Bring both flechette cannons to 300kg making them more viable on small fast ships in close quarter engagements.

As it stands they suck the only thing they're good for is dunking on folks who haven't learned the finer points of pewpew.

I would love to hear from @Luxen's take on them. He is quite good with them. Very annoying guns.

better than doing nothing...I'd rather see the lifespan increased though.

I was always most annoyed that they didn't have way more rounds per shot. The expectation is tens to hundreds of little flechettes per shot causing individual micro damage that lessens as distance grows, where aim wasn't really important. But because of the flechettes low round-count, the super wide trajectory, and very low lifespan, the result is this lame weapon that people only use for lulz.

Greenwall, uhm... let me confirm - you know the fletchette are not shotguns, right? They behave like a Gat1, kinda, but with narrower spread and maybe higher velocity.

There are two parts to a fletchette's visual - the scatter, and the projectile. the scatter mess is aesthetic only, and the projectile is just a tiny and fast moving dot. I've always equated it to an improperly formed plasma attack, where a bit of "burst" occurs (the scatter) to launch the actual projectile. /shrug/

Anyways... fletchettes are nice. very nice. If everyone else wants them to get buffed, i wouldn't mind. Not that I'm amazing with them, I just like using them.

*IF* they got buffed, I'd drop their weight. maybe not to 300kg - that sounds like too much of a buff - but 400-500?

I'd really recommend lowering the alpha of the "scatter" particle (if possible) to help people realize that the mess isn't actually part of the weapon's damage payload.

p.s. gimme a space shotgun too :P

Ummm Luxen, do you know what a flechette is?

I actually like the flechette cannons. I dunno what mass would be appropriate for them. I suspect that a good balance would be around 450kg. Nerde Verde was damn effective with them as they are.

Even if they were dropped to 300kg they'd still be shite in most scenarios; compared to the N3 the spread makes them practically useless at ranges where toggling AA off and spraying neutron blaster has a better effect.

I figured 300kg would a reasonable buff to make it easier to close in on targets with them and use them where they shine (point blank)

I don't think it would have a huge impact on usage since unless they'd be given ~20% more damage output to boot on top of dropping the mass they'd still be very lackluster compared to ravens which is fair given the stupid high license reqs ravens have.

+1

The weight of the flechette needs to be lowered SIGNIFCANTLY. I'm up voting the 300kg range because this weapon is only viable at closer ranges as experienced PvPers know quite well. However, for your ship to be useful at such close ranges it must also be very light. This makes it hard to use the flechette in it's effective range. Closer combat requires a lighter ship to improve turning and strafing times that are necessary up close.

+1

The second up vote goes to Luxen's observation about the graphics when using the flechette. This probably does need to be modified because you can't actually see the path of your bullet in the middle of all the muzzle debris. Another variation of Luxen's suggestion would be to change the color of the muzzle debris while leaving the color of the projectile the same. This could actually look really cool as well. The round is supposed to be xith right?.. shouldn't it be a green round and perhaps red or orange muzzle flash/debris??

Actually, its plasma...

- Flechette cannons reduced in mass from 600kg to 500kg.

VO 1.8.556 (in production now, active change).

Nice! im gonna try that out

VO-Wiki updated ( https://vo-wiki.com/wiki/Weapons:Small & https://vo-wiki.com/wiki/Weapons:Table )