- last post: 01.01.0001 12:00 AM PDT
That's the point to a certain degree. It has to be similar to the human shotgun but different and alien at the same time. If they were identical, why bother including two versions at all? It woudl be better to use that space for an all new weapon wouldn't you think? Further, I'd prefer if the human shotgun had the more effective version of the shotgun. This would be the covenant's first attempt at the thing after all and they're not the most innovative of races.
As for firing point blank with a shotgun. Needles do have a delay to them, so you can go up shoot the guy point blank and then step backwards and wait for the explosion.