Posted 13 September 2014 - 06:41 PM

CURRENT STATE OF ECM:

CURRENT ECM MODEL:

Provides sensor cloaking past 1/4 th of a mechs normal detection distance. (200 Meters without sensor range module or BAP.)



of a mechs normal detection distance. (200 Meters without sensor range module or BAP.) At 180 meters blocks mechs mini map target data, Blocks mech from relaying targeting data to team mates, and prevents any form of missile lock from LRM’s and Streaks.



Disrupts TAG locks at 180 meters



Above points means that there is a 20 meter “blind spot” for ECM from 180 meters to 200 where you can target a mech within the bubble and still have targeting data relayed to team mates.



Invalidates Artimis for friendly mechs under ECM



It takes twice as long to obtain missile lock against mechs under ECM (both stackable with other ECM’s and unaffected by counter ECM measures like PPC hits and TAG. Which allow you to target, but the ECM mech still benefits from increased targeting time.



BAP passively counters it at 150 meters



TAG counters it past 180 meters only if you are constantly hitting it with the beam (time is affected by multiple ECMs.)



PPC hits provide a 5 second window for targeting only (countered by another ECM.)

Hard counters all LRM use, both directly and indirectly. Unless player takes equipment that is more than double the weight of the ECM they are attempting to counter. (Tag / Bap or Narc)



LRMs without extra equipment are almost completely useless due to the threat of ECM.



LRM’s on anything less than a Heavy undesirable due to the weight of equipment needed to deal with ECM.



Information warfare perks are effective at all ranges at all times.



20 meter “blind spot” way too small for any mech to effectively use.



Soft counters ineffective at providing a counter window long enough to be useful.

PROPOSED DIRECTION OF ECM DESIGN PILLARS:

ECM should remain a crucial and game changing element for the information warfare aspect of MWO.



ECM should still be effective at countering indirect fire LRM’s and any kind of play mechanic that involves data outside of a player’s physical line of sight.



ECM dynamic should impact direct fire LRM play without invalidating it.



ECM should have effective soft counters through COUNTER PLAY over hard counters through equipment stacking.

STAGE 1 CHANGES:

Reduce Sensor Cloaking from 25% of your total sensor range, to 35% of your total range.

Non- ECM Equipment tuning:

TAG counter ECM time is unaffected by additional ECMs in the area



50% missile lock increase ECM effect is canceled out by TAG. (Thus an LRM carrier locking onto a TAG’ed target should have normal locking times, and not locks increased by the ECM lockon increase.)



PPC Anti ECM effect increased from 5 seconds to 10 seconds, and FULLY disables ECM including the reduction to lock on times.



Artemis is unaffected by ECM provided the target stays within LOS of the firing mech.



Lock times for LRM’s increased by 25% for targets not within LOS of the firing mech.

Friendly mechs under 180 meters of an enemy’s disrupting ECM no longer appear on Mini Maps and require direct line of sight to see their Blue Arrow.

STAGE 2 CHANGE:

Sensor Hard / Soft lock states

Targets in soft lock range do not display red arrows calling out enemy positions or target data.



Acquiring a soft lock target requires you to hit the target lock button when your reticle is in the general vicinity of the target. (The same vicinity it would usually take to begin to acquire a missile lock.) And the target is within 75% of your maximum sensor range (600 meters for unmodified sensors.)



Soft Locked targets are never communicated to team mates, do not show up on mini map, or show up in target info.



Soft locks only allow for a target to be locked on and maintained for the purpose of direct LRM fire.



Missiles take an additional 25% longer to lock for a target under a soft lock (thus its 75% extra time total after the 50% ecm missile lock time is factored in.)



Soft lock targets are never shared with allies. They are targets solely acquired by the player in direct line of site to them. And are lost as any other target lock does once the target is out of LOS (modifiers still apply.)

“Why?”

