Seems to me Starflares are too close to the spec of the Iceflares. All I'm suggesting is that the Starflares ammo capacity is increased from 8 to 12, and damage from 900 to 950. Otherwise there is so little gain over the Iceflares (which are pretty damn useless) they simply ain't worth it, but then there is a big jump to the capacity and damage of Sunflares.

Also, the Starflares become available with Gauss (they did for me anyway) , which seems kinda weird cos Gauss has better damage, infinite ammo, and excellent targetting, whereas Starflares have miniscule ammo, not very good damage, and they are dumbfire(!).

So why don't you use Gauss then?

He's saying that starflares are worthless. They might as well not be in the game, since you would never wantto use them over gauss.

Well, I'm saying the difference between Iceflares and Starflares seems too little, given that when you can purchase Starflares you also get access to weapons like Gauss which is far more powerfull. I'd put Sunflares on par with Gauss, not the Starflares...

Why make the most powerful rocket available before the most powerful energy weapon (Gauss Mk II)? If you don't like Starflares, don't use them. The later sunflares are available in the leveling hierarchy, the fewer ramming maniacs are going to run around in game. And that is perfectly fine with me.

"Why make the most powerful rocket available before the most powerful energy weapon"

Starflares are NOT the most powerfull rocket available, Sunflares are. Compare the stats of Iceflares to Starflares, and the levels required for them. Then take a look at the enrgy weapons that are available at the same levels... Starflares look pretty weak, especially as you can only hold 8.

IMHO ramming only occurs when people have too much money. Ultimately ramming has more chance of killing the attacker than the victim, which is why the most notorius rammers have terrible kill to death ratios. Besides, with the new jump system and universe in place, if you let a rammer get that close to you, then you deserve to die.

/me does a gauss ram... and suffers no splash! yay! *just kidding*
I think gauss is easier to use than rockets are (it aims, does excellent damage, goes insanely fast, the projectile is huge, takes very little energy *not to mention you can turbo even if you have no energy, with a fastcharge*) so more people will choose it as the weapon of choice.
With Starflares, you have to get in range, they're easier to dodge when they aren't too close (and when I let them get that close--or just don't dodge, which is moreoften the case--I know I deserve to get hurt), you can only hold so many, you may hurt yourself when you just start using them, you have to restock at stations, they are impractical to bot with (expensive + need to restock+not much damage)...

so in the name of weapon balance... starflares are worthless. except as a practice weapon.
If the starflare were made to have less damage (600 damage, like a tachyon?) and you could have 27 of them (with a slower refire rate so you can't spam)... that would be fun.

"the projectile is huge"... ummm it's graphically big... but in terms of wether or not it hits something, it's the smallest thing in the game (as are all other energy weapons).

During collision detection, are all energy wepaons handled as point sources? I was under the impression they had a tangeable "size" and certain weapons were easier to hit with than others... Who knows?

PS: Starflares still suck! ;-)

nope, you can get a gauss shot as close to a wall as you can get a tach shot. They all appear to be points, the only ease comes with auto aim, which only effects the radius at which the auto aim kicks in (and now the 10m/s increase in speed for the mkIIs).

So is MkII Gauss 10m/s faster than they were in previous versions of Vendetta (before we had all the Mk versions of weapons)? Gauss was pretty hard to dodge as it was, 10m/s faster would mean you can't miss (especially you Eldrad), no? This makes starflares look even more crap than before. We are going to end up with a game full of Gauss'ing n00bs :-)

Seriously, who in Vendetta is going to bother using rockets, you have to worry about ammo (running out and purchasing), splash damage to yourself, and the difficulty of getting them to hit cos they move so slow. Gauss, you just sit there happily fire away, getting full 1200 damage, with very little trouble at all... Doesn't this seem a little one sided, or am I missing something?

Yep. Support ships. Prommies and Warthogs and Wraiths and Ragnaroks with small ports AND large ports to make bombing runs on small enemy installations with heavy payloads from a distance. Theyre now a gunship-weapon rather than a fighter-weapon.

What installations? Why bother with small port rockets at all? I used to like the variety, if you fight someone who has energy, you need to employ different tactics to fighting someone who's got rockets...

Besides, we are digressing here, Starflare stats are still too low for the level you obtain them at.

I agree Icarus. S-port rockets seem to have gotten the uber-nerf. I'm not sure if sunflares still have their pre-3.5 stats or not, but I can imagine them doing 1100 damage, having 8 rockets, and traveling at 55 m/s.

I think your suggested change is a good one; small, but in the right direction.

Ic, they do less damage and go 10m/s faster... about 5% faster... not really something to write home about... also they do significantly less damage.

Sunflares are still 1500 damage, 16 rockets, 55m/s with a 30m prox, and 60m splash.

I agree with Ic that the star flares should be upped so they're closer to half way between Sun and Ice flares.