I just started a game and got a Neinzul Youngster, so I'm encountering fireflies for the first time since they were added. I'm wondering if I ought to be focus-firing on them when they appear in the mixed waves the Youngster sends? If I understand their mechanic correctly, the longer they stay around killing my ships the more strength their mini-martyr explosion gathers, but I'm not sure whether they're actually killing things fast enough for this to be a relevant factor.
I'm also mantis'ing a suggestion (
http://www.arcengames.com/mantisbt/view.php?id=9939): It bugs me that there's no visual feedback about how much damage they do on death, so I'm suggesting that the range of fireflies' death explosion increase with along with the strength --- this would be interesting for their effectiveness, but more importantly it would let you gauge relatively easily how effectively you're using them/how much damage they're doing to you in the hands of the AI. That said, five times their basic range would be a pretty significant area, so if they are regularly living long enough to approach max damage it might be necessary to balance this change somehow.