ECM in MWO is a combination of Battletech pieces ... and in my opinion both overpowered and broken when initially introduced.
ECM in MWO requires the mech to equip a "Guardian ECM" suite that takes 2 crit slots and weighs 1.5 tons. This can only be equipped on select mechs ... Commando-2D, Spider-5D, Raven-3L, Cicada-3M and Atlas D-DC.
This functions similar to the Guardian ECM (
http://www.sarna.net...rdian_ECM_Suite) in Battletech except with several balance breaking enhancements ... in particular the inability to obtain a lock with LRM/SSRM on the target unless the ECM is countered ... this is an ability usually attributed to Null signature systems and Stealth armor in Battletech (
http://www.sarna.net...i/Stealth_Armor ).
ECM was introduced during a time when LRMs were overpowered due to several issues with LRM tracking, damage assignment, splash damage and other effects. The cure was worse than the problem.
It then took several months before PGI reached the conclusion reached by the community in about 10 minutes of play time that TAG was not enough of a counter to ECM since you could not usually keep TAG on a moving target long enough to really be worthwhile. As a result, they added the ability of Beagle Active Probe to counter ECM. This helped a lot since now folks could equip BAP to hard counter ECM. Streak equipped light mechs were useful again vs. ECM lights. Then, PGI significantly reduced the effectiveness of streaks by properly distributing the damage the way it should have been originally (streaks had the habit of hitting front CT with irritating regularity ... even from behind). The overall effectiveness of streaks has been reduced (which is a good thing) while SRM effectiveness was increased in the last patch. Streaks probably still need a slight upward tweak.
Anyway, with the addition of better light mech targeting with host state rewind and other network improvements .. along with the addition of BAP as another hard counter to ECM ... the overall balance of ECM is much better than it was a few months ago.
... and that is how ECM got to where it is now ...
What ECM should have done is to prevent target sharing from one mech to another on the same team since ECM disables the C3 computer systems that are intrinsically a part of MWO, LRM/SSRM should have been required to obtain their own locks / LOS when ECM was involved. In addition, the mechs location on the mini-map would not be relayed to others on the team. I think these were the effects that PGI was trying to implement within the constraints of the Cryengine system. Whether the differences were due to specific design changes intended to improve game play or whether it was due to an unfamiliarity of the developer responsible with the previous video and board games being used as a basis for MWO isn't known (given the whole mess with the implementation of double heat sinks which seemed to clearly derive from the developer responsible being unaware of what double heat sinks were supposed to do and implementing something else ... it isn't too much of a stretch to ascribe the initial ECM implementation to a similar issue).
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