105 replies to this topic

[Doomstryke]

Helvetica, on 07 May 2013 - 10:01 AM, said:

ECM will be the new LRM messy balance and end up needing a rework. LRMs have about 5/6 counters and ECM will be the same. Despite all the problems with the intial launch of ECM i actually enjoy playing against them (i'm a cat LRM fanboy). Lesson 1 to ECM atlas is i can dumb fire my LRMs, i've become reasonable good at predicting paths so i don't need locks. ECMs forced me to get more skillful.

I still want knockdown back in to stop derping scouts and still allow skilled ones the ability to gimp me,

Now i actually run with a BAP already just because i like it.... and i really don't want it to short out ECMs either because the low signal warning tips me off better than if it passively blocks,

There should be a simple 3 step dance to skill. Step 1 the Initial (the shot or move ) reasonable to to Step 2 Moderate skillful answer to step 1 Step 3 high skill level work around for step 2.

and honestly 150m range for disrupt? give me a break, no one will even notice it.

I agree, its maily the streak srm qq because oh **** a heavy has bap RUN a few meters there all safe oh wait i can't fire my ssrms either because they are out of range NERF bab....i wish they just removed streaks and left everything else and things would be a lot better. Though why people complain about 3 damage when you can run a medium laser is beyond me

[Vodrin Thales]

Seanamal, on 06 May 2013 - 03:31 PM, said:

But the whole point of ECM as I saw it was to put and end to the all LRM build bukkake parties that dominated during closed beta pre-ecm. The only way that works is that ECM breaks lock on weapons. Remove that and we're right back to where we started. I think giving BAP the burn through capability is just a way of making it more on par power to tonnage wise with ECM.

The problem that drove ECM in that configuration was non-artemis LRMs hitting way too hard. That is no longer the case. If ECM merely countered TAG, NARC, Artemis, and BAP now that would be fine (assuming BAP loses the ECM counter that it currently has.

[Black Templar]

Thomas Dziegielewski, on 06 May 2013 - 10:14 PM, said:

A bug fix should also make it in tomorrow giving the NARC the power it should have had since it's conception. It will overpower ECM.

-If a target is NARCed it will now show up for all NARC team allies for 15 sec.
-ECM will NOT protect the NARCed target from showing up for allies.
-If a mech takes 40 points of damage the NARC will 'fall off'.

please remove this damage cap nonsense. without it, NARC would effectively force the 'narced' target to seek cover for the whole duration.

[Wintersdark]

Or, remove the NARC duration but keep the damage cap.

Bap-ssrms: with a 150m range, the light only needs to remain outside 150m for his ecm to protect him from streaks. Streakcats can work to close that gap, but assaults? Not really.

[Iueras]

Wintersdark, on 11 May 2013 - 10:11 PM, said:

Or, remove the NARC duration but keep the damage cap.

Seems like this would be closer to the TT implementation, where NARC works forever until it is brushed off by the mech that has it attached or the section it is attached to is destroyed. There is no weird time limit on it. Of course, it also doesn't counter ECM in TT, rather vice versa, so...

I just wanna see a mech in this game punch itself in the face trying to remove a NARC Beacon.

Edited by Iueras, 13 May 2013 - 02:55 AM.

[Lykaon]

Davers, on 06 May 2013 - 01:43 PM, said:

It's sad that a marginally useful piece of equipment like the BAP will now be a 'must have' piece of gear for many builds. Instead of Information Warfare we have ECM countering weapon systems with tons of 'ECM on/off switches'.

Yep it seems like the Devs simply refused to directly alter ECM to balance it,instead we get...

Alter mechlab to allow only specific chassis to carry ECM (with the side effect of obselete variants that do not get ECM)

Alter TAG to mitigate ECM effects yet still ECM is a hard counter to TAG so...

Alter (again) TAG range to improve the chances of TAG being outside ECM range.

Next we co-opt in the module system to bearly put a dent in ECM stealth abilities.This had the side effect of having access to this all be it weak counter to ECM limited to players who had the GXP and C-Bills to buy modules.

Still not enough? ok now we will make PPCs and ER-PPCs short out ECM when the target with ECM is hit.

Next up we will have BAP made into a 1.5 ton 2 crit "ECM TAX" pay the tax and turn off ECM (well at myopicly short ranges anyways)

On the bright side we will actually see a couple of actual changes to ECM yep ECM it's self will actually be directly addressed by putting a fixed hardpoint for ecm...yep that oughta do it right there mmhmm...


How much development time was spent on ECM? or more specificly how much time was spent of everything but ECM to balance ECm?