Did SOE upset the balance when they gave everyone shotguns ?

I feel more guys getting shotties these days.
So I decide to slap my Jackhammer again.

Haven't seen a significant increase in shotgun usage, though I do agree shotguns a bit overpowered.

Shotguns were decently balanced in Battlefield 3. A shotgun would reliably kill in one to two hits when most other automatic weapons generally killed in four to five hits ( average of 250 - 300 ms; maths as proof: 60 s / 800 RPM * 3 RTK ), so even in a CQC situation, while the odds for the shotgunner were pretty good, they weren't absolute as players had no tanking ability.

In Planetside 2, shotguns STILL kill in one to two hits, but most other automatic weapons now require five to eight hits to kill ( average of 500 - 550 ms; maths as proof: 60s / 750 RPM * 6 for TR )! Planetside TTK's are generally nearly double Battlefield 3 TTK's, yet Planetside shotguns have the same TTK as Battlefield 3 shotguns! Planetside shotguns provide a dominating advantage in CQC situations.

Planetside shotguns should have damage further reduced, but magazine size increased to compensate. The better option would perhaps be to have Flak Armour provide an equivalent amount of protection against buckshot ( 10% damage reduction against explosions provides 10% damage reduction against buckshot ) and Nanoweave Armour provide 150% protection against buckshot ( 10% damage reduction against small arms provides 15% damage reduction against buckshot ) with no changes against slugs ( Flak Armour provides 0% reduction regardless of level, Nanoweave Armour provides equivalent reduction ).

I think I've died a fewer number of times to the "free shotguns" than I can count on one hand since they came out. Honestly, shotguns get a bad rap because, like many things, people shoot people in the face with them and the person on the receiving end shouts "no skill noob!!!" or some such.

The reality is that 9/10 times, shotguns are worse situationally than the other options. Even when they're good, they are still unforgiving. This is especially true for newer players. Sure, 1/10 that BR14 heavy with a shotty is going to get lucky and roflstomp your BR100 100 days played toon, but 9/10 he is going to fail. I'd say those are worse odds than a bullet hose that at least can hit things greater than 10 meters out.

New Conglomerate. Terran Republic. Vanu Sovereignty. Long ago, the three factions fought against each other in harmony. Then everything changed when the Shotgun Wielders attacked. Only the headshot gurus, masters of low-DPS weapons, could stop them, but when Auraxis needed them most, they ragequit. A couple days passed and my outfit members and I discovered the Vandal, a Scout Rifle by Nanite Systems. Although it's damage per bullet was great, we had a lot to learn before we were ready to shoot all the faces. But I believe Semi Automatic rifles can save the skill

I'm sorry it was too tempting
I don't mind the shotguns though. Partially because I still prefer my Warden, Shadow, and other similar high damage/low fire rate weapons, mostly though because I was already saving up for the Mauler as my slug shotgun and saved me a ******** of certs

Nah.

I find that going with a shotgun is more detrimental to yourself than your enemies. Unless you're constantly going to be in peoples faces, any other option will serve you better.

It's fun melting people at 50m who can't fight back.

The NC Conglomerate has decided to give out free shotguns to all new and existing soldiers as an reward for making out yearly earnings sky rocket due to the demands of war materials.

The shotguns are more or less useless, people were complaining about how NC shotguns OP, NERF PLZ NOW!!! but then when they do actually get to use a shotguns their like "oh, this sucks". But the chances that ! new ! players will actually kill you are rare, generally their people that have experience with the game before hand that will ROFL stomp you with shotguns.

But more stuff to shot with my NC MAX suit as they will come to get within range of me instead of me going to them, just more squishies for my Dual AF-23 Meat Grinders to shot at.

lol how 2 coherent sentence

No, SOE ruined balance when they maintained faction specific features for VS and NC and hosed the TR.

It's pretty apparent that the project schedule for updates goes something like this:

Team Lead: "Hey team, make cool and useful stuff! We've got 4 weeks to do it before the next release!!"
Developers: "Ok, boss!"
Weeks 1-2: Developers make cool and useful stuff for NC
Weeks 3-4: Developers make cool and useful stuff for the VS
Release Day!!
Team Lead: "Oh heck we forgot the TR, and we forgot testing!
Developers: Slap random design onto existing TR item and tweak stats by 3%, call it good.
Team Lead: "AWESOME CRISIS MGMT GUYS! NOW LET'S HOSE THE SERVERS!