Hey Everyone,So rather than wait around for committees to be formed, I went ahead and worked on the following outline of changes that I would propose if I was a designer tasked with this. These kinds of proposals have been something that I have a bit of experience in, so just wanted to crack this out and push it to you guys ASAP to at least get a design on the table.Think of this as only a rough initial outline of my own Idea, not a consensus or a formal proposal of anyone in the community. Feel free to leave feedback and I encourage others to brainstorm out some fully fleshed out ideas as well to see if we can come to a consensus on improving what I think we can all admit has been a sore spot in the game for quite a bit.I apologize for the Length, but I wanted this to be as comprehensive as I could from the get go. I'm considering this a "liquid" proposal at this time, so if I hear consistent feedback on it, I'll be sure to integrate that here into the initial pitch.Thanks for your time guys, I know this is pretty long.I will elaborate on these Pillars in 2 stages. Stage 1 uses mechanics already present to one degree or another in the game today as a basis for their design. And Stage 2 is a single mechanic addition proposal meant to directly address the third pillar.This change is to emphasize more of the ECM “blind spot.” A mechanic already in the game from 180-200 meters. This change would allow targets from 180 meters to 280 meters to target a mech under ecm normally, and have that information relayed to the entire team. But all other ECM benefits would still be in full effect. (Double the time to acquire locks, and reduction in the time it takes to info gather the target.)The primary goal of this change is to emphasis “counter play” that any mech on the battlefield can accomplish. This gives players a 100 meter “sweat spot” under normal mech sensor circumstances that allows players to lock and relay targeting data to the team members. Mechs under ECM still fully benefit at long range with sensor stealth, and at close range where the ECM disrupts opposing players’ equipment. And as a result shifts the benefit of having ECM to groups looking to engage at long range, or at close range brawling, instead of having ECM be an all-inclusive “catch all” for mechs at all engagement ranges except for that 20 meters.Additionally, like it currently does, these ranges can be extended / compensated with by adding sensor boosting equipment such as BAP, and Sensor Range module.These changes serve to increase the utility of “Soft Counters.” TAG changes allow TAG to cut through ECM more efficiently and have an immediate effect on how fast mechs with missiles out of LOS can target and “snap fire” at a unit. Rather than having a unit with tag needing to hold lock for 3-5 seconds just to establish a target (before any kind of LRM’s even leave the tubes of mechs with them.)At 5 seconds, the PPC disabling of ECM is next to useless due to the amount of time that it takes to establish missile lock and allow missiles to find their target. This Change is to provide more of a window for counter ECM play and pushes back the effectiveness of LRM’s targeting someone with a PPC canceled ECM from 200-300 meters to more around the 400-500 meter range before ECM re-activates.Artemis is described in the fiction as using an infrared laser to help paint targets in LOS to assist in missle clustering. This rewards Missile equipped mechs who stay in LOS of their targets extra efficiency with their LRM’s and lightens how sever ECM counters LRMS.With all of these proposed changes to ECM in how it operates, we cannot neglect that they are this sever right now due to the threat of indirect LRM spam. Indirect fire LRM’s should be a role and utility of mechs in play, but with an increase to the soft counters and way that ECM plays, LRMs should not get run-away benefits when firing indirectly. Rather, they are still heavily affected indirectly, but can become MORE effective against ECM units by bringing themselves into direct LOS. This keeps indirect LRM fire as a powerful option, but one that takes time and effort to accomplish over the ability to snap fire indirectly with an entire team when a mech pokes his head out for 3 seconds.This change is a bit more involved then the others, but it is targeted to re-inforce ECM’s role on the battlefield as a piece of equipment specialized in information disruption. With most of these proposed changes causing more counter play in the mid ranged engagements, this change is to provide one more tool / incentive to close on enemy mechs to utilize the 180 meter effects of ECM.I’m not 100% for this change but I’ll throw it out there for debate with the rest of this as it pretains heavily into the section afterwards.Provide a system that allows direct fire LRM’s to still remain functional against ECM targets by expanding the definitions of the sensor locks.Exactly how target lock works in the game right now.When a target is under ECM, you can still establish a “soft lock” on targets within LOS for the purpose of firing direct fire LRM volleys within a reduced sensor range.A soft lock on a target operates identically to that of a hard lock with the following exceptions:At its core, this would allow you to gain a lock on a target, for the sole purpose of firing LRMs directly. Allowing ECM to still be utilized as a way of stopping indirect fire cold, but not invalidating a build that utilizes LRM’s without extra equipment. Especially those that are too light to justify the weight needed to carry around that said equipment.Visually, Soft locks would be represented by the same square bounding box, but with no target feedback offered until a hard lock is established under normal circumstances.Mockup:The most important question in all of this.The primary goal with each and every one of these changes is to reduce the binary nature of ECM. Currently, if you were to chart its effectiveness of ECM’s effects across a 1km range, this is what you would get:With this model, 0-150 meters sees an opportunity to hard counter through BAP, 30 Meters of unobstructed ECM disruption, followed by a 20 meter “dead zone” where you are out of disruption range, and still within range for your sensors to detect mechs and then from 200 meters out, you are completely countered by ECM unless you bring equipment that is specifically meant to counter its effects.All with BAP and the extra sensor range doing next to nothing for you to capitalize on the effects of the dead zone. Leaving you with only “hard counters” in the form of TAG, NARC, and UAV’s as your sole lifeline to actually counter the information warfare cloak, and have the ability to have a single weapon system even function.With the changes proposed here in this post, this chart will instead look like this:As you can see, ECM remains just as effective at close range, but the full 100 meters of “sweet spot” that you can spot with your average mech opens up a window for basic and indirect LRM fire to happen without any form of specialized equipment needed. Those under ECM still gain the benefits of having a 50% increase to lock times among all the other perks (Stackable with additional ECM surrounding them, but it gives average mechs a “window” to spot and engage ECM mechs in to allow your team to soft counter them through superior positioning rather than requiring a hard counter through specialized equipment.This only takes you up into 280 meters. Past that, ECM is still effective, but from 280 – 600 meters, you now have a “soft lock” option for mechs with LRM launchers. Which still shields you from target locks and indirect fire, but it allows units with basic LRM launchers to not be completely invalidated on the battlefield. They are still heavily penalized with increased lock times, but are allowed to utilize LRM’s as a direct fire option. Thus preventing a 1.5 ton piece of equipment from invalidating an entire weapon system as a direct fire option. (With their indirect utility still completely invalid past the 280 meter range.)Past the 600 meter range, the ECM operates as it does now.All while other soft counters like PPC’s provide enough time to create “windows” for missiles to be used. And the general increase in Indirect firing times counter balancing the changes a bit to allow it to be used as a “utility” but rewards players who utilize them in direct fire situations over those that wish to use them indirectly.Sorry for the massive post, but I hope that people find some use in this solution and I hope we can all come together and form a better solution to balance out ECM play into something not so binary.Again, this is my own proposal, not one made with the consensus of the community. Its a liquid document still open for further refinement. Feel free to rip it apart in the name of putting together a better proposal to pitch to the community.Thanks-Spiralface