43 replies to this topic

[draco7891]

Currently, EMPs are used offensively (and ubiquitously, and religiously, and assiduously) as an I-Win button that shuts down an opponent anywhere from 2 to 5 seconds, which in Hawken's glass-cannons is both an eternity and certain death. What's worse, there is no skill, no technique, no item that counters or reduces the effects of an EMP. It is a rock without a paper.

So, simple proposal: Deploying an EMP should inherently affect the launching player. This makes EMP a defensive tool, powerful but situational: the engagement is going badly pear-shaped and you need to escape, you're carrying a fat load of EU back to base and can't stop to deal with an attacker, or you come around the corner into the honey-badger's nest of 3 opponents and their turrets and need respite. EMPs are then used to disengage from opponents, rather than as the automatic opening salvo during engagement.

Draco

[ZHRGG]

If you get hit by your own EMP you're disabled too. EMP touching your own fired projectiles also detonates it, meaning you run the risk of it EMPing yourself without EMPing your opponent. It's fine as it is.

[DarkPulse]

Fine as-is. It would make no sense to also lose the ability to shoot while you stop someone from shooting and all it would end up doing is make nobody use it, ever.

Oh, by the way, I've been EMPed and survived. And yes, I still won the fight. In fact, I often bait people into EMPing me as it's an enforced cooldown and once the weapons come back up I punish the hell out of them for it, because usually people will either toss EMPs first thing, or when they get desperate, meaning that I've actually already got the psychological advantage over them.

[UnionofJack]

I'm really not a fan of the emp as is, I think it needs some sort of a nerf, primarily because I can't ever see myself using anything else in my defensive slot. Honestly, if they did away with it completely, I wouldn't be too upset lol

[z121231211]

ZHRGG, on December 07 2012 - 03:08 AM, said:

If you get hit by your own EMP you're disabled too. EMP touching your own fired projectiles also detonates it, meaning you run the risk of it EMPing yourself without EMPing your opponent. It's fine as it is.

I wish the radius was a bit smaller. It doesn't feel right that I can boost left and still get hit because it hit the wall I was in front of.

[Elix]

...didn't almost this exact thread get posted during CBE2_

And the response was about the same, too.

[z121231211]

Elix, on December 07 2012 - 03:24 AM, said:

...didn't almost this exact thread get posted during CBE2_

And the response was about the same, too.

EMP discussion. EMP discussion never changes.

[Urvanis]

emp is fine. The only thing that needs to be changed about it is, either change the animation to reflect the range of the emp, or change the emp to reflect the range of the animation. as is, the emp range is at least twice that of the green dome effect.

[cH_aos]

I always roll with EMP however I tend to only use it in that life or death situation.

[Decoy101x]

I don't use emp but I have no problem with it at all. Most of the the time I'm emp'd I win anyway

[Roundlay]

Elix, on December 07 2012 - 03:24 AM, said:

...didn't almost this exact thread get posted during CBE2_ And the response was about the same, too.

Welcome to the internet, you must be new here!

[h0B0]

Some form of changes need to happen to the emp.
As it is right now it will be a requirement for any competitive mech to have an emp.
Is it overpowered, i do not think so.
Should it be moved to the offensive slot, probably.

I will let the devs do the thinking and the tinkering.

[Karaipantsu]

Urvanis, on December 07 2012 - 04:36 AM, said:

emp is fine. The only thing that needs to be changed about it is, either change the animation to reflect the range of the emp, or change the emp to reflect the range of the animation. as is, the emp range is at least twice that of the green dome effect.

^this.  I'm always blasting myself when I think I've launched it far enough away to dodge the effects.  Then I just sit and stare at whomever I'm shooting like an fuzzy bunny while we wait for weapons to come back up.

h0B0, on December 07 2012 - 06:49 AM, said:

As it is right now it will be a requirement for any competitive mech to have an emp.

Says who_  I don't use one on my Sharpie, and if the match is favorable (i.e. more than 2 people on a team, and not unbalanced), I usually maintain a 2 or 3:1 KDR.  Detonator is a lot more useful for me because it's less risk to myself and a lot more threatening than 4 seconds of no incoming fire while I wait on cooldowns for my weapons.  Might become necessary on A-frame mechs as a survival tactic, but I don't see any other class "needing" them.

[Decoy101x]

I agree

[defekt]

The issue with weapons like the EMP is not that they are in and of themselves overpowered but more that the other options within the slot are either too weak or are highly situational.  Changes to items in CB3 (fewer slots, item regeneration) all but sounded the death knell for items like Radar, Heal Orb and the Scrambler; during experienced play such items simply aren’t worth not having regenerating HE & EMP.  CB3 was an EMP-fest, you could hardly look in the direction of a battle and not see EMPs bursting all over the shop.  Significant changes are going to need to be made for the OB If such one-dimensional play is to be discouraged.

[TheChaffeemancer]

Karaipantsu, on December 07 2012 - 07:00 AM, said:

h0B0, on December 07 2012 - 06:49 AM, said:

As it is right now it will be a requirement for any competitive mech to have an emp.

Says who_  I don't use one on my Sharpie, and if the match is favorable (i.e. more than 2 people on a team, and not unbalanced), I usually maintain a 2 or 3:1 KDR.  Detonator is a lot more useful for me because it's less risk to myself and a lot more threatening than 4 seconds of no incoming fire while I wait on cooldowns for my weapons.  Might become necessary on A-frame mechs as a survival tactic, but I don't see any other class "needing" them.

The detonator is an offensive item. The EMP is defensive, you can have both (unless they changed this when Kiwi wasn't looking). The problem is that for the same slot you have Radar, which is of some use, but not much, Radar Jammer, which doesn't fool competent people, and the Shield, which doesn't block many weapons and doesn't render right on some machines (at least on Kiwi's anyway)

[VertoPrime]

To be honest, I think the EMP "Eat My Peanuts"   needs a few more seconds of affect to make it a little more effective in a losing battle but the truth is, if you got hit by a real Electromagnetic-pulse you would be critically disabled anything electronic would be fried and the damage total would be 100%.  The way it is now you can still use thrusters and your cockpit system HUD recovers as if all the parts were miraculously replaced.

[QuanZen]

I've never really had a problem with being EMP'd so it really doesn't matter to me either way. But I do find it odd that since Alpha 2 this same subject has popped countless times.

[Zeshi]

If the emp is not nerfed all comp play is going to be is who can land the first emp and start chaining them. For causal play, all emp needs is a radius nerf and then it should be fine imo. But I have no idea how to fix it for comp.

I'm not a fan of disabling the emp user though, because it wont stop emps from being chained in comp, and it will drastically lower its use in casual play.

Edited by Zeshi, December 07 2012 - 09:48 AM.

[z121231211]

Zeshi, on December 07 2012 - 09:47 AM, said:

If the emp is not nerfed all comp play is going to be is who can land the first emp and start chaining them. For causal play, all emp needs is a radius nerf and then it should be fine imo. But I have no idea how to fix it for comp.

I'm not a fan of disabling the emp user though, because it wont stop emps from being chained in comp, and it will drastically lower its use in casual play.

How about making it only explode if it hits another mech_