The current system is serviceable. But it discourages build experimentation, and feels progression agnostic. It is especially frustrating for those of us constantly experimenting with builds, and encourages players to stick to meta without trying anything else. This alternative sticks to our current incentive structure but still gives players the freedom to experiment.
Convert grims and scripts to resource drops. Have current resources tied to each weapon area, plasteel to stats, scripts and diamantine to perks and blessings, and grimoires to attachments if introduced(?). Scripts and grimoires are treated as regular drops now. Ban the book finder mod. Reshuffle spawn locations, and make it so they can now also randomly spawn in crates at gacha/power cycle IV odds. Alternatively, add optional map sections with side objectives that reward grims or scripts at random. T4 diffs are guaranteed a minimum of 1 grim or 1 scripts with higher odds for scripts. T5 diffs are guaranteed a minimum of 2 grim or 2 scripts or a mix of one of each, but with higher odds for grims. T5/T4 modifiers are guaranteed one of each with small odds for an extra 1 in either relative to the base difficulty.
On update all players will be awarded 75 or 100% of upgrade costs based on their weapon inventories. They are then downgraded to their grey baselines based on the original rating (see below for details on baselines) Only blue to gold weapons are taken into account for the purposes of calculations.
Overall, UX improves, and Corpo Bro/God Emperor Lead Designer gets to keep their spreadsheets green.
Plasteel is tied to stats:
Each stat is now upgradeable. You pay cash + plasteel. Maximums are still 80%, but baselines start at 30% for regular weapons up to 40% to 50% for godrolls. Introduce reds as a consumable that allows you to go above 80 at steep resource costs. As Corpo Bro/God Emperor Lead Designer bait this could be gated behind the premium currency and/or a new #SuperMaelstromSTGonMETH™ missions. The catch is that costs escalate exponentially. Getting a 550 God Emperor’s Sidearm™ could theoretically take 10s to 100s of hours per weapon (in cash, plasteel, diamantine, and books). Same as is currently minus the RNG making it feel like you’re spinning in circles until you get what you want/need.
Blessings are tied to Diamantine and Scripts:
Cash + Diamantine/Script. Perks and blessings have no locks, but require scripts to change the type of perk/blessing. Each script is a ticket to change a perk or a Blessing to another type. Blessings still need to be harvested from weapons as currently, but tiers can be upgraded into at steep costs if you, say, have a T1 blessing but not T2 in your library. Harvesting higher tiers for a blessing gives you a 50 or 75% percent diamantine discount for upgrades. Apply the blessing harvesting system to perks too if the above changes aren’t enough to get the Corpo Bro/God Emperor Lead Designer hard to inflate time investment cost. Reds open up T5 perk and blessing upgrades, and also add unique T5 only perk and blessing options.
Add a resource exachnge:
Cash for plasteel or diamantine, plasteel for diamantine, vice versa, etc. Everything except books. (Last bit is for you Corpo Bro/God Emperor Lead Designer)
Shops:
Brunt and shop rolls remain and are still a thing, but decide what starting numbers you get on a weapon. Shop weapons are 2 to 5 times more expensive, but are now a reliable way to get what you may be interested in upgrading without having to gamble on greys. Blessings and perks are always T1 at the shop as is currently. Melk shop is now purely random, but all rolls are weapons starting at 50% baseline stats to T2 perks and blessings. Lucky rolls with gacha/power cycler IV tier odds can come with 60% stat baselines and T3 perks. Rolls now cost 500 to 1k MelkBucks. Add premium ways to improve odds in a couple of years when revenues from the cosmetic shop start going down. (Last bit is for you Corpo Bro/God Emperor Lead Designer)
Emperor’s Gift:
Gift weapons are now always grey godrolls, but are tied to non maelstrom hi int difficulty modifiers, with higher odds in auric (still non-maelstrom). T1 to T3 diff missions have non-zero odds to grant an emperors gift, but are gacha/power cycler IV tier odds (eg. 0.001, 0.01, 0.1). Add color coding to weapon ratings to indicate potential for the benefit of newbs and fellow dopamine addicts.
Add a Weapon Crafting Terminal to the Psykhanium:
Lets us sweatlords experiment in the Psykhanium, it also gives everyone a way to set targets for builds and so on. With the terminal we can set up a weapon however we want and test it out in the psykhanium meat grinder. Bonus point if you implement a code or card system to allow people to trade weapon “profiles” through socials ingame and out of game as though they were trading cards (this last one’s for the Corpo Bro/God Emperor Lead Designer).
