Make it OP, sell it. Nerf it. Seems standard
Make it OP, sell it. Nerf it. Seems standard
Eh, wouldn't go that far. Anyone with a long memory for this sort of thing will tell you that it's been on both sides of the fence. Sometimes the weapons start weak and get tuned up (Thumper,) sometimes there's some experimentation that goes awry (Canis.) Mores the latter in this case.
The splash damage on paper for Fracture is pretty low, but the soft traits of the rest of the weapon are what pushes it over the line. Namely the 40 round mag and perfect hipfire with Lightweight Arms. We've never done perfect accuracy while airborne, but have been inching closer to it with weapons like the Horizon, so that's a concept that's being felt out a bit.
If you removed the splash, I'm not entirely convinced that the perfect hipfire wouldn't still raise complaints later on (afterall, the weapon still hits hard, and right now we're all focused on Fracture Bolts,) but it might be worth continuing to find the answer to that question.