How often do you bring out the regular shotgun when you have the SSG?

[MrGigglefingers]

I use it a lot personally. I like to conserve ammo as much as I can, and I find that the regular shotgun is more consistent when fighting enemies at mid-long range.

[Lucius Wooding]

I use it sometimes, mainly against enemies above or below me, through narrow windows, and for some sniping against groups on platforms. I'm very skeptical about people claiming it saves ammo though. The berserk saves ammo, infighting saves ammo. Shells are just not that precious in most maps and it's more practical to save ammo in other ways than constant switching of weapons. Unless half of my pellets are going to miss a target I don't bother switching.

 

Do you often run out of shells playing most maps? Personally I run out of rockets and bullets more often than shells because I use those weapons to fire from safety. Maybe leaning on the single barrel for sniping actually burns through your shells without killing very much stuff per shot. 

 

 

Spoiler

Here's 94 more posts on the subject from a 2 week dormant thread btw.

 

[baja blast rd.]

Only when (saveless) FDA-ing dangerous slow-paced maps, to enforce a more cautious pace when I'm kind of uneasy. Or in the rare cases that a map does not give you a chaingun and you really do need to snipe enemies like pesky hitscanners.

 

I've found conserving ammo by meticulous weapon swapping unnecessary in most maps. It's usually possible to do a lot better by playing aggressively (setting loose multiple encounters at once; not clearing out all enemies, especially turrets in areas that look like they will be revisited, so that they can infight later on in the map; and other tactics like that). By exploiting infights (and part of this is having the comfort to not stand still and watch, which makes it boring -- but multi-tasking by doing something else at the same time and keeping mental track of the survivor, which takes practice but is fun). And by playing pacifist where needed. 

 

Those approaches are more fun to me and have more nuanced strategy associated with them. Most of the time I don't do that primarily to save ammo, but it happens to be even better at that than the more obvious tactics.

 

One good example of how effective infights can be is that a single revenant-HK infight gives you +8 shells over killing them with the SSG (that is 2 shells to finish off the winner instead of 6+4 to take them out at full health). If you exploit a handful of unexpected mid-tier infights that aren't baked in as expected by the map's ammo balance, that can make up for a couple dozen separate times you plunk off an imp or zombie with the SSG instead of swapping to SG/CG.

 

The game does not give you extra bonus points for getting to the exit with 70 unused shells, so I try to spend my ammo. That would be equally true when playing continuously, because being too much of a juggernaut can be unfun.

 

I like preaching the gospel of pragmatic ammo waste. :P 

[HiMyNameIsChair]

I'd say I find myself going to the single barrel fairly often. The SSG has a lot of use cases, being a great weapon for clearing out mid-tiers, groups of imps, hitscanners, and generally being the workhorse of Doom 2.

 

However, the single barrel is still a great weapon to bring out for a lot of use cases. I often pull it out for when I need to snipe enemies that are higher up or further away, as it is generally more accurate than the SSG at range. I'll use it when dealing with singular imps or hitscanners, to save ammo, and in general, I might lean on it if I know a map's ammo balance is a little tight.

 

Another case would be If I'm fighting a mid-tier like a Hell Knight, Caco, Mancubi, or Arachno, and some of my SSG pellets missed their mark. Every once in a while they don't die in the expected number of shells, so I'll pull out the single barrel to see if I can finish it off and save a shell or two. 

 

But yeah, the single barrel is still pretty useful all around and covers the SSG's few weaknesses.

[ducon]

When I have to snipe or to deal with zombies and imps.

[Zulk RS]

Quite a lot actually. While it's really kinda obsolete in the IWADs if you play Continuous, on PWADs, there are many situations where you'd need to bust out the Shotgun. Getting rid of a bunch of enemies on a ledge, fighting against a group of zombies, fighting against 1-2 imps or zombies. These are where I use it the most.

[7Mahonin]

I haven’t really thought about it honestly. I just use whatever weapons fits the situation best in SP.

 

For DM, I almost never use the pump action once the SSG is acquired. The chaingun is better as a sniping weapon (at any range) in multiplayer by tapping fire. 
 

Also, come on people.. it’s a pump-action shotgun. Learn your weapon terminology. 

Edited July 26, 2023 by 7Mahonin

[openroadracer]

I'm probably playing the game wrong when I say that I tend to lean more on the Rocket Launcher, Plasma Gun and Chaingun over the two Shotguns; but I will use the SSG when I need to punch out big targets up close, especially Pinkies.

 

That said, I generally try to avoid close range as much as I can within the limited spaces afforded to me on most maps. As a result, when I'm using a shotgun, I'm more likely to use the Pump Shotgun. As well, when you're dealing with smaller numbers of Imps and Former Humans(all three varieties), the double-barrel is often overkill or outright wasteful.

