Is it true that when you activate this near mines it actually detonates the mines instead of disabling them? If so that can't be intended...can it?

Destroys mines, disables drones (and turrets). This is intended and was stated in the patch notes way back when.

But honestly, EMP Field only shuts down System mines, not Secondary Weapon mines. And Secondary Mines can be dropped every 15 seconds (seekers) or 20 seconds (seismic).

Destroys mines, disables drones (and turrets). This is intended and was stated in the patch notes way back when.

 

But honestly, EMP Field only shuts down System mines, not Secondary Weapon mines. And Secondary Mines can be dropped every 15 seconds (seekers) or 20 seconds (seismic).

Except in GSF "destroy mine" means "mine explodes in your face."

Except in GSF "destroy mine" means "mine explodes in your face."

Yeah, and that's particularly annoying to know that you could blast one of your mates by trying to clear the area.

I never see it occur, but that doesn't mean I could not have been blasted myself because one of my wingmen shot a mine I had avoided and did not realize it.

This is fail.,..

EMP range - 3500m

Mine explosion range - 2500m.

You have to carefully time your EMP use. Well, when you will get in position you will be dead anyway... Type1 Scouts aren't known for their durability.

Or just forget about mines - EMP pulse is way better useful in dogfight (remember, that up to 2 allies within range will get a free lock breaker).

PS. Consider teamkilling with EMP missiles / area effect ions....

PS. Consider teamkilling with EMP missiles / area effect ions....

Detection radius : 1500m

Explosion radius : 2000m/3000m

It's not impossible to be caught in a blast triggered by someone else.

At the Tier 4 upgrade, you can choose to either increase your EMP explosion radius by 500m, OR choose Missile Lock Immunity which will actually stop mines (and missiles) as they are coming at you and make them vanish mid-flight. You can boost right into a bomber's nest and as soon as you hear the bleep of the lock-on you can hit EMP and be clear.

You realize that there's a lot of mines that don't give you that warning, right?

And that seekers have enormous detection radius -- bigger than an upgraded EMP field -- so you won't hit any other mines if you try that.

Good news! EMP Pulse specifically disarms before it detonates mines. So you will still see the explosion visually, but should not receive any damage. Unless of course you got a bit too close before activating the pulse, giving a nearby seeker mine time to activate. I'm quite good at replicating that particular scenario.

 

I think as it is right now, the EMP pulse only has its disabling/destrying effect when activated. I was wondering if this is going to be changed in the future so that the scout can run through an entire minefield and detroy mines as he flies through really quick. It would be very helpful for dealing with bombers parked under the satelites droping mines ever 15-20 seconds. I like this ability a lot, but it seems it needs to do more to really make it so that bombers fear the scouts. Could the ability be changed so that if you activate it any seekermines that home in on you are useless? Or maybe extend the range of the EMP pulse?

I think as it is right now, the EMP pulse only has its disabling/destrying effect when activated. I was wondering if this is going to be changed in the future so that the scout can run through an entire minefield and detroy mines as he flies through really quick. It would be very helpful for dealing with bombers parked under the satelites droping mines ever 15-20 seconds. I like this ability a lot, but it seems it needs to do more to really make it so that bombers fear the scouts. Could the ability be changed so that if you activate it any seekermines that home in on you are useless? Or maybe extend the range of the EMP pulse?

So you're saying you want the effect on all the time?

The only currently live ship that has the EMP system is the ship least capable of actually getting into a mine field and tanking the damage long enough to activate it. If the bomber pilot is smart they'll have a mine in reserve to lay down after you blow your EMP.

IMO, the EMP system needs to be re-evaluated for efficacy. Change either the ship class it is equippable on (perhaps switch to a type 2 scout or type 1 strike). Alternatively, have the radius increased ... or have a lingering effect in case subsequent mines are dropped within a small window (this could be applied as a debuff to bombers) ... or a cooldown reduction, so it can be used again quickly, with a reduction in the magnitutde of ship to ship debuffs for balance.

IMO, the EMP system needs to be re-evaluated for efficacy. Change either the ship class it is equippable on (perhaps switch to a type 2 scout or type 1 strike).

