Here are my two cents on shotguns.
The problem with the shotguns in Fonline is their role in combat overlaps with ‘other rifles’. As a result, small gunners who are choosing a weapon lump them in the same category and come to the same conclusion that they are sub-par when compared with other rifles of the same tier. The value of shotguns is essentially deflated because other rifles can do everything a shotgun can, except better. Consider the following issues:
(I) Seeing as the max range of most shotguns is short, approx. 12/14/16, this hardly requires any investment in Small Guns skill points to achieve 95% chance to hit. Thus the +20% bonus to hit from the accurate perk is only a minor advantage at best, beneficial only to low-leveled characters with low SG or to non-combative characters who still want to use a gun. Not nearly an enticing enough bonus for a dedicated small gunner to consider seriously, seeing how in most cases the +20% hit will be redundant. Compared with long ranged rifles, the +% to hit from the long perk becomes an essential bonus, especially in long-distance night encounters.
(II) Even though the high tier shotguns: combat shotgun/CAWS/Pancor do 15-25 dmg single shot, which is a fair bit of dmg, the short range makes it impractical compared to lets say a sniper rifle, which does even more dmg (14-34) at close range with single shot, yet also has the advantage to shoot much farther. If someone does decide to use a shotgun for single-shot, it would have to be an aimed-shot to yield comparable damage as a rifle. Nonetheless, this in itself is a pretty ridiculous concept when you think of the spray in a shotgun shot.
(III) The burst function is also short ranged and far too limited in damage. With a 0%-DR ammo modifier, it will hardly put a scratch on armored targets. But of course, shotguns aren’t supposed to be used against things that are heavily armored because they don’t penetrate well, so changing the %-DR on the ammo would only serve to make them stronger then they practically should be. As it stands, even a basic rifle (like the assault rifle) can burst for better damage than a combat shotgun, let alone has much farther range.
(IV) The high tier shotguns are not cheap either. Compare it to high tier rifles and you’ll see they are similar in cost. If they do less damage and have shorter range, why should anyone pay the same amount of money, or resources, to get one? As it stands, shotguns are more of a vanity and role-playing weapon. That being said, the sawed-off shotgun is a perfect example of this. Put up against the regular shotgun, it sacrifices 5 range for only +2 max damage. But don’t get me wrong, it makes up for its bad combat capabilities by giving me a damn good feeling when I shoot and reload it. It might be the most shafted gun in the entire game, but it’s definitely the most satisfying gun to hold in my hands.
Solutions:
Increase their range? No
Make the ammo better? No
Make them cheaper? No
Change the role it plays as a combat weapon? Yes
Personally I think Fallout Tactics had it right. The shotguns in that game were not able to do aimed shots, only normal single shot and burst. To compensate, normal single shots had the added bonus of having a wide spread (similar to the AoE of bursting), whereas the burst option would be similar, but dish out more damage at the expense of more AP and ammo. This gave shotguns their own unique role – to instigate fights against clusters of enemies in short-mid range. Damage is only maximized when there were at least 2-3 enemies close together, and it would fall short of dealing good damage if it was just one target. When it came down to close-mid range crowd-control, their total DPS would excel. Rifles, on the other hand, would fulfill the role of single target ranged fighting and could not compare in damage to shotguns, even when bursting into groups at close range. Because rifles and shotguns did not overlap in combat function, both were valued weapons to have. Furthermore, the easy access of shotguns made it a cheap alternative to using grenades, rocket launchers, and miniguns in those who lacked the proficiency to use them, or couldn't afford them.