[Decay]

14 minutes ago, 7Mahonin said:

Also, come on people.. it’s a pump-action shotgun. Learn your weapon terminology. 

Better start sticking to double-barrel or SxS or side-by-side instead of SSG then.

[Helm]

if it's a cluster of imps or smth and an SSG shot didn't do what I had hoped it did (like bowling, if you like) sometimes motivated by misguided notions of ammo conservation I'll pull out the pump action to take care of stragglers. So for me, it's when I felt I have already wasted ammo that I go 'well, better not waste more!'. However single barrel against imp is an exercise in angling to avoid blockmap so sometimes you shoot squarely at an imp and it doesn't die in one shot, that feeling that you swapped a weapon to save a shell and you ended up using 2 shells anyway and wasted more time and now you're holding a worse weapon you have to swap out of again, is a terrible feeling. I think it accounts for a lot of pump action disuse. People that play on GZ or anything else that doesn't have blockmap probably have a better relationship with this gun, because they will be more consistently rewarded for even their misguided notion of ammo conservation by at least killing things in one shot. Feeling good about a strategy isn't necessarily related to whether the strategy is optimal, but whether you set a goal and pulled it off. Similarly playing with free look / no autoaim probably boosts this gun more to be as useful as the staggering chaingun approach for sniping, or more, depending. 

A legitimate case where this gun is better than ssg is in a 'predictable corridor'. Twists and turns and equidistant like, sargeants to stop your progress. You've been in one a million times. When you realize it's going to be a linear fodder of low tier and you don't have a chaingun, swapping to single barrel will mean you'll move at the tempo of that gun, waste less ammo and you'll be more protected from low tier hitscan firing back in the lull of reload. I remember dying in an ironman a few months ago where if I had the single barrel out down such a corridor and not the SSG I would have lived.

Edited July 26, 2023 by Helm

[Async Unicorn]

Pretty often, when I need to snipe out enemies on mid or long distance or when I need to conserve ammunition, and that's why I love Doom: there's no useless weapons in the game.

[7Mahonin]

32 minutes ago, Decay said:

Better start sticking to double-barrel or SxS or side-by-side instead of SSG then.

No, really, we should be calling them the Shotgun and Combat Shotgun, as the Doom II manual intended. 

[FecalMystAche]

I always called them the Shotgun (SG) and Super Shotgun (SSG). Makes more sense that way to me. 
 

Didn’t this same conversation happen not too long ago? I’ll just quote what I said there:

Quote

They are individually useful for different roles, but both can do well enough in either of their roles with some compromise. In hindsight, Doom and Doom II could’ve worked with just one or the other of the shotguns, but I’m glad that didn’t happen because they’re both iconic, fun to use, and are clearly the reason why, for many, shotguns are their favorite class of weapon in video games. 
 

So yes, I do think there’s plenty of use cases to use both shotguns, and not just favor the SSG in all modes of play be it SP or DM.

 

[ducon]

In French, the shotgun is a fusil à pompe and the super shotgun is a fusil de chasse.

[Azuris]

10 minutes ago, ducon said:

In French, the shotgun is a fusil à pompe and the super shotgun is a fusil de chasse.

 

Pump Rifle (gun)

and Hunting Rifle (gun) :P?

 

I guess Chasse is Caza in spanish.

[Zulk RS]

2 hours ago, openroadracer said:

I'm probably playing the game wrong when I say that I tend to lean more on the Rocket Launcher, Plasma Gun and Chaingun over the two Shotguns; but I will use the SSG when I need to punch out big targets up close, especially Pinkies.

 

 

One thing I like to do with the SSG is what I call "SSG Melee" Where I move into melee with Barons, fire the SSG to make sure all the pellets hit and then move back. It's like a more easier and high DPS version of Berserk boxing with barons.

[RataUnderground]

All the reasons given are valid, but mine is that it is fun to change weapons and fight in different rhythms.

[Vladguy]

I use the regular shotgun whenever I have an odd number of shells.

SSG + 23 shells = nuh uh for me

[Z0k]

just in certain situations. but i use shotgun when i really need my pellets dont spread too much and want to save ammo from other weapons

 

like in hellbound in the military map, the base hangar had like 3 arachnotrons and i had the advantage in the room where only the arachnotrons could hit me if they just walk a bit away from the window but that only happened if the arachnotron were sticking together. could have used rockets but the space was so small that i would get blast damage, chaingun could be an option but i was running low on bullets since i used it as sniping weapon. Could have use the SSG but would have been a waste of ammo as the pellets spread too much, shotgun was the best option here, yes the pellets spread but only in horizontal so most of them would hit.

 

 

Edited July 26, 2023 by Z0k

[Plut]

I switch to the shotgun for low-HP enemies for sniping and because it reloads faster than the SSG: if I need to kill a few imps that refuse to stand in line, it's much less annoying to do it with the shotgun.

