Electronic Counter Measures??

Been a while since there has been any discussion about these.
Does it work?
I ask because I got taken out a day ago by an NPC in an Alliance Challenger using missiles.
Some where in the recesses of my mind I had the idea that Small MCT's in Fire at Will would take out missiles, but it didn't happen.
So I am looking at the ECM.
The operation looks pretty straight forward.
Hold the button to extend the range. Seems to take about 10 seconds to get max range. Then it has a reload time that is the same no matter what the last range used was.
What I am looking for is the reload time or firing rate of missiles.
 
I've had mixed success with the ECM. It might be because I would always let it go to the full bar (I thought it was a charge indicator) but as you know it takes a while. The problem is increased when you want to be using another module / hard point or something from the trigger at the same time. Hence I found Point Defence to be far better.
 
Just stack shield boosters against missiles and take the enemies out before they take you out. If anyone suggests otherwise or using ECMs or PDTs, it's because their opponents haven't spammed enough missiles yet.
 
ECM can be somewhat useful, especially against packhounds because your point defence may have trouble knocking out ALL THE MISSILES.

You'll need to use the specific key bind for it though... using fire groups with that thing would be nuts.

It's not a silver bullet or anything though - but it could save you a re-buy. Might want to get some buddies to fire missiles at you while you practice using it.
 
I've had mixed success with the ECM. It might be because I would always let it go to the full bar (I thought it was a charge indicator) but as you know it takes a while. The problem is increased when you want to be using another module / hard point or something from the trigger at the same time. Hence I found Point Defence to be far better.
Well, At least on a PC it, like chaff can be bound to either an aux key on the joystick or an unused key on the keyboard.
I use a Genovations programmable 48 key auxiliary keyboard.
Alwayslate
I asked about the reload/fire rate of missile racks because I never expect to face more than one NPC with more than one rack. So getting overloaded isn't likely to be an issue. If the reload/fire rate of the missiles is slower than the reload rate for the ECM, then it should work quite well against a single NPC.
 
PDTs on the right utility positions will do.

In fact, NPCs are very much unlikely to shoot missiles when your shield's up, so you could just stack shields like I suggested.

Here is my build --->>> https://coriolis.io/outfit/asp?code...OEBDANtglpgHYDGApgPrEAWO2phA5qQE4gjLzCLcJA===

Which modules do you think I can do without to put in the Shield Cells??

I have two ships/commanders I fly on side by side computers in a Private Group. Both are in identical ships.
I now have the CP-48 programmed with a pulse key that produces 1000m of coverage. 1 second of pulse range 10 sec recharge. I also have Voice Attack commands that produce 1000m, 2000m, and 3000m ranges.
I have experimented outside a station NFZ using limpets and the range limits work, only killing limpets inside the range.
What I ran into was that an NPC in and alliance Challenger attacked one ship in my wing but the way the game works, the turrets on my other ship did not see the AC NPC as "hostile" so they did not come on line. Read here -->> https://forums.frontier.co.uk/threads/wing-ops-mining.512411/ <<--- The builds were slightly different, but the ship that was attacked was able by itself to knock down the AC NPC shields. Had both ships with a combined total of 5 Sm MC and 3 Med MC been firing at the AC NPC he would have been toast. But, the AC NPC kept knocking down the shields on the ship with the cargo and the most weapons forcing it to retreat and eventually the missiles destroyed it.
As best I can tell, even though the wingman couldn't get it's turrets to fire in fire at will, an ECM on the wingman would have taken out the missiles and I think the other ship by itself could have taken out the AC NPC.

So,, Yes, stacking Shield Cell Banks would probably work, but I would not have a mining/prospecting/refining ship. I would have a pure combat ship.
 
Here is my build --->>> https://coriolis.io/outfit/asp?code=A2pftfFflidfsnf52828243P3Sw00400012x4f041qC52tP42i24.Iw18eQ==.Aw18eQ==.H4sIAAAAAAAAA2P8Z8/AwPCXGUj8qQcSHHdYGRj4VX79/y+mwcXA8J/5nxRInhUkX8EAlRLawc3AIFIjysAgAVL+/z8DAwCLbM2pSAAAAA==.MwegjAdArO0gDCYAmEAOEBDANtglpgHYDGApgPrEAWO2phA5qQE4gjLzCLcJA===

Which modules do you think I can do without to put in the Shield Cells??

