I've recently run out of infantry (non-max) shotguns to aurax, so it would be nice to have a new one, please. Just one thing there, after 170k shotgun kills on 42 Shotguns (including Jackhammers and Magscatter), 20 of those Barons - if there ever is to be another shotgun, PLEASE don't let it be yet another Baron . The other shotguns could do with some pretty reskins too.
Would be interesting to see the factions get an actual unique faction shotgun. TR could get an autoshotty, NC a pump action, and VS a semi auto. Basically what I wanted the directive shotguns changed to a long time ago (the last changed they had was back when directive weapons were more of joke weapons).
I would love to see real, rewarding, directive weapons. I love the idea of faction specific stuff, but there's a reason shotguns are carbon copies of each other. People would definitely complain one faction got the better shotgun, and if you make the mechanics very different between each, they might not be wrong. Shotguns are a very iffy thing, and it's hard to come up with a "new" shotgun if you know what I mean. Would love to see factions specific content, vehicle reskins to make each vehicle have a unique faction look, but I'm not sure how to come up with something "special" with a shotgun. Also keep in mind they make more money selling NS weapons since they can be used by any faction, and the paying players also have access to them. I think most of the new weapons will either be NSO or alert ones
Spinning Gattling shotgun for TR, low pellet damage but it fires more per shot (like grinder) but it also rapidly builds speed while you hold the trigger (like MCG) and then it's spewing pellets! Big mag ofcourse. (I also thought about an incendiary shotgun for TR, firing rounds that light the target on fire!) Explosive shotgun for NC! Fires a spread of tiny mini explosive rounds that explode on impact, can damage vehicles, High damage, low radius splash, slow fire rate. And ofcourse VS would get a heat shotgun, Infinite ammo and no reloads! Could lead to some crazy nightmare kill streaks!
....see where we're going here? One faction will inevitably get the "better" shotgun. I love the ideas for the TR speedup shotgun and the NC one that would shoot through vehicles, and I do think a heat shotgun would be cool. I'm not sure however if the community would agree, since there's generally a bad connotation with shotguns. Maybe introducing a switch fire mode shotgun? Can go semi, full auto, or maybe shoot 2 rounds at once? But they would likely have to be exactly the same across faction to avoid certain problems.
I want MORE STUFF. Bought everything excepting the gold/whatever versions. Can't get enough...more a need than want. Actually think I'll buy the gold weapons right now..
Really? To change shotguns we need to look at what parts can be modified while it remains a shotgun: Amount of pellets Pelletspread damage per pellet Pellet utility (solid slug, explosive, DOT, passes through enemies, nerfing the opponent etc) ROF Fire method (auto, semi-auto, pump-action, spinup) muzzle velocity type of reload (magazine fed, belt-fed, tube-fed) accuracy As you can see only the Fire Method has been considered so far, but we can do things with the others. In fact, we could keep current shotguns and allow players to equip a faction-specific magazine that simply modifies the current shotguns! Example: TR gets the highest amount of pellets per shot (let's say 2x more than the "regular" version). Damage per pellet is decreased, but not halved. This means a higher damage per shot and due to more pellets a more consistent amount of damage per shot. pellet spread is increased a little. This makes the weapon more reliable in it's short-range role but lose that reliability faster than the other weapons. If a target is hit by a certain % of pellets in one shot, a DOT effect starts on the target (let's say chemical rounds?) When going ADS the weapon automatically switches to solid-slugs, the DOT effect will always be applied with a solid-slug round. VS gets the same amount of pellets as now. Pellets can now pass through enemies, but will have higher damage degradation after passing through a target damage degradation starts earlier. When going ADS the weapon automatically switches to solid-slugs. These slugs would still pass through targets. NC gets a reduced amount of pellets per shot (half, rounded down). Direct damage per pellet remains the same as it is now. Pellets now also have an explosive effect, which deals the same amount of damage as the