Actually, 200km is very common and many pilots are better. I jam at 212 optimal with no jam strength loss.I accept your challenge!
The optimized Falcon setup for highest stength ECM jamming with perfect skills gives racial ECM mods an optimal of 162 km with falloff of 41km. That means at 200 km range your hit rate is arounf 50% due to being beyond optimal range.
Now, you could use Particle Dispersion Projector rigs, one of which will bring the optimal to 194 km BUT you have to sacrifce not fitting a Particle Dispersion Augmentor rig in place which means you have a signal strength loss to get the extra range.
But wait, I'm not done.
The max targeting range of a perfect skills Falcon is 150km which means that beyond that your jamming strength is effectively zero. Its easy to fit fits or mods to boost targeting range, but once again you need to sacrifice something that increases your jam capabilities in order to fit it.
My point is (and I know I'm belabouring this a bit but I think its important) that you absolutely cannot jam as good at 200+ km as you can at 150-160 km. Sacrifices, as slight as they might be, had to be made to achieve that range. In my experience most Falcon pilots go for maximum jam strength in the min-max calculations but I acknowledge that others in businesses more worried about sentry gun range may opt for longer range.
EDIT: In hindsight this post sounds rather combative toward LurbyJo and for that I apologize.
Its just that there is so much misinformation on what a Falcon can do going around for the past year that I immediately go on the defensive when I see any hint of someone suggesting the Falcon is godlike at 200 km. Sacrifices have to be made to jam from 200km, its not an out of the box ability.
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Totally agree. My preferred engagement range is 155-175km. This allows me plenty of movement possibilities and I can fit a single unscripted SB for both range & scan res (first lock = first jam in Falcon vs Falcon).
ReplyDeleteI guess I should have been more specific. Yes, I run with a scripted (range) sensor booster and two range rigs. This gives my jams a 212 optimal and while my jams aren't as strong as those at the 155km to 175km range, I jam them anyway as they don't seem to be able to reach me. As I am still within my optimal at 200km, I do not suffer a penalty. Of course this isn't out of the box but I assumed we were talking of what the Falcon was capable.
ReplyDeleteAnd that's why the Falcon shouldn't be nerfed. It's still sacrifice/risk.
ReplyDeleteI'm curious, is gaining 3.92% more jam strength worth more for a Falcon then having a larger action radius? After 3 SDA's you only gain 2.83% and 1.06% from the 2 augmentor rigs(going from a strength increase of 156.93% to 163.08%). a max skilled falcon would go from 14.124 to 14.6776.
ReplyDeleteThat doesn't seem all that significant to me over having a 200km action radius where you have 100% effect from jammers, instead of having 162 km.
Falcon novice but I know math(whelp).
If you boost the range of the ECM, you have to boost the range of your targeting as well. Hence its at least two modules/rigs removed, maybe more depending on skill levels.
ReplyDeleteIn LurbyJo's case, she removed an ECM module and two strength rigs for the ranges, which while perfectly adequate for performance I'm sure, is a downgrade from maximum jamming capability.
to make maximum use of your range ability without the range rigs you need a sensor booster anyway, falcon only has 150km base locking range.
ReplyDeleteBut even if you don't fit ecm range rigs, I still don't really see the benefit in using the rig slots to boost ecm strength as the gain is so small after 3 SDA's. I would think you would gain more benefit from fitting different rigs, such as ecm range rigs or targeting range rigs or those rigs that reduce the recalibration time of cloaks(targeting systems stabilizers, -10% recalibration time)
I wasn't really going into a serious discussion of Falcon builds, I was merely pointing out that some sacrifices had to be made to get a 200+ km jamming Falcon and that it is not a default capability. I'm not saying its difficult either though.
ReplyDelete