Russ Bullock, on 30 October 2014 - 12:15 PM, said:
As to ECM I feel this change to BAP is a nice change.
If we ever completely revamp ECM that is something that will take a fair bit of time after we have completed CW, so in the meantime I am not going to completely ignore any small tweaks we might be able to add.
I have about six friends who would be willing to come back to the game if you followed his suggestions on ECM.
I played a few dozen drops the other day out of excitement just on the suggestion that maybe at some point in the vague future, you *might* make it be the kill-switch for advanced tech. I drop maybe ten times every six months or so just to check up on the game, hoping that you'd follow the advice of people like me who've been calling for something more like TT since the thing dropped.
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How many guys out there play LRMs without the artemis/narc/tag bonuses? It's a big deal, I promise. If everyone could take ECM, and it isn't countered by NARC (counters it instead) and isn't countered by TAG (flat TAG bonus, but you don't get artemis back) and isn't countered by a UAV (instead blinds the UAV), and isn't countered by Beagle (instead countering the Beagle bonus), and TAG range goes back down to 450m, then your LRM boats are often going to be working without the bonuses.
Working without those bonuses is plenty of LRM nerf.
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The concern seems to be that without ECM it'll be harder to get heavies and assaults to combat without being seen, and that lights often rely on ECM to be snipers.
A good solution to those shouldn't involve ECM. Raven-3L mechs can works as snipers, but it's tough luck for a 4X. If you'd like to make it harder to detect lights, then make it harder to detect lights period. Have detection range depend on tonnage (so rather than a flat 800m, it's 8*tonnage, or 5*tonnage+300). There, any light can hide, and any light can work as a sniper. It would be a bit harder to see heavies and assaults, but not by much - and that's probably a good thing. There aren't enough benefits for going with a lighter mech right now.
Hell, ECM should probably be a thing that stops UAVs. That'll let it do your "hide the group" function and cancel the lurmpocalypse.