No. Since everyone got one I haven't been killed by anyone with one that was sub br40+ so I don't think newbies are even using them at this point, (The survey wasn't super clear on this and your alternate loadout doesn't use it). So I'm unsure if it's an education thing or that they are just using them poorly, but I haven't noticed any great change with moment to moment infantry play.

Also loving the few people trying to bring in their own faction flavored derails here. The shotguns are all the same (barring the cert price thing), take your non-associated whining to your own threads people.

They upset my k/d and spm

So much Mauling going on

It's definitely noticeable that there are a lot more around, but shotguns are very situational, and I don't think it hurts the balance giving newbies an option that anyone able to afford 250 certs already had.

The noobs with shotguns.. I feel so bad for them...
I had this BR13 guy with a shotgun blasting at my HA from 30m away..
I was just adada back and forth until he ran out of ammo, then as he reloaded I walked up and pistol'ed him in the face.
Shotguns should come with a warning to not use them at range of more than 10m, poor noobs.

If you feel the need to complain about this... maybe you should google "shotgun" first...

Real life shotguns have a far better range than the ones ingame. Maybe it is you who should be doing the "google-ing"?

Not really. I've run into more people using them, but not that much more, and quite a few of those people I run into that use it are unaware of it's effective range. The only ones that really kill me are higher level BR players, and by that point they could have already unlocked the shotguns with certs if they really wanted.

nah,vanilla shoty is trash for me, semi-auto+slug is just a decent scout rifle, but auto shoty+slug=STEROID ASSAULT RIFLE, used,tested,ABUSED
(buy now pre nerf edition)

do they ?,all i know im been using my shadow as an infil slug shoty, the warden its... another story (a bad one which give me the nightmare) about my k/d

more shotguns don't win battles and they aren't op but battles are less fun with more of them around. They add randomness. Good players don't want randomness on either end so most eventually stop using shotties but newer players are glad if they can kill at all.
The new shotgun-users that kill you don't go on big killstreaks, as with any kill their positioning becomes worse. shotguns leads to chasing people and eventually standing in the wrong spot.
those handed out give the best forgiveness/ range ratio and sort of encourage kamikaze gamestyle as dieing is cheap in PS2.

More than often servers aren't sharp and dropping a shotgun-wielder with a CQC carb to the head usually only works when your TTK isn't inflated by latency. so under realistic conditions facing semi-auto shotties in CQC is more annoying than in theory. If you play HA and keep your range/ pop shield you will be far less affected than other CQC fighters who don't have an overshield. 3 shots vs. 2 on average makes a big difference here.
As a LA I don't like this but I won't go back to shottties. I just get more deaths right now by low rank players with semi-shotties and some of them are random because the server won't drop them fast enough even If i didn't make a mistake. While this can happen with any weapon latency will punish you more when facing shottties.

Naw, I still don't die to shotguns all that often.

If a lot of clever shotgun fanatics are around sometimes I'll give them a dose of their own medicine and pull a Grinder MAX

Only PAS´s can kill you with one shot, and only when they´re right infront of you, 5m tops. After that it requires at least two or three shots and, considering their refire time, that´s longer than it takes you to kill them with your average bullet hose.

Make no mistake, shotguns at least require you to get close to your enemy, which requires at least some sort of awareness and tactic, to work.

Furthermore, no shotgun kills you with 2-3 shots from 30m away. And if someone is using Slugs and hits your head 3 times in a row before you can react, then kudos to him.

This game heavily punishes anyone who is not using fully automatic weapons. Anyone with a semi automatic that doesn´t OHK is at a significant disadvantage. The only exception were PAS at their release, but ever since they´re hardly worth it. For shotguns to be effective you need to choose fights which are extreme CQC, such as towerfights. Anything that forces you to bridge a distance before you can return fire is less than ideal, which account for most situations in PS2.

So if you constantly find yourself constantly getting killed by shotgunners you might want to check your surroundings more thoroughly.