I have two ships/commanders I fly on side by side computers in a Private Group. Both are in identical ships.
I now have the CP-48 programmed with a pulse key that produces 1000m of coverage. 1 second of pulse range 10 sec recharge. I also have Voice Attack commands that produce 1000m, 2000m, and 3000m ranges.
I have experimented outside a station NFZ using limpets and the range limits work, only killing limpets inside the range.
What I ran into was that an NPC in and alliance Challenger attacked one ship in my wing but the way the game works, the turrets on my other ship did not see the AC NPC as "hostile" so they did not come on line. Read here -->> https://forums.frontier.co.uk/threads/wing-ops-mining.512411/ <<--- The builds were slightly different, but the ship that was attacked was able by itself to knock down the AC NPC shields. Had both ships with a combined total of 5 Sm MC and 3 Med MC been firing at the AC NPC he would have been toast. But, the AC NPC kept knocking down the shields on the ship with the cargo and the most weapons forcing it to retreat and eventually the missiles destroyed it.
As best I can tell, even though the wingman couldn't get it's turrets to fire in fire at will, an ECM on the wingman would have taken out the missiles and I think the other ship by itself could have taken out the AC NPC.

So,, Yes, stacking Shield Cell Banks would probably work, but I would not have a mining/prospecting/refining ship. I would have a pure combat ship.

I would not recommend using a ship like this to engage in combat at all. What I think you could do to survive in similar situations, is to modify your thrusters at Farseer's (if you didn't unlock Professor Parlin, of course), g3 and experimental drag drives. When you see your enemies in normal space, spam chaff/heat sink/whatever you have, and boost away evasively, until they disappear because of being too far away.

That is escaping when you are not combat ready. Yes, I'm saying this AspE is fragile. As for that T9...The T9 struggles at surviving. If you have to face a hostile NPC, I suggest using another ship.
 
I would not recommend using a ship like this to engage in combat at all. What I think you could do to survive in similar situations, is to modify your thrusters at Farseer's (if you didn't unlock Professor Parlin, of course), g3 and experimental drag drives. When you see your enemies in normal space, spam chaff/heat sink/whatever you have, and boost away evasively, until they disappear because of being too far away.

That is escaping when you are not combat ready. Yes, I'm saying this AspE is fragile. As for that T9...The T9 struggles at surviving. If you have to face a hostile NPC, I suggest using another ship.
Even in the current configuration, These AspX's, as a pair if I can get them both in the fight, can outrun anything they cannot outgun and outgun anything they cannot outrun.
Not using the T9 unless I eventually find a place outside the bubble to mine in peace.
 
Well, At least on a PC it, like chaff can be bound to either an aux key on the joystick or an unused key on the keyboard.
I use a Genovations programmable 48 key auxiliary keyboard.
Alwayslate
I asked about the reload/fire rate of missile racks because I never expect to face more than one NPC with more than one rack. So getting overloaded isn't likely to be an issue. If the reload/fire rate of the missiles is slower than the reload rate for the ECM, then it should work quite well against a single NPC.
Yeh I'm on a Xbone so keyboard binding isn't a luxury. Hence the slight frustration on button holding when using the ECM. I haven't tried it but one may be able to bind a USB keyboard on a console for ED. Again for me so far I've found point defence (mounted one above and one below or at least one on each side) to be best, but it may just be for ED Xbone.
 
Even in the current configuration, These AspX's, as a pair if I can get them both in the fight, can outrun anything they cannot outgun and outgun anything they cannot outrun.
Not using the T9 unless I eventually find a place outside the bubble to mine in peace.

Still you ate a rebuy nontheless. If you put PDTs or ECMs in your build to replace other utilities, no doubt it will have less defence against anything that aren't missiles. I still suggest you should avoid combat.

The only way to figure out how you could handle those combats in your new build, however, is go find out.
 
As for that T9...The T9 struggles at surviving

Funny, that. My T9 is positively ancient. I slogged a log of trading with it in open for 18 months (shield-less, too) it's now a dedicated miner. It's easily responsible for 2.5B of my assets to date.

It also has precisely 0 rebuys, unlike a lot of my other ships. :) If you can fly, are adept at escaping NPC interdictions (in a T-9, mind you..it's EZPZ in any other ship), and staying clear of human commanders, then it's a very serviceable ship.
 
Well.
I can beat NPC's at the interdiction so if I am in SC I am safe.
Kind'a hard to avoid combat if you are in an asteroid field doing mining.
I will have to look at my kill count, but I think I have 24 NPC kills in a fully armed AspX and that includes a Vulture. All the Vulture's weapons are on top. All you have to do to beat it is stay in it's bottom front quarter and keep your AspX lower front quarter facing the Vulture since every weapon on the AspX can fire into it's lower front quarter.. Can anyone guess how to do that??
The same tactic will work on the AC and I had the Alliance Challengers shields down even though I was missing two small Multicannons.
IF, the DEV's made wing work right (an attack on one member of a wing should make the attacker appear HOSTILE to all the wing members. It should not just turn the attacker purple to notify you which ship is attacking your wing mate.) , my wing mate would have opened up on the AC and he would have been toast.
ECM's on the wingmate would have nullified the missiles.
 
