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Balance is off because the GECM system is being forced to wear too many hats at once: it's a combined ECM shield/counter-ECM system that's incredibly good at the shield task, and pretty terrible at the counter-ECM task.
Opacity is a problem right now insofar as it is very difficult for a player to figure out what is happening on the e-warfare front. It's hard to tell if you are in a friendly ECM bubble (little eye indicator notwithstanding), and it's even harder to understand the precise implications of being in the bubble. It's even harder to figure out what your enemies are doing with their ECM. That information is crucial to making e-warfare a layer of gameplay that adds tactical depth to battles.
BALANCING GECM
I don't think it's possible to implement TT ECM in MWO in a balanced fashion. ECCM rules were always clunky and cumbersome anyway. MWO should depart from the TT's implemenation and create something that works better in the context of MWO.
GECM should be a purely defensive electronic countermeasures suite; not an all-in-one electronics warfare package. It should have two modes: stealth, and jamming.
Stealth Mode
Suppose 'Mech Alpha is mounting a GECM system in stealth mode. In that mode, the GECM system will only shield Alpha; it emits no bubble. It masks Alpha's radar signature, reducing the range at which hostile 'mechs will be able to detect Alpha, increasing how long it takes them to establish a missile lock on Alpha, and increasing how long it takes them to get 'mech status data. Artemis IV is ineffective against a stealthed GECM 'mech, but TAG and NARC both work. Artemis IV should once again be effective if the GECM-stealthed 'mech is lit up with TAG or NARC.
Beagle Active Probe's increased detection range should nullify the radar masking effect of GECM, but GECM should still increase missile lock-on time and nullify Artemis IV.
Jamming Mode
Advantages
Suppose 'Mech Alpha switches its GECM suite to jamming mode. It immediately loses all of its stealth qualities. Much like modern fighter-jet ECM systems, it saturates a 180m radius bubble around the 'mech with EM noise. Friendly 'mechs inside the jamming sphere experience a stronger version of the stealth buff to their radar signature, making them invisible to enemy radar until the enemy closes range. The extent of the sphere should be visibly marked on allies' radar as a shaded circle centered on the jamming source (ideally with the fringes fuzzy and oscillating to reflect the field weakening. Allies inside the circle should receive a green notification at the top of their hud that reads: "GECM JAMMING"
To see how Disruption Mode protects Alpha and its allies, let's switch to the perspective of 'Mech Alpha's enemy, 'Mech Tango, 750m to Alpha's south. Even at that range, Tango knows something is going on in 'Mech Alpha's general direction. A red "JAMMING DETECTED" warning flashes across the top of Tango's HUD. Hostiles in seemingly random locations facing random directions keep quickly flashing in and out on her radar display in a roughly 360m-diameter circle (which happens to be centered on Alpha, but Tango can't detect Alpha on radar). Those ghost targets also flash on and off as little red diamonds on Tango's compass tape, but the targeting computer cannot lock any of them up. There could be a single jamming 'mech to the north, or two full lances. Without a visual confirmation, Tango has no idea what's in there and cannot acquire any of the targets inside the bubble on radar from more than 400m away.
Even when Tango closes to visual range, the jamming system makes it difficult to maintain situational awareness. Where normally all visible hostiles would pop up on radar, none inside the jamming circle do. Even though Tango can see and lock up individual targets, the radar screen remains a mess of false positives within the 360m circle, with just the individually locked target holding steady. It takes even longer to acquire missile lock or armor status data on a jammed target than a GECM-stealth-protected target.
Entering the bubble brings more bad news for Tango. A large "ELECTRONIC SYSTEMS JAMMED" warning flashes at the top of Tang's HUD. The entire HUD starts fading and flickering, her entire radar display flashes a confusing mess of false positives all over the display in all directions (not just inside the circle), she cannot see where her allies are on radar, her allies can no longer see her on radar, and Tango stops transmitting targeting data to allies. Tango also cannot acquire any missile locks when inside Alpha's bubble. Tango quickly learns that attempting to brawl inside a hostile jamming bubble without ECM support or a substantial firepower advantage is a colossally poor idea.
GECM Jamming should disable NARCs inside the sphere, and, like it is presently implemented, keep hostile 'mechs from transmitting TAG data from inside.
