Player Features and Ideas Discussion

No, what I see is a bunch of anecdotal stuff added to the illusion of a chance afforded by other ewar types, compounded by the inability of a target of ECM to see failed attempts as well as the use of the classic 'falcon decloak ruined my 1v1'.

All familiar, tired, old arguments which do nothing to prove that ECM is overpowered.


If ECM is all that, why then when all other things are equal, are damps the weapon of choice in the tournaments? Surely it can't be because ECM is unreliable.....?

You're suffering from severe confirmation bias because RNG dunked you. It happens, but you really have to get over it.


Question: when was the last rook you saw? I've seen ONE in the last two years.

I don't even understand what OP is suggesting as an alternative to the current mechanics. Is it supposed to be % * (jam strength / sensor strength ) chance to jam/miss? Last I checked, that's already how it works, just without the coefficient.

The duration of the jam cycle is 20 seconds because that is the cycle time of the module. Reducing the cycle time will merely result in more frequent checks, which will get you permajammed. There is a reason why there is not a skill to reduce ECM module cycle time. It would be retardedly OP.

Drones set to aggressive will auto-engage on hostile targets, provided they are not already busy doing something else. You can also assign them to another pilot and have them sick your drones on the ECM boat.

Also, in case you haven't noticed, every T2 ship that has gone through tiericide and the subsequent rebalances has had a massive sensor strength boost. Coupled with the sensor compensation skills, ECM is no where near as powerful as it used to be.

Range: ECM has optimal and falloff. Out in falloff it may fail entirely. Even if it doesn't, it still has to make the standard pass/fail check. Unlike other EWAR, it has to succeed twice when in falloff. By this logic, one could say that ECM is pre-gimped compared to other EWAR and perhaps should be buffed. Personally, I don't think it should be buffed the effect is so strong.

Hull: ECM hulls (and all EWAR hulls in general) are very fragile. Just sneeze at them and they either warp away or die. This fragility is why they have such long effective ranges.

I don't consider smartbombs and FOF missiles to be effective counters to ECM. Theoretically they would work. But they just aren't practical.

I trained Recon 5 years ago. But I don't even bother flying Falcons anymore because they are so unreliable now.

Every type of ecm can have a tactical response (on the field choice) to counter/mitigate it in some way. Neuts nos, damps, td's can all be mitigated by range while ECM cannot. Ecm modules have optimal and falloff ranges, Why not use them?

example: ECM at optimal range jams, the farther into falloff you get the less your jam chance becomes. inside optimal has the same effect, so you could theoretically close range to reduce the jam chance and eventually get under them similar to turret combat. The ECM burst would then be the way to bump lock at point blank range.

Just a thought

Edit: I realize that TP's cannot have their effect mitigated by range control like the others, but could be grouped with ecm and changed similarly

some really mixed responces here.

Its been 11 years and people still hate ecm, this is a fact. is this thread about damps? is it about TDs? no it isnt.

Look at drones too, every other ew drone gets stacking raped, what about ecm? oh whats that it gets BETTER with more due to chance rolls not worse like every other?

Fit eccm? dont make me laugh, waste of a slot for getting jammed anyway, utter stupid bullshirt.

ECM needs some way round so if you fit for anti ecm you actually can do it and protect your fleet wihtout wasting multi slots and stuff for somthing that wont even work.

Its crap and you know its crap, fix it.

all e-war needs looking at

- falloff should decrease strength rather than being a probability penalty
- drones shouldn't be so immune too e-war .. which is why drones are so popular they just laugh at falcons
- damps are too powerful
- TD's need a nerf
- webs need a nerf .. and by default makes TP's more useful
- add missile e-war/ tracking mods

This is why I said before that Tracking Disruptors and Sensor Damps only give you the illusion that you can still do something. Face it, if you get your optimal range nerfed down to 100 meters, and your fighting a ship that can move as fast as you and they are orbiting at 5000 meters, do you still think your guns are going to do anything? ECM just slaps you in the face on a chance based and flat out tells you no, you will not be using your highslots against the other person.

If you go up against a double damp hookbill that can move faster then you and damps your lock range down below what he is orbiting you at, do you still think you will ever hit him?



Actually ECM drones have a stacking penalty as well. Let's just assume that each drone has a 5% chance to jam the target they are on.

First drone: 5% to jam
Second drone: 5% chance to jam the target, if the first drone doesn't jam the target, so 5% of 95% is 4.75% chance to jam.
Third drone: 5% chance to jam the target if the first two drones don't jam the target, so 5% of 90.25% is 4.51% chance to jam.
Fourth drone: 5% chance to jam the target if the first three drones don't jam the target, so 5% of 85.74% is 4.29% chance to jam.

So as you can see, there is diminishing returns on having your ECM drones on the same target. So in large fleet engagements, where there is an equal threat on multiple ships, your best bet will be to put a drone on 5 different targets.



Try flying an ECM boat where the entire other fleet has ECCM on. Chances are you will either warp off or die in a fire before your second cycle of jams can go. The workaround for fitting ECCM on your entire fleet will be have 1 ship fit remote ECCM and have your fleet broadcast when they are being primaried by ECM. It won't help them for the first cycle of jams, but it will on the 2nd.

So by "less effective" you mean: "utterly worthless".

At least ECM doesn't taunt the lesser experienced people by affording them the illusion of chance.....

Here, let me put it in actual numbers. With my emphasis.




Oh yeah, sure, you can lock and fire - utterly impotently - but sure you can burn ammo before dying in a fire if you like. Knock yourself out.

Thats not true at all.

And to the guy saying ecm drones get reduced also horse ****.

A blob of ecm drones has MASSIVE chance to hit on cycle, even if they are actually penalized while their effectiveness might be reduced in strength they still get X dice roles which INCREASES chance massively.

Lets not forget that a 20 second jam in anything but a BS or cap fight is an eternity in pvp. Short of auto aggroed drones you are screwed.

I got jammed the other day at 80k by one griffin in a 10 v 5, what the ******* **** man! half of our gang jammed out by one 80km griffen is stupid. name one other ew ship that can do that

No they are already effective considering you can jam a drone boat and he may not even know it. Just it scales even worse on done boats in larger fights

Then being some ecm with you and jam the jammers they pop pretty fast after that