Making Force-weapons, Power-weapons, Chain-weapons, Plasmagun more powerful but with a drawback, like not being able to bring 3 Curios.
Or making all curios temporarily less effective as long as the player chooses to equip a more powerful weapon instead of a humbler weapon.
(e.g. bring all equipped curios effectiveness down to 75% instead of 100% of what it says if bring an extra-powerful weapon, and down to 50% if bring 2 extra-powerful weapons)
Alternatively just straight up giving a loss of Health/Toughness/Toughness-Regeneration because of carrying an extra-powerful weapon.
(And/or significantly increase cooldown of special ability (F).)
There is so much potential to make force weapons really cool with magical effects (sounds+visuals+power) with every swing (with e.g. a cost of 2-7 peril each swing (and e.g. 40 peril with a very powerful special melee force-attack)).
Power-weapons should be able to be powered on continously for a long time,
and chain-swords should feel and sound really powerful also with their regular attacks also I feel!
This doesn’t need to be OP if there is a drawback like getting lower toughness/health.
Alternatively, bringing a more powerful weapon will attract additional enemies to shoot at the players carrying extra-powerful weapons.
(I think there is a mechanism in the game that limits the maximum number of enemies that will shoot at the same player at any given time. Bringing extra-powerful weapons could raise that bar for that player as a consequence.)
So something like a higher threat stat.
Could also make snipers aim quicker against the players who carry the more powerful weapons, being spotted quicker when carrying a more powerful weapon.
If adjusting it this way, it will not be unrealistic in the sense that for unknown reasons they have lower hp/toughness,
no, they are actually just as tough as others, but still,
get penalty to their health indirectly because they are being shot at quicker/more because seen as a higher more noticeable threat by the enemy, ( chain-weapons are noisy, and force/power-weapons have visual effects)
Or, a drawback that they just aren’t carrying as many curios (or as effective curios) as the players with humbler weapons.
My point is that Force-weapons, Power-weapons, Chain-weapons, Plasmagun,
should feel powerful, and shouldn’t be designed to be lame in some way.
These weapons should be powerful and impressive, not lame.
It doesn’t have to become OP because could affect the player with a high threat stat being shot quicker/more by the enemies.
Or giving penalties to curios for bringing powerful weapons could be one way to balance gameplay. Or/And increase cooldown of special ability (F).
But Force/Power/Chain-weapons need to be much more powerful than a shovel, please.