35 replies to this topic

[Suko]

//Rant Mode: Activated

I've been playing this game since July and I've more-or-less coped with everything "unbalanced" that this game has seen. Knockdown Dragons? Been there, got over it. Guasscats? Meh, they're annoying but whatever...I can still take'em. Streak Cats? That was annoying as f*ck when they had shaken baby mode still active. They patched that within a month and all is good. Ditto for the AC2 rockin'.

However....ECM is something that is trying my patience. I waited a month, then two. The entire time I was CERTAIN that PGI was aware of the bumble on how OP ECM was. I was certain that any day now a change was coming. However, 3+ months after implementation it hasn't even been tweaked at all.

I know that a thread was made, asking for player's suggestions - which is promising. I hope this means that SOMETHING is finally going to be done in the near future. Yet, until then, I feel my rage building every time I see a 3L. It exponentially rises when I see multiple 3Ls. (Rage = 3L ^3L's on the field)

I would pay hard MC if I could be put into a non-ECM queue of this game. Somewhere where a man can shoot stompy robots and dish out cold depleted uranium slugs of death in peace. Somewhere without all this ECM nonsense. PGI, I will pay you money to avoid the terrible "game mechanic" that is ECM.

//Rant Mode: Disabled

Edited by ShadowVFX, 15 March 2013 - 10:52 AM.

[Vermaxx]

You could just buy an ECM mech...and then every match is KIND OF no ECM, since you cancel out anything but coordinated teams running it.

[Gaan Cathal]

ShadowVFX, on 15 March 2013 - 10:51 AM, said:

I would pay hard MC if I could be put into a non-ECM queue of this game. Somewhere where a man can shoot stompy robots and dish out cold depleted uranium slugs of death in peace. Somewhere without all this ECM nonsense. PGI, I will pay you money to avoid the terrible "game mechanic" that is ECM.

All else aside, I'm going to be mildly facetious and point out that in no way does ECM interfere with the ability to dish out depleted uranium slugs.

[NRP]

There is a name for a place without ECM.  It's called LRM hell.

Is it the Raven 3Ls or ECM that is bothering you?

Personally, I've found that Raven 3Ls really don't like PPCs, lasers, SRMs, Gauss fire, or AC/20 fire.

Edited by NRP, 15 March 2013 - 10:59 AM.

[General Taskeen]

ECM is balanced in MW:LL. Give it a go.

[Vermaxx]

MWLL is dead isn't it? Is anyone still hosting?

[ragingmunkyz]

Good, now tell us how you really feel.

Also: inb4 lock.

[Nicholas Carlyle]

General Taskeen, on 15 March 2013 - 10:59 AM, said:

ECM is balanced in MW:LL. Give it a go.

Been getting tempted to branch out and away from MW:O. I downloaded Path of Exile, found a copy of Diablo 3 for 25 bucks. I am thinking about trying MW:LL and downloaded Hawken to try as well.

[General Taskeen]

Vermaxx, on 15 March 2013 - 11:03 AM, said:

MWLL is dead isn't it? Is anyone still hosting?

Its not being updated anymore, no, but it can still be downloaded and people still play it.

[Terror Teddy]

NRP, on 15 March 2013 - 10:55 AM, said:

There is a name for a place without ECM. It's called LRM hell.

If the LRM's blot out the sky I will fight in the shade of a big building or rock

[Vermaxx]

Nicholas Carlyle, on 15 March 2013 - 11:05 AM, said:

Been getting tempted to branch out and away from MW:O. I downloaded Path of Exile, found a copy of Diablo 3 for 25 bucks. I am thinking about trying MW:LL and downloaded Hawken to try as well.

OMG GET HEART OF THE SWARM.

Of course if you do you will not like Zerg in multiplayer.

[Rebas Kradd]

Terror Teddy, on 15 March 2013 - 11:07 AM, said:

If the LRM's blot out the sky I will fight in the shade of a big building or rock

"What shade?"

Sincerely yours,
Alpine

[xZaOx]

Just dont use LRMS or Streaks, and be care free like the rest of us. ECM doesnt affect your eyes. You can still see the mech and point at it and shoot it.

i know aiming is hard and you need a lock on, but keep practicing.

[ohtochooseaname]

ECM, in its current implementation, does seem to help balance out LRM hell. I must say, i enjoy my matches most when both sides have equal amounts of ECM (both when I am playing my 3L, and when I am playing my LRM/SSRM 7M). If there were no ECM in the game, Stalkers would be hands-down the best Mechs. No reason to run anything else. ECM at least allows your scouts to effectively take out the LRM boats if their brawlers leave them and makes targeting with LRM's in general more difficult.

[Rofl]

xZaOx, on 15 March 2013 - 11:16 AM, said:

Just dont use LRMS or Streaks, and be care free like the rest of us. ECM doesnt affect your eyes. You can still see the mech and point at it and shoot it.

i know aiming is hard and you need a lock on, but keep practicing.

