no thinks, i think ill stick to the vector method, im pretty sure i might be able to whip up an equation thats based off a few variables:
xinitial,yinitial,length,rotation,acceleration,vel oinitial, and time

however, itll still be hard to test against all those other vectors...therefore, ill have to make something to narrow down the number of vectors it hitTests against

the good thing is that this means i can make this thing completely math-based, which ive heard as3 is VERY good with

ill need to use that instead if I can ever figure out why it keeps throwing all these errors at me

EDIT: why does veloinitial look like vel oinitial?