(This post is meant to spawn a discussion, not to provide a solution. I'm just one guy doing some theory-crafting. Also, long post ahead)
***
There's one thing about Elite: Dangerous that makes PvP combat really frustrating:
This game is full of hard-counter mechanisms.
Chaff hard-counters gimbal/turret. Point Defense hard-counters missiles. Shield Cell Bank hard-counters, well, EVERYTHING.
And the outcome of a PvP battle, assuming both side have equal skill and financial power, is almost completely determined by betting what the enemy is bringing to battle, and taking the appropriate countering equipment with it. It practically deteriorates into a game of rock-paper-scissor. And a videogame is not fun when it's rock-paper-scissor.
And the worst among them all is ECM. Chaff can somewhat be negated by unlocking the target, PD must be facing the right direction to work and SCB can be breached by concentrated firepower. There's nothing you can do against ECM. All of your missiles becomes complete dead-weight once the enemy activates ECM.
Now, there's a reason why there exist the term "buff" and "debuff" in MMORPGs. By giving players the ability to enhance or honker down certain abilities, the gameplay dynamic gains depth, players' experience and knowledge becomes the determining factor of winning the game and overall the game becomes more fun. E: D is certainly a game that aims for depth instead of instant satisfaction, and I know the game has potential to add significant depth into the gameplay dynamic.
Before E: D occupied all my spare time, I was an avid fan of MechWarrior Online. That game is arguably the closest thing to E: D when it comes to PvP games that involves sci-fi and shooting stuff. MWO is the prime example of a shooter game that involves subtle buff/debuff. Long Range Missiles travel in swarm, the damage spread around so they're arguably less effective than lasers/autocannons, but the splashes are blinding and shake the screen, which disrupts the target's vision. You can choose to add an Anit-Missile System to your mech (an option that is available to pretty much all mechs) that could shoot down about 15% of missiles, but should you do that, or should you spare that 1.5 tones to add more ammo to your mighty AC20?
And that game is full of this kind of subtle buffs/debuffs. TAG takes one energy weapon hardpoint and decreases the LRM spread by 15%, but on the other hand you could just shove a laser in there instead. ECMs are much stronger in MWO - they're persistent, completely disable missile-locks and apply the same effect to all teammates within 180m (which is why there're only a selected few mechs that have them). But they can still be countered by TAG, NARC beacon (a direct-fired drone that stick on target), by having a friendly ECM mech stepping into that 180m circle or by shooting the ECM mech with PPCs (basically Plasma Acc) and disable target ECM for 4 seconds. Buff/debuff, not hard-counters. Subtle stuff like that gives a game depth, and makes knowledge, not blind luck, the determining factor of the gameplay outcome.
So, why can't Elite: Dangerous have those?
Don't make chaff render gimbal/turrets completely useless, make the effectiveness deteriorate over time. Allow a timely burst of ECM disrupt one wave of incoming missiles, but again, let the effectiveness deteriorate, and instead of completely disabling the possibility for seeker launchers to lock, make the lock-on time longer. Also, why can't we have different classes of ECMs? Smaller ECMs weight less and have a shorter effect, larger ones takes more power and the effect lasts longer - heck, why not give ECM AOE effects! A 1E ECM could barely shield a single ship, but a 5A ECM weights 10 tons and is extremely power hungry, making them impossible to run on anything smaller than a Fed Dropship (and on that note, give Fed Dropship a few more utility hardpoints, make it an EW ship and sucks less
). Make an ECM Anaconda a viable cover in battle! Plasma Acc are heavy and hard to aim, why not give them the ability to disrupt ECM for 10 seconds? And let's give Hatch Breaker Limpet some more functions! Let them mess with the target's HUD, counter ECM, wipe the detail readout for targets and such! You still have to punch through your target's shield to make it work, but hey, at least they're not useless anymore (and we probably have to rename it something else).
(again, this is supposed to spawn a discussion, not to provide a solution. And if your response is "hurr durr nerr nerr this is ELITE DANGEROUS not some other games durr" then get lost, that's neither a suggestion nor an argument. I didn't write a bloody paper because I hate E: D . I love it and I'd like to see more of it.)
