Re: Can we talk about the MCS-880 ammo types?

@Fringerunner I did the same thing as you! I unlocked all the ammo types for the MCS-880. 

So here is what I've noticed. 

#4 Buckshot has ~20 projectiles 
#01 Buckshot has ~15 projectiles 
Flechette has 12 projectiles 
#00 Buckshot has 8 projectiles 
Slugs are, ofc, a single projectile 

Now for other observations: 

#4 Buckshot claims to have less reload time, faster firing speed, and reduced range (in comparison to #01 Buckshot which is default)
#00 Buckshot claims to have longer reload time, slower firing speed, and increased range (in comparison to #01 Buckshot which is default) 
The only aspect of these claims that holds true is the distance. #4 Buckshot indeed has less damage over distance, thanks to its relatively massive spread. Meanwhile, #00 Buckshot has next to no spread at all, even at 50+ meters out. This of course translates into damage. 
HOWEVER: the reduced/increased reload speed, and increased/reduced firing speed (of the #4 and #00, respectively) seem to either be nonexistent, or so inconsequential that I could not notice, even after hours of playing each ammo type. I don't like false advertising. 

Speaking of false advertising: #00 Buck says it does 80 damage (compared to #4's 70 damage, and #01/Flechette's 75 damage) yet CANNOT consistently OHKO with a direct close-range shot. I say "consistently" because I did rarely OHKO a target that I believed wasn't damaged; I could have been wrong about not being damaged, or perhaps a pellet or two hit the head? In any case, the overwhelming percentage of the time, #00 Buckshot simply did not down a target with one shot. It was disappointing; especially because it claimed to do more damage than any other Shotgun ammo type.

This puts #00 Buckshot in a strange position. It has basically no spread, so it can deal significant damage to targets at medium and even long range; however, so can Slugs, and Slugs can OHKO 100% of the time with a successful headshot. I have not seen Buckshot deal significantly more damage when a pellet strikes the head. (Or at the very least I do not believe so.) 

So at this point: 
#01 Buckshot is the "balanced" buckshot that doesn't do any 1 job the best, but doesn't do anything particularly bad either. It's the jack of all trades Shotgun ammo. 
#4 Buckshot spreads quickly, but is absolutely lethal at very close range and it is hard to miss with at medium-close range. Just fire as fast as you can and maintain decent accuracy. Probably the best Buckshot to use against people who flip out and do acrobatics when they see a shotgun. You can't really miss with that spread if you're good. 
Slugs are meant for headshots, at least with the MCS-880. I'm convinced of that. Slugs turn your Shotgun into a DMR with a powerful but slow-moving ammunition. This means that getting headshots on targets aware of your intentions at range are going to be very, very hard to body shot - to say nothing about headshotting. 
This is where #00 comes in. It can strike a body shot significantly easier than a Slug at range - and what's more, 2 shots is almost always enough to take down a target. I think that's why they gave the MCS-880 the #00 Buckshot in addition to the Slugs. They fill roughly the same role, except #00 is for moving targets that you want to body shot, and Slugs are meant for targets that are prone, hiding behind cover and peaking, etc. 

So the only ammo I'm still confused about is Flechette. 

Flechette seems to be exactly like #01 Buckshot, except it has a dramatic damage dropoff somewhere around 20 meters. 
It seems to have the same effective range as the #4 Buckshot, but the same damage and accuracy demands as the #01 Buckshot - and less projectiles than either. 
Plus, you only get 16 Flechette, whereas you get double #4 Buckshot and double #01 Buckshot. 
I wish EA would tell us in simple terms what the hell "anti-personnel" and "anti-infantry effect" actually means, because that is the key to understanding Flechette rounds. 
I will say, however, that it is Flechette deadly as close range (but then again, so is #4 and #01). 

If anyone can tell me more about Flechette rounds, I'd be grateful. 
I'd also like to hear any perspectives about #00 Buckshot. Do you think it's a good ammo type? Does it step on the toes of Slugs and vice versa, or do they compliment each other? Is it realistic to switch between them in combat (before or during)? 
I'd also like some feedback about #4 Buckshot. It doesn't seem to benefit from the increased firing speed and faster reload that is supposed to be two selling points of the ammo. Also, the spread doesn't seem to be take effect until the pellets begin to significantly drop off in damage, meaning it becomes easier to hit targets only when you need to slam them 4-5 times to get a kill. Not sure if that's good design. 

Any questions, comments, or insights would be appreciated. These are the kinds of threads that can inform game communities and perhaps be a catalyst for change - if any is needed. 

