Updated the first post to reflect my agreement with the change for the stasis generator - rather than be removed, instead remove its ability to prevent module activation. The ship still coasts.
“potential additions” for modules:
gravitational lensing - A stationary deployable object that increases opponent main weapon spread within a set radius or weapon heating for Ion based weapons. (potentially scaling with mk).
Notes:
Can be taken over by System Hack
Can be destroyed
Once destroyed or out of range heating and spread returns to original values.
This feels exactly like the kind of ‘countermeasure’ effect an ECM would have. Not sure about how its gameplay would be, but the idea is neat in concept.
1st - more than often those guys create content oriented for casual type of player, the ‘CoD’ generation per say.
2d - even then, ECM modules already fall into their description of counterplay, it does not have to be a module like 8-2+multipurpose fore example, but “mental games” and that is where it is at with ECMs, and in that area ECM disables be the most interactive module in the game, because of how it is important for both sides. If you yet to see thatc layer of the gamplay, it doesnt mean it is not there and that be a shame if it is removed.
The only thing i would change is not an effect, but requerements to effort on application. Lock and click is to simple and “boring” for my taste, but leavecthe effect as is.
They create content for plenty more than just the CoD generation, but since it’s the largest selling video game I can understand why they’d bias towards it. They use examples from all across the gaming community to explain things.
The counterplay for Ion Diffuser and Stasis Generator is range and line of sight (but only in the Diffuser’s case). The same counterplay exists for guns in this game, except what makes guns have counterplay in this game is how they work. If all guns were just regular bullet-esque effects (like CoD) then changing the gun you use has no impact on the counterplay. What makes them special here is the vast number of different additional effects, the way some fire vs others. The difference between an automatic rifle and a shotgun in a ‘typical’ FPS is far less impactful on counterplay than the difference between the beam cannon and coil mortar. Engies have regular counterplay vs beam cannon but coil mortars have a drastically different effect on the counterplay, because the explosion can kill its drones and nearby deployables. That’s not even taking the difference in damage types into account, which is a kind of counterplay that happens before the battle even starts. These are some of the greatest things in Star Conflict. The beam cannon is also far superior vs fast movers that can dodge projectile shots.
I bolded that bit at the bottom because that kind of change would drastically increase the interactivity with its effects. If it only managed to land stuns in certain circumstances that took more work to pay off, then the interactivity becomes much more interesting and even fun to play with. The Metastable is a fantastic example of this. I scramble to reach the 1500m mark away from a metastabling ECM so that I can keep firing at it as soon as the stun wave goes out. Some players line up a missile shot, expecting to be stunned but still damage the ECM. It can be used in both team aggressive and defensive strategies and causes a lot of important and interesting decision making. I very much like ECMs for having it, because the effect is very good at building play and counterplay.