Arcticfox9, on 15 January 2013 - 03:18 PM, said:
However, the only point that I would change is how ECMs affect SSRMs and LRMs. I think these should be able to fire in dumb fire. ie. SSRMs would function as SRMs and LRMs would fire and zero in on the location that is manually targeted. In this situation, people wouldn't have a valid argument for missile usage.
I find that I must disagree with this point regarding Streaks (even though I do agree with regard to the LRMs), specifically because how Streaks are handled is one of the primary - and more contentious - differentiators between the functioning of Guardian ECM and the functioning of Angel ECM.
Specifically:
- "Guardian ECMs, in any strength do not impact Streaks, Boosted C3, Bloodhound, etc." (BattleTech Freelance Developer forum post)
- "Streak missiles fired into or through a hostile Angel ECM bubble will not fire if the to-hit roll fails, but on a successful Streak launcher attack, the attacker must roll on the Cluster table as though the launcher were a standard (non-Streak) model." (Tactical Operations, pg. 279)
In other words,
Guardian does not affect the proper functioning of the Streak system, while
Angel does.
Though, that raises the question of, "what is the 'proper functioning' of the Streak system?"
To which the answer is:
- "A player attempting to lock a Streak missile on target must make a standard to-hit roll during the Weapon Attack Phase as if he were firing a standard SRM. If successful, the player immediately fires his Streak SRM at the locked-on target. All Streak missiles automatically hit (no roll on the Cluster Hits Table is required), and the player rolls as normal to determine the hit locations. If the roll fails, the player does not achieve a lock and so does not fire the SRMs or build up any heat. The player must roll for a targeting lock each turn, even if he achieved a lock in the previous turn. The player must make a separate to-hit roll for each individual Streak system being fired." (Total Warfare, pg. 138)
- "...while a Streak SRM launcher applies the damage from each missile to a separate location, it does not apply its damage using the Cluster Hits Table; if the to-hit roll succeeds, all the missiles strike the target." (Total Warfare, pg. 116)
- "Developed as a means of conserving ammunition, the Streak system literally refuses to fire unless all of the launcher’s tubes simultaneously achieve a “hard lock” on their target." (TechManual, pg. 230)
In other words, the Streak system is not designed for
guidance (as many mistakenly believe), but for
ammo efficiency and conservation; under normal operations,
if the Streak system cannot guarantee that every single one of its missiles will actually strike the target, the whole launcher will not fire at all.
Guardian doesn't stop the Streak system from
doing what it was designed to do (avoid firing when the BattleMech's targeting system does not have a hard lock, in order to conserve ammunition), but Guardian can and does (as explained in the posts I had linked previously) interfere with the BattleMech's ability to get said lock in the first place (provided, of course, that one is implementing the advanced and double-blind rules).
And, obviously, if Guardian can prevent the lock from occurring
and the Streaks won't fire at all without the lock, then it can be said that Guardian can technically prevent Streaks from firing... and that the Streak system allows this because
it is still doing what it was designed to do (that is, avoid firing unless there is a solid lock).
By contrast,
Angel actually causes the Streak system to malfunction in such a way that it will allow itself to fire in the absence of a solid lock, which dramatically increases the likelihood that at least some of the missiles will completely miss the target; such misses would be wasted shots,
which is the one thing the Streak system was specifically and explicitly designed to avoid.
As such, there is a certain irony in the quoted proposal and those in the same vein (which are surprisingly common and popular):
it is effectively asking the MWO rendition of ECM, which is supposed to be based on the Guardian ECM Suite, to take on one of the key aspects of the Angel ECM Suite, in spite of so many posts (in a number of cases, the same post and/or posters) condemning MWO's rendition of ECM for "acting like Angel", "combining Angel and Guardian", and so on and so forth.
Your thoughts?
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