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Introduction:
Now that that's out of the way, here is the gist of my suggestion: The problems with ECMs and LRM/SSRM boats are effectively coupled, since ECM was released as a counter to missile boat builds. Since you cannot nerf ECM without effectively buffing LRM/SSRM boats, my suggestion is to nerf both simultaneously. I believe it's important to do this, because the performance of an entire class of equipment should not be so singularly dependent on whether or not your enemy chooses to equip one other piece of equipment. I also believe its important because the nerfs I suggest will, hopefully, encourage counter play, which will make them more fun for players and theory-crafters. If you don't know what counter play is, please watch this video: http://penny-arcade.com/patv/episode/counter-play
For ECM, the nerf would come in the form of having it not hiding nearby friendly mechs, not blocking radar from functioning on nearby enemy mechs, not preventing operation of SSRMs within its bubble of operation, and not being able to shut off enemy ECM.
For LRMs, the nerf would come from making non-LOS (Line of Sight) locks require significantly more investment in terms of tonnage and critical slots or an investment in greater amounts of teamwork.
For SSRMs, the nerf is more complicated, and would be dependent on making the weapons less reliable either by continuing to allow ECM to be
I'll explain what I think is wrong with all the systems currently in this post. If you want to skip to a simpler explanation as well as my suggestions for what to change, skip to the second post. (It's like choose your own adventure!).
LRM/SSRM Boats and ECM - A Highly Coupled Problem:
No discussion of ECM is complete without an equally well thought out discussion of missile boats. For a while, it seemed as though missile boats were highly overpowered. Teams purely composed of missile boats were common and the highest scores on a team were often dominated by the guy with LRMs and Artemis. Perhaps equally popular and destructive were SSRM boats. This loadout, while sometimes easy to counter, could be devastating for any pilot not keeping a watchful eye and maintaining good range from his enemy and proved to be nearly as popular as LRM boats.
With the advent of ECMs, LRM boats and SSRM boats are suddenly completely non-existent. There are certainly exceptions, and rarely you'll see a game where an LRM boating player climbs to the top of a match, but these are incredibly uncommon and are usually enabled by the random PUG match-up that includes little to no ECM.
ECM has had a HUGE impact on the balancing of the meta game, and while it is certainly good to not see skies full of LRMs, its disappointing to know that making an LRM boat is a huge risk and can leave you with matches where you are unable to fire a single salvo.
LRMs, Where the Problem Started:
While we could argue about whether or not these builds were overpowered or not or whether popular opinion is one thing or another, the simple fact was that LRM boats, were far too common.
Part of what caused the initial popularity of LRM boats was bad netcode and low framerates. Players who encountered these problems found solace in missile boat builds because their performance was not affected by their framerate or ping. This is not necessarily a bad thing. Almost every highly competitive multiplayer game has a strategy that is helpful to those whose computer or internet connection might put them at a disadvantage.
The problem was that these builds also enabled players to simply sit back and let their teammates spot for them while they rained down a very large quantity of damage (especially with initial implementation of artemis) by simply pointing and clicking. They didn't even really need to communicate much with their teammates, although doing so definitely improved their performance somewhat.
What's also interesting is that even though LRMs appeared to be so powerful, it is fairly rare to see individual small launchers being used as complementary to other weapons systems. It's also rare to ever see them used for LOS targets.
ECM - "WE NEED MOAR ECM!":
I added the quote above because of the many times I've heard serious 8v8 players get angry at their teammates for not playing mechs with ECM. I've also heard 8v8 players sadly ask a teammate to switch off with another because they didn't yet own a mech with ECM or simply did not enjoy playing variants that do have them. These anecdotes illustrate 2 points.
1: More ECM is always better- If we had every mech and every piece of equipment available to us, there'd be no reason to use anything that didn't have ECM. There are no drawbacks (besides a tiny weight and criticals requirement) and the system is hugely effective. ECM has so many benefits that it's difficult to even recite them all from memory. On top of this, the most reliable and easy counter to ECM is more ECM because of counter mode.
2: ECM is perceived as a necessity- In 8v8 matches, any team without ECM believes it is at a disadvantage. Any team with less ECM than it knows it can field will worry if it has enough ECM be competitive.
These are both BAD! No piece of equipment that weighs only 1.5 tons and takes only 2 criticals should be SO IMPORTANT!
SSRMs - A Difficult Problem
SSRMs certainly seem relatively balanced when you equip 1 or 2 of them. Their damage/weight is good but not too good, they help heavy mechs target light mechs, and they allow fast moving very light mechs to have a weapon that can deal consistent damage.
In fact, I'm going to admit that I'm not sure they are unablanced. However, it certainly seems as though when faced with a mech with 3 or more SSRMs, many pilots, especially pilots of very slow or very light mechs, feel helpless. This is bad, from a gameplay perspective. Certainly you could argue that better piloting and tactics should help, and those are certainly things we should want to encourage. However, while pilots develop those skills they need some sort of crutch. Something that maybe limits their maximum capabilities, but allows them to gain a better sense of piloting and tactics so that one day they can do away with their crutch.
Edited by p4g3m4s7r, 19 December 2012 - 04:19 PM.