[Herr Dethnout]

1 hour ago, Azuris said:

 

Pump Rifle (gun)

and Hunting Rifle (gun) :P?

 

I guess Chasse is Caza in spanish.

Yup, and it have sense because they SSG looks like more a Hunting Gun lol

[Cosmic79]

I think it's an 80/20 ratio for me. Most of the time I use the super shotgun. Both weapons are useful, though.

[baja blast rd.]

I have changed my answer to always (not pictured: when I got killed by getting pinned between revenants and barrels)

 

 

[ludicrous_peridot]

wait, does this give you better reload times, or are you just making the poor sods confused with your tactics, so they are more likely to miss when swinging at you?

 

For me I find SSG gorgeous, and shotgun just annoying, so unless I am very pressed with ammo available, I'd go with SSG. The ratio of full screen pumping action to actual damage dealt (lower damage also meaning more shots meaning even more pumping action) really gets so annoyed so fast in Doom 1, esp E1, and Doom 2 is a bliss as you find SSG in the very second map.

 

It's a shame there's no SMG or automatic rifle in Doom to get some distraction from the shotgun.

[prfunky]

47 minutes ago, ludicrous_peridot said:

...really gets so annoyed so fast in Doom 1, esp E1, and Doom 2 is a bliss as you find SSG in the very second map.

 

6 hours ago, Zulk RS said:

Quite a lot actually. While it's really kinda obsolete in the IWADs if you play Continuous, on PWADs, there are many situations where you'd need to bust out the Shotgun. Getting rid of a bunch of enemies on a ledge, fighting against a group of zombies, fighting against 1-2 imps or zombies. These are where I use it the most.

 

6 hours ago, HiMyNameIsChair said:

...

However, the single barrel is still a great weapon to bring out for a lot of use cases. I often pull it out for when I need to snipe enemies that are higher up or further away, as it is generally more accurate than the SSG at range. I'll use it when dealing with singular imps or hitscanners, to save ammo, and in general, I might lean on it if I know a map's ammo balance is a little tight.

...

But yeah, the single barrel is still pretty useful all around and covers the SSG's few weaknesses.

 

I played Doom out of order. I began with Doom 2 which has SSG. It wasn't until around 2003 until I played

the original Doom. No SSG available made me change my tactics. So, I learned the lesser shotgun then.

Might just be my imagination, but I feel like I aim much better with the lesser shotgun and am able to clip

shit out at further range if that makes any sense. Generally, I don't like to switch weapons at all. Hate-hate

being stuck with just a pistol; I'll take berserk fist or chainsaw over pistol every time. That being said, there's

something equally satisfying about blasting pinkies with the SSG tho'.

 

In deathmatch, I prefer having either plasma or chaingun but will still wield the lesser shotgun if it's what I

have the most ammo for. I'm not a big fan of using rocket launcher due to the whole blow-up-yer-own-face

aspects. If I've got the range it's fun though. In either single-player or deathmatch, don't really care to have

to pull out the BFG for anything except for fatso. SSG also fun to hammer revenants with.

 

[Zulk RS]

4 hours ago, prfunky said:

Might just be my imagination, but I feel like I aim much better with the lesser shotgun and am able to clip

shit out at further range if that makes any sense.

 

 

You're not imagining things. The normal Shotgun really is more accurate at further ranges. The SSG has a much bigger horizontal and vertical spread. The normal Shotgun has no vertical spread and a smaller horizontal spread. Much easier to snipe things when you have 5 pellets in a horizontal line than a cluster of pellets.

[Agent Slacker]

I've found myself using the SSG a lot more recently. I normally use the shotgun for taking out single enemies, but now I like to group them up and blast them to bits with the SSG.

[ReaperAA]

7 hours ago, ludicrous_peridot said:

wait, does this give you better reload times, or are you just making the poor sods confused with your tactics, so they are more likely to miss when swinging at you?

 

No. It's more of a jab towards players who love to switch weapons too often for minor ammo conservation, even in the heat of battle when it's a bad idea to do so.

 

7 hours ago, ludicrous_peridot said:

It's a shame there's no SMG or automatic rifle in Doom to get some distraction from the shotgun.

 

The chaingun in Doom is pretty much an assault rifle in functionality. Tap firing chaingun gives 100% accuracy as if you are burst-firing an assault rifle in a military shooter.

 

As for the question of using regular shotgun, I do use it but not too often. Between the chaingun and SSG, the regular shotgun seldom sees action. Chaingun can sniper better than shotgun and SSG has better DPS than shotgun, as well as more ammo efficient at close range combat.

[Ravendesk]

We literally just had this topic:

 

[Murdoch]

15 minutes ago, Ravendesk said:

We literally just had this topic:

 

 

I was just thinking that, like wooah deja post. Or something.