I like it, I like it a lot.
Unfortunately by the time I get it, I usually have better weaponry available.
May I suggest the weapon damage is cranked up a little?
Dvalin Ion9 weapon
Warning! Long rambling post ahead.
I'd go the other way and make it not so difficult to get. Right now it's all but impossible. The one time I got it there was some sort of bug in the script in the linux port that made Dvalin accept unlimited items of each type at the first item point value. Being able to get it with dwarg pieces made it useful. Having to give him Ares capship parts (because just about the only things Dvalin will take are Dwarg and Ares and he won't take the low level Ares stuff) makes it available after the game is allready effectively over. At that point anything not an Iocrym killer is boring.
For earlier availability it's not bad, but it's still not great. You can kill anything except the Iocrym with it, but you can also kill anything but the Iocrym with a Katana Starcannon, which is a lot more readily available and draws less power. The Ion9 will start with some enhancment, but this also prevents you from using an optimizer rom, which is the easy way to go with the Katana.
My understanding is that the engine doesn't handle odd firerates so it's effectively firerate 16. That gives it 2.5 damage per tick. As an area weapon it can't do full damage unless the angular size of the target exceeds twice its spread or 10 degrees. The Katana Starcannon does 1.0833... average dpt without passthrough. It has a 50% passthrough chance and I've seen if hit four times against large targets. That's 100%+50%+25%+12.5% for each hit or 2.03125 average dpt against targets large enough to take five hits. That's pretty much the same targets you'll get the full 2.5 dpt out of for the Ion9: capships. It has twice the range, draws half as much power, and is far more readily available. Against stations the Ion9 does 0.0625 dpt. The Katana does 0.15625 dpt against stations, which still isn't great, but it's not terrible. You can basebust with it without running out of fuel if you don't have weapon slots to spare for a proper howitzer.
So for damage the Ion9 is a very difficult to acquire level 8 weapon that's comparable to a level 7 weapon you can get installed as early as Saint Katharine's if you get lucky with Korelov rewards and arms dealers.
I'd go the other way and make it not so difficult to get. Right now it's all but impossible. The one time I got it there was some sort of bug in the script in the linux port that made Dvalin accept unlimited items of each type at the first item point value. Being able to get it with dwarg pieces made it useful. Having to give him Ares capship parts (because just about the only things Dvalin will take are Dwarg and Ares and he won't take the low level Ares stuff) makes it available after the game is allready effectively over. At that point anything not an Iocrym killer is boring.
For earlier availability it's not bad, but it's still not great. You can kill anything except the Iocrym with it, but you can also kill anything but the Iocrym with a Katana Starcannon, which is a lot more readily available and draws less power. The Ion9 will start with some enhancment, but this also prevents you from using an optimizer rom, which is the easy way to go with the Katana.
My understanding is that the engine doesn't handle odd firerates so it's effectively firerate 16. That gives it 2.5 damage per tick. As an area weapon it can't do full damage unless the angular size of the target exceeds twice its spread or 10 degrees. The Katana Starcannon does 1.0833... average dpt without passthrough. It has a 50% passthrough chance and I've seen if hit four times against large targets. That's 100%+50%+25%+12.5% for each hit or 2.03125 average dpt against targets large enough to take five hits. That's pretty much the same targets you'll get the full 2.5 dpt out of for the Ion9: capships. It has twice the range, draws half as much power, and is far more readily available. Against stations the Ion9 does 0.0625 dpt. The Katana does 0.15625 dpt against stations, which still isn't great, but it's not terrible. You can basebust with it without running out of fuel if you don't have weapon slots to spare for a proper howitzer.
So for damage the Ion9 is a very difficult to acquire level 8 weapon that's comparable to a level 7 weapon you can get installed as early as Saint Katharine's if you get lucky with Korelov rewards and arms dealers.