Impossible for the Strike. No system abilities.

The only currently live ship that has the EMP system is the ship least capable of actually getting into a mine field and tanking the damage long enough to activate it. If the bomber pilot is smart they'll have a mine in reserve to lay down after you blow your EMP.

 

IMO, the EMP system needs to be re-evaluated for efficacy. Change either the ship class it is equippable on (perhaps switch to a type 2 scout or type 1 strike). Alternatively, have the radius increased ... or have a lingering effect in case subsequent mines are dropped within a small window (this could be applied as a debuff to bombers) ... or a cooldown reduction, so it can be used again quickly, with a reduction in the magnitutde of ship to ship debuffs for balance.

Type 1 scouts have some of the best dps in the game with rocket pods, so they are perfectly capable of destroying a bomber, even one circling a sat (although that usually takes longer, but is the case for any attacker). Alternatively, EMP pulse + sabotage probe kills bombers quite effectively, since breaking missile locks is not a bomber's strength.

Also, even if a 'smart' bomber keeps a mine in reserve to counter your pulse, if you are a smart scout, you destroy it before it arms, then finish off the bomber.

Conclusion: type 1 scouts are a perfectly fine platform for effective use of EMP pulse.

IMO, the EMP system needs to be re-evaluated for efficacy. Change either the ship class it is equippable on (perhaps switch to a type 2 scout or type 1 strike).

Type 2 scouts shouldn't have it. Their lack of utility is the counterpoint for being so great at dogfighting over other options, giving us EMP even in its current less than effective state would even still cut down on the craft's main counter.

That said EMP battle scout would actually provide the hard counter to type 1 gunships since it would have the ability lock them down and have the burst to capitalize on it. But that would just devalue gameplay to a couple classes, and would be bad for overall balance.

Impossible for the Strike. No system abilities.

Not at all, strike do have a system ability - chance weapon - its just a mandatory one. That's why a strike can't switch weapons with the EMP debuff on them.

They could add EMP to the list for the primary weapon (or secondary weapon for pikes) If a pilot chooses it they would lose the dual weapons and would have EMP for their "1" button, otherwise they have the standard weapon slot.

So you're saying you want the effect on all the time?

No, just for the duration of the effect. I think the disabling affect lasts for 15 seconds, if you can apply this effect to all mines/drones as you fly for 15 seconds after using this ability, i think scouts will be a very good counter to the bombers taking control of satelites. Basically you have an active EMP pulse field constantly disabling and destryoing mines/drones for 15 seconds.

Type 2 scouts shouldn't have it. Their lack of utility is the counterpoint for being so great at dogfighting over other options.

Not to mention, they're no better at tanking mines than the type 1 scout...

Good news! EMP Pulse specifically disarms before it detonates mines. So you will still see the explosion visually, but should not receive any damage. Unless of course you got a bit too close before activating the pulse, giving a nearby seeker mine time to activate. I'm quite good at replicating that particular scenario.

 

Sneaky Chris, using admin powers to get a response in earlier. It's almost like you want people to see your words or something.

Any chance we could get a fix to the graphical glitch?

Also, would you consider increasing the base radius of EMP field, since it's currently extremely difficult to position yourself or time your EMP so you hit the mine without getting hit by it? It's actually impossible to pop seeker mines with this, since their detection range is so huge and they can't be destroyed once they lock on (possibly another bug?)

Not at all, strike do have a system ability - chance weapon - its just a mandatory one. That's why a strike can't switch weapons with the EMP debuff on them.

They could add EMP to the list for the primary weapon (or secondary weapon for pikes) If a pilot chooses it they would lose the dual weapons and would have EMP for their "1" button, otherwise they have the standard weapon slot.

That would be pretty clunky, though, and you'd reduce the "novelty" of those ships by taking away what makes them special.

I had another thought: make it a shield component.

