Mr Rive
Sniggerdly
Pandemic Legion
131
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Posted - 2016.02.11 22:01:05 -
[1] - Quote
I still think there is a bigger problem with ecm drones, and perhaps ECM as a whole, that needs to be considered.
All other forms of ECM are scripted, they either provide a range or effectiveness of some kind of ship attribute, reducing the effect of one of these ships attributes or another. Tracking disruptors are useless against missile ships, sensor damps are useless against most ships with one or more sensor boosters with the right script in. Yes, tracking disruptors and sensor damps CAN be devastating, but only when applied to the right kind of ship, with the right kind of modules, and can be countered in a number of ways.
If you look at ECM drones in particular, no matter what ship they are on, be it an ishtar, which has bonuses to drones, or a vagabond, which doesn't, they have the same effects. This means, that an ishtar, whose DPS comes from it's drones, would basically become as effective as any other ship while launching ecm drones. It incentivises players to use ecm drones on a ship with no bonuses and a small drone bay.
Their effects are also FAR in excess of any other drone based warfare platform. t2 light drones do approximately 70-100 dps for a full flight, which, unless one is facing frigates is marginal, yet ecm drones get one jam strength for EVERY race, which might not seem like much, but is 40% more effective than an unbonused multispectral collectively. This doesn't illustrate their strength though, as 5 small chances to jam a target is much more effective than a single, slightly stronger chance.
The TLDR is, ECM drones are broken, boring to play with, and add nothing of value to the game other than annoyance. They involve no skill to use, but can shut down a ship for TWENTY SECONDS, and this happens far too often. Any ship without at least one ECCM module knows they are going to be jammed by ECM drones at some point in the fight. That's why everyone uses them.
ECM is another story. Again, there is very little skill in using ECM. Unlike sensor damps and tracking diruptors where one has a choice, and that choice dictates the way combat is going to go, whether it be through range disrupting your opponent's guns, therefore keeping at range of them to take advantage of it, or sensor dampening your opponent with scan resolution scrips, so their logistics take a long time to lock your primary, damps and tracking disruptors are both an engaging and fun, and often decisive way combat plays out.
ECM on the other hand is just a question of 'did you fit ECCM and have enough gang links to hopefully counter the inablity for your ship to lock anything for 20 seconds or more?' It's a random 'I win button', with very little tactic or pre-thought involved.
I suggest you do with ECM what you did with other ewar modules. Give ECM two scripts. One gives the ECM a longer jamming time, the other significantly reduces the jamming time, but increases the strength of the ecm. Alternatively, one could make it so that the more sensor integrity the hostile ship has, the more capacitor it costs to use ECM modules in order to try and counter them, although this might be more server load than you would be willing to introduce for one module (you did it for cap batteries though!).
I strongly suggest you remove light ECM drones altogether, perhaps even medium ECM drones. No other race gets a light and medium variant of ECM drones, so why should caldari? Light ECM drones mean there is simply no reason not to fit them on every ship you own. Their speed means no ship can outrun them other than linked ceptors, and their size means if you don't have at least a single flight in your ship, you're doing something wrong. Also, ECM drones should stop jamming a target if they stray out of their optimal range, much like normal drones stop being able to hit. I have had ecm drones which I have burned 30km away from continue to jam me for the remainder of their cycle.
The TLDR is, ECM is neither fun, engaging, or challenging, in fact, it is the opposite of all three. There is no element of strategy involved with ECM or ECM drones. Compare the arazu to the falcon, and in a fight, there is simply no competition to which you would prefer to have in a small gang. I mean hell, even the arazu will be packing ECM drones. |