Player Features and Ideas Discussion

Currently there are a great deal of ECM mods for each type of sensor with the meta four being the only real choice in most cases.


I feel the meta four/t2 have a nice balance in the sensor strength so what i propose to change is how the mods use heat.

the current T2 would stay the same giving its overheat to the Jam strength

then there would be two other groups

First one lower strength than the T2
lowered the cycle time when heating (with maybe a small boost to jam strength) so you have more chances to get a jam but if it lands its for a much shorter duration
this one would also need to produce more heat or depending on the cycle reduction it could be to strong on dedicated ships

lowest strength
and would increase the cycle time when heating (if it's possible with a further reduction in jam strength). This gives you fewer chances to jam but it will land for longer


This would give you much more choice in a fight as an ECM boat over just hoping your jam lands.

Personally the one that would increase the jam time is not one i'm fond of but I'm just one person so i put it up anyway.




in short your choices would be
1 better chance to jam
2 shorter cycles
3 longer cycles

Problem with ECM is you are almost forced to go with the one with the highest strength even when you have to compromise tank/range/dps

a few years ago you had a choice with range or power but with the meta now shifted to faster ships you can't kite all that well with ECM boats



the idea above not only has you making choices at the fitting screen but also in a fight.

long cycles on weak ecm would work great on frigates but short cycle times would be less effective

the lower chance to hit on cruisers would make the longer duration one a poor choice but one that rapidly cycles could cause them to waist time relocking

battle ships and T2 cruisers would need the higher jam strength of the T2 ecm to get any reliable hits

but you don't need to use the lows on the griff for tank so the ecm mods there cover what the rigs would do and the stacking penalty makes it almost pointless to use rigs and lows


but even going in as close as 30 km with the multies on black birds+ you are fine and don't need much more range than that and with most ships having gotten sensor strength buffs and the new targeting skills even with a boosted rook you have less than a 50% jam chance on some cruisers lowering that any further and it wont much matter how far from the fight you are.

this is why i stated they would be weaker and that they would have to generate much more heat as to keep you from doing it for more than a few cycles on the one that shortens it


and why i said the longer one would also need weaker strength even to the point where over heating weakened it further

What I meant was that changing cycle time does not increase or decrease the power of the module - if you gave me two modules, regardless of cycle times if one had a stronger jam strength then I would take that one.

It's a similar case of say you're playing some fantay game

a 50% chance to crit for 100% bonus damage or a 10% chance to crit for 500% bonus damage (they both work out to an average of a 50% increase) - statistically they do the same thing, it's up to the player to decide if they want more consistent damage or wilder variation.

In a nutshell, giving the shorter duration module a boost to jam strength will make it flat out better, likewise giving the longer module a penalty will make it flat out worse.

As far as I remember, CCP Fozzie hinted during last Fanfest they want to scrap the current ECM mechanics altogether and replace it with something else. If I remember correctly, he was not happy, and many seem to agree there, that ECM is the only Ewar where there's no countermeasure; if you are jammed, you cannot do anything to counter act this (save for drones), whereas other Ewar has things you can do to counter it (Damps, get closer, use Sebo/Sigamp; TP, move faster/out of range; TD, use TC/TE, move slower or aligned to your target or move closer, etc.). With ECM, you can only slightly reduce the chance of receiving a complete black out.

Drones F.o.F smart bombs not to mention one ECCM makes it almost impossible for you to be jammed

Arguing from a numbers perspective

Say you have a 50% chance to jam

Regardless of cycle speeds, if you target a ship and apply your ECM you can statistically expect to have him jammed half of the time. Whether you're cycling every half second or cycling every minute or anywhere inbetween, you're most likely to jam him half the time.

Sure if you can land an extended jam on a ship then you've scored a solid blow, however, given that you have to heat that module before it cycles, if your jam fails... well from personal experience there is a huge sense of naked vulnerability when you pile all four jams on that coercer in your face and they all fail. I don't want to imagine that when I have to wait 50% longer before I can try jamming agian. (Risk v. reward y'all)

Now whilst purely on numbers tweaking cycle time doesn't impact on the % time jammed, in practice thing's are skewed in shorter cycle time's favour, both because A) The issue afkalt (and me too if you read up) mentioned, and B) if thing's are going pearshaped, five fleeting seconds of being un-tackled is all that you need to disengage. If I could fit five second jams to my kitsunes I would feel very safe indeed because if something catches me and starts whaling on me I'd have a much better chance of getting away than if I had 30 second jammers.

Then just fly multi no one makes you use the racial ones.



But ecm is extremely powerful so the reward comes with a high risk if you fail.



I'm not to set on my own idea and it was just set there to get things started but removing choice is not what ecm needs

I like this balance as long as the range of the T2 is less than the Scout but higher than standard, and the strength of the T2 is less than the Enfeebling but higher than standard.

The shorter/longer duration variations proposed by Lugh also has merit but I am unsure how to implement it without having 5 Meta modules.