3 replies to this topic

[Jonathan8883]

Does anyone else find it strange that only one Raven variant has ECM? It's known for its electronics and sophistication.

Perhaps we'll see an ECM-equipped Loyalty Raven this year.

[Darrious Quinn]

The reason starts with lore technology and variants. Don’t break into a rash yet.. I’m not going that deep into lore. Here, how about the short answer first…

Nutshell:
The Raven is one of the original MWO mechs and the 3L was one of very few with ECM. That’s also back in the day where ECM didn’t have a set hardpoint so you could stuff the ECM anywhere and all before Clan Mechs. With so few ECM mechs, the 3L was a potent support mech. You cursed the other team when they had more than one. So I guess you can say that the reason the 3L is the only ECM Raven is based on old MWO gameplay and it hasn’t been looked at since.


So… now on to the longer Lore answer:
At the time the Raven was prototyped (3024), the Guardian ECM Suite its known for had not been within the tech level of the time. The early Raven’s had advanced EW suites (Electronics Warfare) developed by the Capellans, but they are nothing compared to the Guardian, which was Star League Lost tech. Just for perspective, the RVN-2X was 3030 tech.

When the Grey Death Legion recovered the Star League memory core from Helm, the information on the Guardian ECM Suite was contained within and since the Capellans already had a head start on new EW tech and the Raven, it became the 3L which we know today.

I agree though, a new Loyalty ECM Raven would be sweet. Variants already exist they could use. The RVN-4L is 3060 with ER lasers, ECM and stealth armor. They could also use the RVN-3X, but they would have to substitute the Composite internal structure for Endo and swap the X-Laser tech with ER maybe. The 3X wouldn’t be a perfect translation. Or they just make more crap up which they seem to be fond of too.

Edited by Darrious Quinn, 15 February 2018 - 12:57 PM.

[Koniving]

Jonathan8883, on 15 February 2018 - 11:22 AM, said:

Does anyone else find it strange that only one Raven variant has ECM? It's known for its electronics and sophistication.

Perhaps we'll see an ECM-equipped Loyalty Raven this year.

Most mechs in MWO that have ECM aren't meant to have it.

ECM was only "recently reinvented," and as such, the 3rd generation Liao variant (3L) is one of the only mechs in MWO that canonically had an ECM. Many other mechs do not have this, as it is many decades after the 3L is made before the non-Liao factions even have regular access to ECM. Some factions actually never gain access to that technology (at least not for 100 years).

PGI changed this to suit the player versus player nature of this game.
....It was also made more powerful in some areas and weaker than others.

For example, the Crab is also known to have extremely complex sensor systems in its fluff.. yet no ECM because the factions that have it never had access to ECM devices. Still, fluff-wise its sensors are better than those of BAP..but extremely fragile. Sadly nothing about this appears in the Crab's abilities.

Much like the Vindicator's ability to cool faster in water is not a quirk in MWO, its a fluff hint that standard heatsinks + PPC works best if you're in the water in tabletop. But PGI could have done something to tweak this into a quirk.

[Hauptmann Keg Steiner]

Koniving, on 15 February 2018 - 01:12 PM, said:

Most mechs in MWO that have ECM aren't meant to have it.

ECM was only "recently reinvented," and as such, the 3rd generation Liao variant (3L) is one of the only mechs in MWO that canonically had an ECM. Many other mechs do not have this, as it is many decades after the 3L is made before the non-Liao factions even have regular access to ECM. Some factions actually never gain access to that technology (at least not for 100 years).

Sounds like you're conflating the actual Guardian ECM with the Capellans' early attempts at ECM recovery (like the Raven 1X had), especially considering the Helm Memory Core that spawned the actual Guardian's return was in every major faction's hands within years - and the Raven 3L itself, due to sales or seizure. Hell, the FedSuns had several examples of the lesser Capellan EWE tech from 1Xs taken during the Fourth Succession War.

As far as mechs not meant to have it: the Commando 2D (dedicated recon mech) and the Atlas D-DC (fancy command console-equipped mech), and they don't even come with them stock, they just have the option.

That's about it. The Clans never lost the tech, the Stalker 3FB and Griffin 2N were Star League era mechs that had it, and the Thanatos and Fafnir lines were new designs based around them. All the PGI-designed variants are meant to have them, obviously, and many of those variants are meant to replace mechs that do have ECMs (like the Assassin 27 in place of the 99, or the Grinner instead of Phelan's Clan-tech Wolfhound) or similar systems (Cataphract 0XP replacing the 0X's EWE, Cyclops 11-P presumably in place of the 11-C3's ECM-negating experimental computer, the Tempest and... whatever the hell Morgan Kell was doing with his Archer).