Since they're not being used at all atm anyway, make them like some cool, harder to use version of thoraxes. Except for mining, and gunners.

Also, make them MF'able.

Two birds with one stone, and all that.

Or stack 5 on a zerker and do insane mining dps to static bases?

Kanga

Sniper would still do more damage, not to mention that they scale up with range...

Well, sure? Zerkers barely EVER are used for combat versus bases these days, so I don't see why giving them a weapon that could actually do some significant damage would be TOO terrible of an idea.

At least then they'd have a marginal use. Right now they're used as a commodity, and that's about it.

If an item is not being used for what it was intended to eb used as, you've wasted code in making the item in the first place.

A weapon is SUPPOSED to be fired. However, they're used for builds, not firing?

Blackhole generators were once physical damage, and nobody used them. Then they got changed to energy damage...and STILL nobody used them. At the very worst, this would change them to mining damage with 15 minutes of effort and people still wouldn't use them. At best, though, they would become a cool item that could be used for specialized circumstances, and isn't that the goal of most stuff?

They do energy damage. But thats not the point. The point is that NOONE USES THEM AS WEAPONS.

Vazaha Blackhole Generator
Mzungu Blackhole Generator
Bule Blackhole Generator

These are the only three weapons that follow the same coding. No other weapons have damage scaled by range.(snipers by far have the greatest dps with them)

They have no tracking, an exact zero or so fucking low that 3 Ada Marksmen augs would not do much.

The DPE is great, and so is the DPS, but noone uses them because the target has to be big and stationary, and you must shoot from a distance.

Who the fuck has time to manually aim weapons from 3k out in a fight?

Well, when you put it that way it sounds much better.
*decided to look at wiki mining weapons*
Oh my... I would use these. 2:1 damage:energy, very nice. Average dps is top of the line. Uh... you sure you want show up t21 red photon gear?

tbh, I'd like them to be in the physical category again. They'd fit well in there and be better than anything without "zebra" or "swingarm" in the name.

(keep in mind doesn't have one) I'd like to see a version of these that could be multifired. Though, you have to question whether or not blackholes being multifired close to your hull is safe. I'd absolutely love it even more if they could be physical weapons that multifired and combined to a single projectile.
edit: didn't bother to read churchhill's post

Yeah, I thought that would be great too, but the problem is that giving snipers a physical weapon that does insane DPS and DPE and increases its damage based on range, doesn't seem like the wisest idea...>.<

That's why I thought gunner would be a good choice; gunners tend to fight large targets, making weapons with no tracking a little bit more practical on those terms, and they also tend to have decent range, though not as absurd as snipers. All in all, I feel that it would result in a weapon that is more balanced and fun overall.

When Physical weapons were given knockback, I believe. They probably just couldn't figure out what to do with their knockback, so they switched damage types instead.

The thing about these weapons is that they're so hard to use that you'll most likely miss most of the time, or hit at closer range, reducing their DPS down to more sane levels, and the DPE as well.

Not all physical weapons have knockback...