direct damage. To keep the weapon somewhat reliable despite it's low amount of pellets, pellet spread is reduced somewhat. When going ADS the weapon automatically switches to solid-slugs, the explosive effect remains. Now this is just for the ammo! Like Crayv said we could add multiple shotgun-types as well. A spinup shotgun? Wonderful! A type of Microwave flamethrower for the VS? Hells yes! And don't worry, since such a weapon would have guaranteed hits on targets in the AOE and you would be able to fry multiple people in one go (let's say it works like a reverse Medic tool that can target everyone in the AOE simultaneously) you would also have a lowered DPS and other drawbacks. For example the weapon overheats like mad, being able to only hold the trigger down for 2 seconds before overheat. It also cools down quickly, so a veteran player could keep firing the weapon for long stretches of time but have to deal with constant short cooldowns as well. More wonderful would be if you could combine the HEAT mechanic and simple ammo mechanics. It overheats before the magazine is empty, meaning you have a long uptime with quick overheats/cooldowns and then a longer reload as you swap out the batteries. What about a blast-rifle? It's bascially a portable Claymore but with lower damage per shot and a tighter AOE. You fire, a cone explosion happens to catch anyone in a (relatively narrow) blast. Fire your magazine empty to leave a bunch of fried corpses. The act of hitting all enemies in a cone will help deal with bunched up enemies. How about we take a page from other games? Let's take Halo's Needler mechanic and apply it to shotguns: The pellets deal their damage after about a second or when a critical mass is reached (alternative: It deals a certain amount of direct damage and the rest in the pellet detonation). The more pellets are on the target the more damage it deals and the larger the AOE is. It might be prudent to make the player immune to the explosion due to the nature of shotguns forcing you as close as possible. Pump-action shotguns are still in use today not because of their damage but their versatility and reliability. They are capable of firing more ammunition types than almost any other weapon in existance. Rounds range from: The regular Birdshot, Buckshot, slug rounds Flashbang rounds (although I assume less potent than a full flashbang grenade) Incendiary rounds explosive rounds Flachette rounds Bolo rounds Combination rounds (there is apparently a Slug+birdshot+buckshot round on the market, but more "conventional" rounds with a few large ball-bearings surrounded with a large amount of smaller ball-bearings exist as well) large rounds like BMG .50 tracer rounds (although current versions don't do the tracer bit much apparently). Such a large amount of options could be wonderful for a utility-based pump-action shotgun. Imagine a player who has one ammo pool, but can switch what his shotgun does with each shot? Let's say that ADS is disabled for this gun. Leftmouse fires "normal" shots (pellets or slugs depending on what you pick) and rightmouse allows you to fire a specialty ammo. Let's say X swaps out what ammo, holding X allows you to bring up a radial menu to quickly pick an ammo type without having to smash the X button a handful of times. You run in, fire a Flashbang into someone's face (because it has a smaller AOE naturally), fire slugrounds as you approach and then switch to buckshot and incendiary. Explosive rounds if you are up against MAX's or singular targets. Flachette could bounce off of walls. There's tons of options and each option could also be used to create a new shotgun type for the auto and semi-auto shotguns!
The faction specific ones would be nice, but as I mentioned there would always be one faction that gets the "better" deal. We've all seen it, people saying the lasher is op, the chaingun is op and the jackhammer op. The deal is that since shotguns are already controversial for a lot of the playerbase, I'm not sure if people are ready to accept faction specific ones, although I do support the idea and think it would be a nice addition. As for most of the other the rounds, I'd think they'd be more adapted as an underbarrel attachments or switch fire modes. Keep in mind people turn to shotguns for high risk - high reward up extreme CQC combat. They want high damage output and fast. Thankfully, it comes at the trade-off of shotguns not being effective past a few meters, but for this reason I don't think people would turn to some of the "non lethal" rounds.
