Do we need a shotgun buff?

The shotguns seems pretty under whelming in my opinion. Sure the secondary attacks are good but the primary deal almost nothing compared to a sniper at close. Sniper rifles are also good in long range, which shotguns are really bad at. So sniper rifles are basically a direct upgrade to shotguns.

 

The way they acted in former versions (That is, they could have higher fire rates, sometimes up to 4 shots per second) should be reintroduced.

 

Unfortunatly the default generation of weapons puts them at either high rate of fire with low damage, or low rate of fire with higher damage. There is almost no other variation. This is quite sad, honestly, and I have been looking at how to change it. Some snipers are even more powerful, per shot, than rocket launchers, which seems silly to me.

I think the general balance across the board needs to be looked at.

 

I think shotguns could be a lot more fun if they had crazier effects - a shotgun that fired tar, for example, or lava drops at higher levels, or knives. Honestly in general the basic weapons need to be crazier. The adaptable crossbow is cool, but where's those effects in other weapons? A shotgun that shot mini black holes could be a lot of fun. Hell, a shotgun that harmlessly shot out water could be great for long distance gardening.

 

I think this game's weapons in general need to be crazier.

I mean seriously. We have FTL space travel, we have efficient laser technology, we have functional, completely-autonomous security drones, we have multiple different races that evolved on COMPLETELY DIFFERENT PLANETS, and yet every single procedurally-generated weapon in the game is either a normal or energy variant on a weapon that exists on earth, today, right here, right now. I'm not saying we should scrap the current weapon types, but there should definitely be more DIFFERENT weapon types, and at least some of them should be a bit more crazy and exotic.

Rocket launchers are cool and all, but how about a bazooka that shoots a ricocheting, steadily-accelerating energy ball? A big hammer is cool and all, but how about a rocket-propelled ball'n'chain? A spear is cool and all, but how about a gravity harpoon that grabs enemies and then throws them against walls and/or other enemies to deal damage?

 

The thing about shotguns is that in real life, they're pretty darn versatile. You could go anywhere from birdshot, buckshot, slugs, to even the weirder unique ones like dragon's fire and freaking flechettes (not entirely great irl, but pretty cool stuff as a movie/game concept). Starbound's shotties don't feel as devastating. Would be really cool to find a break action shotgun around and such. We've got special rocket launchers, bows, pistols, and rifles, but not one special shotgun. Kinda strange really.

 

What you pointed out could be used to give them an unique function, so they could act a bit like the Adaptable Crossbow, which would allow them to instead use several kinds of ammo. I guess they could cycle between 3 or so randomly-generated shells, so, for example, there could be a shotgun that alternates between Slugs, Flechettes, and Birdshot; and another that switches between Dragon's Breath, Buckshot, and Flak Shot (Which would be a fictional shell that fires several small pellets, and two large ones that explode into smaller pellets when close enough to a target, unless they're on a path that would lead to a direct hit).