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I made a feedback post on this but I was asked to post it here as well. Ive taken the liberty to type it out abit more so its gotten somewhat lengthy...
Basicly ive given both TAG and ECM a try and I like the effect they have. They turn the LRM system from a frequently mediocre weapon to a downright killing machine. It requires teamwork (or a laser slot if your doing it yourself) to work well though and there are ways to counter it. I wont go into the pros and cons of LRMs itself...
The way I see it, to put it bluntly though; TAG is far to good. Your still sacrificing damage for utility but NARC weighs 4 times (with 1 ton of ammo, which isent enough to last a match) as much for roughly the same result. If your able to keep the TAG on target (for example if your silently tagging from a hidden bush somewhere, or just got a steady hand) theres really no reason to favour NARC. Less weight, no ammo, its a laser weapon (so available to alot more mechs) and extreme range compared to NARC.
Then what does the NARC bring? Well you can "paint" several targets at once. Thats something. You also dont need to keep your cursor on target, which is nice if, like me your aim just sucks when running around at 140 KM/H....
Does that make NARC a good viable option though? Imho, no. For starters both of those advantages are severly countered by the fact that you still need to have LOS to your targets though... TAG and NARC are (IMHO) utility tools that should be on light mechs. There arent many light mechs that got 4 tons to spare for the NARC. Only carrying 1 ton is also limiting yourself as 6 shots per ton is terrible..
So in effect hardly any (light) mech can take NARC and be effective. I was running a Commando with NARC, 3 tons of ammo and a medium pulse laser. A few times I ran out of ammo and the pulse laser itself wasent exactly stellar in fending off bigger mechs, or harassing much. Was also running a big XL engine to keep high speed and save weight that the NARC needed...
What also severly limits the NARC is that you cant "tag and run". You still need line of sight to your target to keep the lock on. I can understand that you might want to keep information and role warfare going and all but it really hurts NARC. Its a beacon yet it only transmits when you got line of sight?
And another point to make against NARC is the range. Yes I also said it as a pro for the TAG but 270 meters for a tagging weapon is, quite frankly terrible...
All of the drawbacks put together (weighty weapon to use, no lock on after line of sight broken, short range, limited usage due to missle slots) make the NARC an incredibly inferior tagging weapon compared to the TAG. Both have their merits but the large number of advantages the TAG has over the NARC is so high that it either needs some buffing or the TAG needs some nerfing.
IMHO theres nothing wrong with the TAG but its just that NARC is simply not worth it right now. Theres some easy ways to fix this imho:
*Buff the amount of shots per ton. Perhaps 10 or 12 or so. Still not much but enough for a utulity weapon. With 12 shots on my Commando id have 2 more tons for...whatever. More then 1 laser?
*Increase the range. It doesent need to be as long as the TAG, perhaps some 400-500 meters or so but at least making it farther then a short range missle
(the missle also seems to clip through targets from time to time but that might just be lag....)*Make it work through ECM. Currently it baffles me that ECM counters NARC but not TAG (if used outside of ECM range)... shouldnt this be the other way around? I very much doubt a targetting laser is getting through enhanced disruption yet a missle pod with a beacon specificly designed to make a target a huge crosshair isent
*Make the NARC so that you dont need LOS to your target after it has attached itself to the target. Now obviously with the 20 second duration this would be inmensly powerfull and coupled with the untouchable status lights can have sometimes perhaps not a good choice. In that case id advise dropping the duration back abit, maybe to 10 seconds or so. Still usefull but not in the world of jaw dropping OP-ness...
TBH any one, or a combination of these things (not all at once though, that would be far to much...) could make the NARC a far more attractive tool to use in the field. Ive given both a number of test runs and while I like the NARC more (due to my previously mentioned terrible aiming..) the disadvantages are to numerous for me to use outside of a little fun matches with a buddy in a LRM boat... TAG on the other hand is light weight, has long range and with some proper aiming and adjusting of strategy can do the same things the NARC can, and better in some cases... I use TAG rather frequently when im with LRM boats. I just dont bother with NARC...
Hope PGI can use any of this feedback!
