I am a huge fan of this mod in terms of how the explosions and effects are modeled, but one thing that has always frustrated me is how to deliver the payloads in a way that doesn't light everything on fire.

I understand the weapons are powerful (that's the point), but the mod is seriously lacking in effective delivery methods. Every real-world implementation of a nuke has had an attendant method of delivering that payload in a way that doesn't harm the people deploying the nuke. There are exactly 0 nations with nuclear weapons that don't also have some way of delivering them to a target without damaging themselves. I've been using the Helicopter Revival mod to give myself a fun, fast way of getting around the map, and even with the speed I find myself commonly being lit on fire and dying -- even firing at a receding target at full speed.

The only method of safely delivering warheads to targets has been the 20t artillery shell and the 2t rocket fired at maximum range, which are both bottom tier weapons offered by the mod. There are 26 weapons offered by this mod and 24 of them will either kill you outright, or set you on fire.

How are you supposed to use anything in this mod without lighting yourself on fire? I do really think this mod needs a whole branch of longer range rocket artillery or ICBM style missiles. This would be a great way to unlock the utility of the weapons as well as balance them by gating them behind a set of tech trees.

I know what you are saying, the nukes can be tricky to deploy. Before I go through stuff, there is a 0.5t rocket as well, as well as 4t and 8t artillery nukes - you might want to check you're on the latest version, 0.3.x adds a lot of stuff.

The nukes are meant to come with substantial firing penalties, but there are meant to be ways of mitigating them.
For vehicles firing nukes, the fire-shield is practically mandatory, as it prevents them from catching fire - if the vehicle doesn't have an equipment grid, it probably isn't an appropriate choice (although the base game tank can survive). I've tested Helicopter revival, and a helicopter with 3 MK1 shields and a fire shield can fire a 20t without taking too much damage - and 3 MK2 shields allows it to fire a 500t without moving.

For the small rockets, it can get away with a 4t without moving in similar circumstances, though more is not advisable.
For machine gun rounds, they are often ill advised - particularly from inside a vehicle (largely due to higher fire-rates), although they can work with sufficient fire shielding, they are primarily intended for the handheld machine gun, as the base-game doesn't have many alternatives, and they are usable like that. I found the 0.1t to fire too quickly from the Helicopter, but the 0.5 is usable if you single tap, similar with the 2t.

The nukes are primarily balanced around base game and aircraft, so it how it interacts with other mods is somewhat poorly defined. I tend to aim that an 8t big rocket can be fired wearing modular armour, and a 4t big rocket fired with heavy armour. Similarly, the 0.1t bullets can be fired with heavy, and the 0.5t with modular.

So going through nuke types:
Large rockets:
* Easily usable in the 0.5-20t range given fire shields and defence shields. 500t, 1kt are useful with modded vehicles.

Small rockets:
* Seldom that useful, but good for 0.1t-2t normally.

Bullets:
* 0.1,0.5 are usable, although always scary. 2t is usable sometimes.

Shotgun shells:
* There are always a bad idea, but 0.1,0.5t are easily usable, and 2t is doable sometimes.
* The 0.1 buck is usable, though is mostly there for a laugh.

Cannon shells:
* The base tank can use the full range 0.1t-20t, though it is pretty scary to use a 20t.

Landmines:
* I mean, in theory, all these are usable, although I don't see massive use cases beyond like 8t?

Grenades:
* These are useable up to 2t, although I survived throwing a 1tk out of a train once.
Artilery shells:
* 4t-20t are effectively consequence-free. 500t always does some colateral, but given drones and a healthy excess of repair packs, it does no real damage to the firing site, and it does a very good area clearance.
* 1kt is more dangerous, and is only safe with at least 1 level of range upgrade on artillery. However it can be used safely, particularly given artillery trains and something of a willingness to repair a firing base.
* 15kt and 100kt are much more dangerous, but can both be used in real games, to clear biter nests from an entire region of the map. In the super late game, this can be suprisingly effective, as the nuke is being fired well away from your base.

Buildings:
* These are kinda always usable, although you might want an escape train, you can escape in a car from the 100kt.
* The 1Mt-1Gt are more demonstrative, and I admire anyone who successfully sets one off in the real game. In theory a 1Mt might have some uses, but it comes with awe-inspiring consequences.

For the larger nukes, there is always an issue of starting tree fires, but they don't do too much damage, and can be dealt with using grenades or killing all the trees.

So, while not all the weapons in the mod are practical, they often have some role, even if only in modded. The lack of a consequence free firing system more tells you how small factorio is - a 500t warhead has splash damage larger than most bases. But even then, remote bases for artillery trains make it usable, even with the colateral. I'm pretty sure you could actually set up the 500t artillery on autofire given a few range upgrades, and then you'd get really effective supression.

I have considered adding in some form of MIRV support, and may yet, its just a fairly major task to do, as they're a pretty different system.