I'm sorry to say that I think dull fire rockets got the bad end of the deal when mass was introduced in Vendetta. I see two problems with them at the moment. First the Iceflare and Starflare are underpowered, to the point that the a single Iceflare launcher can only dish out a max of 5600 damage. Second the entire Flare family is too massive. I say this because in order to sucessfully deliver a payload with flares you need to have a ship which can accelerate as fast as your opponent's else it's near impossible to get into firing range. Near impossible because the opponent would have to actually let you get close.

What I propose...

Sunflare:
Damage - 1500
Mass - 1000
Ammo - 16

Starflare:
Damage - 1400
Mass - 800
Ammo - 8

Iceflare:
Damage - 1200
Mass - 600
Ammo - 8

Now, this may or may not be too good, but I'd rather we found a point where flares were fair rather than über or worthless. I believe there is a fine line between what is good and bad for Flares because of their different combat style requirements. Hopefully Flares can be fun to use once again though.

I have to speak up here. Yes! YES YES! Make the flares usable!
[edit below]
oh. come to think of it, there might be an idea to work through the various damage vs. prox values a bit.

Perhaps have a flare kind with slightly lower prox, but the same damage as the sunflare. This would give a more intense "BANG" on the target, but would require better aim. Would also stop the pesky light ships from just being grazed by the outer fringe of the explosion.

Give the starflare 12 ammo.

Let me add right here, that the heavy ships now can take on these weps with 1/3 the weight disadvantage. So divide the weight of the flares or other rockets by 3, and you have 400 kg, not too bad eh?

of course, but they still have to be usable by the ship that is their measure, the Vulture.

I'm not sure that reducing the detonation proximity would solve the issue of ships being grazed by flares. The problem is the lag between confirming the detonation and calculating the proximity with respect to the point of detonation. So essentially if you move too far outside the proximity within that period the damage is calculated incorrectly. I'm not 100% sure that's how proximity damage works... but from my expirience my theory holds up. If you reduce the detonation proximity, it will cause the error to be less at lower speeds, but at 200-245m/s often times the damage can still be overlooked entirely.

As far as heavy ships go, I think we still need to focus on the fact that light weight ships can't utilize flares very well. They are S port weapons after all.

What I understand is that the rocket calculates whether it will be in detonation range ahead of the fact to help offset that. IE: If it calculates that it will be in detonation range in 2 seconds and that calculation is not disproved, it explodes in 2 seconds.

Hmmm.. okay, that would make the method I proposed far less effective, true.

although, I think flares can do with a bit more boost to their damage, because the top damage is -very- seldom achieved. (and then only against a target that moves slightly away from you)