This is a revision of an older thread I posted, this being much more polished and direct to the changes I intend on conveying. There are several ways we can improve shotguns in the game without making them unbalanced in all regards, this will involve: Four attachment additions(Two attachment removals), two base stat changes, and a bug fix. I will now go down the list. Added Attachments(Barrels): Choke [100 Certs]: Decreases Spread by a factor of 0.5, Decreases RPM by 5% Full Choke [250 Certs]: Decreases Spread by a factor of 1, Decreases RPM by 10% Smart-Choke [100 Certs]: Decreases Spread while Aiming Down Sights, Increases Spread during Hip Firing Rifling Barrel [100 Certs]: Dramatically changes the way Slugs behave, removing the spread factor from them and giving them accuracy similar to Battle Rifles, the result? While in hip fire, your weapon will be even less accurate than it currently is, while aiming, your weapon will be far more accurate and capable of sustaining that accuracy even at higher rates of fire. Additionally, Increases Muzzle Velocity by X%(Do not have a specific value decided), Decreases RPM by 15%. Not all attachments will be available to all shotgun categories, Pump Actions, for instance, only receive the Smart-Choke attachment, this is because the downside of RPM the other shotguns will suffer from cannot impact the Pump Actions due to the re-chamber time mechanic. The Jackhammer can only equip Choke, and Smart-Choke. And Mag-Scatter gets access only to Choke(It already has Smart-Choke). NC MAX AI weapons will receive both Choke, and Full Choke. Attachment Removals/Base Stat Changes: Extended Magazines is removed from ALL shotguns minus the Mag-Scatter, NC MAX AI weapons have Slugs removed(To compensate the addition of the Choke attachments available to them). The value of Extended Magazines is added to the base magazine size of every shotgun, as a result however the reserve ammunition of shotguns is reduced to three additional magazines + the currently loaded(i.e. a Mauler/Barrage/Thanatos has it's magazine increased from 6 to 10 shells, but it's ammo capacity is decreased from 6 / 48 to 10 / 30 shells). However, to emphasize on the Heavy Gun nature, the Jackhammer's magazine is increased from 9 to 15 shells(3 above current max). Slug damage is increased from 400 to 475, this is a direct response to the future addition of the Auxiliary Shield, the damage boost makes the munition remain a three shot kill, but can kill Infiltrators at close range with a single headshot. This is also going to be the future damage of the Revolvers... why should a handgun be more powerful than a Shotgun with Slugs? Bug To Be Fixed: Laser Sight is given purpose to Shotguns by performing it's intended role. If you are unaware what the Laser Sight is meant to do, it's job is to make the origin of spread close to the centre of the player's crosshair... making the weapon more reliable to use. I believe, if fixed, the Laser Sight should cause the origin of spread to be directly in the centre of the crosshair no matter what. And there you have it. This is the best possible way to improve shotguns that does not involve an outright buff to them as a whole. A pure buff I feel would cause the playerbase to essentially riot, but if the effective range of shotguns is increased via attachments, then there is a sense of pro/con going on here. You sacrifice your overall DPS for overall greater accuracy, that, to me, seems fair. The removal of slugs from NC MAX AI weapons is necessary with the addition of Choke and Full Choke, these will allow them to certainly maintain a beneficial use at range while not relying on the poorly coded Slugs to even hit your target. Removing Extended Magazines and making them default is purely because they are useless without them... to compensate their overall ammunition is reduced making them a weapon that needs to be resupplied far more often, I feel that is is suitable downside to always having those extra shells. Let me know what you think, please leave any feedback below per usual. If you have a value that could be given to the X muzzle velocity on the Rifling Barrel please let me know, it should be low enough to not outclass other ranged weapons, but high enough to make slugs a viable choice. Thank you for reading, have a nice day.
I'll say this: lowering an ammo pool is rarely ever a significant downside, unless it's extremely dramatic. For example, knocking the ammo pool of the HEG Pounders down did nothing to phase weapon performance. Raising the default number of projectiles in a magazine is almost always a significant upside, though that also depends on how much additional uptime the weapon gains before needing to reload. Evidence can be found in the Vulcan (60 -> 90) and the Bursters (Extended Magazines), though I will admit they both have specific explanations for how the change makes them more powerful out in the field for that exra default magazine size. On shotguns, the lower ammo pool might be a worthwhile debuff, but it only has a certainty of significantly affecting people who aren't anywhere near their own allies. And anyone not an Engineer (of course).
Of course, which mostly impacts Light Assaults and Heavy Assaults who use them, I think that might balance out their power since these are two classes that can use shotguns the best. Instead, with a lower ammo pool, shotguns might become more prevalent on the Engineer for the obvious reason that is the Ammunition Package. But even then, this is not a primary combat class that cannot take full advantage of the weapon. I think that's a fair set of balance for the weapons. In my experience, any decent shotgunner will equip Extended Magazines, we all collectively recognize it's the only logical choice for the weapon... you gain a massive increase to your magazine, and don't choose one of the three useless attachments that are laser sight, darklight, or foregrip... each have no place on a Shotgun, well maybe Darklight but that is better on a secondary weapon in any scenario. This is in comparison however... were Laser Sights to be fixed, they would be majorly used, but if Extended Magazine was not an option, many players would actually use the other attachments, namely laser sight/darklight with standard munition, and likely foregrip with use of slugs.
Not always unfortunately. I have good ideas, I have bad ideas. I'm simply persistent. If I share a bad idea I get feedback and adjust accordingly, I'm adaptive and a problem solver... but that isn't enough to become a developer.
For some reason, whenever i even whisper a balance for shotguns, i get circle j3rked by people telling me they're über op and that the "10 meter range" is fine and slugs are the ultimate and only way for range.
It all depends on the balance method itself. My proposition here impacts many aspects of the shotgun, as well the major upsides are barrel attachments... which have downsides as well. This is the best way to improve shotguns, a straight up buff would be poor to the game, but make it unique to the options you choose(And a whole new category of attachments for these weapons) and it becomes infinitely easier to tolerate. Strictly speaking... more content and customization will always be superior to base changes.
True, my ideas were very simple mainly slightly owering damage for an increase in range. And still people said they would be op.
Because lowering damage doesn't have that major of an effect on shotguns, it is about the RPM... as well your change was base, so there is no say in it if people don't want it or not, where mine is a mix of base(Which are pure improvements via extended mag default and slug increased damage) and optional attachments, people get to essentially choose their advantage and their disadvantage. This is where the balance comes into play.
slugs are nice was messing with NC MAX mattocks one with slug one without and I found it pretty easy to hit a target 50 meters out. Not sure how the chokes would work not a gun guy so 0 clue. Would still like to have my slugs and extended mags for my shotguns, they can sometime make the difference in a fight.
You will have extended mags, with this change they are added to the base stats(So your Mattocks would go from 6 to 10 shells by default, the same value as the attachment)... Choke on NC MAX AI weapons would be absolutely superior to the Slug option, because you cannot aim these weapons. Slugs in hip fire maintain the same spread, it's as though you are firing a shotgun with a single pellet instead of 6. This makes it much less reliable to hit your target, but when you do you hit them pretty hard. With Choke and Full Choke, you would have a very, very reliable choice for NC MAX AI weapons at greater ranges, but with the downside of lower RPM.
