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[Zsar]

In the current patch notes, many of the DEMs get an OP reduction, while mostly (but not exclusively) forum consensus seems to regard them as too weak. Fair enough.

But I think I have a... more interesting buff in mind. One that also alleviates (if, mayhap, not sufficiently) grievances with specifically the look&feel of the Dragonfire torpedo.

When the DEM is ranging (beeping, showing its targetting laser) and the target ship explodes, currently the DEM will just continue to range and eventually fire at the hulk. Even if the ship shatters, the DEM will happily range and fire at empty space amidst the debris.

Well, let's fix that:

• If the target blows up, make the DEM abort ranging and grab a new target, just as it would do had it not yet started to. If it needs to accelerate again, let it.
  This should e.g. make Linked fire with DEMs viable and vastly increase the effectiveness of putting DEMs on several ships (aka buff Persean League fleets considerably).
• If a Gazer is even already shooting a target, and the target blows up, make the Gazer stop shooting, store its remaining weapon uptime just like the remaining flight time, and aim at a different target. If it needs to accelerate again, let it.

... OP reductions may still be on the table afterwards, but - purely by feeling - I think they could be completely shelved this way. At the same time, we get a performance boost that is not just "more stats" (or indeed stats at all), which, I think, is a particularly nice form of boost, because it makes weapon performance feel more satisfying, even if it does not increase all that much.

[Killer of Fate]

the issue with DEMs is that they are very low risk, low reward missiles designed to punch down. And missiles designed to punch down collide with the whole philosophy of sustainable warfare non-missile weapons propagate.

This translates to them being good at taking down smaller ships, cause they are uncounterable. But being awful at everything else. And the exception to this, dragon, has very little ammo, cause otherwise it would be really strong. The solution???

Giving the ability for the missile to switch targets after killing one would be a neat party trick, but I don't really think it would solve the missiles' problems. Maybe they should just be adapted to serve more conventional functions. Namely, punching up. Missiles are always about punching up or violently finishing off someone. By punching up.

Make gorgons have 2 projectiles. Instead of like 10 or whatever. Each projectile however shoots for an exceptionally long time and has a lot of health. And the beam does high explosive damage, that way it will be a threat to larger ships, without excessively bullying petty frigates with petty flux bases.

Gazer? Halve its range, make it deal energy damage instead of kinetic, but maybe it does hard flux damage. Making it kinda work like sabots, rather than graviton beam spam that gets hard countered by safety overrides. And remove the pushing effect... Keep five missiles for visual consistency.

Dragon? Maybe Dragon should do kinetic damage, dumping 10k kinetic damage would be a great option, and would justify the really low ammo count. It would also make it extremely useful against remnants. And have a more tactical role. Rather than just straight up competing against Cyclone for the role of the nuke gun. But eh, that last idea is kinda stupid...

Also, if we do something like that, I recommend shifting all the beams colours, keeping the engine and targeting laser style. Gorgon becoming red beam with green engine and targeting lasers, gazer becoming green beam with blue ones, and Dragon becoming blue beam with red ones... Would be kinda cool... Never mind, this probably sounded like nonsense to everyone.

[Thaago]

I don't think dragonfires are only for punching down - they are quite effective against cruisers and capital ships. I've been using them on a gryphon lately and I think the main thing that gives them a strength over torpedos is that they fire over friendly ships, so they are very good at supporting 'brawler' ships without the launching ship being in danger. This is on top of having very high hitpoints and good guidance, so they only get shot down rarely.

The biggest issue so far is overkill combined with the low ammo count. I would support the suggestion to abort ranging and might even go one step further: have them return to their mothership and restore the ammo if they have fuel left! Is that too weird/stepping on fighter's toes? Probably.

[Doctorhealsgood]

DEMs attempting to retarget would be great. Harpoons and pilums try to do it so why not these super fancy portable lasers?
Also can hydras be faster? I have watched that damn missile fizzle out without even trying to deploy its submunitiions against backpedaling ships. Or even if they do i think i saw the sub munitions fizzling out without trying to fire at all.