Discussed with Talvieno, to a degree: The Shotgun 2.0, more boom edition. No, I don't expect it this mission. But maybe for the next one.
The idea comes from the gap in conventional weapons:
Gauss Rifle - Medium-Long-Long range - Low damage, high penetration.
Assault Rifle - Medium-Medium-Medium range - Med-low damage, but a lot of bullets, meh penetration.
Gauss Shotgun - Short-Short-Short range - Low damage except at close-close range, no penetration.
The Medium-Short range gap, the uselessness of the Gauss shotgun, as well as the gap in penetration in that range zone, brought upon the idea of making a new, Medium-Short range Hand Cannon. In particular, a 6 gauge, 5 shot per reload 'shotgun' with a wide variety of ammo.
These are the ideas I have so far. A slightly less utility-filled conventional crossbow with a larger direct damage, big fucking bullets, a large ammo choice for players to chose from with each ammo type being specialized in one thing and more useless in others, if all sharing the giant fucking caliber of the gun,
As an infantry weapon, it's cost would be 0.
It would have a limited ammo count as well. The sizeable shells would come in backs of 10(?), at 2 reloads per pack, and the number of packs carried would be based on strength levels (-2 str = 2 pack; -1, 0 str = 3 packs; 1, 2 str = 4 packs; etc. ).
Ammo types I have thought up right now:
Spread - Short-short range.
Wide Spread - short-short range shell, very likely to hit, not likely to do much damage against anything armored, high stopping power.
Heavy Spread - short-short-mid range shell, fires larger shrapnel that can penetrate very lightly armored targets, less stopping power, but high ramage ( rip arm off levels of damage if at proper range and on a good hit )
Plasma Spread - This is science fiction. We need science fiction ammo. Ammo that fires some dense plasma. Short-short range, low damage, low penetration, but high heat damage in particular, good at blinding sensors, or hiring a lightly armored enemy without actually penetrating the armor.
In Between slugs and spread - Slugs that penetrate and shatter, for maximum internal damage.
Slugs - Short-Med range.
Stopper slug - Low penetration, med damage if it penetrates, but if it does not penetrate it is likely to knock whoever you are shooting at on their ass, or dislocate something.
Armor slug - Low damage, Medium penetration, OK stopping power, in particular it excels at stopping and maybe killing the annoying guy in heavy armor.
Explosive slug - No penetration, high damage on penetration. Explodes on impact.
EMP slug - Kills robots on some good hits, otherwise low damage. Low penetration.
Probably some other specialized slugs for murdering this one thing in particular, or doing that other thing.
A little summary of Pros and Cons for this "Hand Cannon":
Pros:
- Large stopping power
- Utility of ammo
- High damage on penetration. Its a hand cannon.
- Good accuracy at medium-short range, depending on ammo
- Does not get in the way of existing weapons
- Covers the range and caliber gap
Cons:
- Heavily supported by strength, both ammo wise and hit success wise ( should probably calculate this with emphasis on strength )
- Bad aim further than short-med range, just because of the large caliber of the shells and relatively low velocity
- High accuracy fall off, in other words.
- Ammo limit: Wasted shots matter, and due to low fire rate, 'shooting lots' won't help you if you have the wrong ammo.
- Reloads every 5 shots, or about once-twice a turn, if fired often.
- Heavy, not well maneuvered
- Mostly useless against armored targets, unless with specifically with armor penetrating ammo, and then the damage is reduced.
For reference of looks, i am thinking :
Why you ask? Because its cool.