Player Features and Ideas Discussion

Basic premise: Battlecruiser upwards-sized ewar mod that reduces the effectiveness of the targeted ships' command and other links (sensor, eccm) by projecting electronic countermeasures inverse to the data streams being sent by the boosting ship. The two options would be:

-Scripted, focused. Better effectiveness, but balloons the parent ship's sig radius massively, making it a bigger target. Uses less capacitor than unscripted.

-Unscripted, AoE. Similar to unscripted warp disruption fields, this slows down the parent ship and gives out a shell of confusing countermeasures to disrupt the boosting ships' links, causing reduced effective strength. Uses more capacitor than the scripted, and has reduced range.

NOTE: I would only consider this applicable WHEN (not if) links are fixed to be usable only on grid, and/or within a certain range. This provides an effective counter just as ECCM works to counter ECM, or how sebos work to counter damps, etc. This is mainly just a hypothetical concept to discuss in relation to the future of boosting tactics, and possible counters. The direction boosting will take as an on-grid concept will require significant re-evaluation of small-gang tactics, particularly in lowsec and null.

This is a very general idea; I'm very open to discussing specifics such as fitting reqs and module statistics, as well as tactical implications.

It would be lowsec usable like ecm bursts and smartbomb, but less effective than the targeted version. The tactic in mind with it would be that like the WDF it has a decently wide range to cover a gate, so if you're being jammed or waiting for them to decloak, you can still put out your anti-links on field if they're within the bubble, and if they're gatecloaked you can pre-emptively cover the battlefield. You'd just have to get your fleet links far enough away to stay outside the bubble beforehand.

...I don't think getting alpha'd off field if you're flying a damnation or t3 with ehp numbers close to (or over) a million, especially with logi support, happens anwhere near as often as you think it does. It's usually a slow process of breaking reps to wear down that hp. Unless you're talking a giant fleet of several hundred tornadoes, the scenario you're posting is absurdly specific, and not at all reflective of most fleet warfare.

Also, believing that links are somehow balanced and alright as they are is not only flatly incorrect, it's part of the problem. They need the nerfbat HARD, and forcing them to be on-grid is the most logical way to do it. At that point, they can be treated as any other ewar, both with solid counters and counters to those counters. It's really not a difficult concept to get behind.

Or you could neut out their command ship or drop combats over their off grid links (often don't even need a 100% scan to get them to warp to a new spot or cloak)... both have a good chance of disrupting hostile links.

Counters are ECM, damnps, neuts, etc. Since it would be limited to the same ships that can fit command links (t1 and t2 battlecruisers, t3) and a mwd-sized bloom effect WITHOUT the speed bonus, regardless of whether or not you're in a ship that's shield tanking your sig radius becomes huge, especially since it's fit on battlecruiser and up sized ships. I would be open to limiting it from t3 cruisers for that reason.

This only directly affects the on-grid links; the targeted script acts like a scripted warp disruption field and only lands on one ship at decent range and severely detracts from the boost strength of that ship. Both scripted and unscripted have a very large range; significantly more so than a warp disruption field, so working under the assumption that hypothetical on-grid links would be changed to have several hundred km range, having an aoe radius between 30-50km with scripted being 45-75km being the ballpark ranges I'm throwing out here for consideration (fully willing to change that, btw).

These would face similar tactical hurdles to fielding bubbles or warp disruption fields in gatecamps, but would be fairly easy to surmount since they only affect the booster ships on field (including sensor, tracking, and eccm links) and not such things as logi or fleet ewar.