***
There's one thing about Elite: Dangerous that makes PvP combat really frustrating:
This game is full of hard-counter mechanisms.
Chaff hard-counters gimbal/turret. Point Defense hard-counters missiles. Shield Cell Bank hard-counters, well, EVERYTHING.
And the outcome of a PvP battle, assuming both side have equal skill and financial power, is almost completely determined by betting what the enemy is bringing to battle, and taking the appropriate countering equipment with it. It practically deteriorates into a game of rock-paper-scissor. And a videogame is not fun when it's rock-paper-scissor.
And the worst among them all is ECM. Chaff can somewhat be negated by unlocking the target, PD must be facing the right direction to work and SCB can be breached by concentrated firepower. There's nothing you can do against ECM. All of your missiles becomes complete dead-weight once the enemy activates ECM.
Now, there's a reason why there exist the term "buff" and "debuff" in MMORPGs. By giving players the ability to enhance or honker down certain abilities, the gameplay dynamic gains depth, players' experience and knowledge becomes the determining factor of winning the game and overall the game becomes more fun. E: D is certainly a game that aims for depth instead of instant satisfaction, and I know the game has potential to add significant depth into the gameplay dynamic.
Before E: D occupied all my spare time, I was an avid fan of MechWarrior Online. That game is arguably the closest thing to E: D when it comes to PvP games that involves sci-fi and shooting stuff. MWO is the prime example of a shooter game that involves subtle buff/debuff. Long Range Missiles travel in swarm, the damage spread around so they're arguably less effective than lasers/autocannons, but the splashes are blinding and shake the screen, which disrupts the target's vision. You can choose to add an Anit-Missile System to your mech (an option that is available to pretty much all mechs) that could shoot down about 15% of missiles, but should you do that, or should you spare that 1.5 tones to add more ammo to your mighty AC20?
And that game is full of this kind of subtle buffs/debuffs. TAG takes one energy weapon hardpoint and decreases the LRM spread by 15%, but on the other hand you could just shove a laser in there instead. ECMs are much stronger in MWO - they're persistent, completely disable missile-locks and apply the same effect to all teammates within 180m (which is why there're only a selected few mechs that have them). But they can still be countered by TAG, NARC beacon (a direct-fired drone that stick on target), by having a friendly ECM mech stepping into that 180m circle or by shooting the ECM mech with PPCs (basically Plasma Acc) and disable target ECM for 4 seconds. Buff/debuff, not hard-counters. Subtle stuff like that gives a game depth, and makes knowledge, not blind luck, the determining factor of the gameplay outcome.
So, why can't Elite: Dangerous have those?
Don't make chaff render gimbal/turrets completely useless, make the effectiveness deteriorate over time. Allow a timely burst of ECM disrupt one wave of incoming missiles, but again, let the effectiveness deteriorate, and instead of completely disabling the possibility for seeker launchers to lock, make the lock-on time longer. Also, why can't we have different classes of ECMs? Smaller ECMs weight less and have a shorter effect, larger ones takes more power and the effect lasts longer - heck, why not give ECM AOE effects! A 1E ECM could barely shield a single ship, but a 5A ECM weights 10 tons and is extremely power hungry, making them impossible to run on anything smaller than a Fed Dropship (and on that note, give Fed Dropship a few more utility hardpoints, make it an EW ship and sucks less
). Make an ECM Anaconda a viable cover in battle! Plasma Acc are heavy and hard to aim, why not give them the ability to disrupt ECM for 10 seconds? And let's give Hatch Breaker Limpet some more functions! Let them mess with the target's HUD, counter ECM, wipe the detail readout for targets and such! You still have to punch through your target's shield to make it work, but hey, at least they're not useless anymore (and we probably have to rename it something else).(again, this is supposed to spawn a discussion, not to provide a solution. And if your response is "hurr durr nerr nerr this is ELITE DANGEROUS not some other games durr" then get lost, that's neither a suggestion nor an argument. I didn't write a bloody paper because I hate E: D . I love it and I'd like to see more of it.)
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