They could be two types of chemical uses the first would be soft which cause effects like slowing down you walking and draw speed, another soft could cause vision to blur. Hard chemicals would cause direct damage, either a slow build up of detrimental effect till death or constant damage.

Other area denail things could be naplam, planet side artilery strikes, and radition bombardment. These would kill you pretty quickly because a artilery shell blasting shrapnel though your body puts emphisis on massive internal hemoraging.

Another would be a costly put potent wide AoE EMP zone that shuts down equipment, recharge and electronic based equipment

Now, when I say chemical warfare, I don't necessarily mean poison gas.

Chemical warfare as "poison gas" ..not effective. The clones are walking around inside dropsuits in which they have climate control inside them in order to enter "hostile" planet environments like one with say sulphuric acid atmosphere so putting it into this perspective some mustard gas would hardly even have an itch on these suits. Chemical warfare therefore has no meaningful effect and something modern needs to be developed..

Enter microwave emitters and EMP weapons. A powerful microwave emitter could easily heat up an area, would cause PG disruptions and damage. Same goes for EMP cannon which would completely shut down the dropsuits, vehicles and weapons utilizing electric parts etc.

Chemical especially aerosol form, arnt just breathed they are absorb directly though body and slink though everything but hazmat suits. Chemicals could easlycome thougth any opening.

Also the suits arnt power armor they are modable combat armor. They also arnt built for the vacuum so they are not air tight ergo chemicals absorbed on contact would work.

Note:the logi was.the only one meant for the vacuum but was retooled so that's null point

Dust dropsuits entirely cover the skin of the wearer. They also may or may not have either self-contained breathing apparatuses or some kind of advanced filtration. Being able to survive in outer space is a totally different thing from being able to be safe from chemical warfare. A rubberized hazmat suit will keep you safe from chemical attacks, but you would die if you ever wore it in space. Considering the wide variety of planets Dust mercs are expected to fight on, it would follow that their dropsuits are able to withstand hostile and toxic environments.

Anyway, the realism of it isn't important. What matters is the gameplay that is being advocated.

How about we get the other weapons working first.

Then after that, realize that you have given a small group of players the ability to block off or deny access to a large areas of the map which seems abit over powered to me.

This type of power is still being fought / cried over as we speak with no sign of letting up for just the current weapons in Dust.

Chemical warfare has always been used most effectively (on purpose) when it has been used for terrain denial. Usually when you don't have the means to deny the enemy access to the terrain using other means - lack of man power, terrain aspects, or time constraints don't allow-

Which means Dust doesn't need chemical weapons, specifically, in order to achieve what you propose.

Many things could do the same thing; such as, EVE's warp bubbles, a mine field, an un-shielded nuclear fuel rod, a constant artillery barrage, or a grenade that pulses a bubble and gives slow constant damage.

Chemical weapons are a little too WWI. This is the future. We have much funner ways of hurting each other. Be creative.

How about we get the other weapons working first.

Then after that, realize that you have given a small group of players the ability to block off or deny access to a large areas of the map which seems abit over powered to me.

This type of power is still being fought / cried over as we speak with no sign of letting up for just the current weapons in Dust.

The acronym KISS seems to fit here

Keep it simple stupid

atleast for now

Any other ideas out there that involve chems?

what about a localized EMP that deactivates enemy shields (but not modules and other suit functions then it would be OP) in an area? I sorta like the Idea and perhaps a module that provides shielding from the blast?

BTW, your name reminds me of "hobo with a shotgun", loved that movie!