So I've narrowed my class choice down to light assault and I really enjoy the shotgun with slug ammo and a scope. I haven't committed to an empire yet and I'm wondering if there is a difference for my setup. Does anyone know if the shotgun with slug ammunition does different damage amounts depending on your empire? Also is the bullet drop over distance any different for say an energy based VS shotgun versus the others which use bullets?
Not sure. Somebody would have to take the time to unlock/buy all 9 shotguns and test them out. The in-game descriptions are grossly inadequate. As a general rule, NC weapons do more damage, TR weapons shoot faster, and VS have less bullet drop. You can pretty much count on those three things. There are some Recoil and CoF differences but they are difficult to measure and, in most cases, negligible.
What you are asking, can be discerned by applying the general faction rules to damage, drop, accuracy, etc.
I tried TR and VS shotguns with slugs in beta. I don't have many specifics, but I did a bit of testing on the field. I think overall, slug ammo greatly increases combat ability at medium range, but lowers it somewhat in close range. It also gives you a slim chance at long range. In close range, body shots will take two hits for a kill, one headshot for a kill. At medium range, the hits to kill remain the same, with two body shots and one headshot. Between vanu and TR sg slugs, things change a bit past this point, but it does for all weapons. Vanu obviously has no bullet drop, but the damage decrease is significant. If you're just a bit too far out, even two hits won't be enough for a kill, though you'll see that their hp is nearly gone. TR on the other hand has (or had. Mighta been reduced) significant bullet drop. Even at what I would consider medium range with my other guns, I had to aim very high to hit the target They also had damage reduction so the shots to kill increased, but at that range, it's difficult to land even two. Better to move up. (The fact that the bullets did not fly where I aimed did not help lol.) With slug ammo, even in close range, it might not be a good idea to hipfire the shotgun. It certainly packs a punch, but it's also fairly accurate ["compact" might be a better term in describing the slug ammo], in that it can accurately miss, and you only get so many shots. ADS is pretty accurate and, again, a single shot to the head will kill. If you're confident in your ability to make each shot count, go for it man.
http://www.reddit.com/r/Planetside/comments/13a0jc/the_definitive_damage_time_to_kill_and_overall/ You're welcome.