Funny, that. My T9 is positively ancient. I slogged a log of trading with it in open for 18 months (shield-less, too) it's now a dedicated miner. It's easily responsible for 2.5B of my assets to date.

It also has precisely 0 rebuys, unlike a lot of my other ships. :) If you can fly, are adept at escaping NPC interdictions (in a T-9, mind you..it's EZPZ in any other ship), and staying clear of human commanders, then it's a very serviceable ship.

I was saying that to OP under several conditions.
He does not have high tier modifications.
He was using the ship for mining, which means he will use some intenal slots for mining gears instead of HRPs.
If pirates spawn on him when he drops in the ring, he'll have to face them. It's meaningless to talk about escaping here because the pirates will just resapwn when he returns.
I'm not talking about SC because any ship including the T9, is much safer in SC.

If you do have some tricks about mining, or shieldless mining, in a T9, I believe OP will be glad to hear it. However, if you're saying just do it, I'm not so sure he'd be convinced.

My T9 farts in the general direction of NPCs and Players alike.

They don’t have to suck if you don’t want them to!

A T9 does have to suck if the pilot does the right thing. To attract pirates and take bullets to the face in a cargo T9 when you have low shield integrity, is not right if you don't want to go to the rebuy screen.


Why don't you attact them first if you know they're hostile beforehand?
 
If pirates spawn on him when he drops in the ring, he'll have to face them.

When you first drop into the ring, they'll scan you and leave. If you have to take a break, that's when you're going to have trouble--so before you quit, leave the ring. It's not rocket science. The trick is, when you come back, you're going to be facing a respawn, and now you do have cargo they want, so you need to trigger the spawn and boost in the opposite direction. In the T9, that's boost...boost..boost..boost...and you stay on the periphery of the ring, so if they start to close the distance you can jump away quickly.

I do have shields on the T9 miner mostly because I've been known to faceplant a rock every now and then. :D

As for your other points--agree. The T9 in the hands of an inexperienced pilot is trouble.
 
I don't see NPC missile problems until the shields are down...and rarely are my shields down. In REZ and CGs NPCS will fire missiles at other NPCs and a player could run into one. When needed Pointe Defense takes care of them including the missiles fired by Sentinels at Guardian sites if the ship is close and the PD is mounted on top . ECM is to take out torpedoes and requires activation but torpedoes being so slow a player can actually shoot them with a fast ship. Lots of fun. PvP players love ships with engineered torpedoes taking out shields at any strength then a wing ship takes out the FSD drive. Seconds later it is rebuy time. Enjoy the game.

As for Thargoid Scouts even with shields up I'll get an incoming caustic missile message but the Pointe Defense just ignores them never returning fire.

NPCs love thermal weapons. My best NPC shield booster setups use X number of heavy duty up to 4 (they lose effectiveness going to 5 or more) , 1 resistance augmented and 1 thermal resist all with super capacitors. Add a bi-weave thermal resist shield with fast charge although this changes per the ship type. Max out a Cutter's shields as in standard or prismatic and no NPC even taking on two deadly Anacondas and a Type-10 (after stacking many missions) all at the same time will not put much of a dent in them.

Also go with max shielding when your ship design is not about combat. A player going to Dav's Hope in an Asp Explorer might want to go to Open mode to see who is around. If attacked by a player who isn't very good at it then max shields will help to avoid a rebuy. With good A rated design, engineering and a Guardian FSD booster a player maybe loses 1-2 jumps to Dav's Hope from the bubble. If max jump range in an Asp X is the goal then maybe install a Pointe Defense for the incoming missiles when the shields go down never use it in Open mode. :)

Regards
 
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When you first drop into the ring, they'll scan you and leave. If you have to take a break, that's when you're going to have trouble--so before you quit, leave the ring. It's not rocket science. The trick is, when you come back, you're going to be facing a respawn, and now you do have cargo they want, so you need to trigger the spawn and boost in the opposite direction. In the T9, that's boost...boost..boost..boost...and you stay on the periphery of the ring, so if they start to close the distance you can jump away quickly.

I do have shields on the T9 miner mostly because I've been known to faceplant a rock every now and then. :D

As for your other points--agree. The T9 in the hands of an inexperienced pilot is trouble.

This, yep. I kind of forgot that because I don't do much mining. Don't trigger the hostile spawn and miners will be safe.
 
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