EMP un-jamming ships

[MacThule]

I feel like I'm slow to notice this, but can anyone else confirm that a single shot of EMP will un-jam a jammed entity regardless of whether it even dents the target's power?

Not sure if this is intentional, but it certainly lends a bit more use to an otherwise very limited effect; consider the energy cost of a waffle shotgun cannon with EMP effect compared to a large scanner system. Especially since, of course, turrets keep tracking jammed targets once acquired.

 

[Sachys]

I feel like I'm slow to notice this, but can anyone else confirm that a single shot of EMP will un-jam a jammed entity regardless of whether it even dents the target's power?

Appears to be so - tested with a single cannon block with single emp block setup. Unjammed the ship without making a dent in the power.

EDIT: Also decloaks. Only works with cannon though it seems. Would be a nice thing against cloak prodders if useable with pulse.

Not sure if this is intentional,

Doubtful - there seems to be a lot of weird things going on - like lock on missile firing off in random directions (basically like swarmers do).

 

[Lecic]

Interesting. Maybe this is a leftover from when taking hull damage while jammed would unjam you? Maybe it was actually any non-shield damage, so EMP damage would do it as well.

 

[Az14el]

Seems to work on any old "Red" damage (which includes EMP against a shielded target, some others as well), though I definitely haven't had 100% success rate with it.

 

[Matt_Bradock]

Stop, push and pull also does it. Apparently, anything that affects your ship bypassing the shields will decloak and de-jam.

 

[Sachys]

Stop, push and pull also does it. Apparently, anything that affects your ship bypassing the shields will decloak and de-jam.

hadnt thought of trying any of those, just different main weapons.

 

[MacThule]

So this is a bug then.

Initially since it was EMP I thought maybe there was a logic to it, like it disrupting the jammer/cloaker device, but it's all the pass-through effects and I highly doubt that that's deliberate.

EDIT: Bug has now been reported on Phabricator.

 

[Matt_Bradock]

So this is a bug then.

Initially since it was EMP I thought maybe there was a logic to it, like it disrupting the jammer/cloaker device, but it's all the pass-through effects and I highly doubt that that's deliberate.

EDIT: Bug has now been reported on Phabricator.

This has been around forever, in fact PvPers built ships around it to use stop effect swarmers, turrets and other shenanigans to slow down and un-jam enemies.

Some of them are probably really angry at me for blowing the whistle on this.

 

[StormWing0]

I say let them be angry. It's their own fault for exploiting a bugged system instead of reporting it. That said I say weapons' fire should decloak and unjam struck entities because they were hit however this should only happen if their shields are down, hit them while shields are up and nothing happens aside from their shields taking a harder hit than normal.

 

[Lecic]

hit them while shields are up and nothing happens aside from their shields taking a harder hit than normal.

Er... what? Being jammed doesn't increase the shield damage you take...

 

[StormWing0]

Er... what? Being jammed doesn't increase the shield damage you take...

I'm saying while cloaked or jammed you should take increased damage to shields not that you do take it currently. XD

 

[Lecic]

I'm saying while cloaked or jammed you should take increased damage to shields not that you do take it currently. XD

That makes no sense and would make jamming completely worthless. Jamming makes AI firing on me half as accurate, but they hit me for twice as much now?

 

[Az14el]

( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) / []

 

[MacThule]

This has been around forever, in fact PvPers built ships around it to use stop effect swarmers, turrets and other shenanigans to slow down and un-jam enemies.

Some of them are probably really angry at me for blowing the whistle on this.

Well I like PvP, but exploits are chickenshit, so if anyone is bothered by reporting a bug I give zero Fs. I'm really surprised to find this wasn't reported and fixed long, long ago.

 

[Matt_Bradock]

That makes no sense and would make jamming completely worthless. Jamming makes AI firing on me half as accurate, but they hit me for twice as much now?

AI using guided missiles still gets instalock on jammed entities.

Also, ANY hit taken should decloak. Unjam should only happen by scannerpulse or taking hull/system damage, tho I guess EMP should/could be a good tool for that too. But I don't want Lecic to get more nerdgasms with EMP boats :P

 

[MacThule]

I'm not sure why the consensus seems to be that hull damage would stop the function of a ship system like a radar jammer.

Scanning, sure. EMP or Ion hull hit - yeah, ok; there's an electrodynamic dysruption that could interfere with systems; maybe those sorts of hull damage should briefly unjam.

Why would banging on the hull suddenly allow missiles to lock on and other ships to see its stats (shields, power, armor, system condition, mass, pilots, etc)?

If I was going to exploit the current bug, I think I'd skip the swarmers and use my point defense. My advanced point defense turrets combine a twin 1 block Cc with a 1 block Cb (not so much because I expect the slow ass Cb to hit farther out missiles, but it let's the turret see them farther out and thus begin tracking and responding to them before they even enter takedown range). I would probably just add a single block of EMP or Stop to all my point defense because those Cbs sometimes fire right into an enemy as it launches missiles from afar. Plus the point defense spray generally gives good multidirectional coverage of stray fire.

 

[splatthecat]

No, but adding EMP effects to all my AMS "shotguns"!

 

[Lecic]

Also, ANY hit taken should decloak. Unjam should only happen by scannerpulse or taking hull/system damage, tho I guess EMP should/could be a good tool for that too. But I don't want Lecic to get more nerdgasms with EMP boats :P

The problem with hull and EMP damage, especially EMP damage, unjamming anything, is that it isn't balanced. It makes it too easy to unjam things, and would just complicate things when we get the information warfare reworks.