Shotgun techs

[guisenne]

The standard ammo have to share the recearchs with shotgun, cause the shotgun recearchs dont upgrade anything beyond himself and shotgun need some other buffs like better way to auto shot the monsters with more precision

[Ranakastrasz]

Shotguns are already insanely OP. Or, rather, the whole combat system is not really balanced correctly. Late game, Shotgun is the only viable handheld weapons, since nothing comes close to it's damage output.

[bobucles]

The shotgun deals the most raw DPS by FAR, and exoskeleton modules let the player deny combat more effectively than raw shield modules could ever absorb.

That might change with the changes to FIRE, but the combat system isn't really nuanced in any way. Use moar firepower because moar and go fast because fast.

[Photoloss]

Well, a hit-and-run with the flamethrower is essentially a one-hit-kill from max range against spawners and can not be bodyblocked by biters!
Combat upgrades definitely need an overhaul though, they seem to be balanced more around "equal numbers" than "equal value". Rolling the shotgun in with regular bullets would make some sense, but that tech is already overloaded beyond belief (handheld gun, vehicle gun, turret, Defender robot vs. just a turret or a gun)

[Frightning]

The standard ammo have to share the recearchs with shotgun, cause the shotgun recearchs dont upgrade anything beyond himself and shotgun need some other buffs like better way to auto shot the monsters with more precision

There is a reason the Shotgun has it's own research line: Early game, the shotgun is far better at killing spawners than regular magazines in the SMG (or Pistol) are. Regular Magazines used in the SMG/Pistol are VERY ineffective against Medium Biters and Medium Worms, whereas the (basic) Shotgun, with upgrades can actually do ok against them (not enough kill tons of them, but enough to save your hide from 1-2 biters trying to eat you). Later on the Combat Shotgun, with its 20% damage bonus is the most man portable powerful weapon in the game late game. Piercing Magazines are not effective against Large biters and Big Worms unless you have basically ALL of the damage upgrades, whereas Piercing Shotgun Shells are effect with only a few upgrades (especially w/ the Combat Shotgun; which you will already have by the time you unlock Piercing Shotgun shells).

What does all of that mean for the research situation? Well, focusing just the Bullet Damage line will give you decent solutions for both offense and defense at a low total price. However, if you invest more and get the Shotgun Damage upgrades as well, then you will have even better tools to take on the enemy, but ofc you pay for this in Science Packs and time spent researching a whole 2nd damage line (a similar situation holds for Shooting Speed). Gun Turrets also have their own damage research line, so even if you opt for shotgun, you can still make the turrets decent, conversely, if you do upgrade regular bullets, you can also upgrade the gun turret and get multiplicatively stacking damage buffs which can make gun turrets insanely deadly (read: ~triple raw DPS of Laser turret when both are fully upgraded, about double effective DPS against Behemoth biters, which are most resistant enemy in the game to phys dmg).