Introduce attachements, tied to grimoires:
Each grim you turn in gives you an attachment ticket that allows you to unlock an attachment slot for a weapon. You can then pay cash plus maybe one or both resource types to pick an attachment for the slot. If this isn’t enough to get the Corpo Bro/God Emperor Lead Designer hard and juicin’, intruduce a new resource type or have it so picking an attachment after the unlock costs resources plus another grim. Each weapon has 5 slots, here are some ideas on how they could look like:
Sights slot
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Telescopic Sight; adjustable magnification, but slows down ADS aim transition on weapons. Cannot be equipped on las pistols, machine pistols or braced autoguns.
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Tactical Sights (think ACOG); Headhunter tier magnification. Slight increase in weapon switch time in non-headhunter weapons. Instead reduces switch speed on headhunters. Cannot be equipped on braced autoguns.
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Holographic Sight; same magnification as las rifle one, increases weapon switch speed, but allows instant ADS on switch (animation cancelling essentially) if paired with skeleton or folding stocks. This only works on non-heavy weapons, heavies like the bolter and plasma instead only get a switch speed increase at the cost of increased spread for the first second of ADS. Allows braced weapons to ADS, with the consequent spread reduction but does not benefit from the ADS-on-switch bonus.
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Peep hole Iron Sight; braced aim weapons only, no magnification, reduces spread substantially, but still does not bring it to parity with non-braced weapons ADS fire, increases weapon switch speed.
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IR/Scan Telescopic Sight; Red weapons only. Adjustable magnification, but slows down hip to ADS aim transition on weapons. Cannot be equipped on las or machine pistols or braced autoguns. Can see through smoke, and highlighs enemies through walls and cover on ADS at short distances. At max distance only noticeable as blurry dots, with enemy outlines become more recognizable the closer you get.
Stock slot
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Folding stock; increases dodges and dodge distance, but increases sway. Decreases block efficiency when paired with a bayonet. Allows for weapon switch anim cancelling with Holographic Sights.
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Skeleton Polymer; stock increases switch speed, but increases recoil. Decreases block efficiency when paired with a bayonet. Allows for weapon switch anim cancelling with Holographic Sights.
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Polymer Stock; +1 stam, increases sprint efficiency and speed. Reduces damage taken during sprint for vets (makes the brutal extra 50% dmg taken 25% instead). Removes Telescopic sight ADS speed malus.
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Hardwood Stock; +1 stam, decreases sway and recoil. Increases Block Efficiency with bayonets.
Underbarrel Rail/Magazine slot
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Tactical/Strobe Flashlight; briefly suppresses enemies that can be suppressed when you point it at them within a short distance. They gain immunity to being resuppressed by it for 1min when they recover. Gives slight reduction in spread. Cannot be used with side-barrel flashlight. Brighter light, shorter distance and smaller iluminated area.
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FastMag/Dual Mag attachment; cannot be used with heavy weapons, reduces reload time, adds an extra magazine of reserve ammo. Can only have on 1 slot.
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Extended Magazines; Cannot be used with heavy weapons. Can only have on 1 slot.
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Underbarrel grenade launcher (HE Frag); uses grenades to replenish, and has 1 round, 4 reseve. Reloads with the main weapon, adds to reload time. Affected by vet grenade feats. V to switch into it, aim and fire like a regular weapon, and is aimed like braced weapons.
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Underbarrel grenade launcher (WP Smoke); uses grenades to replenish, and has 1 round, 2 reseve. Reloads with the main weapon, adds to reload time. Affected by vet grenade feats. Small explosion radius and dmg, but creates a smoke screen that blocks enemy vision and does fire DoT to enemies inside the cloud. Only explosion applies bleed stacks with said vet feat. V to switch into it, aim and fire like a regular weapon, and is aimed like braced weapons.
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Underbarrel shotgun (bean bag); uses ammo to replenish, and V fires it instantly. Reloads with the main weapon, adds to reload time, 1 shot, 12 reserves. Can stagger anything, even bulwarks on shield hits. Even bosses can be staggered (daemon host still immune) if struck in weak spots, and ragdolls or stuns humanoid sized targets.
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Underbarrel shotgun (cut shells); uses ammo to replenish, and V fires it instantly. Reloads with the main weapon, adds to reload time, 4 shots, 48 on reserves. High spread, cleave only on pox walkers and groaners. Has high stagger.
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Underbarrel Shotgun (flechettes); uses ammo to replenish, and V fires it instantly. Reloads with the main weapon, adds to reload time, 4 shots, 12 on reserves. Low spread, high cleave on everything but armored enemies, bosses, and ogryns.
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Sword Bayonet; pressing V turns your weapon into a melee weapon, and V into block on transition is faster than switch to melee. It benefits from blessings on your melee weapon. Lights are intervals of wide horizontal into diagonal cross slash sweeps with high stagger and cleave, and low damage. Heavies are high dmg, high crit, low stagger, and no cleave stabs. Sprint + heavy does a lunging stab with extra stagger, crit, but no cleave, and if target is staggered it pushes surrounding humanoids. Adds block efficiency, and +1 stam and stam regen.