@Fringerunner  I did the same thing as you! I unlocked all the ammo types for the MCS-880. 

So here is what I've noticed. 

#4 Buckshot has ~20 projectiles 
#01 Buckshot has ~15 projectiles 
Flechette has 12 projectiles 
#00 Buckshot has 8 projectiles 
Slugs are, ofc, a single projectile 

Now for other observations: 

#4 Buckshot claims to have less reload time, faster firing speed, and reduced range (in comparison to #01 Buckshot which is default)
#00 Buckshot claims to have longer reload time, slower firing speed, and increased range (in comparison to #01 Buckshot which is default) 
The only aspect of these claims that holds true is the distance. #4 Buckshot indeed has less damage over distance, thanks to its relatively massive spread. Meanwhile, #00 Buckshot has next to no spread at all, even at 50+ meters out. This of course translates into damage. 
HOWEVER: the reduced/increased reload speed, and increased/reduced firing speed (of the #4 and #00, respectively) seem to either be nonexistent, or so inconsequential that I could not notice, even after hours of playing each ammo type. I don't like false advertising. 

Speaking of false advertising: #00 Buck says it does 80 damage (compared to #4's 70 damage, and #01/Flechette's 75 damage) yet CANNOT consistently OHKO with a direct close-range shot. I say "consistently" because I did rarely OHKO a target that I believed wasn't damaged; I could have been wrong about not being damaged, or perhaps a pellet or two hit the head? In any case, the overwhelming percentage of the time, #00 Buckshot simply did not down a target with one shot. It was disappointing; especially because it claimed to do more damage than any other Shotgun ammo type.

This puts #00 Buckshot in a strange position. It has basically no spread, so it can deal significant damage to targets at medium and even long range; however, so can Slugs, and Slugs can OHKO 100% of the time with a successful headshot. I have not seen Buckshot deal significantly more damage when a pellet strikes the head. (Or at the very least I do not believe so.) 

So at this point: 
#01 Buckshot is the "balanced" buckshot that doesn't do any 1 job the best, but doesn't do anything particularly bad either. It's the jack of all trades Shotgun ammo. 
#4 Buckshot spreads quickly, but is absolutely lethal at very close range and it is hard to miss with at medium-close range. Just fire as fast as you can and maintain decent accuracy. Probably the best Buckshot to use against people who flip out and do acrobatics when they see a shotgun. You can't really miss with that spread if you're good. 
Slugs are meant for headshots, at least with the MCS-880. I'm convinced of that. Slugs turn your Shotgun into a DMR with a powerful but slow-moving ammunition. This means that getting headshots on targets aware of your intentions at range are going to be very, very hard to body shot - to say nothing about headshotting. 
This is where #00 comes in. It can strike a body shot significantly easier than a Slug at range - and what's more, 2 shots is almost always enough to take down a target. I think that's why they gave the MCS-880 the #00 Buckshot in addition to the Slugs. They fill roughly the same role, except #00 is for moving targets that you want to body shot, and Slugs are meant for targets that are prone, hiding behind cover and peaking, etc. 

So the only ammo I'm still confused about is Flechette. 

Flechette seems to be exactly like #01 Buckshot, except it has a dramatic damage dropoff somewhere around 20 meters. 
It seems to have the same effective range as the #4 Buckshot, but the same damage and accuracy demands as the #01 Buckshot - and less projectiles than either. 
Plus, you only get 16 Flechette, whereas you get double #4 Buckshot and double #01 Buckshot. 
I wish EA would tell us in simple terms what the hell "anti-personnel" and "anti-infantry effect" actually means, because that is the key to understanding Flechette rounds. 
I will say, however, that it is Flechette deadly as close range (but then again, so is #4 and #01). 

If anyone can tell me more about Flechette rounds, I'd be grateful. 
I'd also like to hear any perspectives about #00 Buckshot. Do you think it's a good ammo type? Does it step on the toes of Slugs and vice versa, or do they compliment each other? Is it realistic to switch between them in combat (before or during)? 
I'd also like some feedback about #4 Buckshot. It doesn't seem to benefit from the increased firing speed and faster reload that is supposed to be two selling points of the ammo. Also, the spread doesn't seem to be take effect until the pellets begin to significantly drop off in damage, meaning it becomes easier to hit targets only when you need to slam them 4-5 times to get a kill. Not sure if that's good design. 

Any questions, comments, or insights would be appreciated. These are the kinds of threads that can inform game communities and perhaps be a catalyst for change - if any is needed. 