Pulse Jammer

Active ability (cooldown: 30 seconds): Send out a pulse of electronic noise immediately and after one second. Each pulse has a radius of 5,000 meters. Enemy mines and drones caught in the pulse are disarmed and destroyed. Each pulse increases your sensor dampening by 3,000 meters for 2 seconds and decreases the communications range of affected enemy ships by 3,000 meters. Enemy ships caught in the initial pulse additionally suffer a 200% penalty to accuracy for one blaster or railgun shot.

T1: Increases sensor dampening to 5,000 meters and communications range penalty to 5,000 meters.

T2: Decreases cooldown to 20 seconds.

T3: Increases pulse radius to 7,000 meters. || Initial pulse breaks incoming missile locks.

-Pulse twice to counter newly-dropped mines, which otherwise would act as a hard counter to this strategy. Skilled players can attempt to use the second pulse to increase the effective range of the jamming.

-5,000-7,000 meter range should allow a pilot to negate a minefield on a satellite, which appears to have been the intent of EMP field.

-Straight up destroying mines and drones allows ships to spec an "anti-bomber" build, which adds a level of strategy to build decisions. For veteran players, this allows a pilot the ability to hard counter bombers across multiple playstyles (instead of being forced to play a gunship).

-"Increases <effect> to value" nomenclature (instead of the standard "by value") makes upgrades slightly easier to understand.

-Sensor dampening buff and communications and accuracy debuffs give this ability a measure of utility when not facing bombers, where it would otherwise be useless.

-Secondary pulse is useless against enemy players -- don't mess up the timing in a dogfight.

-A 200% accuracy penalty effectively negates the next shot without resorting to RNG defense. Ideally, this prevents more damage the more dangerous a weapon is (e.g. negating a BLC shots does more for you than negating a RLC shot would).

-Final upgrade allows pilots to specialize in dogfighting or clearing minefields, which again adds depth and strategy to build choices.

Thoughts?

While EMP works on mines, the rest of this thread is a range of confusion and such.

Here, in one place, is why EMP is not very effective against mines:

> EMP has at most a 3500 range (3000 normally). Mines will trigger at 1500 or 2000 meters for the Interdiction/Seismic combo that is popular. This creates a VERY narrow window in which you can actually trigger the EMP without simply getting faced by the mine. It is difficult to even hit a single mine with EMP, requiring very good reflexes while the mine is targeted, and not much lag.

>It's very VERY likely that there isn't a spot you can reach that can even hit both mines, and if there is, you will likely have to go very slowly to get to that spot. Given that you are often dealing with enemies, this is dangerous to the point of suicidal.

>Good bombers will just manually detonate the mines. The devs confirmed this as intended (and IMO it should be- it makes the bomber fun and interesting!), but the explosion radius of the mines is 3000m- basically equal to the EMP field. If you are finding the magical spot, you will simply explode instantly to both mines being manually detonating at the same time for more hull than you have.

>Even if you are able to:

-Time it such that the minelayer can't manually detonate the mines

-Perfectly position yourself such that you can eliminate one or even two mines

-No one shoots or flies to close during this which would result in the mine detonating and more than half your hull disappearing because you are trying to find the precise position where it doesn't trigger which means you are within the explosion radius should it be triggered.

-Press the EMP at just the right moment, not too soon (wasted) or too late (you die)

-Not be lagging even slightly

Your reward is:

You trade a 45 second cooldown for up to two 15 second cooldowns.

BONUS: If you actually hit the bomber somehow (if the magic spot to hit the two mines ALSO hits the bomber) then he loses the ability to recast ONE of his mines for a little bit.

This is just way way WAY too much investment- remember, EMP isn't free on your ship, it takes the place of another system- and the reward is almost nothing at all as regards bombers. In fact, the engine lockdown, which is like seventeen YEARS, is much better for killing gunships!

But this never happens. When an EMP scout flies to my node, I press 1+rightclick and he is running back from cap ship.

My recommendation, which I repeat but is short:

Make the EMP have two spheres. One blue, like on live, but this one effects ships. The other is red, and has like double the radius, and happens at the same time. The red one only effects drones and mines- it does nothing to a player.

You shouldn't have to risk swift death when the payoff is, not a kill, but situational utility.

You realize that there's a lot of mines that don't give you that warning, right?

