW(Electronic Warfare) and be done with it.

The ECM class is fine, and I surely don’t see it as broken.

ECMs will push your xxxx in and tear you a new exhaust before you can even move. I don’t fly with the Ion Emitter because I don’t need to shut down their weapons before they die, that’s how easy it is to kill everything in ECMs.

ECMs will push your xxxx in and tear you a new exhaust before you can even move. I don’t fly with the Ion Emitter because I don’t need to shut down their weapons before they die, that’s how easy it is to kill everything in ECMs.

lol where are you getting your 3k DPS weapons? I can rarely kill anything in the 3 seconds they are stunned when I am alone.

And ECM is support, Ion emitter does that lovely, shut down engineer heals etc. 

 

Tweaks are good, revamps are not at this point. They are for 90% fine right now, only the stasis has its doubts.

ECMs will push your xxxx in and tear you a new exhaust before you can even move. I don’t fly with the Ion Emitter because I don’t need to shut down their weapons before they die, that’s how easy it is to kill everything in ECMs.

 

The ECM interceptor has the lowest total damage of all interceptors, so I am not sure where you’re coming from here. It’s mostly a supportive/utility ship. Yes, of course you can kill with it - but it doesn’t have the shield-draining capacity of a recon, or the plasma arc + web + nuke dps of a covert ops. Those classes have additional ways to do both direct and indirect damage, whereas an ECM doesn’t. (Which is fine, it’s a very disruptive role right now.)

lol where are you getting your 3k DPS weapons? I can rarely kill anything in the 3 seconds they are stunned when I am alone.

And ECM is support, Ion emitter does that lovely, shut down engineer heals etc. 

 

Tweaks are good, revamps are not at this point. They are for 90% fine right now, only the stasis has its doubts.

The Stasis is what’s overpowered in them. You CAN kill Ceptors in that time if you do it right (with a Mk3 Stasis, I don’t have Experimental). You can just solo most of everything if you do things right in an ECM.

 

@ Evil: How many times have you flown with me while I was in an ECM? How many times have you seen me drift away from the group to kill something on my own?

Anyone even vaguely experienced has ways to reduce or outright avoid the duration of your stasis, I’ve never felt that it was overpowered.

 

Tacklers have far harsher ways of stopping you, as do Guards. (though a good pilot would be clever enough not to get that close to a guard, but that’s another story)

 

As far as drifting off goes - you’d have done the same if you had been flying a covert ops or recon, so that’s not a clear indication of the class being broken. Hell, you see me do that all the time in command ships - doesn’t mean those are broken either.

But Commands can actually kill and survive long enough to return to the team or can hold out the punishment long enough for help to arrive. ECMs are flimsy ships and rely on their speed to tank. If you get targeted by 2 ships, you’re in trouble. On a Command, if you get targeted by 4, it’s business as usual. That’s the difference. ECMs die too easily but, if you let them roam free, they will kill damn near everything they face. Not as effectively as a Recon or CovOps, yes, it takes longer, but it does kill quite effectively.

I would like ECMs to work more like command ships. Their effect would have a much smaller radius or have a cooldown, because they’re much smaller and more agile than bulky command fighters. They could do things like reducing the radar detection range of all ships in their vicinity, increase locking time, impair their vision with lots of noise, etc.

Right now they have 4 “nope, denied!”-buttons that require no skill at all. What happens is people completely rely on their modules and forget how to shoot right.

It’s never, ever fun to be put out of control for however long. The way they work right now just makes the game less enjoyable.

if you read some of my previous comments, i agreed that a disable might be fine in some situations…

 

but the chain CCs have to stop… and give them more tactical options instead to combat some other problems. like mass missile spam.

 

and i will read the wall of text later…

 

and no, LoL was not one of the most successful games ever…

 

furthermore, i could name 50-100 awesome games, that were never really successful because everyone was too busy playing cod/mw… ;o

if you read some of my previous comments, i agreed that a disable might be fine in some situations…

 

but the chain CCs have to stop… and give them more tactical options instead to combat some other problems. like mass missile spam.

 

and i will read the wall of text later…

 

and no, LoL was not one of the most successful games ever…

 

furthermore, i could name 50-100 awesome games, that were never really successful because everyone was too busy playing cod/mw… ;o

You’re right, LoL was not one of the most successful games ever, it IS one of the most successful games ever.

I don’t know how many players they have(I don’t give a xxxx about LoL) but from what I understood it is a very popular game that is making a shitton of profit(Official matches with 1m prize…)

The Stasis is what’s overpowered in them. You CAN kill Ceptors in that time if you do it right (with a Mk3 Stasis, I don’t have Experimental). You can just solo most of everything if you do things right in an ECM.

 

@ Evil: How many times have you flown with me while I was in an ECM? How many times have you seen me drift away from the group to kill something on my own?

