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i'm far from any expert of real-world ECM, but in order to have an idea on how to possibly change ECM you need to have a basic understanding of how it *likely* works in real life. a lot of what i wrote is based on common sense as opposed to hard facts (sensor warfare is highly classified so it'd likely be impossible to get the true description of it's real-life workings), but from what i'v learned being a military info junkie my entire life is that this should be correct in a very general level. (for the record, i think ECM in MWO is fine as is and doesn't disrupt my game in any way, but that doesn't mean the system can't be made better in the future)
definition - ECM finds the specific frequency a weapon or sensor is using, then overloads that frequency with too much information so that the sensor can't make sense of it.
radar is like throwing a ball - if the ball doesn't come back to you then you know there's no wall (target), but if the ball comes back to you you'l know there's a wall (target) in that direction and you can determine it's location by the speed and angle of the returning ball. but if that wall is escorted by ECM, then instead of 1 ball returning you'l have 50 balls coming at you and you won't know which ball has the real info of where this wall is
ECM is not passive, simply said it emits it's own signals like radar to confuse radar. in MWO instead of seeing 50 targets you see nothing - that's a reasonable way of modeling ECM simply in a game so that's fine
there are many types of jamming, but for MWO purposes we'l simplify it to 2 different types:
- Spot Jamming - this is where you pour all the ECM's power into one frequency, which severely limits the targeted sensor's ability to detect on that frequency
- and Barrage Jamming - which covers many different frequencies at a single time; however, it accomplishes this by reducing the power in each frequency, severely limiting it's ECM effectiveness in trade for a broader spectrum
another important point is that it doesn't matter how good your ECM is once the enemy gets close enough to you because their sensors/radar can 'burn through' your jamming - once the enemy is close enough to 'burn through' your ECM then you can be targeted just fine and your ECM becomes useless. currently instead of allowing 'burn through' in MWO, everyone currently has to equip a BAP (Beagle Active Probe) to 'burn through', which isn't how it's 'supposed to work' in real life.
but just because you 'burned through' it doesn't mean the ECM can't jam your out-going communications so you shouldn't be able to share target info when you are within 'burn through' range
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so how do we implement this in MWO? to keep it simple, i'm going to leave ECM alone and concentrate on changing BAP
first off, throw away how BAP currently works against ECM - it should no longer counter ECM. however, it still has the detection range bonus and the ability to detect shut down mechs. TAG is also unaffected by this. also instead of Counter-ECM you should only have the option of turning your ECM on or off
second, ECM as a base ability should reduce enemy mech sensors (not including TAG) targeting anyone in an ECM bubble to 20%(-ish) of their current range, modified by BAP and the sensor range module. so if an ECM mech gets within the 20% range of an enemy mech, the enemy mech's sensors 'burn through' the ECM and the ECM mech and any mech inside it's ECM bubble can be targeted normally. however, the target info can't be shared with your teammates when you are within 'burn through' range (unless you are TAGging him)
third, at the same time in order to jam a frequency the ECM mech must emit it's own signals - so even though jamming prevents the enemy from using it's sensors to get an accurate picture, should the enemy have the right equipment it can pinpoint exactly where the jammer is and in turn target the jammer. this is ECCM - Electronic Counter-Counter Measures - and this should be the role of the Beagle Active Probe. if you have a BAP and any actively emitting ECM mech comes into your line of sight in your sensor range, then you are able to immediately target it and keep it targeted until you lose line of sight again. this does not allow you to target any mechs protected by the ECM bubble, just the ECM equipped mech
what this would encourage is ECM mechs keeping their ECM off until they needed it, because if even 1 enemy mech has a BAP the ECM emissions would stick out like sore thumb (within the enemy's own sensor range of course), enabling enemy mechs to target them
if PGI implemented BAP as described above and kept everything else regarding ECM the same i think it would change how ECM is used DRAMATICALLY. will BAP become 'must have'? maybe, but currently in MWO ECM is about 'being selfish' and helping yourself, while in the real world ECM is about helping everyone around you at the cost of possibly exposing yourself. make that happen in MWO, and we might have a different game
