Flashes

[Daeren]

I haven't noticed any unstoppable traitors roaming the halls, carrying one or more flashes and bringing the station to their knees with them, is what I'm saying.

I agree with you, except for one thing.. 1 traitor, 1 bathtub full of chemicals, a cloak, and a flash,

http://pastebin.com/ANQTCjZM

Speaking as the traitor in that situation, the flash was not the problem there. It was my cloaker, my bathtub full of hideously murderous chemical mixes I spent the better part of a week fine-tuning on off days until it killed in one or two reagent transfers, people having no idea how to react to a murderous possessed tub chasing them, and the detective not going after me after I gave him the ultimatum that if he tried I would tub him (I still tubbed him). Hell, I nearly got foiled by a random schmuck who kept trying to jack my tub and break my cloak (with the AoE flash ).

I only used a flash because the RD spawns with one and access to more, and it was more convenient than waiting for someone to look AFK before shoving them in, stealing a taser I'd have to recharge constantly, or braining them a few times with a fire extinguisher. I had to replace my flash three or four times because they burnt out, so it's hardly a matter of taking one from a security officer and ruling the station with an iron fist. The one criticism I can make of flashes is that they never burn out when you spam that hideously annoying AoE function where everybody nearby is temporarily blinded but not stunned.

It's a melee option when ranged stuns/kills are more common than you'd think, it doesn't stop people from screaming their heads off, one mildly uncommon and one extremely common item are hard counters to it, the only place outside of sec and heads that can get more is Robotics (who will happily flash and de-butt anyone trying to steal their stash), and the only situations where it'd be considered overpowered are situations where it's hardly the most broken thing in the mix. I'm retiring THE PHANTOM OF THE BATHTUB for a while for two reasons, one because I don't think I'll be topping that rampage for a while and two because it was like shooting fish in a barrel once I got rolling. An extremely entertaining form of shooting fish in a barrel, but still.