This might sound ridiculous but listen, How about a short range flamethrower for the heavy assault, The flame will shoot 2 meters and does a standard amount of damage per second, and when once hit by it, you'll burn for 2 more seconds. Without the target being in the 2 meter range, you won't do damage, also the victim would flinch a bit every second it gains damage. Because planetside 2 is sort of a futuristic game, which means flamethrowers do exist! And even today, flamethrowers are used in battles, so why not in planetside? First FPS with not too OP flamethrowers? Please give positive feedback instead of hatred, Sincerely
Well, they had flamethrowers originally for the TR MAX, but the frame-rate drop made everyone else's computers freeze for a few seconds. I'm not sure if flame throwers would be implemented, and if they were, they'd likely be a MAX weapon, not a heavy assault.
Flamethrowers already exist. They have just been disabled/removed while the new Weapon FX engine is developed and added to the game. The current Weapon FX engine is limited by the weapon types it supports. Thats why many weapons are the same/ similar and other weapons aren't what you expect. For example the Lasher is more a splasher in its current form. The devs had said it will lash like in PS1 once the new Weapon FX engine is finished in PS2 (some way off in the future).
Flamethrowers have been planned for maxes for a long time. 2m sounds short though, especially since PS2 meters feel shorter than RL meters. You could get more reach with a pike.
And because they had no burn effect without which they are just scattercannons with special graphic effects.
