The flamethrower has a range of 200m and 340m with lesmok: not close range, much longer range than any flamethrower. It's not realistic to buff the range so how about buffing the reload time of 6 seconds, or buffing the clip size of 250, or buffing the turning arcs, or how about making 5 stacks disable a gun?
Without chemspray the flamethrower is easy mode, the GoI noobtube. It's the easiest gun to shoot and most effective gun to employ. It doesn't matter how bad/ineffective your build is, as long as you use a flame you have a solid chance. The double flame squid with an effective strategy is the easiest ship in the game and does not require a human crew (my 43 match winstreak).
Without chem it's a point and kill weapon and the other ship has no chance if they cant kill/disable/get away in time. If you keep shooting them they will die with nothing they can do about it. The flame is the most powerful weapon in the game, and the way I see it, its power is punishment for not using chem spray.
We could just make the extinguisher suck more (ex. 5 sec cooldown 1 sec immunity), that would help a bit. The extinguisher is the most useless tool in most circumstances, it delays the inevitable and gives experienced crews a significant advantage. Nerfing will encourage more engineers to use chem and more pilots to request it.
I'm not suggesting making flames overpowered, but I think they need some buffs. This will increase chem use and alter strategies. Increased chem use may decrease flame use and encourage captains to try some of the other guns. I rarely use flames so it will not advantage me. Flame buffs mean I gotta kill quacker, and they wont stop me from ramming.
The flare gun got nerfed and now has the longest reload time of any gun. Flare guns have excellent turning/arcs and each flare does 10 fire stacks, making it a powerful support weapon. Why does it need a 20 second reload time? Plus it's so fun to use while the flamethrower is boring. It's my second favorite gun.
Flare buff petition!
Flare buff petition!!