I honestly don't know if this last bit would be possible, but it would also be great if the jamming bubble could also disrupt enemy 'mechs' ability to use thermal vision mode, if it could cause their thermal vision to fuzz up or distort targets inside the bubble. Also, it would be great if ALL of the enemies' alternate vision modes fuzz into a mess when inside the bubble.
Disadvantages
The substantial advantages of GECM radar jamming do not come for free. While jamming mode is active, Alpha's radar system cannot operate due to the massive amount of EM noise being generated right next to it. Alpha is effectively flying blind. Her radar display simply turns off and is blank other than a green blinking message that simply reads "GECM JAMMING ACTIVE." Alpha cannot target hostiles to determine damage level, cannot establish any missile locks, and cannot even see where her allies are without making visual contact.
Allies within visual range are still marked with blue "friendly" indicators, and placing the reticle over them still reveals their names, 'mech models, and overall health. Enemies, however, are entirely unmarked. All Alpha has to navigate by are visible allies, the compass (with no target indicators), and the full-size tactical map which still reports Alpha's position, but does not show any allies or enemies. Suffice to say, lance commanders should not be jamming; it is a support role.
Jamming systems should also reserve four or five heatsinks, preventing weapons from taking advantage of their heat dissipation capacity while jamming is active.
The jamming system should take fifteen seconds to power up. Switching from jamming to stealth mode is instantaneous, but switching from stealth to jamming takes fifteen seconds. This should prevent jamming assets from simply flipping the system off and on at will.
Counters to GECM
Home-On-Jam Missiles
Assets carrying LRMs with the Artemis IV FCS should be able to target the jamming source by putting missiles in a "Home-On-Jam" mode. Suppose Tango is carrying Artemis IV-equipped LRMs. She sees the "JAMMING DETECTED" warning, points in the general direction of the jamming source, and cycles through targets until the targeting box frames the large general area that is the source of the jamming. Tango places her targeting reticle inside the frame and slowly acquires a lock on the jamming source. After around four or five seconds, the system finally gets a lock and the flashing yellow message is replaced by a green, blinking message reading "HOME ON JAM."
Tango's missiles will now automatically home in on Alpha, the jamming source. Alpha will receive no incoming missile warnings. The missiles will not benefit from the Artemis IV's normal buffs to accuracy, and will land in a wider-than-normal spread (so jamming 'mechs don't immediately burn in a hail of 300 pinpoint-aimed LRMs). Needless to say, Tango will receive no data on which 'mech was the jamming source, its armor status, or whether the missiles connected at all. If there were multiple sources of jamming in the same direction, Tango will not really know that, either. The missiles will simply fly towards the nearest one. Their lock is on the jamming signature; not on the 'mech. By the same coin, switching off the jamming system will break the lock, and the missiles simply dumbfire to the last known location of the jamming source.
BAP Disruption Mode - Hacking Jammers
The BAP could have two modes: Detection and Disruption. In Detection mode, the BAP grants a detection range boost that effectively nullifies GECM in Stealth mode, and allows the asset to detect all assets from farther away, including those within a Jamming bubble.
Disruption mode is more specific: as soon as the BAP system is switched into disruption mode, it starts searching for jamming sources to disrupt. Once it enters within 400m of a jamming source, the system automatically starts to hack into the jamming 'mech. The hacker receives a HUD message indicating that the system is hacking, and the target jammer receives a message indicating that they are being hacked. The hack should take about three or four seconds. The hacking 'mech suffers substantial heat generation for the duration of the hack.
If the hacking 'mech is successful, the hacked 'mech should rapidly heat up (zero to overheat within one or two seconds) and keep heating up until either the pilot shuts down the jamming sytem, or the 'mech shuts itself down, whichever comes first. Either way, once hacked, the GECM system enters an extended 30-second cooldown during which time it is completely out of commission. After that, it defaults back into Stealth mode. The pilot being hacked can stop the process and save the GECM system by switching i into stealth mode before the hack finishes.
A disruptor can only hack one 'mech at a time, but can rapidly hack one jammer after another, assuming it can dissipate the heat generated by hacking quickly enough.
Running BAP in disruption mode disables that 'mech's GECM system entirely,
What do you all think?
Edited by Thuraash, 25 December 2012 - 01:15 AM.
