Lower diffilculties shotgun feedback look like this:
34
23
MISS!
Higher difficulty removes the red hp counts so it looks like this :
MISS!
Two shots which hit, has no feeddbaack. It means, only negative feedback is passed to player >> the miss word.
That is not pretty nor creates positive feeling. I believe that game should give player the positive information. In some form. Like this :
Hit
Hit
Miss!
As you can see, player gets nice positive feedback he made two hits. Information value is the same as in current system, but two red words Hit! are the positive feedback. On top, when player shoot a Machine-gun batch to the flock of opponents, the red word Hit above various opponents gives a clue who is hit, or not. Which is not available in the current system. Omiting possive feedback game loosing motivation for player and feel confusing. Satisfaction moment is missing !
On top of this, I would recommend to ad Holywood type of Hit (it is just a scratch) Graze. Graze is hit for (0 to 3hp) then it start nicely communicate with player when armour comes into the game. Look at this feedback of machine-gun long batch.
Miss!
Graze
Miss!
Graze
Graze
Miss!
Miss!
Miss!
Hit
Hit
The player clearly see that 3 first hits made some scratches, probably bounce of armour, then last two bullets actually made some damage. Which is very good for emphasise powerfull enemies. In current system it might look like player shoot but nothing happens, no feedback, player is lost.
My advice is, add possitive feedback of Hit and Grace to improve general motivation of the player.
All this by three colored words. :-]