- So perhaps this might be more "balanced"?
--- Area Jammers are a variant of their base jammer type. So Sensor Jammer for single ship has an Area Jammer version, etc. You get the tech for Area Jammers after you get to the second tier of that Jammer. So Area Jammer (Sensor) would require Sensor Jammer 2. Likewise, Area Jammers would unlock every other Jammer tech, so 2, 4, 6, 8 & 10.
--- Area Jammers would be 60% larger than their base versions, so 250 Tons (5HS) per module. They would only be 50% as effective though, so an Area Jammer (Sensor) at Jammer tech 2 would be the same as a self Jammer 1.
--- A separate tech line would dictate the number of ships that you could benefit per Area Jammer Module. Not sure what those would be in terms of specific numbers, but that's something Steve can sus out if/when he ever adds this.
--- Area Jammers would gain efficiency if used to cover less ships than that ship could support, and lose efficiency if trying to cover more. So an Area Jammer of 2 with 4 ships per module could cover just two ships at 100% efficiency, but if it was covering 6 ships it would only confer 30% while if it covered 8 eight ships it'd be 25%. All fractions for this calculation are rounded down.
--- Regular single ship jammers stack with the Area Jammers bonus if they are of the same type, so an Area Jammer 1 for sensors would allow ships with a Sensor Jammer of 2 to function like they had Sensor Jammer 3.
--- Ships without a self jammer would count towards the Area Jammer's efficiency calculations BEFORE ships with a self jammer. So in the case of Area Jammer (Sensor) 1 and Sensor Jammer 3, the real benefit would be that you could double up the number of ships and while the ones with self jamming would still see no benefit, they would allow the ships w/o self jammers to receive the full benefit of the Area Jammer.
NOTE: An Area Jammer 1 would be the first Area Jammer after a Self-Jammer 2, for the sake of simplicity, just having them be half as strong and applying their full bonus is easier than making them display a strength of 2 and making the player remember to half it.