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I got lucky, I think I even spent gold on it.  It’s just a .2 second improvement in duration and extra range.  Range is important, although my plasma cannon maxes out at 3350m.  The weapon changes affects it as well.  Stasis isn’t just about kills either, I’ve been hit with it several times when planting a bomb so I move out of range.  The modules aren’t just offensive, but defensive.  Lock onto who’s trailing you and hit the ion emitter.  You suddenly have seven seconds to reach home.  Before 0.9, hit stasis and drop a mine.  ECM’s do not have a module that does damage, only prevents damage.

 

But Commands can actually kill and survive long enough to return to the team or can hold out the punishment long enough for help to arrive. ECMs are flimsy ships and rely on their speed to tank. If you get targeted by 2 ships, you’re in trouble. On a Command, if you get targeted by 4, it’s business as usual. That’s the difference. ECMs die too easily but, if you let them roam free, they will kill damn near everything they face. Not as effectively as a Recon or CovOps, yes, it takes longer, but it does kill quite effectively.

Only with enough maneuverability will an ECM get a solo kill, and a lot of skill.  The speed isn’t even that great when you consider that the Fed CO are far faster and they’re “offensive.”  I like interceptors, but the ECM’s not the killer you make it out to be.  Other ships fare better with solo kills.

 

I would like ECMs to work more like command ships. Their effect would have a much smaller radius or have a cooldown, because they’re much smaller and more agile than bulky command fighters. They could do things like reducing the radar detection range of all ships in their vicinity, increase locking time, impair their vision with lots of noise, etc.

Right now they have 4 “nope, denied!”-buttons that require no skill at all. What happens is people completely rely on their modules and forget how to shoot right.

It’s never, ever fun to be put out of control for however long. The way they work right now just makes the game less enjoyable.

No skill at all?  Engineers don’t even have to press a button to get kills!  A guard can hit a pulsar and get several kills with one button and steering!  Watch a guard in PvE not use pulsar!  An ECM needs one target to “disable” and then must use it’s weapons and teammates for a kill.

You’re right, LoL was not one of the most successful games ever, it IS one of the most successful games ever.

I don’t know how many players they have(I don’t give a xxxx about LoL) but from what I understood it is a very popular game that is making a shitton of profit(Official matches with 1m prize…)

 

Funky is quite correct here. @betatrash - please ensure you post comments which are a little more informed.

 

For example, you have repeatedly used League of Legends as an example of poor competitive environment which isn’t that successful and which many gamers don’t like, which is incredibly misguided.

 

As of 2013, League of Legends is the most popular e-sports game in South Korea.

On July 11, 2013, one of the publisher’s managers Nick Allen announced that the [united States Citizenship and Immigration Services now recognizes League of Legends pro-players as professional athletes and the visa application process is now simplified for them. These changes allow professional players to stay in the United States for up to 5 years.

As for Riot Games:

  • Established in 2006. Riot Games launched the stand-alone title League of Legends as its first title in October 2009.
  • Riot Games obtained around US$1 million from venture capital firms to create League of Legends.
  • In later rounds of funding, the company raised $8 million in capital from venture capital firms Benchmark Capital and FirstMark Capital.
  • In early 2011, the Chinese company Tencent Holdings invested in a majority stake in Riot Games valued at $400 million, according to Dow Jones business news.
  • The business is currently valued around $1,5 Billion.

As of October 2012, Riot Games claims League of Legends has over 32 million registrations and averages 12 million players worldwide per day; global concurrent users online regularly peak at over 5 million players, as of March 2013. In July 2012 Xfire released a report stating that League of Legends was the most played PC game in North America and Europe, with 1.3 billion hours logged by players in those regions between July 2011 and June 2012.

If you are still holding to the fact that this is neither a competitive nor a successful game, then Sir - I respectfully request that you visit your local library, pick up a dictionary and look up the word successful.

In fact, here you go;

 

suc·cess·ful

/səkˈsesfəl/

Adjective

  1. Accomplishing an aim or purpose: “a successful attack on the town”.
  2. Having achieved popularity, profit, or distinction.

Synonyms

prosperous - lucky - fortunate

 

If we could stick to comments which are at least factually correct or personal opinion without speaking on behalf of humanity as a whole, that would be great.

 

Back to topic:

 

@Oryngton - has your reply not adequately stated that ECM’s are in fact not totally OP and that other classes have their own purpose and place in combat? You mention yourself that Recon and Cov Ops can kill more effectively.

 

I don’t argue that ECM could do with some tweaking (as previously stated), but a complete overhaul or being completely OP as stated by other posters, I just don’t agree with.

No skill at all?  Engineers don’t even have to press a button to get kills!  A guard can hit a pulsar and get several kills with one button and steering!  Watch a guard in PvE not use pulsar!  An ECM needs one target to “disable” and then must use it’s weapons and teammates for a kill.

I see I hit a nerve there. I’m sorry but don’t regard locking onto a target and pressing 1 button that works 100% of the time to require a lot of skill. So covops have 2 buttons that make them do lots of damage, but they still have to hit stuff, and the kamikaze-option (which is extremely cheap and I would like to see that gone as well). ECM have 3 plus your special ability to make people miserable.

And are you sure you want to hit on engies? The big, slow, easy to hit guys with targets on their heads?