This provides players with an important choice. They either choose to have key, offensive abilities that provide important benefits to their team. OR they choose to have a single, passive ability that negates those and brings everyone to status quo.
So, let's say team A has 3 ECM mechs, and team B has 1 ECCM mech. That 1 ECCM mech has some decisions to make. Does it rush out and scout, hoping to disrupt the enemy's cloak to see where they're coming from? Or does it stay back by its team, allowing them to actually target the enemy once they're seen? Likewise, the ECM mechs have choices to make. They know they're all being countered by a lone mech. Should they all try and kill it so that their ECM works unimpeded? Should they split up so that no matter what the ECCM mech does, their mechs either remain cloaked or sensor are disrupted?
Now, what about the opposite? If team A has 1 ECM mech and team B has 3 ECCM, isn't that unfair to the ECM mech? Possibly. What can be done? Well, remember, the ECCM mechs are providing no other advantage to their team other than countering that 1 ECM. It's a rather wasted bit of over-kill. If two of them were ECM mechs instead, they could be doing much more than just keeping a lone enemy mech at bay.
However, perhaps multiple ECCM mechs should actually be a disadvantage? Maybe they interfere with each other within a certain range? Or perhaps ECCM is limited to Ravens only? (Although I personally think all ECM should be limited to Ravens only, but that's just me. A DDC Atlas with this stuff is just ridiculous.) Maybe ECCM has a shorter range, meaning they have to stick closer to the ECM mech they are trying to jam? Perhaps ECCM generates more heat, or even interferes with the mech's own targeting as a sort of electronic feedback? Maybe it just simply takes up more space, is heavier, or uses up a weapon slot? There are plenty of ways to keep it fair between ECM and ECCM with a little thinking.
You can even go a bit further with all this and split the ECM abilities up into two separate modes. One allows for radar cloaking and the other allows for targeting disruption but not both at once. This way, more choices need to be made. They can't simply dive into a brawl and be both invisible to radar AND hard to hit. You're either hard to hit yet you and your team's position is visible, or your team is invisible on radar but can be targeted and locked onto.
Choices like these would add depths and decision making to the game. Right now, ECM just devolves into "Who has more?"
Now, what if no mech is carrying ECCM? Well, that likely means both sides have an ECM mech and are suffering equally from it. It again puts them on a level playing field. I doubt that, as it stands currently, there will be ECM mechs on one team but not the other. They provide too much of an important advantage not to take at least one. Light mechs, as well, will likely always be carrying ECM. This could prove problematic in the long run, and additional changes might need to be made. It really should be more of a choice rather than a requirement.
Edited by Stargazer86, 05 December 2012 - 10:32 AM.