 

And that seekers have enormous detection radius -- bigger than an upgraded EMP field -- so you won't hit any other mines if you try that.

Here we go again. Like I did with the Ion Railguns, I did an analysis video of the EMP Field. In this, you get to see me use Boost and EMP Field to disable Concussion Mines at as close as 900m without triggering a lock-on warning. They normally trigger at 1500m. There is also a clip of me EMP'ing a Seeker Mine at 1900m without a lock-on. They normally trigger at 4000m.

There's also other clips in the video like the features of Missile Lock Immunity (insurance for when you DO get lock-ons) and I'm able to get a Repair + Railgun Drone with a Seeker Mine heading towards me in one blast.

There's also a clip of the Engine Suppression upgrade in action, as well as some other random clips that may be useful information for people. Enjoy.

Here we go again.

Gotta say, your videos are great.

I'd suspected that boosting gave you a bit of extra time before being locked on by seekers, but this confirms it. I didn't think that worked with proximity mines, but I guess I was wrong.

While EMP works on mines, the rest of this thread is a range of confusion and such.

 

 

Here, in one place, is why EMP is not very effective against mines:

 

> EMP has at most a 3500 range (3000 normally). Mines will trigger at 1500 or 2000 meters for the Interdiction/Seismic combo that is popular. This creates a VERY narrow window in which you can actually trigger the EMP without simply getting faced by the mine. It is difficult to even hit a single mine with EMP, requiring very good reflexes while the mine is targeted, and not much lag.

 

>It's very VERY likely that there isn't a spot you can reach that can even hit both mines, and if there is, you will likely have to go very slowly to get to that spot. Given that you are often dealing with enemies, this is dangerous to the point of suicidal.

 

>Good bombers will just manually detonate the mines. The devs confirmed this as intended (and IMO it should be- it makes the bomber fun and interesting!), but the explosion radius of the mines is 3000m- basically equal to the EMP field. If you are finding the magical spot, you will simply explode instantly to both mines being manually detonating at the same time for more hull than you have.

 

>Even if you are able to:

-Time it such that the minelayer can't manually detonate the mines

-Perfectly position yourself such that you can eliminate one or even two mines

-No one shoots or flies to close during this which would result in the mine detonating and more than half your hull disappearing because you are trying to find the precise position where it doesn't trigger which means you are within the explosion radius should it be triggered.

-Press the EMP at just the right moment, not too soon (wasted) or too late (you die)

-Not be lagging even slightly

 

Your reward is:

 

You trade a 45 second cooldown for up to two 15 second cooldowns.

BONUS: If you actually hit the bomber somehow (if the magic spot to hit the two mines ALSO hits the bomber) then he loses the ability to recast ONE of his mines for a little bit.

 

 

 

 

This is just way way WAY too much investment- remember, EMP isn't free on your ship, it takes the place of another system- and the reward is almost nothing at all as regards bombers. In fact, the engine lockdown, which is like seventeen YEARS, is much better for killing gunships!

 

 

 

But this never happens. When an EMP scout flies to my node, I press 1+rightclick and he is running back from cap ship.

 

 

 

 

My recommendation, which I repeat but is short:

Make the EMP have two spheres. One blue, like on live, but this one effects ships. The other is red, and has like double the radius, and happens at the same time. The red one only effects drones and mines- it does nothing to a player.

 

 

 

You shouldn't have to risk swift death when the payoff is, not a kill, but situational utility.

I think you put too much emphasis on clearing a minefield. A good tier 1 scout will sabo probe the bomber and feed laser up its tailpipe for a relatively easy kill. The EMP burst simply makes this easier. The right way to clear a minefield is to kill the bomber.

I think you put too much emphasis on clearing a minefield. A good tier 1 scout will sabo probe the bomber and feed laser up its tailpipe for a relatively easy kill. The EMP burst simply makes this easier. The right way to clear a minefield is to kill the bomber.

Yeah, and that scout will likely eat a seismic or two in the process, especially if the bomber is being smart and weaving around a satellite (at which point your chances of getting the lock are essentially nil). The results aren't pretty.