There's no point in a lot of damage fast if you cant get close first. Of course many of the specialty ammo's would need to be either a secondary mode or have their own uniqueness. Incendiary and explosive rounds would just convert a portion of their damage into DOT and explosive damage. The DOT could stack and deal more damage and even an AOE damage the more is stacked. Bolo's would need to cause a special effect, for example for each 2 pellets hit the enemy will receive a COF penalty. That would allow the player more leniency when trying to approach the enemy. Flashbang/concussion rounds would be solid-slug ammo exclusively used as secondary rounds. Anyone would be able to see the advantage of hitting someone/close to someone as you approach so that you can shoot them in the face with a buckshot round while they have trouble seeing/acquiring you. Support classes like Engineer and Medic would also have a large advantage being able to fire flashbang or concussive rounds from behind their allies between revives, heals and repairs. Even for just massed attacks a few utility rounds like that would be extremely useful and add actual teamplay. Hell you could go even further with specialty ammo. Imagine being able to fire a doorway-sized shield with a small healthpool (say half a Carbine magazine). It blocks damage from all directions but you can walk through it. Ideal for small engagements (not enough health for large engagements) as it allows you to protect yourself as you approach, but firing it near enemies gives them a choice: move through the shield closer to the shotgun user, waste ammo and time destroying the shield or try and get an angle from the side, at which point the shotgun user is likely to fire another shield on the ground. It might be prudent to add a maximum of 1 of such shields deployed at a time and an active time of just 3 to 5 seconds. EMP rounds would also be useful. Micro-missiles for better AV, light AA and anti-MAX duties. Quick-burst smoke grenades for a short but large smoke effect. Target-paint balls that spot and light up targets hit. Airburst rounds to hit people around corners or hit tight groups of people. You can also use dispersion-oriented ammo. Similar to the incendiary ammo that would create an AOE flame that damages players nearby the target, you could have an electric-charge dart. It deals some direct damage but then zaps enemies nearby the impact area for a short while, and if you hit someone directly the impact area moves with them so enemies are encouraged to leave the vicinity of that player whih would be especially handy if the target moves to cover to regenerate shields and health or finishing off a player behind cover by shooting it nearby him/her. The possibilities are pretty much endless.
A lot of the specialty rounds sound like thumper attachments, or the NSO and NC max shields lol. I think most of your ammo types would apply more to support weapons than shotguns. Maybe better as battle rifles (kind of like the tranquility) for those support classes.
Why limit it to one weapon type? Cant shotguns, battle rifles and grenade launchers share these ammo types but use different sizes of grenades and effectiveness?
By making the mechanics different enough they start to become hard to compare due to how different they are. Easy to compare two nearly identical things to each other. Easier to compare the CARV to the Orion than the Jackhammer to the Lasher.
I have no problem understanding that, it just seems most of the community seems to think vs ore often times get the better end of the deal, so to speak. Almost every server I play, there always seems to be complaints that vs get the "better" weapons, I just quoted the heavy weapon as an example I've seen complaints about numerous times. I enjoy faction specific stuff and I've always asked for more, but the problem is they usually end up causing a lot of controversy because they are faction specific. They also take longer to make than just one NS weapon, which usually sells better anyways. That's why I don't really think the devs are going to prioritize faction specific weapons for a while, at least not until they finish the pay2play NS class.
Weve had a range of new weapons for each weapon class for all three factions and they are all pretty solid to be fair, id be surprised if the same artist didnt make a shotgun for each class too. It might be coming, i hope so. Shotgun variety is pretty stale right now.
To me, this is the problem with Planetside 2 from the start. We are not allowed to have truly asymmetric weapon balance. I want NC to have the "better" shotguns, but I also want Vanu to have no drop on Slugs. Better yet, no Slugs at all for Vanu because plasma isn't a bunch of pellets, it's a jet of super-heated gas. TR shouldn't have any weapons that fire slower than semi-auto, etc. I really hope that whatever Planetside 3 is, it's not just a repeat of nearly identical factions with different skins and an occasional "signature" weapon.
Unfortunately during the reveal of what NSX weapons would be created it was already pointed out by multiple people that shotguns weren't among them while almost all other weapons were represented. Requests to add an NSX shotgun were ignored.
That and Doku didnt design shotguns as part of his series of weapons. Between that and the lack of NSX shotty weve had no new shotguns other than the Barron since launch.
I don't think Planetside 3 is coming anytime soon at least, but yes that's really one of Planetside 2's biggest problems, especially when new weapons are added. People fail to realize the 3 factions balance out asymmetrically, and instead demand identical weapons/vehicles with different skins. The problem was solved in Planetside 1 because everyone had access to all weapons and vehicles from any faction, but I really think it would have cut Planetside 2's uniqueness.
