Player Features and Ideas Discussion

Right now we have four forms of projective fleet protection; logistics who repair damage taken, sensor dampeners which slow target acquisition and/or dictate range, tracking disruption which reduces the effectiveness turret equipped enemies, and ECM which breaks targeting locks and is generally agreed to be the trout slap of internet spaceships. What I propose is a new module set which is like ECM in that it uses sensor strength and racial sensor types but is more like stepping between your friend at the bar and the biker with beer in his lap rather than kicking sand into someone's eyes and then stealing their pants.

When active this module scatters a field of energized particles around a target vessel which may cause unfriendly vessels to loose targeting locks.
The module would use the same skills that determine jam strength and range and have similar fitting requirements. The point behind this is to give fleets a real way to shield allies. I see this new role as balancing well with logistics in that where logistics can repair damage already taken and can't miss these modules would allow a friendly vessel to potentially break webs and points as well as prevent damage from being taken at all. Obviously to prevent this from being overpowered the random factor of the current ECM would have to be included as well. I would also suggest that ships which are immune to ewar effects also be immune to this module's effects, and would like to mention that since this module would only break locks not prevent new ones from being acquired its effects could be mitigated through sensor boosting target painting and the like. In fact I honestly think this module set would serve well as a replacement for the existing ECM, which though I don't personally believe is terribly unbalanced is definitely a fun crushing mechanic. I also see this as an opportunity to breath life into the idea of actually escorting vulnerable ships, a role which is difficult at best in most regions of space.

Not Really, ECCM prevents you from being jammed. This would jam people trying to lock you. It should probably be called a Remote Target Spectrum Breaker except that for it to be useful it needs to block only hostile locks, and associating my idea with one of the most useless modules in New Eden is a sure way to sink what could be a really good idea.

So I have this module you're proposing and I target an allied ship and activate the module. Then some server-side pRNG determines if my module is successful or not - if it is, then ships targeting my ally will lose their locks. Right?

So what you're suggesting is ... ECM. Very interesting.

You know, OP, I don't think we actually have any ECM in the game yet. We definitely need to add this new "ECM" concept you're proposing and we need to do it sooner rather than later. We could go even further than that, though.

I propose - on top of OP's proposal - that we not only add ECM to EVE immediately, but that we create dedicated ECM ships that have ECM-related bonuses. We could even design a whole race around the idea that their ships are the ECM-users. And missiles. ECM and missiles. That's exactly what we - or rather, CCP - should do. Yes. Absolutely. Yes.

Sorry, I am not that subtle.

Read it now the forth time:

ECM ECM ECM ECM could sound like ECCM ECM ECM ECM.

So, since we have ECM... the ony thing I got from it was a hint of remote ECCM, if that is wrong, maybe you can rephrase your suggestion better, so it can't be mistaken for ECM or ECCM.

Ah, forget it , I got a better idea.

Fair enough. Hadn't considered the effect of fitting them on the logi itself.