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[Gaan Cathal]

Alright, hear me out. I just threw this up in another thread an I thought I may's well suggestion forum it and see what opinions there were, if any (with a minor refinement). I know we've seen some in depth (and rather good) suggestions to radically change ECM behaviour, but a huge overhaul of that nature is unlikely to gain traction with developers. What I'm proposing is a series of smaller changes that will hopefully reign in the power of ECM just that little bit, and give BAP more utility, adding to the overall EWAR metagame.

For purposes of full disclosure, I 'main' a non-Streak -3L. With ECM, obviously. In all cases 'friendly' and 'hostile' are relative to the ECM carrier):


-Negate Artemis VI or TAG guidance on missiles fired at friendly or by hostile within radius.
-Remove friendly radar ticks from hostile radar within radius.
-Incase of hostile BAP, as above but BAP-equipped hostile receives ECM warning on radar.
-Negate C3 transfer of target by hostile or of friendly within radius.
-Negate TAG transfer of target by hostile within radius, but not of friendly.

-Optionally, at exclusion of above, negate hostile ECM within radius. 1-1.5s(?) recalibration time in either direction.

-BAP should retain current attributes and grant short range (~200m) non-LOS radar (but not lock retention).


Hey presto, ECM combats missiles without being a hard counter, it actually works as radar-stealth (as opposed to giving the enemy an early warning system) and actually acts as a Electronic Warfare unit by disrupting mech-mech information transfer while allowing single-mech locking. The inclusion of a 'cooldown' for the countermeasure is to prevent feathering, obviously. It should also, IMO, nerf Streak tracking somewhat to keep it in line with effects on other missile guidance systems, and obviously it's nerf on Artemis SRMs would only apply with the launcher in radius, since there is no 'target'. BAP also becomes worth using on it's own merits, and as a soft counter to ECM, which is now a soft counter to missiles. TAG also weighs in to the EWAR game slightly, but with less impact due to it's missile-related utility.