Well indie ships can mount Burst ECM modules to break target lock or other similar burst modules.
But as you and i know most indie players will mount modules for speed, aligment, cargo capacity, shield tanking, or for mining, basically anything to help them earn isk faster. So very few even think about the 1 in 100 chance of a ecm ganker, and thus forgo an sensor boost, ECCM capable modules or burst module.
It alway goes back onto the player not welling to sacifice a “useful” module for a module that might not even be used while undocked.
Add to that most player haven’t even bothered to lvl they’ve sensor skills.
The Minutes say
" ECM is mentioned and CCP Rise feels that being able to do something on the field despite being jammed would be a necessary change to make a good ECM balance. One idea which was thrown around was to be able to target the ship which is jamming the player"
We can go backwards & forwards about how ECM should work but in the minds of the CSM & CCP the victim needs to be able to respond AFTER they are jammed (There are lots defenses against being jammed in the first place)
THIS IS A “MAKE THE VICTIM FEEL BETTER” FIX - The trouble is instead of giving the victim a method of response they made the response automatic - a poor game design choice - which broke many aspects of how ECM works particularly for 1v1 & Solo
and I agree - Yes ! warp away - but it seems that is not good enough
And simply add a second level of sensor strength skills that are a b****h to train.
My current sensor skills are only at level 4, im happy i can cou… could counter ECM before; im also painfully aware just how many times ( out of 5 or 6) jams can/could fail just trying to jam one bloody battleship (again ecm skills largely only at 4)
Im also fully aware falcons that decloak and jam solo battleships dont stick around after you have dropped sentries… and griffins and kitsunes well, they usually just die rather fast.
All in all as an ecm user and someone who solo’s from time to time i didnt think a change was needed.
This is a copy of an idea I made on another thread.
Given that the current state is going to stay, I would like to see the lock-breaking ability re-introduced, i.e. the EWAR ship will break the lock (100%) on the targeted ship but the targeted ship can re-lock afterwards. This could be in the form of a module for ECM ships only.
A secondary effect could be that all active modules stop their cycle and have to wait on cooldown a few seconds before they can be re-activate. This could be balanced as an ancillary module (like a shield booster) powered by cap charges with a cooldown after each use an a reload time. If fired without cap charges a drawback could be that EWAR ship will also suffer the effect as per targeted ship, i.e. modules stop in cycle + cooldown. Maybe you would only be allowed to fit a limited number of this type of module per ship? I think such a device would complement jamming while still being separate.
The counter play to this will be to be quick to reactivate the modules on cooldown and a sensor booster to improve re-lock time.
Why didn’t they make ECM behave more like Mining Lasers with Sensor Strength effectively the HP of your ships Sensors.
What I mean is, If I have a ship with a Sensor Strength of 20 and I am targeted by a Multispectral ECM with a strength of 5, my Sensor Strength would degrade by 5 per ‘cycle’ of the hostile ECM, lets say it ticks over every 2 seconds. When Sensor Strength reaches zero after approximately 8 seconds, my ships Sensors “Reboot”, clearing locks and forcing me to lock targets again.
In that scenario, It would take 8 seconds of cycling to force a ‘reboot’.
Repeated ECM attacks on a single ship within a certain timeframe (Denoted by an effect on the ship similar to receiving a Command Burst) would have diminishing returns, reducing the ‘damage’ each tick of the ECM module does to the Sensor Strength. Example being, 8 seconds for the first break, 16 seconds for the second, 32 for the third etc etc.
Sensor Strength or ECM strength tweaked to produce the desired time to take effect per ship class etc, the numbers above are an example only.
Perhaps even limiting the number of ECMs that can concurrently affect a single ship.
That’d remove all randomness from the module and give both the attacker and victim a clear indication of when the ECM will take effect.
For the victim, they can see their Sensor Strength degrading over time, while the attacker sees a ‘progress bar’ in the form of the cycle time on the module.
To warrant the “balance” in the first place, why not make ECM as oppressive as neutralizers and buff all ECM modules to do the following:
Stops the jammed ship and makes it stand still
Forces the player to stand up, and leave the house for 5 hours
Darkens the screen for 96 hours, even if the client is closed
Blocks all phone calls and the internet for 96 hours
Disables all electronic devices in a 10 block radius for 96 hours
Disband goons and automatically moves all goons to highsec and the Najirja gate to be ganked with a 10 year long suspect timer and all of the assets in a freighter of the characters origin
Auto-explodes all titans and sooper dooper doopers at once
Clears the wallet of the jammed ship’s pilot and distributes all the cash to the poor
Removes all modules from the jammed ship and automatically sell them in Jita to distribute the cash to the poor
Instantly biomasses characters asking for no poors
Clears all goons and goons alts wallet to zero isk
Removes incursions from highsec
Removes bounty payout from nullsec anomalies if the anomaly is being completed in less than 30 minutes
Removes bounty and LP payout for “blitz-ing”
The jammed ship will self-destruct in 10 seconds and can never be flown again
Permanently removes all skills related to the jammed ship from the character
Permanently removes the ability to train the skills related to the jammed ship
Removes all cheat stix from the game
Now ECM is in a good state and the Caldari are finally taken seriously again.
Not much least to say on it, other than would have been better with something constructive. Maybe an idea on how to make ECM and ECCM better, or where the current system fails you.
they could’ve simply added a 4th script for sebo, call it ECCM 2.0 or whatever the hell. make it give 0% sensor strength bonus, but when loaded and active, you can always lock the jammer. viola. fixed with minimal overall upheaval.
people would fit the eccm script to prevent jams, and if it fails to prevent a jam, then they cycle off the sebo, wait, load the new script, re-activate the sebo, then they proceed to lock the jammer.
this would give ‘agency’ (stupid fuckin thing) and also provide the lock breaking.
IF however a pilot doesn’t care about being jammed, and simply fits the new script so they can retain a lock on a jammer (IF they are ever jammed), then they never lose the lock on the jammer in the first place.
it would retain ‘balance’ because at least the victim of ecm HAS TO FIT A COUNTER in order to Counter the jammer. its really not that freakin complicated to balance a thing.
Funny thing is this whole fix, i get the feeling it’s about indy ships and noobe security missioners. Most mining indie ships have the capable to have defensive drones, and mainly the transporters that have next to nothing.
So even with CCP’s idea it fails in that area.
As for noobe security missioners it’d help them, but you’d think they’d know every time they do a mission they could loose their ship not only to a possible ganker, but also to npc forces.
I hope CCP revisits the whole ECM vs ECCM/sensor system, the % chance based system gives the ECM ship always a chance to JAM no matter how small the chance. There’s no impossible JAM, even against overpowering sensor strenghts, there’s still that small percentage chance of a JAM.