They need to make a new item, make up some BS name, and have it disable all lasers within 280m. You'll still have PPCs, so it's not unbalanced. See? Energy users that are just boating lasers are just bad and need to go to PPCs.

Do you see what I did there?

Edited by Rofl, 15 March 2013 - 11:34 AM.

[Weaselball]

Rofl, on 15 March 2013 - 11:33 AM, said:

Do you see what I did there?

[Whompity]

Get some Gauss / AC and shoot at the black dots instead of the red ones? Those ones are always hittable.

Edited by Olivia Maybach, 15 March 2013 - 11:38 AM.

[Skunk Wolf]

It's because the current build of ECM has several TT elements bundled into it. With none of the drawbacks.

It's Stealth Armour http://www.sarna.net...i/Stealth_Armor

And the BAP's detection when in jamming mode.

In real life, when you jam, EVERYBODY knows where you are.

In game ECM gives these mechs complete radar stealth.

It's called ECM, not cloaking device. Not Stealth Armour. ECM.

In real life, trillions of dollars and major design handicaps are used to make this happen on aircraft.

Blah, blah, just shoot them: Yeah but they are not showing up on the map, so your teammates don't know what you are shooting at if they are somewhere else. That's powerful enough.

All for 400K, two critical slots and 1.5 tons.

Yeah, real balanced.

If it was this good in the universe, everybody's mech would have it.

I have no idea how it even got off the ground or why anybody thought it was a good idea the way it currently is.

To Fix:

Make it able to be turned on and off.

Make it generate heat like a constant firing PPC, just like stealth armour.

Make BAP render it ineffective at 180 meters.

Remove the disrupt ability.

Pilot cooks if he doesn't shut it down when firing weapons and has to play smart.

DONE.

//end rant.

If it's not unbalancing, why not have a weekend event where every mech with the slots and tonnage can equip it? Then have MM constantly have ECM and non-ECM versus matches.

Edited by Skunk Wolf, 15 March 2013 - 11:44 AM.

[MadTulip]

For me its similar to what the OP said. Im playing this for a while. I enjoy killing a few things in the evening and amassed nearly 1700 matches er so now. there are things which come and go like the gausscat and stuff.

ECM has its point in the game somehow. atm i feel it beeing dominant and that is for a while. im not thinking its unbalanced if you play carefully. i nearly always bring a tag for just the cash plus all the other nice things it does. as a tag my target anyway i prefer LRMing ECM mechs just because they are so annoying. "annoying" is probably the best describing term for ECM in my eyes. i dont see it unfair or imbalanced as such, its just not fun the way it is .

Main reason here i think is that ECM cancels ECM, thats just a bad design of rock,paper,paper.

i usualy try to play whats most efficient and fun at the same time and i dont play ECM so far. For my decicion on where to spent money in the metagame ECM has mainly the impact, that it reduces effectivly playable chassis and variants which i might want to invest in quite a lot. if i want to play a light or lower tonnage medium like cicada i need 2 things to be able to compeete with raven-3L. first is ECM to counter his ECM, and reason why i need to counter that is only smr2-streaks. so i also need those hardpoints. this reduces the choice of fast light mechs to (and here comes the list:)

< good light mechs>
- Raven 3L
</good light mechs>

i dont own a ravel 3l although i have 20 other mechs. i just dont want to cheese like that. sorry raven 3l pilots, its a cool mech. in another mechwarrior 3D implementation i always liked the raven for his tag and rogue/scout abilities. he lacks them here. he is more like the wow paladin with the "bubble -> town portal" combo.

and the number of playable chassis/variants due to the limited number of usefull hardpoint distributions per weightclass is very limited anyway. but thats a long term problem. maybe when planning it you thought the game wouldnt last that long to support a few hundred variants in the end?

I was listening to an interview of youre game mechanics and balancing guy on no guts no galaxy and what he did say made sense to me. although i had the impression he was a bit head through the wall mentality. i think the increased sensor range and ppc against ECM gimmicks where intends in the right direction as it was percieved that ECM is not sooo fun. still those steps where mir a drop on a hot stone. maybe rethink the whole mechanic as such. there could be a cheaper version of ECM which can only counter and can be equipped by everyone. call it beagle active probe or something like that maybe. or maybe dont implement the ECM as a guardian version with bubble but just for the owner itself making him a stealthy rogue. i mean nothing else brings aoe buffs for the team.

its not game breaking, imbalanced, not fair or whatnot. its just not very fun and sometimes a bit annoying.

[Nicholas Carlyle]

Vermaxx, on 15 March 2013 - 11:10 AM, said:

OMG GET HEART OF THE SWARM.

Of course if you do you will not like Zerg in multiplayer.

I don't spend 50+ bucks on games anymore. Too many letdowns.