Okay, let me point something out you seem to be missing.
Put some chemspray on those fires, man. Deep breaths. I didn't mean to come off as confrontational, so I apologize if I did.
On my Flamethrower x3 Squid, I load up 3 Engies with your Freezerburn Ammo. Suddenly, what was meant to basically be a counter to my ship just became a massive target that my ship probably eats alive. In one case, I just buffed my damage with 0 downsides. In the other, I just destroyed their anti-fire protection and probably just destroyed them with easy. A flamethrower can EASILY hit an entire ship on its own. Any ammo that can be used to counter the Engineer can be made OP with large-AoE weapons.
So, the flamethrower balance is a separate issue altogether (I think they got buffed in the most recent patch), so I understand your concern. But you still do have some downsides, Your ship has to get close and stay close in order to be effective, and lacks anything but disabling power. Also, I'd like to add that this is an idea thread. I wasn't claiming that the weapon was perfectly balanced as suggested. I just wanted to convey the concept of an ammo type which has a niche use against chemspray.
As for the Buffing being UP, I was referring to your other ammo which interacted with Buffing. If I see even a single buff hammer on the enemy team, I immediately ask my Gunner to bring your Overload Shot, and suddenly that ship can be eaten alive by my Flamers. Doubly so if they also have Chemspray and the gunner brings Freezerburn as well. I can counter 2 enemy engineers with just 1 Gunner, effectively discouraging the enemy from bringing those tools. Why would you bring something if it will just make it easier for your ship to be killed?
It's a risk/reward sort of thing. Captians now have to ask, Is buffing worth making that part more vulnerable to a
very specific ammo type? It's those questions that have no clear answer which make the game fun to play! Note that it doesn't make the ship easier to be killed, it just makes the parts easier to disable.
That said, following the pattern Ammo is going with based on Dev App (at least for the moment), a more appropriate penalty to the ammo you're suggesting would be a straight up -% to all damage, and a big one, like -50% or more. Then, the +% would be something like +80% or even +100% against the specific conditions. This means you use this ammo, and the gun is worthless against anything but it's specialized target. Still don't think it's a good idea to have ammo that interacts with tools that are either absolutely necessary, or already kind of rare, depending on if you're talking about chem or buff.
I'd agree that a strait up damage penalty would be more appropriate.
Although,as a general note I would like to see more ammo that increases/decrease the damage taken from certain ammo types. It could allow for another level of interactivity and complexity for high-level play. For examples sake, lets say charged increased the damage taken from shatter. So, when I pilot hears that "charged" effect (and maybe sees some sort of projectile trail indicating charged ammunition), they could quickly instruct their crew to bring the shatter damage on that component. I say that just as an example.
I disagree about your last point. I for one do want to see some more interactivity with your opponent's ship. Niche ammo is what gunners need to distinguish themselves from gungineers:
Theoretically, coming up with ammo types that are more niche means that players will need to take advantage of the the additional gunner slots.
And it's what muse wants to see too
I can think of a better way to balance those counter-buff and counter-chem ammo types.
Freezerburn Ammo
Adds 1 fire stack per X seconds remaining on Chemspray effect
Deals -25% damage with -20% (at least - maybe worse) fire chance
Overload Shot
Deals -66% damage
Deals +300% damage (applied to already-modified damage value, totals up to +25% from normal damage level) to buffed parts
Yeah, this is probably more in-line with the purpose of the ammo. Thanks! I'd probably give the freezerburn ammo a little bit of lessened projectile speed (and thus a range penalty), just to make sure you have to get even
closer with that flamer, and
maybe a clip-size decrease.
I might lessen the overload shot to -50% damage, but it's often better to nerf, THEN buff. Because It's hard to distinguish the purpose of a weapon/ammo when it starts off as OP.
