Warning, this post will be a bit ranty.

Shotguns are one of the most under-loved weapons in the game. You can't refill their ammunition (talking about shells, not Vonya mags), they have very limited options when compared to assault weapons and pistols, the ammo is an inconvenience to carry and there aren't many shotgun dedicated attachments.

I have a couple of ways of fixing this, or to use the Donald Trump analogy: "Make shotguns great again!"

1: Bring back 2.0's shell system. For those of you who are unfamiliar with how 2.0 operated, shotgun shells were a stackable item. Again, if you don't know this means you could have multiple shotgun shells in one slot. While we kind of have this with the crafting, we are currently limited to a maximum of 8 12 gauge shots, seven shots in Vonya mag or two 20 gauge shots. My suggestion would be to go back to this system. Shotgun shells would be stackable in a stack of 24 for 12 gauge, 30 for 20 gauge with Vonya magazines remaining the same... But there will be one more trick. Say you happen to run out of Vonya magazines. You shouldn't have to run yet, you can fire one 12 gauge shell at a time by individually loading one shot into the chamber. This way, the space will be stored, there is more of a viable reason to use shotguns again.

2: Shell Boxes. The next problem shotguns face is acquiring ammo. Because you don't get a magazine back per reload, getting shells can be a somewhat labourious task for a very early/mid game weapon. My system for this would be to give back the spent shells, utilising the shell box to refill spent ammo. The shell box would be mostly white like the civilian ammo box we currently have, but with red accents and red shells inside. I'm not currently sure how this would work, but separate shells for different ammo? As I said with the stacking suggestion, due to the 20 gauge shell having less power than a 12 gauge, I think it would be more appropriate for the 20 gauge to have more shells inside of it's box than the 12 gauge. Using this method, shotguns have a more ready, viable use in PVP and survival, because otherwise you're going to want to stick with a weapon that has a removable magazine and doesn't just spend all of its cartridges.

3: Shotgun Attachments. Since there isn't currently many attachments specifically tailored to shotguns, it got me thinking of some ideas. The first one of these would be like a muzzle break. It would tighten the spread of the shotgun, making it more accurate, and slightly boosting the range. This would be a military grade attachment, however since it won't hide muzzle flash it won't have any durability.

The next attachment would be a shotgun suppressor. Due to the significantly large nature of a shotgun shell and said pellets, this item would only be currently attachable to the Bluntforce and then Vonya. It would not have the same quietness as a regular rifle/pistol/SMG suppressor, but it would still conceal your gun shot against a zombie. Another drawback with this attachment would be a slightly reduced durability over the regular suppressor, and would come in Ranger and Military variety.

The final attachment is a bit of an odd ball. I recently read about a firearm mod that had multiple adapters for it, allowing you to fire multiple loads. While I don't want this idea entirely, it made me think why there aren't any modified shotgun loads at the moment. Slugs, flechette, birdshot, Hell, why not our own craftable makeshift buckshot if we don't have shell boxes.

Sorry if this is a bit of a long post. But I think it's time shotguns got some TLC.

MakeTheShotgunGreatAgain