(I am posting this here cause I want you’r all feedback before I make it a full guide.)
Flash powder is an odd chemical in the game that at first may seem extremely useful. Then you look at more and find it useless. Then you look at it for over a year like me and then you discover it may have some uses. I am writing this to assume you have a basic grasp on how to do chem in CM.
What is flash powder- It is a mix of potassium, aluminum and sulfur. When flash powder is mixed it will immediately vanish from the container and produce light. These weird lights are called missies. As far I can tell there is no way to store flash powder post mix since it will start to burn upon creation. Instead, I suggest storing the ingredients separately. It will only form light when all 3 are mixed so I suggest mixing 2 of them and adding the third to trigger it.
The light it emits will stick to whatever object it was mixed in. So if I mix it in a beaker that beaker will glow. The only way to stop this glow is to destroy the object. The chemicals used to create this light will vanish meaning you can load more flash power into the same cup. I have used this to create very large amounts of light.
Note that the more flash powder you make the brighter the light will be and the longer it will burn. In order to fill a small room with light you will need to mix around 100 units of it. 300 units is enough to light up all lifeboats. Be aware stacking multiple sources of flash powder light inside the same container will make the room brighter but will not increase the light range.
Potential uses-
Well I use it in mind control experiments but that is a different guide I wrote. That being the USCM department of cognitohazard research- Intro to mind controlling anomalies. (Re-post of part 2.)
But from a practical perspective it has some small uses.
Use on hijack- By filling a reagent tank with flash powder you can make 300u of flash powder. Add 300u of the first two ingredients and store another 300 in another container. Then our all 300u into the tank to fill all of lifeboats with light for the next 15 minutes. The best part is you can drag the tank with you. I have used this before to good effect. The added light is useful for catching xeno charges and rotations early, not to mention the psychological effect it has on the players.
The bushman bulb- A smaller version that uses a janitor bucket and a large beaker. Fill the janitor bucket with 200u of the first two ingredients. Then fill a blue space beaker with 200u of the third. Adding the third in 100u at a time will give you two shots with this thing. Flash powder at levels like this will burn slightly brighter than a flare and last for a little longer. By keeping the glowing janitor bucket in your backpack the xeno cannot melt it. Unlike armor light it will not go out if you die. This means that medics in the backline will aways be able to see you and others around you.
You may also be able to just drop these on the ground like flares. Xeno often won’t be able to figure out where the light is coming from.
How they counter it as xenos.
Objects that are glowing will have a small red ring around them. Also, the light the flash powder is a dim red unlike flares that produce white light. Keep in mind both of these require containers that take up a lot of space. So, any marine that is using the mini version has less gear on him. Plus, since they only get at most 2 uses before having to go shipside to get another they will be very conservative with it. So if you are fast you could rush them and kill them before they get a chance to use it.
Potential nerf- This has the potential to become the next weed killer. So to save the admins some work I will prepose a nerf for it if need be.
A change to balance it would have it go out on death if a person is holding it. But there is another more fun alternative. A partial revert to old flash powder rules where instead the light floated in the air. Old flash powder use to be overpowered cause it had an insane range and burn time. But since they fixed the burn time and range in the last nerf that problem is fixed. This way the marines can’t carry the light with them meaning to use it effectively, they have to stand in the spot they want it. This means xenos would have an easier time rushing the guy down.
Just please don’t remove it fully it’s too fun to do so. I have been using it to do mind control RP for over a year don’t break my toys.