Jesus here, today I'm going to cover the recently introduced tf_use_fixed_weaponspreads server variable (I know a month late but whatever.) When this variable was released a lot of people liked it (read: scouts) and I'm going to cover what's so great about it and how it affects your gameplay (as most leagues have now adopted this variable.) First I'll cover some basic info on the three types of shotguns in the game then I'll show a picture based analysis and then I'll link to a Youtube video that someone made that shows it in action (hey why make a video when someone's already done the work?)

Shotguns, FaNs and Scatterguns.

The Shotgun

• Has 10 pellets per shot
• Does 9 damage per pellet

The FaN

• Has 12 pellets per shot
• Does 9.45 damage per pellet

The Scattergun

• Has 10 pellets per shot
• Does 10.5 damage per pellet

There's more information than that for each of these and the damage varies if you don't turn off damage spread but these are the upper bounds that competitive play deals with (if you want more info go to TF2 Wiki Shotgun Scattergun and Force-A-Nature)

Now that the basic damage has been explained we can get to the analysis.

Since this variable removes the random spread of the shotguns it must place them somehow and how it's done is rather simple Valve places the pellets in a 3x3 grid with the excess pellet placed on the center for the shotgun and scattergun, while on the FaN two extra pellets are on the center and one is on the middle right spot.

Ignore the shitty circle size and spacing.

Now for some photographic comparisons of the spreads for each gun.

Scattergun

Random (Click it to see the full image)

As you can see it's very spread out and well, random at mid and long range but very packed together at point blank. What this means is that even a well aimed mid range shot is likely to be both powerful and weak and it's entirely by luck which you'll get.

Fixed (Again Click for the full thing)

Here with fixed spread though, you have the same spread pattern at every range so if you have consistent aim at any range you can expect the same damage.

FaN

Random

The FaN's spread is even more random than the scattergun, so the damage would vary drastically with each shot regardless of your aim.

Fixed

Here's where the FaN get's it's lucky break, since it has 2 more pellets than the scattergun it means that it now has 3 randomly placed extra pellets (on top of one of the original nine) which will up its damage (as I'm sure some of you have noticed.) Valve's claim of 10% less damage than the scattergun is only per pellet so if all 12 pellets hit, in reality your shot will do ~5% more damage.

Shotgun

Random

The shotgun's spread looks a lot like the scattergun's, random and likely that your damage output will change regardless of your aim consistency.

Fixed

Much better, now the shotgun's damage will remain consistent with your aim, reaching it's possible 90 damage much easier.

How does this affect my game?

Well now, how this can effect your game is simple it means that now your going to take more damage from the shotguns of the game, their spread won't be random so if it's lined up with you the damage is going to be consistent (at close range this means you'll be meatshot a lot more.) For scouts this is the closest thing to an accidental buff that could have happened you'll be able to continue damaging people consistently at more ranges than point blank now.

Now before I depart here's a video showing ranges and damage as an added visual aid.

Until later, Jesus

**EDIT**

G-Mang has pointed out how the extra pellets are placed and it has been updated to reflect that.