Let me put the 'ion pistol shotgun' idea in a different light.

If it were function like the afore mentioned, realistically, it would function like the plasma cannon. It has a charge up time, it deals massive damage, and it only has one shot in the clip before reloading.

But now imagine if the plasma cannon had a longer charge up, dealt less damage at full potential, had less range, did less damage at range, had a longer reload, had less ammo in reserve, and almost never dealt full damage even within its optimal and directly on target.

That does not sound like a fun weapon to use.

And indeed I feel we already have a weapon that functions even closer to the ion pistol shotgun theory: the breach shotgun.

A super powerful alpha shotgun with very few bullets in the chamber and a long reload. But now imagine using the breach shotgun where it deals less damage, has a 2 second charge up time, has less ammo in reserve, has a mandatory reload after every shot, and its reload takes twice as long.

Think about how often you see the breach shotgun being used on the field and realize that's what you're saying you want the charge functionality to be as effective as. The only people who use the breach shotgun are newbros that are still experimenting, and people who are engaging in shenanigans or are trying to make a montage to look good.

I'm looking to make the gun viable, not more gimmicky.

The thing is that even if you charge the weapon only 1/4 of the way and thus release 1/4 of the bullets, and even if they match up the charge to the ROF and they all manage to hit, you'll still be losing damage because had you fired them individually each would have also come packed with a mini charge damage multiplier.

So it's either fire 4 at once after a charge for 220 damage, or fire 4 individually at 80 a piece for 320 damage in the same amount of time or less. There is no situation here where the shotgun performs better.

Before my thoughts on how I'd potentially get the ion pistol shotty to work, here's a thought on weapon variations.

Personally, I feel like the IP does function in a manner that is fun/interesting/unique in comparison to the other sidearms. It's not that it's a slightly different scrambler pistol, it's that it's a miniature ScR, much in the same way that the ScP is a miniature Tac AR. Like how the flaylock is a miniature mass driver and the smg is a miniature ACR.

To call the IP a slightly different ScP is like to call the ScR a slightly different Tac AR.

I understand that you like and want more weapon variety, but to take away one variant in place of another just because it doesn't currently function at an optimal level is a step back in my opinion. We have the unique weapon system in place, we just need to figure out how to make it work.

But that's not to say I don't completely dislike the theory of having a pocket shotty sidearm. I do think it's an interesting idea, I just don't want to have my sidearm stripped of me to make that one a possibility.

So what if you petitioned to make an ion pistol -Variant- that functions as a pocket shotty? So far we only have one type of IP while the smg and ScP both get several of their own, I'd certainly like to see more variety in the gallente section.

As to how you would make that work, I came up with a possible solution.

At first I thought that it might be feasible to give all the bullets fired a damage modifier equal to the % required to charge it that far, but I quickly realized this would make it sickeningly OP because of the scaling. To explain, one bullet is 1/12 a charge, so give that single bullet 8.3% of a 7x charge multiplier, which translates to 58%. Then two bullets would each have a multiplier of 116% and so on.

At 6 bullets, each would be fired with a 350% damage modifier totaling 1050 damage.

12 bullets each with a full 700% damage would become a tank buster at 4200 damage.

That's the basic variant. No thank you. Back to the drawing boards.

So then I thought, well, just give each bullet a damage modifier of just how much it requires to charge for that single bullet. Basically, just give each bullet a 58% damage modifier. A single shot does 79, two does 158, three does 237. No odd scaling here but still capable of ludicrous power. 12 shots would still have the potential to do 948 damage, throw on a damage mod and you're putting out over a 1000 damage. You're one shotting most suits in the game at the basic level here and you're able to do it at 20 meters. It still seems a bit much.

So then I realized, why do we have to damage mod it at all now that we're talking a different variant? Pop the base damage per shot to 55 and then let the charge simply determine how many shots are fired, no tinkering with damage modification at all. 12 shots would net you 660 damage so you're still one shotting most militia frames, but well tanked basic suits and above would still survive.

Again, you're losing damage versus the standard IP as each one of those pellets could have been damage modded, but the full charge of the shotty IP does more damage that that of the standard, so maybe that would sway people in that direction.

And I have to stress this again, should CCP be listening here, this should really only be considered as a variant, I want my basic version fixed, not replaced.