Problem: Weapons with very good stats must be discarded when tiers change. Subjective Problem: Cool looking weapons and weapons with cool extras almost always have poor stats so as to be essentially useless. Subjective Problem: Very good weapons are almost always dumb looking or very plain. Suggestion: Have weapons be disassemblable, breaking down into patterns for stats, enhancement, and shape of weapon, as well as the material the weapon is made out of, then have weapon crafting combine those elements along with source material (such as bone, iron, steel, gold, etc) to make a customized, tailored weapon that one can be happy with and upgrade as one rises in levels. Alternative: Have somewhere one could place a source weapon and a destination weapon and transfer one stat from one to the other, perhaps at the destruction of the source weapon. Clarification: One assumes there would be a pixel cost for most of these operations. Additional: This topic has been discussed in the General Discussion forum here.
Any method which enables players to upgrade weapons to retain viability (without altering appearance or function) would be a drastic improvement to the game. This suggestion has my full support.
I'd prefer weapon upgrades and aesthetic customizations over this system, but maybe that's just me. I'm sure they've been suggested before.
Personally, I feel crafting weapons should be much closer to this system, and the reason is twofold. The possibility of forethought and designing of a weapon. It gives one something to do with all the crummy weapons one finds, combining them into potentially better weapons. I want my weapon to be something I cherish from level to level, but also for it to be mine. Have my fingerprints all over it. While I might accept upgrades to a weapon, there's some personal satisfaction derived by carefully choosing components while building something new that's just yours. You didn't find it or buy it; you made it.. If you mess up and make something that doesn't work as well as you'd like, you can break it apart again and start over. In conjunction with my other suggestion, you can build without fear of losing anything but pixels, which a quick hunting or mining trip could get back. When you're done building, satisfied with your creation, you get to go into battles with a weapon you're totally happy with.
In a perfect world, we could have something like Gunsmith from Ghost Recon or weapon factory from Loadout... I have a dream, a dream of Starbound where you dissasembly found weapons to create The Gun of Your Dreams, with parts ranging from triggers to barrels to muzzles, where you could attach weapon's equivalent of Techs to any part*, to make bullets, for example, leave blazing trails or create clouds of gas on impact... Where dual wielding pistols that shoot crystal pellets further shattering on impact from 3 barrells at once would not be a rare sight... Maybe one day, I don't feel like bothering team to implement it now, and relasing it in an update later would cause many players to rage because of their highest-tier guns suddenly becoming "just" very good. EDIT: *Before editing, I only mentioned techs that change the way the bullets work. However, what about: - A tech that increases the fire rate the longer you hold the mouse button - one that causes rounds to accelerate as they travel, gaining additional piercing capabilities and damage the longer the range - one that allows you to "charge" shots, making them more powerfull but consuming energy... Don't treat this as a suggestion, these are just my random thoughts.
I said not only upgrades to a weapon (for example, your system of combining weapons with it works perfectly) but customizing it visually, which is what I'm primarily interested in.
Do you mean actually editing the graphic pixel by pixel or assembling a graphic part by part or simply choosing what graphic to use?
With any luck, both. There are some rather talented pixel artists out there and it'd also be cool to hash together existing swords. There is also a suggestion for a weapon vanity slot which would also be nice.
A weapon vanity slot is, perhaps, the easiest, most epic suggestion anyone has ever mentioned ever. Would make it awkward when you're apparently mining with a bow, though.
And so the era of 3-meter long, flaming dildos has begun. I would prefer a system from MMO games, where you can destroy one item to give another, cool-loking one it's stats. Can't hear you over the sound of me beating the living... out of mobs with my stick that is actually a plasma katana : D
I could live with plasma katanas being a real thing that exists. However, how does what you're suggesting differ from what I've suggested? My way just takes a little more work and you aren't slaved to finding something with all the stats you want in one go.
Yeah, about that "more work"... In case of vanity slots, you can use the same sword all the time, and hide whatever you want in the "real" slot. However, with the stats exchange, that would force players to do this for every item they want to look good. I like this vanity item idea, that would allow someone with a bunch of weapons hidden under a sword look like they are changing their combat style, not weapons... But is still kinda: 1. In case of characters who use more than one melee, impractical. I wan't my axe to look like a sword, not my spear! 2. In case of characters who use only one melee, too easy. In my opinion cosmetical changes should cost, a little but not be free.
I did note that disassembling weapons and putting weapons together both might have a pixel cost, to say nothing of printing components you've found in previous weapons. When you're done, recycle the scraps and voila, new item that looks and works the way you want it to. The vanity slot was a good idea, but as you say, it could lead to some undesirable results.
This is a nice idea, and say if you have a really kickass T1 weapon you could break it down and use higher tier materials to reconstruct the weapon for that tier.
Update: Starbound has been updated. Problem: This has not been implemented. Suggestion: Implement it.
