Posted 21 March 2013 - 04:16 PM

I know this topic has been beat to death, but I got a pretty good response on reddit for this, so I thought I would try it here.

I work with real ECM in the real world. As such, I have some unique perspective on how electronic warfare battles play out in the real world and can give some new perspective to the topic from a game balance perspective.

To understand ECM, you need to understand some fundamentals of how radio works.

Think of radio like light. You communicate by varying the color (FM) or brightness (AM) of your light. Radar is basically bouncing light off things and measuring how it long it takes for your bounced light to get back to you.

ECM basically works by somebody having a brighter light than yours that is doing weird **** like flashing and changing their color so that somebody else looking for your light (or you, looking for the reflection from your own light) has a much harder time seeing it.

To get around this, you might say, make your light only work at a very specific color of blue for a second, then a very specific color of red shortly after. You tell the guy trying to see your light to use a filter for your very specific color of blue, then quickly switch to your color of red.

If you have your own big *** bright jamming light, you can filter it yourself. Say... put a filter that blocks all blue light over your jammer at the exact same instant that you are sending a message in blue on your communicating light.

He will now be able to see your light and only your light, no matter how bright somebody elses light is, unless they land on your specific color. If you change your color fast enough, and synchronize with someone else, it becomes much easier to get your message across.

When it comes to radar, the bright light jammer still works. You can't see your own light you are sending out get bounced back. Why? Because all you see is bright light everywhere.

ECM = the bright light trying to counter your own light. ECCM = things like using filters and color changes.

FWIW, from a real electronics warfare standpoint (and a game balance one), the BAP should show an approximate bearing that an ECM equipped mech is in (say, a bar on your heading indicator that covers a jittery 10 degree sweep).

Why? All of that ECM "light" is super easy to see. The BAP should be able to "see" and triangulate (approximately) that very bright light.

Ever driven in the middle of nowhere on a super dark night? Ever seen headlights over a hill? You can't see the headlights, but you can see their atmospheric scattering. You have no idea where that other car is, but you know it's over there in an approximate direction. This is basically what a system like the BAP would see.

BAP shouldn't impact targeting, as targeting radar needs to be much more precise than simply "there is a bright light somewhere over there". Game balance (and reality) could still be preserved by kicking the targetable range of an ECM equipped mech out a bit (say 50 meters in the mechwarrior world) for a BAP equipped mech.

Anybody within a hostile ECM bubble should have their comms jammed.

However, a twist on this is this: If two or more friendly mechs are within range to target an ECM equipped hostile, this targeting data SHOULD be relayed to friendlies. The real world reasons behind this are complicated, but it involves triangulation, Doppler shift and frequency hopping.

From a game balance perspective, this would be a huge nerf to your typical ECM raven. That guy who runs into a group of friendlies and lays waste with impunity.

From a game balance perspective, it would keep the intent of ECM intact (a lone scout to harass at the fringes of a battle, and gather data).

It would require more involvement on behalf of the ECM pilot too. An "off" mode would have to be added. This would render the mech invisible over the horizon to BAP equipped mechs. When an ECM pilot comes into real detection range of a hostile, they will have to light the system off. This renders them visible to BAP equipped mechs, but invisible to non BAP equipped mechs.

The "counter" mode of the current ECM implementation is actually perfectly valid from an electronics warfare perspective. The hardware is all the same, it's just a question of what it is doing. Mostly it involves the principal "destructive interference"

This makes electronic warfare a more involved process from the perspective of an ECM pilot. It is not simply a "win" button. It creates a weakness for ECM. Provides a valid and important use for the BAP. Provides an incentive for teamwork (Dedicated electronic warfare guys in a lance). It also seriously nerfs the biggest ***** that people have about the current ECM implementation (that 3L that wades in and annihilates a few assaults single handedly).

The counter mode is still not a "win" button. BAP mechs will still be able to see all of that "light". It also makes you vulnerable to being targeted.

Edited by no coast punk, 21 March 2013 - 05:08 PM.