@StarvingVirtuesLot to respond to and i have a slightly busy morning, but I'd recommend you give flechettes a whirl on kaleidoscope (last cap point), as there's a bunch of clustered enemies on that rooftop cap point and you can test if it overpenetrates or not rather easily with just a smoke grenade for cover.

I think double ought buck "should" be the premier unlock as it gives you the best multi-purpose round by the look of it if you have a decent degree of aim, slow velocity slugs are too fickle for me and generally always have been in previous games unless they were one-shot body inside a certain range as well (which imo, they should be. If they had the niche of also being lethal at longer range if you could manage a curved trajectory headshot, they'd have a purpose. I run a DMR or heavy round AR if i'm expecting people at medium/long range prone, not a shotgun)

All becomes rather academic though until they "fix" whatever bug is causing attachments and such not to work properly(tm), as i suspect that also carries over to shotgun ammo perks based on your observations.

I would also say though that i still think something is seriously wrong with shotguns in ADS-mode vs hipfire.
I'll try to get some more testing done tonight if i have time, but it seems there's a damage drop-off when in ADS vs not, which is fairly baffling.

Duckbill chokes/horizontal spread rounds were meh in previous titles, that role was (and maybe is until i can test them) much better filled by flechettes as they would do an equal amount of damage to anyone behind your primary target rather than just spread out a non-KO amount of damage to multiple targets side by side who would just murder you in return.

If the current flechettes also one-shot, then they're actually better than the BF4 variants if i remember them correctly where you'd need two, hence why you'd usually deploy them in a rapid fire shotgun of some kind.
Would make them quite viable on the 870 as well in that case and depending on the drop-off vs #00, possibly the best multi-purpose option.

On the upside, at least different shells on shotguns makes a bit more sense than multiple calibers on rifles do.

If you could check my observations on ADS damage dropoff vs hip to see if you see anything similar that might be useful though, my 870 (i'm sticking to that one for now for testing purposes) is genuinely worse while ADS and it's fairly noticeable, especially regarding one-shot kill distance on that rooftop point on kaleidoscope.

I've also noted something regarding the hitreg "bug" while doing this testing i think it's worth mentioning.
I've noticed the hitreg issue a lot more with the higher frequency of kills up on that specific map point, and to me it seems to always be a factor if there's scenery (stairs, pipes, walls, w/e) near me or the target when the bug occurs.
It's almost like the physical objects have hitboxes that extend past their visual reference frame, and as such you have to step out just a little more or wait for your target to clear whatever is interfering with hitreg before it suddenly registers hits again.

Since i did most of my testing up on said map, the ladder leading up to the helipad got me killed more times than i can count while zipping around up there in smoke and a shotgun, i dumped half a tube into a guy 10m away and scored no hits, and him none on me either despite dumping what looked like a smg towards me, then the bot stepped left and died in one hit.
I turn back and there's a new bot behind the stairs, one shot and dead that time because i guess the rng gods decided the stairs were open lattices rather than a block of cement on that shot.

Lastly, good job on your testing, i probably wouldn't have bothered myself and just written off the shotguns as garbage if you hadn't done the initial work!

Edit: i say 870 in these posts but you get the idea, old habits etc.

@Fringerunner I'm going to do more testing today. 

I'm just going to assume that since #4 and #00 are buckshots unique to the MCS-880, they roughly follow the same basic formula and usage as Flechette and Slugs, respectively. 

For example, both #00 and Slugs have (relatively) very high range, but cannot OHKO at short range. 
#4 Buckshot and Flechette, on the other hand, seem to always OHKO with a direct hit at short range. In fact, I killed two people who were side-by-side with Flechette once - which blew my mind. However, both ammo types have severe damage dropoff. 
And then #01 Buckshot, the jack-of-all-trades, seems to always OHKO at close range - which makes me wonder what exactly is the point of Flechette on the MCS-880 (besides ranged cleaving)? I'm not convinced that piercing through soldiers is going to be enough of a benefit to trade in a potential range increase. But who knows. 

I suspect you are right about the attachments bug to also apply to Shotgun ammo. None of the +green or -red features of the ammo types seems to apply. 

Lastly, for this post, I should mention that I think the Slug and #00 should OHKO to the upper chest at close range, at least if the target isn't wearing armor. The fact that neither can kill in one blow without a headshot is questionable to me at best, and I think really hurts the viability of Slugs in particular. The projectile speed is far too slow. Not just slowl; far too slow. 

Will reply when I get more testing done.