65 replies to this topic

[The Massive]

Lore mechs only please. Unless its a hero locust. If pgi release a hero locust without ecm I will rage like none have ever raged before.

[Levi Porphyrogenitus]

If PGI is going to expand the current roster of ECM mechs, two things need to happen:

1 - ECM rework from the current hard counter system to a soft counter system (unique stacking bonuses and penalties from all electronic warfare equipment).

2 - Release the ECM variants of the mechs that are already available, and remove ECM from every variant that does not have it natively.

[General Taskeen]

JagdFlanker, on 15 May 2014 - 07:11 PM, said:

can someone please explain to me in what way ECM is overpowered? they look like a waste of tonnage and crits to me

It mostly has to do with the previous games.

ECM was a soft counter in every MechWarrior game. MekTek and MW:LL Devs (Flying Samurai) made it a little more advanced with unique 'soft' features, but that was it. I would have to look through the MW4 mektek patch notes again, but ECM in that game did the following:

- Blocked NARC beacons
- Reduced Radar Signature from appearing on Active Radar scopes
- Passive bonus for longer lock on times (enemy had to wait a little longer for their lock on you)
- Could not prevent a lock on missile from targeting in LOS (as long as someone could see you with their own cockpit, they could use any weapon against you)

Those are essentially the things that ECM has always done in MW, but in MWO it is a hard counter due to the underlying system in which LRM's can be fired in MWO (If anyone on your team "sees" a target, you can lock/fire at that target without seeing it, and your friendlies do not even need to use TAG or NARC).

In the previous games (using MW4 as an example again) "LRM rain" was less of a thing as it is seen in MWO, since the only way to fire missiles at targets you could not see was to jump out of cover, use NARC if you had it or have a team mate flank and use it, then you could fire missiles at targets out of LOS.

NARC like-wise was way more useful in MW3/MW4/MW:LL, since you could Lock-Fire it and it would track to the target in a limited horizontal arc. Then if you dumb fired SRMs or LRMs, the missiles would automatically seek the closest NARC beacon without even having any target lock. However, if you locked on to something else that was not NARC'ed near by, your missiles would go to that target normally (to avoid any annoyance of your missiles going where you don't want them to).

[Myke Pantera]

Nope to the suggested ones, because non of them has ECM prior to 3050 in the lore. There are however some IS variants of other already integrated mechs that could carry ECM.

• FS9-S1
  
• GRF-2N
  
• STK-3Fb

Edit: As to whether ECM is overpowered or not: I don't think so

1) It's the only thing (besides Radar Dep.) that balances out the dominance of LRMs in non-competitive play these days.
2) None of the ECM mechs is particularly OP. Noone plays Commandos. Spider is survivable and mobile but has to deal with very limited Hardpoints. Raven is alright, but hitboxes and lack of JJ doesn't help it's cause. Cicada is a good mech, but is at the lower end of the medium bracket and takes up a spot that could be taken by a SHD or SCR. AS7-D-DC is THE focused fire magnet, and deals little damage compared to DWF, and has pretty low swung arms. KitFox is a 100kph Spider with Raven hitboxes, not even clan-tech makes it even remotely OP.

Edited by Myke Pantera, 30 August 2014 - 03:25 AM.

[Quick n Fast]

AWS-9Q


that is all

[CN9 ACE PILOT]

I was instantly sold on Centurion with ECM. Pls PGI ECM or we riot!