9 replies to this topic

[Renzor the Red]

I understand that if you get a UAV consumable, you have to launch it.

How do active probes work? Do you have to launch them somehow? Or does it just constantly work at extending sensors to cancel nearby ECM's and 'show' shutdown mechs?

And how does it show shutdown mechs? Some sort of notification? "Shutdown mech detected..."

[Damnedtroll]

It's a counter ecm a bit and give you a boost in targeting information speed. You achieve lock faster too.

[Koniving]

Damnedtroll, on 23 December 2018 - 07:34 PM, said:

You achieve lock faster too.

This aspect is only true against ECM targets.
An ECM target that is soft-countered (by a tag or some other means like a UAV) still has a 25% penalty against any lock weapons being used against it in terms of lock on time.

(Tag, though it is a soft counter, gives 25% faster lock on time for the user, which cancels out the 25% penalty for the TAG user but not for anyone else -- tested it).

BAP, CAP, and CLAP (the active probes) are HARD counters, which also cancels out that 25% penalty.

[Koniving]

renzor51, on 23 December 2018 - 06:38 PM, said:

I understand that if you get a UAV consumable, you have to launch it.

How do active probes work? Do you have to launch them somehow? Or does it just constantly work at extending sensors to cancel nearby ECM's and 'show' shutdown mechs?

And how does it show shutdown mechs? Some sort of notification? "Shutdown mech detected..."

The Active Probe is a suite of sensors (from the tabletop game) which is able to detect a number of things that normal sensors can't including potential ambushes and anything bigger than infantry even if its inside a building.

In MWO, it is being used typically as a counter ECM method (note that in every other game in this universe, ECM trumps BAP/CAP/CLAP, but ECM isn't nearly as powerful as it is in MWO so it needed counters).

To use the Active Probe is simple; simply have it. It automatically gives you faster weapons/health data on enemies, (I also think it slightly increases your range but I may be wrong on that; I know it does on advanced tabletop on a successful roll).

To hard counter an enemy ECM, be within a set range (I don't know what the range is exactly as they keep changing it). Once you're within that range, one enemy ECM is rendered worthless until they get away from you.

Note: a second ECM will still affect you as the device can only counter one ECM at a time.

I believe CLAP has a shorter range than CAP and BAP.

There's an old difference between BAP and CAP which may no longer apply, it used to be that CAP would counter the target you have selected [when in range] which has some tactical advantages when facing against multiple ECMs while in a team. BAP simply works against whomever is closer to you. This may have changed since 2015 but if it has we've never been told.

So if your CAP doesn't seem to be working, check to see if there's more than one enemy ECM, and if there isn't, target the ECM user.

(There's also the chance it may be destroyed if it isn't working; you'll be told when it happens. Betty refers to CAP and CLAP as "Active Probe", and BAP as "Beagle Active Probe")

[Audacious Aubergine]

renzor51, on 23 December 2018 - 06:38 PM, said:

And how does it show shutdown mechs? Some sort of notification? "Shutdown mech detected..."

I think once the shut down mech is in range of the active probe you have equipped (I don't remember the ranges off the top of my head but the information is in the pop up), it shows up on the mini map and can be targeted as if it was still powered up. I haven't tested it myself so I could be wrong

[Koniving]

renzor51, on 23 December 2018 - 06:38 PM, said:

And how does it show shutdown mechs? Some sort of notification? "Shutdown mech detected..."

This is not from the perspective of the BAP/CAP user (me), but Lordred's Camera Commando.


Skip to 1:46 and wait til the Stormcrow (me) comes into view. Seconds later we find a hiding Cicada.

It shows them by providing a targeting box. I'm baffled at first as I hadn't seen the tactic used in any seriousness since 2013. (Though with Stealth Armor, some players have started using it again..) Although I will admit, I actually didn't have CAP installed, simply the awareness of that tactic as I used to do it a lot in closed beta. (Hide in an alleyway, turn off, wait til enemy passes, pop an AC/20 at them and slip back into the alley, power down. They see nothing, do it again and again and even when they do see me, play possum as I'm smoking and at the time a lot of dead mechs slouched in place, so I looked dead. Then BAP got introduced into MWO.)

A powered down mech just gives a box, not much else. This allows you to target (and lock missiles) despite them being turned off. This is good because otherwise one could instantly break missile locks by powering down. (Don't do this out in the open or first relocating. Missiles land at your last known location when the lock is lost.)

[DAEDALOS513]

Damnedtroll, on 23 December 2018 - 07:34 PM, said:

It's a counter ecm a bit and give you a boost in targeting information speed. You achieve lock faster too.

Who says it achieves lock faster?

[Ignatius Audene]

? 2018 necro?

[DAEDALOS513]

Ignatius Audene, on 27 June 2021 - 11:11 PM, said:

? 2018 necro?

It's still turns up high up on searches so I wanted to correct the false information.

[Ekson Valdez]

DAEDALOS513, on 28 June 2021 - 08:58 AM, said:

It's still turns up high up on searches so I wanted to correct the false information.

Thanks!

Now that we have established that, let me call the digger.


Everyone reading this: If you feel the need to discuss the function of active probes, please open a new discussion thread about it. The item of topics that have been inactive for longer periods of time may have changed in the meantime, so it's more constructive to discuss such things in a contemporary context.

Thread locked.

Edited by Ekson Valdez, 28 June 2021 - 11:33 PM.