Walt Aren't Flak technically LESS accurate than PD already, though having an AoE to compensate?
From my understanding:
-PD already has 2,000 health (+100% that of corridors) and a penetration resistance of 1 (which is, again, more than corridors). Flak, on the other hand, has 21,000 health and a resistance of 2. The proposed change here WOULD bring them closer together, so this COULD be argued to be unnecessary.
-PD has a fire rate of 10 shots per second, 50/150 damage per shot (against hull/against projectiles, respectively) while Flak has a rate of 4 per second and 1,800 damage indiscriminately. The only similarity that would be brought into play here in terms of the proposed changes would end up being in fire rate, not in terms of damage output at all. Flak holds that position well above a good number of weapons, actually...
-Then there's range and accuracy. PD definitely has its benefits here, with a 120-degree range, a reach of 200, and an inaccuracy of 0-1 degrees. Flak, meanwhile, has an inaccuracy of 0-2.3 degrees (more than double that of PD), a range of only 30 degrees, and a reach of only 125 (Electrobolters USED to have about that range, but even those are longer range now by a decent amount). There are no proposed changes here, but this is more or less for the sake of differentiation.
So there's actually some decent differences to work around with, so bridging the gap even by some amount wouldn't change all that much in terms of uniqueness. By what I'm seeing, the altered PD would have homing assistance while Flak has AoE assistance. PD has longer range while Flak has MUCH higher damage, and the changes wouldn't affect this at all, honestly. The PD being more compact while the Flak has a much larger health pool, though, would be affected, though I'll be honest, changing THIS would certainly tip the preferences between Flak and PD, so this - again - would certainly be a proposal to not really bother with...
Execade In terms of differences by what I THINK you're implying here, I HAVE seen PD actually successfully counter Railguns while - at the same time - Flak struggles a lot against those, while Flak can counter Laser Blasters, which PD cannot even target. That sound about right?