you do know that freespace uninstaller doesnt uninstall mods by default. i too had to dump freespace, i backed up the data directory, but it was pointless because the uninstaller didnt touch it.
the idea for shotgun weapons is more for pirate and civilian ships. id think that the gtva would forbid civilians to have certain grades of weapons (kinda like how we can have hand guns, but not full automatics). civilians probibly use ammo consuming weapons or light energy weapons no guided missiles. also the gtva keeps shield tech a close seecret, so most non-military have weak shields or none at all. pirates will have better weapons than civilians bacause they can hijack military cargo ships to get stuff.
of course the shotgun weapons i was thinking of would not be as powerfull as the mw2 ac20, their effect on hull and shield would be weak. more for shooting down bombs.
now i must smak mr. venom with the laws of phisics textbook:
:::smack!:::
there that feels better.
in space there is zero pressure, but the exaust is under massive pressure. when that exaust hits space those atoms are gona fly everywhere to spread out. this also aplies to anything that can leak from a broken spaceship. most liquids boil under zero pressure conditions, which makes pressure and atoms that wanno go fly everywhere (remember the sceen in apollo 13 where they ejected the urine
). also an apollo spacecraft probibly goes many hundred times the speed a freespace ship does, meaning trails are gonna be scattered out and therefore longer. dont get me wrong, freespace ships are slow, they dont even break the sound barrier.