An update is coming and the flare gun is being buffed:

http://img197.imageshack.us/img197/1771 ... mrobin.jpg

Hi Kilo.
After some discussion, we agree entirely, this is a great idea. Thanks a bunch, should be in the next update.

Robin.

-----Original Message-----
From: *snip*
Sent: Friday, May 29, 2009 6:01 AM
To: Robin Walker
Subject: An idea ( Flaregun )

From a Team Fortress 2 player:

Since the Sniper & Spy update, which introduced us to the "Mini Crits"
feature, an idea has emerged from the community: Why don't make the
Flaregun mini-crit on burning players?
Now, I'm not going to give numbers but the reasoning behind this in a
nutshell would be as next: Since the recent update, two counters were
added to the afterburn, Jarate and making the Pyro's compressed air
burst able to extinguish fire. Since we have new tools to counter the
burn, why don't make it a more lethal status and encourage players to
really use these new features to get rid of it? After burn has also lost
its shine in the sense that it doesn't really make people panic that
much and seeking for aid ain't a priority anymore.
The Flaregun is also much less reliable than the shotgun which makes it
very situational and more of a down-grade than a side-grade. This has
been a problem since day one, in my opinion and in the opinion of many
others.

Sincerely, Kilo.

This should be interesting.

the flaregun can be quite useful. You can't really aim properly once you've been hit by one.

Snipers are only the main class affected by fire but you've proven yourself that you can still kill when on fire as proven when you turned around and headshotted me when I set you on fire with a flare.

Afterburn doesn't really affect great snipers, possibly slows them down a bit.

This is win <3 the flaregun.

That's an awesome idea. There must have been other emails asking kilo if he would sue if they used that ect.

Yes but snipers are the main class that shouldnt be getting hit by flare gun shots. You have plenty of time to dodge a flare and unless you have serious tunnel vision you have plenty of time to move.

That is true, I like them simply because it distracts the sniper, and if I can land a shot, good times are had.

When I last played TF2 I kept nailing this sniper with the flare gun from odd angles or in the middle of a firefight, so he wasn't dodging. Good times.

Dodging Gozzers flares are hard, but he's pretty good with that thing, or I'm pretty sucky at dodging. Could be both.

Yea it gets mini crits now. Kind of annoyed they didn't include it in the update log though

Killed a medic in three shots with it last night. Think he may well of had full health as well
First shot did the usual impact damage with burn damage. Second and third shot did even further impact and burn damage due to the mini crits.

Could well become a much more useful weapon.

Does it change the afterburn to minicrits aswell? Fecking sweet!

Basically the flare gun when someone is already on fire does 41 damage on impact then 4 damage every 0.5 seconds for 10 seconds which adds up to 80 damage. In total a flare gun shot will now do 121 damage if the target was already on fire. This is 31 damage extra than just lighting someone with the flare gun (30 damage, 60 afterburn).

Increased afterburn is niiiiice. I like much.