Player Features and Ideas Discussion

I’ve been playing eve now for years and I have watched ECM get nerfed, nerfed and more nerfed but the main problem with it has never been fixed.

ECM is great. Flying it is difficult due to the low EHP of the specialist ships meaning you have to be lucky with jams, target the right people and keeping range from those you are not jamming.

ECM allows small groups to take on slightly larger groups in a role that reduces the incoming DPS.

Or it allows players to completely shut down a player in a gate camp or mission so that ransoms can be made without risk to those holding the target.

On non-specialist ships ECM is currently virtually useless, you could maybe jam out 1 low sensor strength frig if you’re lucky. I miss the days when you could fit 1 or 2 ECM on a ship allowing it to fight greater numbers solo if you were lucky with the jams. This role is now done by ECM drones in mass along with lucky escapes from sticky situations.


Now why I hate ECM

Fighting ECM is just not fun, the recent range nerf for ECM was good allowing people to move out of optimal range from the more unaware ECM pilot
But the fact you lose your target and are just sitting there hoping the dice rolls in your favour and then if it does having to relock a target is simply frustrating and not enjoyable.
I have a love/hate relationship with ECM I love using it, but I hate other people using it on me.


ECM is the only EW in EVE with so much controversy even though others types have similar effects neuts, Damps, tracking disruption, so what’s the solution?

The Solution

My idea is quite simple we buff the strength of ECM and reduce the optimal further for non-dedicated ships; this allows ships to evade non dedicated ships easier. (I would also maybe consider adding a limit to the number of ECM modules like the limit on ECM bursts)

Now for the biggest change: When you are jammed you stay locked onto your targets!
However the ECM has a feature where much like the new warp scramblers it is able to turn off your modules so you are still jammed but don’t have to worry about relocking and still feel like you are in the fight

Still being able to target an ECM pilot means that there is now an offensive counter DRONES

I also propose adding scripts to the ECM modules like other EW this will split the anger generated by being jammed

Script 1: turns off all high slot target based modules (turrets, launchers, neuts, Nos, RR, ect)

Script 2: turns off all medium slot target based modules (scrams, webs, ECM, target painters, damps ect)

I feel ECM drones are worse than ECM currently with swarms of 30 endlessly jamming someone throughout a fight with only a bs having a quick counter. I have 2 option for them

Slight increase in strength but they only interrupt lock like current ECM bursts (great for allowing ships to escape at the last minute this also means it is more effective on bigger ships than smaller ones due to lock time)

The alternative is ECM drones Reduce target sensor strength allowing targets to be jammed more easily (great for breaking those logi chains)


A summery will be posted below please comment, discus and flame away :)

I'm not sure ECM needs to be heavily revamped... but this would be quite an interesting way to revamp it.

Unfortunately, with this change,ECM ships would then need serious rebalancing, as they are generally too fragile as is...

First of all, i'm a dedicated falcon pilot. Won't bring me much love here in the forum, but it's time to "break a lance" for this form of electronic warfare And yes, ECM ist one of the strongest forms of E-war in eve, i see that. Especially in small scale engagements.

But:

In the last months, ECM was nerfed several times allready.

- Range was nerfed
- Sensor strenght of most ships has been increased in the Tiericide of the ships.
- Introducing a new skillset that let you boost your Sensorstrenght by 20%! (on Level 5)

The "real" ECM-Boats (Griffin, Kitsune, Blackbird, Falcon, Rook and Scorpions) have strong ECM, but are pretty vulnerable ships in general. The ECM is the Tank of these ships and even a small amount of damage like 1-2 flights of drones can be a problem for you (except scorpion).

If they nerf it further, these ships would have to be buffed massively in terms of tanking or speed. But that does not seem to happen, Blackbird, Griffin and Scorpion are allready through tiericide.

I think the main problem of most players with ecm are the ECM-Drones anyway. Too cheap, very popular on allmost any ship without Drone-Damage bonuses and to strong in general.

The best solution in my view, if there have to be any further changes, would be to strenghten ECCM modules a bit. Increase the bonus from 96% to 110% / 120% or something. And halve the Jammerstrengh of ECM-Drones.

So drone boats could kill ECM boats?

Cap boosters kill Neutralizers.
Missiles and drones kill tracking disruption.
Speed kills damps.

Drones can already scare off ECM if the player is quick/lucky but that’s all they can do scare them off.
They will still be jammed and that time spent trying to kill the ECM is dps lost on other ships.
If you are in a sabre falcon camp, would you rather the drones went for your sabre of falcon? Atm is 50/50 I can’t imagine being able to choose would change it that much anyway.



Whilst I do love the tears of someone unable to do anything, trapped like a fly in a spiders web.

The problem is that people who see ECM are far more put off of a fight than when they see any other kind of recon.

How many rooks do you see in small gang warfare? Everybody love using ECM but it stops people wanting to attack it.
That’s why it needs fixing.





There is a risk this would become a nerf, but I believe if they increase the strength of ECM this would counter the penalties and make ECM more viable on non-specialised ships and more fun to fight against.



While I do like the range nerf and would see it increased, but only on non-specialised ECM boats.

There has been far too much nerfing because of all the tears just to make it weaker, rather than changing the way it works.

The biggest problem for an ECM boats Tank is that they lose their low slots to Signal Distortion Amplifier’s just to stay effective due to the different nerfs over the years. Or they have to carry a huge mix of different jammers that stops them shield tanking.