An experimental weapon available only to bounty hunters, this light port weapon spreads a single slug of xithricite into a short-range cloud of shrapnel with a wide hitbox. Most of the energy consumed is used to prevent the gun from ripping itself to shreds from the kickback, though some is wasted (it is, after all, just a rail gun with some oddly shaped doodads glued onto it)

Xith Shotgun:
1200 damage (spread out over the impact cone)
270 m/s speed
100 energy per shot
1.6s delay
975kg
No targetting
15 ammo
Requires 50pks and to be a bounty hunter
Purchasable at any barracks station

Not sure if it is balanced, or if this kind of weapon is even viable, but I figured an idea is an idea. I mainly ripped the stats from the rail gun series. Also, should it require the rail's lisc reqs?

So...Like a scattershot ?...

+1 more ridiculous weapons please.

Interesting.
The shot would have to be treated as an expanding wave front along a single central line.
Rendering the individual shrapnel would be impractical but a simple sparkle effect might make a reasonable substitute. Figuring out the damage would require calculating the amount / percent of the wave front that actually would contact the ship at the point of intercept.

Doable I think.

The stats are a bit off.

speed is rather high for the weapon type , It should be in the 170 - 200 range
(the devs don't like stuff that goes much over 200 as it causes problems)

I would up the damage and the energy to 8000 - 12000 damage and 400 per shot.
The actual damage will be reduced both by distance traveled and the percentage of impact.
At very close range it should be devastating and then lose its effectiveness rapidly

Assuming its a large port heavy weapon I would suggest a mass of 2000 kg

Grid power should start out as 8 I think until theres a better understanding of how it will affect the game balance

I would also suggest that it require 100 bounties collected and a 900 standing

+1

+1 to requiring 100 bounties so Niki and I would be the only people able to buy it!

The original idea were for a light port rail gun with some crap thrown on it giving it a shotgun style effect. Nah, I like PaKettle's idea.

+1 to the concept PaK outlined, but 100 bounties is a BIG ask. I'd suggest 50ish.

I'm perfectly fine with the requirement of 100!!!

WE get it Sieger. You have 100 bounties. You farmed bounties.. congratulations.

But +1 to the OP, because more weapons.

+1 to new interesting weapons.

+1 to the PaKettle version.

It could also be an idea to add tiers to it like the railguns have, so that as a new bounty hunter and with the right licenses you could get a more basic version, then a better one at 25 bounties, another at 50 bounties, and the real badass one at 100 bounties.

The weapon I suggested would be very deadly on the order of a tri-flare being used for rocket ramming.

Lesser versions at the 50 and 25 bounty level would be more in order.

+1 i like it but -1 for being a bounty hunter.. maybe just kills? some of us are not great pvpers like the rest of you guys.

If it were easy to get, that would lose the focus of driving you to becoming a better player! Hang out with PVPers more often, and learn from them! Even if they seem grumpy and will kill you and will be slightly rude about it, if you ask them they will tell you what you did wrong, and how to improve.

Lets keep it as bounty hunter only.

ya right, but i was never the pvp type of guy and i guess i am being bias here but i see what you mean :)

If its any consolation, I am not any good at PVP either :P

Actually, the real issue with making it bounty-hunter-only is that you can't be a bounty hunter if you want to play a non-pathetic pirate character and have terrible nation standings, since your bounty-hunter status gets revoked when you become hated. That would exacerbate the problem of pirate players finding ways to abuse or exploit the faction system so they can retain sufficient standing to remain a bounty hunter.

Some potential solutions:

A: Have the requirement be to either claim N bounties or defeat N bounty hunters while you have a bounty on your head

B: Add a method for people to be bounty hunters through Corvus

C: Balance it with some other cool stuff that is only available to KOS people (e.g., fix the requirements for the Greyhound)

I wasnt aware about losing bounty hunter status when hated, thanks for bringing that up! Option A sounds good, is there a way to count BH kills when bountied allready? Option B also sounds good.

I also was thinking about it, and because the damage potential is so great at point-blank range, should we increase delay time from 1.2 to 2?

+1, I love shotgun-type weapons. Up close and personal >:D