Many experimental weapons were developed and tested in World War II. Amongst these, the British developed a Hydrogen-Cyanide launcher for use against tanks. This launcher would spray a short distance at a general target, slowly seeping into the tanks and incapacitating (eventually eliminating) the crew inside.
For Enlisted, I can see this being implemented as a class-specific weapon in the pistol slot for the Flamethrower soldier. This weapon would have a single charge, but it would create a 20-30 second area-of effect on the target that would incapacitate and eventually kill anything within it that doesn’t have a gas mask, including vehicle occupants. With this equipped on a flamethrower soldier, your entire squad would equip gas masks, meaning they are impervious to the effects of the gas. However, this gas could potentially kill teammates, same as flame or white phosphorous.
There are some potential opportunities for this weapon to be used to troll (squirt on an enemy APC, teammate spawns etc), but perhaps there are ways this could be avoided by the developers. Either way, I could see this being a new twist for the Flamethrower class, which in addition to the Northover Projector are becoming the class of AoE control. Let me know what you think in the comments below!
Imagine a flamethrower, but it only has a single “round” of ammunition. Wherever this round is fired (would probably be about 5m from the shooter in whichever direction is aimed, save for hard objects in the way), an AoE cloud 5-10m in diameter of deadly HCN forms. This cloud remains there (similar in function to a WP grenade, but stronger, and can harm players in vehicles) for a static period of time, or potentially could stick to a surface (like the side of a tank).
Either way, I could see the balance of such a thing require some fine tuning, but I think it could be interesting for a Flamethrower squad to have a guaranteed tank kill or crowd control option. They are currently underused, and this could provide utility/another layer of “deck building” into the game.
I see the Jet Mk.I AT being accessible for all flamethrowers in a similar vain as the Soviet Ampulomet or British Northover Projector. It would be accessed by unlocking it in the squad leveling menu, and could then be equipped in the pistol slot for any flamethrower of the corresponding tier of that nation.
Essentially, a gadget accessible to all nations’ flamethrowers, just an equippable instead of something you build.
My only worry about it is how such a thing could affect objective play. Either it has the ability to kill everything on an objective on both teams (the teamkills could be insane), or only kills the enemy team and becomes the strongest area denial option for infantry. I feel like having it teamkill without penalty is the best option, but also give it a mustard-gas colour and some sort of noise (like a hiss)?
Maybe the game softlocks it’s use at friendly spawns, rallies and APCs? say within a 20m radius if the range is 5m and the cloud diameter is 10m (leaving a 10m buffer)?
