We all know it sucks, but I tried it out today to explore methods of fixing it. I tried a single fleechette on a vulture and noticed that not only was it damn near impossible to hit anything (outside of a lucky shot) that isn't in your face, the few hits hardly did any damage.

So I doubled it up, same problem.

Things got interesting when I used a quad-flechette hornet though. The damage and spread was actually useful. It wasn't too hard to hit the target, but it wasn't too easy either. It did an appreciable amount of damage and got a good enough spread to produce a decent hit rate when aimed properly. Unfortunately, it also hogged battery power like nobody's business.

So I thought maybe, the flechette would be enhanced if the damage per bolt and muzzle velocity stayed the same, but the output of bolts was quadrupled (or tripled) and the spread was slightly reduced (possibly to that of a triple flechette layout). This would, of course, need to be accompanied by a battery adjustment. The quad flec takes too much energy per shot to be useful in a fight, so the energy would need to be dropped to 5-6 energy per round instead of the current 8. It's clearly possible. We know the geminis fire two at a time and the swarms fire 8 at a time, so the flec would just need to shoot four at a time. At that rate, the battery would drain too fast on a turboing ship to allow the triple flec valk or double flec vult from becoming too powerful, but would provide a nice alternative to the gauss cannon or sunflare in fighter battles.

I agree with Magus here. I've tried using Flechettes as the (s) on my Hogs to provide Long and Short range projection (Large Port is an AGT) but the Flechette is more of a show weapon...

Sadly, the Flechette has a LOT of potential as a good defense/hold-out weapon. It's capable of laying down a fairly good sized spread but the distance is short...

By extending range slightly, and also increasing damage and spread while leaving Power Per Shot and Classification the same could produce a fairly cheap and effective weapon.

But then we run into it's price. While relatively cheap, the Flechette is easily outdistanced by the lower priced weapons that comsume less power, fire faster (in some cases) and do more damage. Currenly, the Flechette, I liken to a Confetti Gun. It is a nice weapon for confusing and distracting an enemy while a real piece of hardware actually strikes the opposing craft.

The price isn't really a factor in weapon balance right now. All the prices are going to change soon anyway AFAIK.

I agree with both of you, it needs to be unnerfed.

Mm, I third it.

A single flechette (Or "Space shotgun" if you like) is great for de-mining, but that's the only use I see.

I agree it needs more power.

I got Blitz's tri-flare valk down to about 20% with my double-flechette vult today.
He he.

Problem with using the Flak Cannon for demining, is that a single guass cannon is more accurate and also more powerful and longer ranged.

Honestly, would you demine an L-mined Dock with a couple of Flaks? NO WAY! L-mines have a greater range than the Flak. Thus, Guass and AGT enters the picture...better to use these all the time rather than just on occasion.

i join the chorus, the flechette needs unnerfing.
i tested it once for a few days, but rejected it as almost utterly useless.
the only use i see are duels, i.e. dual flechette vults.

Un-nerf it please. It makes such a cool sound. I wish I could actually use it...

All it needs is a little more oomph. Like 100 more damage per round.

How about doubling the fire rate and cost, and mounting it on a turret like the adv. gatling?

ctishman, the cost is alright but the RANGE and FIRERATE definetly need a boost. Currently the spread dissipates long before it can come to bear on an enemy fighter.

Isn't that what it's supposed to do? Perhaps with a boost in power.

"oops, you got too close. You die."

I actually find that the large spread of the flechette actually helps when you're locked in a "barrel roll waltz." The random stray shot will actually hit the target more often than, say, straight firing tachyons.

Problem is, it's so weak it's like getting slapped with a piece of tissue paper.

Better to have Range, Spread, and Damage than just Damage and Firerate.

I'd like to see the following:

Range Increased
Spread Increased
Damage Increased (slightly)
Firerate Increased (slightly)

Cost Increased (slightly, not more than 100-150c)

Have any of you actually tried it? Go ahead, mount a quad-flec. hornet and do a few duels with various ships. It does well. If the hornet wasn't a flying target you would actually win a few. 4 flechettes at once made a pretty decent weapon if the power drain was adjusted. The problem is that it takes 4 flechettes to make 1 decent weapon. So quadruple the output and cut the energy. If it still doesn't work, then we can talk about the damage increases, but when it comes to balance, it's best to do things incrementally. One by one until you get a satisfactory result. Too many changes at once and you risk overpowering or nerfing it.

Quad the output? But... but... then a quad-flak hornet would do 16x the damage of a current single-flak centurion...

Yeah, quadding (or even doubling) the output isn't exactly a small increment.

I'd be happy with upping the damage *slightly* (~100 dmg/shot) and decreasing the energy usage *slightly* (~2 energy/shot).

You can't calculate it based on damage per shot. If a hornet puts up a quad flechette it will drain a fast-charge batt. in about a second. If you checked the original post you'd see that I said you would increase the spread too. That way, your hitrate still won't be 100%. It won't even be 30%. It has the potential to do 16x the damage of a centurion, but it just wont.
Upping the damage per shot might make sense if it were a weapon that rewarded precision, but with the flec there is very little precision involved. Increasing the hit-rate is what would make the most useful change to the weapon.