Jakob Knight, on 12 December 2012 - 12:19 PM, said:
And the ECM system as it was implemented is the equivilant of a super Null Signature system with an area-effect mode. Exactly when were Hyper Null Signature systems re-invented, precisely, so we can accurately guage when it would be appropriate to add HARM missiles?
If it is actually operating
as the Devs described, then it is generally doing more-or-less what it should be doing.
Quote
[color=#959595]
When your Mech is disrupted by an enemy ECM:[/color]
- You will not know where your teammates are, and they won’t know where you are, unless you have direct line of sight to each other.
- You cannot share any targeting data with the rest of your team, and vice versa.
- Your Beagle Active Probe ceases to function.
- You cannot achieve any missile locks.
- Your TAG laser can still fire but provides no bonuses.
- Your battlegrid and targeting information will flicker.
From
Total Warfare, pg. 134:
"
Active probes cannot penetrate the ECM’s area of effect. The probing unit would notice that it is being jammed, however."
"ECM blocks the effects of
Artemis IV fire control systems. Artemis-equipped launchers may be fired as normal missiles through the ECM..."
"Missiles equipped to home in on an attached
Narc pod lose the... bonus for that system if the pods themselves lie within an ECM 'bubble'."
"ECM has the effect of 'cutting off' any
C3-equipped unit from its network. If a C3 master unit is isolated from the network because it ventures inside the ECM radius, the entire portion of the network below it is effectively shut off."
"The ECM suite does not affect other scanning and targeting devices, such as
TAG and
targeting computers."
Also, the Guardian ECM Suite apparently includes an integral
ECCM capacity (the operation of which is described in
Tactical Operations, pgs. 224-225), which accounts for the "counter mode" implemented in MWO.
By contrast, the
Null Signature System (
Tactical Operations, pg. 336) induces targeting penalties (in TT terms, +1 at Medium range and +2 at Long and Extreme ranges), "Beagle Active Probes and their Clan equivalents cannot locate a hidden unit with an active Null-Signature System", and penalties are levied against heat-seeking weapons (the
Heat Seeking Warheads are given as a specific example).
Also, the NSS does
not include an ECCM mode, unlike the (evidently more-capable) Guardian, Angel, and Clan ECM units.
So, while MWO's ECM implementation is more capable than the TT version (as it will affect TAG transmissions and mundane missile locks), the difference isn't as much as it's being made out to be (and, where there are differences, they do seem to follow logically from the original known capabilities).
Moreover, both TT and MWO implementations of ECM are evidently far more capable in the E-War department, overall, than the (TT version of) NSS (which is a better system in terms of generally avoiding detection).
There is some overlap in the capabilities of NSS and ECM, but it's far from the degree that it's made out to be.
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