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Multipurpose Bayonet; pressing V turns your weapon into a melee weapon, and V into block on transition is faster than switching to melee. It benefits from blessings on your melee weapon. Lights are quick high-low jabs, with med dmg, high crit, and low stagger. Heavies are wide slash into butt stock strike sweeps with low dmg, high stagger, and cleave. Sprint + heavy is a lunging push with no stam cost. Adds +1 dodge and increases dodge distance and +1 stam and stam regen.
Side Barrel Rail slot/Magazine slot
- Flashlight; Slight reduction in spread, dimmer light, longer distance and larger illuminated area. It can easily light up small rooms and tight hallways in dark maps.
- Mag carriers; cannot be used with heavy weapons, adds extra ammo reserves. can only have on 1 slot.
- FastMag/Dual Mag; cannot be used with heavy weapons, reduces reload time, adds an extra magazine of reserve ammo. Can only have on 1 slot.
- Extended Magazines; cannot be used with heavy weapons. Can only have on 1 slot.
- Drum Magazine; Heavy Weapon extended mag, increases reload time. Can only have on 1 slot.
- Laser designator; allows the player to mark multiple specials.
- Mapping module; gives the player a minimap, shows layout, marks enemies within 50m, and marks items within 100m.
- Laser sight/iluminator; basically a laser pointer. Reducess sway and spread both on ADS and hipfire.
Magazine/Ammo/battery kit Slot
- Mag carriers; cannot be used with heavy weapons, adds extra ammo reserves. Can only have on 1 slot.
- FastMag/Dual Mag attachment; cannot be used with heavy weapons, reduces reload time, adds an extra magazine of reserve ammo. Can only have on 1 slot.
- Extended Magazines; Cannot be used with heavy weapons or shotguns. Can only have on 1 slot.
- Drum Magazine; heavy weapon and shotgun extended mag, increases reload time.
- Hi-Impact ammo/battery kit; +DMG against maniacs and unyielding, - against others. Lower cleave, high stagger.
- Incendiary ammo/battery kit; +DMG against infested and unarmored, -against others. Higher cleave, lower stagger, inflicts fire DoT. Explosive ogryn weapons leave a burning pool.
- AP ammo/hot shot kit; +DMG against Flak and Carapace, - on others. Higher cleave, overpenetrates unarmored enemies and light cover but does -50% dmg to secondary targets.
- Auto/Semi-/Burst Fire Kits; allows you to change fire mode. Auto kit increases recoil and spread, reverses dmg fall-off effect in headhunters and lasguns. Semi Reduces recoil, reverses DMG fall off in autoguns, and reduces fire rate. Cannot be used in shotguns. Burst reduces spread, removes fall-off in either direction. Cannot be used in shotguns.
- Lasgun Long-Las lens; reduces fire rate increases cleave and dmg.
- Lasgun overclock kit; allows for firing a continous beam at the cost of extra ammo consumption and lower damage. Has long range dmg fall off. Has increased cleave, close to plasma but cannot go through cover, carapace or bosses.
Too lazy to do melee weapons in as much detail, but it would have less slots wtih the structure being something like:
Blade/Shaft, Handle, Material, and power weapons having an additional slot with mods relating to its powerpack or something along those lines.
Conclusions:
This way Corpo Bro/God Emperor Lead designer can keep their beloved “item acquisition” design aspect relatively intact without subjecting the rest of us to the current garbage UX of the crafting system. They can also continue to touch themselves every night at the thought of us minmax sweatlords still slaving away to get what we what. Especially when premium upgrade items/resources, and boosters are introduced towards the end of the game’s life cycle. The cherry on top? You can actually add hard to get weapons down the line, whether its just because they’re not in Brunt’s pachinko parlor and have gacha game drop rates in the main shop, cost premium currency or can be picked up through a convoluted mission.
With this players can feel like there’s some actual progression to upgrading their weapons. They can also cradle their weapon of preference while chanting the rifleman’s creed. Newbs can actually do something with their starter weapons rather than having to chuck them out at lvl 30 and grinding brunt’s pachinko parlor to be relevant above T3. It also gives them the opportunity to pick a weapon they like early on and invest into it as they play the game rather than being gatekept from building for higher diff play by RNG.
For long time players, and sweatlords this would still be better than the current mess where the wrong roll causes most of us schizo minmaxers to dump 500 to 550 rated weapons because we rolled one "bad perk"and two “bad blessings” on it.
People will whinge about this system too, maybe I will too, but after implementing the above you can get away with threatening us with reverting back to the current system to get us to STFU.
I want to be able to chant this instead of burning through tens of 500 to 550 rated weapons every other day of play time: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hgd2F2QNfEE