Shotgun vs. Combat Shotgun

[half_baked]

Although the idea of the Combat Shotgun is great and the idea of a slower reloading varient of the shotgun is widely accepted, the faults make the CS seem obsolite to the Shotgun. Lets look at the facts:

Combat Shotgun:

Base Price: 2500 pounds
mag size: 6 shells
Cost of Ammo per Mag: 20 pounds
Cost of Ammo per Shell: 3.333 pounds
Max ammo: 48
Damage: 35x7
Reload Speed (per shell): 0.9 (for some reason I used to think this was 1 )

Shotgun:

Base Price: 500 pounds
Mag size: 8 shells
Cost of Ammo per Mag: 20 pounds
Cost of Ammo per Shell: 2.5 pounds
Max Ammo: 48
Damage: 35x7
Reload Speed (per shell): 0.666667

Now let's remove all of the shared stats and look at the benifits one has over another

Combat Shotgun: semi-auto rate of fire

Shotgun: 5 times cheaper, less cost per shell, higher capacity, faster reload rate

The benifit of the rate of fire increase does not justify its price, so how should we buff the Combat Shotgun to be worth its hefty price tag?

Increase mag size of CS to 7 (to make the capacity decrease less dramatic)
Decrease the cost per shell to 2, (same as the BFG9000 shotgun )
Increase the Max ammo by an additional shell (since 7 divides into 49 properly, hardly a buff)
Decrease the Intial Cost to 2000 pounds, the idea was a shotgun for lower level players, right?

So with changes the CS still cost considerbly more than the regular shotgun but keep the slower reloading speed that some people like.)

An alternative idea to the price drop was to change the reloading speed to be the same as the shoutgun, but that might make it OP).

[Azukki]

Ammo cost should be made equal on a shell-by-shell basis, considering they seem to have identical ballistics, and the price could be toned down to 2000. (600 at 6*)

Outside of trader time, though, I think it's about good enough as is. There are a lot of cons, but 4.825 times the fire rate and thus DPS is a pretty big deal.

If any function of it were to be buffed, though, I'd suggest a .75s reload time per shell. Still slower, but not by so much.

[Althamus]

Thinking about it, a support's role ( as I see it) is to take out trash in bunched up areas (narrow corridor), while still being able to provide a decent burst damage to hurt larger things.

However, most supports won't take the SG+CSG, they'll take either CSG+HSG or CSG+AA12, in either case the CSG is the trashkiller.
In which case, the slower reload speed is crippling. I used to think the SG+CSG were roughly equal (in my books, in terms of their usability value), but lately I think it's actually worse.

I'd like to see it either:
Becoming about halfway between SG and HSG/AA12 overall, in which case I'd hope for a little bit more max ammo and a shorter reload speed, but probably the price remaining near what it is.
Or becoming on par with the SG, in which case reduced price and maybe buffed mag size and maybe max ammo.

Reduced ammo price is an obvious step.

[FluX]

Guys do remember the Combat Shotgun can actually kill a Scrake quicker then a FleshPound if shot quick enough. That shotgun is mainly used for speed killing whereas the Shotgun is used for range killing with good penetration so it clears straight lines easily. That's the main difference between the two.

[Amber Glass]

Originally Posted by FluX

Guys do remember the Combat Shotgun can actually kill a Scrake quicker then a FleshPound if shot quick enough. That shotgun is mainly used for speed killing whereas the Shotgun is used for range killing with good penetration so it clears straight lines easily. That's the main difference between the two.

wat? i dont understand how that justifies the ridiculously high price, especially regarding ammo, it costs 3 times as much to fill the csg than the pump. however, all things aside, if all they did was give it one more round in the magazine i think it would be perfectly balanced, that or reduce the cost and cost per shell.

[half_baked]

Originally Posted by Azukki

Ammo cost should be made equal on a shell-by-shell basis, considering they seem to have identical ballistics, and the price could be toned down to 2000. (600 at 6*)

Outside of trader time, though, I think it's about good enough as is. There are a lot of cons, but 4.825 times the fire rate and thus DPS is a pretty big deal.

If any function of it were to be buffed, though, I'd suggest a .75s reload time per shell. Still slower, but not by so much.

I kept the idea of a slower reload speed in order to reduce the "spam-ability" that the AA12 has, but added an additional shell to the mag in order to prevent supports from being caught empty handed.

The longer reload would also encourage supports to find teamates to cover them during the reloading time. The price decrease of the ammo is because of the much higher price of the CSG but I would be fine if it cost the same per shell as the SG.

[Sintaxx]

Just increase the reload speed and I'd be happy. No price change, no damage increase, etc. I've always wondered why two shotguns loaded in the same manner differ in their reload speeds.

That's just my opinion.

[CandleJack]

I take the BM4 and HS as well as an Axe because if i do the axe altfire + hs altfire trick on a scrake and it doesn't work, i want to make damn sure i have a semi-auto gun that can finish the job.