While I do like how you can stop ships from shooting you in space based on the types. But the system is far too hard to use in combat and you can never have the right type of ECM jammers on board. This will cause most to just use the one jammer for all races.
I would like to change the role of this ship to a single module jammer. How would this work well? You lock the target and run a quick ship scanner for its load out. From there you can use this module to jam specific modules of the target ship on board. So instead of blocking out the weapons on board, you could stop them from repairing their ships or any module on board.
Please note: This would only work on active modules and would not work on passive modules.
Modules to jam enemy weapons already exist in the game and are the Amarr’s signature weapon disruptors and guidance disruptors. And to stop enemy ships from using their repairing modules you can suck their capacitor dry with energy neutralizers.
There is no need to change ECM to do those things when other EWAR can already do it.
About ECM: there are 5 types of modules, each for another type of sensor and one general option.
While it’s easy to use the one jammer that works against all ships, ECM gives you the opportunity to do much better if you have intelligence about your enemy.
If you know what kind of fleet you’re going to face or what kind of ship you are about to attack because someone in your group gave information about the enemy ships, you can refit at your mobile depot to ECM modules matching your expected enemy and get a massive 50% bonus to your jam strength.
It’s pretty easy to match your jams to enemy ships too, if you didn’t know. Just look at the background of the enemy ship and match colours:
This Dramiel is using Minmatar-style LADAR sensors; use red ECM.
This Astero is using Gallente-style Gravimetric sensors; use green ECM.
And if you don’t want to do that, you can always use Multispectral ECM.
Not sure why you want to change the role of the ship? They aren’t supposed to be “good against everything”, you have to make decisions that have consequences. For example you have to make a guess which enemy ships might be relevant for their fleet comp and fit jammers against exactly those. Best general option are RADAR jammers since you can take out Amarr and Triglavian ships with these, which has two major benefits:
Amarr combat ships usually have very good damage projection on range and the ability to quickly switch targets and engagement range or applying heavy neut pressure on your fleet, jamming some of them out greatly lowers the overall enemy fleet performance
most armor-based compositions rely on Guardians for Logistic, which are also Amarr ships and thus RADAR jammers work best
Triglavian Ships suffer the most from a succesful jam, since they lose their spoolup, be it Damage or Rep (Zarmazd)
But, always have a Mobile Depot in Cargo, so you can refit as soon as the enemy fleet has been spotted and you can fit jammers against their key support ships. Or refit at a nearby station or bring a Nestor with the fleet.
For your “module targeted jammers”: I don’t think that is a good idea, because it would instantly decide a fight with the click of a button. To shut down defensive modules, energy neutralization already exists (even with specialized ships for that: Curse, Pilgrim, Ashimmu, Bhaal, Geddon/NavyGeddon…). For shutting down offensive modules, weapon disruption or jamming already exists (again, with specialized ships for it). I really can’t see a huge benefit of your idea, instead making engagements even more random because your new “module jammer” might just shut down anything, since you cannot know what type or script the pilot is running. But to plan and take proper fights, especially when punching upwards, you’d need at least a wild guess what the opponents gang is capable of so you can pick engagement range, -time and -tactic. Not knowing which (random) module is probably not going to work on some of your ships after a few seconds is… meh.
Yes, ECM is hard to use in combat. This is intentional because it is, by far, the most powerful form of EWAR when used properly. The ability to lock out another ship from being able to do anything but maneuver can be devastating when used properly.
Notice a trend there?
The thing that keeps ECM from being stupidly OP is the simple fact that it requires a bit of planning to be used properly. You really do want to know what kind of ships you’re going to be going against, so knowledge of the ships commonly used in the content you’re invading, or enemy fleet comp if larger fleets.
Also, get that Recon V, iirc it makes the multispec jammers hit hard enough to be effective, but it’s been a long time since I looked at the bonuses for those ships. My preference in recons is either sensor damps or webs, depending on fleet, and I know my damps and webs are absolutely evil now at Recon V.
