Topic: David, Taldren, anyone. What is the effect of EM

[Kyoshi]

Aside the described defensive modifier EM adds when being used... what are the negative effects?

Does a ship using EM also hit less often too or are there no such disadvantages (except the known restrictions to tractors, mines and transporters)?

Btw, i realy realy regret, that we remaining fans and players of this game have to gather all this very important numbers, formulas and datas by time wasting experiments by ourself, never beeing sure, if the things are correctly observed. Keeping these game internals secret from the fanbase, does not make this game more interesting, neither it does create a myth around the game mechanics. Only result seems to be, that the game is reduced to a action title where reflexes are more important then tactics. I wonder, why they are hiding these infos from us. A pity...  

[TarMinyatur]

Quote:
Does a ship using EM also hit less often too or are there no such disadvantages (except the known restrictions to tractors, mines and transporters)?
 

Yes. It works both ways. The quick changes in your ship's flight path degrade your weapons' accuracy too. In SFC2/SFB this was treated as +4 points of ECM that was granted to all targets of an erratically moving vessel. However, ECCM could mitigate or eliminate up to 6 points of the self-imposed and enemy EM penalty total (4+4=8 ECM). In SFC3 there's no way to do this since the ECM/ECCM warfare of SFC1-2 was apparently considered a complicated board game relic that was too quaint for this sophisticated game and was scrapped. A ship that uses EM in SFC3 enjoys a ~33% or so reduction in its chance to be hit that cannot be countered other than with a tractor beam (perhaps). The use of EM degrades the turning rate of a vessel by some significant amount (which makes sense)...though this has not been quantified by anyone publically, AFAIK.

Note that the EM penalty in SFC3 may be attenuated. If an object uses EM while at range 50 or so the affect of its zig-zagging might provide only a small measure of protection. However, zig-zagging at a range of 5, for example, might provide more relative benefits since the rate of change in the attack angle is greater at close range than long range. It's like trying to keep an X-wing in your crosshairs at 1,000 meters vs 10,000 meters in your Tie fighter...although SFC3's AV already seems to represent that aspect. Perhaps SFB's Erratic Manuevers don't belong in SFC3.