So, not sure how many people are still around, looking at this stuff, but I’ve been thinking a bit about the weapon construction system for the next game.
In BL1, each manufacturer had a specialty, although these specialties were not particularly pronounced to all but the most devoted of loot hunters. Some of us would obsess over needing a weapon with exactly X stock and Y mag with Z scope, etc.
Each weapon was split into several parts such as:
Body, Barrel, Stock, Magazine, Accessory, Scope…
Of these, there were 5 variants. 1 and 2 were largely inferior, 3 was focused on tech, 4 on power and 5 on accuracy.
So, the idea is, what if we took that kind of system and merged it more fully with the BL2 system.
Ie: each manufacturer has 1-5 variant for each gun part, but each manufacturer will do a different thing to the weapon. But the kicker is, this manufacturer effect is per Part, not per Gun.
So:
Torgue: Explosions?! Makes the weaponsfire explode. If it already explodes, it explodes again. Projectiles turn into small rockets and lose some initial velocity but speed up over time.
Maliwan: Makes the weapon highly elemental. Weapon will have additional AOE and spike damage effects not found on other elemental makes. The more Maliwan pieces on a gun, the more potent this effect will be. Non-Maliwan elemental weapons will only have the first effect listed.
–Lightning: Drains shield power, with a chance to short-circuit the shield and shut it down for a prolonged period; sets a short but high-damage lightning dot. Target becomes a lightning rod, shocking other nearby enemies. Additional stacks can cause secondary enemies and even inanimate objects to become lightning rods, as well. A fully Maliwan lightning weapon with at least all tire 4 or 5 parts can cause powerful lightning strikes when outdoors.
–Corrosive: Give sick. Reduces the damage reduction of physical armor and does more damage to armored targets; sets a low-damage but long-lasting corrosive dot. Targets drip with acid, leaving pools and trails of damaging acid behind. Additional stacks cause corrosive fungal growths that spray acid at nearby enemies. A perfect Maliwan acid weapon can cause spraying growths on nearby surfaces and enemies when indoors.
–Fire: Flesh takes more damage from other sources; sets a moderate damage and moderate length fire dot. Target leaves burning embers that have a chance to catch nearby surfaces on fire, creating hazard zones. Burning enemies near death will panic and flee, catching anyone they come near on fire, as well. On perfect weapons, fire hazard zones can catch nearby targets on fire as well as nearby surfaces.
–Cryo: Targets become more susceptible to physical damage, especially melee attacks, slows enemies and sets a very low damage but very long duration cryo dot that can stack with repeated application. Slowly accumulates ice on nearby surfaces, eventually rooting the enemy in place. When killed while frozen the enemy shatters, dealing AOE Cryo damage to nearby enemies. On perfect weapons, frost spreads along nearby surfaces, seeking out nearby targets to encase, as well.
–Slag: Targets take much more damage from all sources; amplifies the debuff effects of other elements. Does minimal damage, but can cause madness, making enemies turn on each other. Target begins to develop mutations that can be shot to erupt in slag. On perfect weapons, growths will also erupt in any other elemental damage the target is taking, and enemies affected with both Slag Madness and growths will explode in a mess of Slag and all their other elemental effects, when killed.
Hyperion: Extra base accuracy, automatic weapons gain accuracy over time, semi-automatics gain projectile speed.
Dahl: Reduces recoil, marks targets when aimed; marked targets appear highlighted and take extra damage.
Tediore: Gun is disposable and thrown like a grenade. Replenishes ammo for each enemy hit by the explosion.
Jakobs: Higher damage but makes the weapon semi-automatic. Weapon fires as fast as the trigger is pulled. Changes elemental damage to bleeding damage.
Bandit: Larger magazine, fire makeshift bullets like nails or railroad ties that travel more slowly and drop at range, but deal very high damage and ignore a percentage of armor.
Vladof: Fastest rate of fire. Player can crank the weapon to directly feed the weapon ammunition, bypassing traditional reloads. Cranking the weapon increases fire-rate per-crank, permitting incredible, uninterrupted fire-rates that can chew through a player’s ammo reserves in no time.
E-Tech: WIP
But, these elements are per-part on weapon functionality, so a weapon with Torgue, Maliwan, and Bandit parts would fire heavy makeshift projectiles that explode on impact, dealing the weapon’s elemental effect in an AOE. Add in a Tediore part and the weapon will be thrown when reloaded, explode in its element and refund ammo on reload-throw-hit, explode again due to the Torgue effect, and possibly fling some of the bandit ammo as shrapnel. Add in a Hyperion as the last part and the throw becomes a Longbow instead of the Tediore lob, as well as gaining Hyperion’s base and increasing accuracy / projectile speed.
The weapon’s assigned manufacturer then comes from either the manufacturer of the weapon’s body, or whichever manufacturer is most common on the weapon. Each piece from the same manufacturer increases the potency of that manufacturer’s effect on the weapon. The weapon’s assigned manufacturer will determine its available materials (1-3) and its naming system. Materials add another level of strength to the base manufacturer effect, as well as switching up specialty (Mat 1 is generally inferior, Mat 2 may focus slightly more on speed and recoil while Mat 3 focuses on damage and accuracy, etc.)
But, these parts are also still on the old tier system, so tier 1 and 2 will be generally inferior, with 2 being slightly better, 3 will be tech-based, 4 power-based, and 5 accuracy based.
So, let’s take an SMG:
–Body: Hyperion: High base accuracy and faster projectile speed due to the Jakobs accessory making it semi-automatic.
–Stock: Dahl: Target is Marked with a highlight and takes extra damage.
–Sight: Dahl: 2x Dahl allows a second target to be marked.
–Magazine: Bandit: High capacity and fires nails.
–Accessory: Jakobs: Weapon is now semi-automatic, which causes the Hyperion benefit to switch to faster projectile speed (whereas an SMG would normally have increased accuracy when fired,) partially mitigating the slower projectile speed from the Bandit nail projectile, increasing muzzle velocity and flatness. Base damage increased.
–Material: 2x Dahl pieces makes the weapon a Dahl make, giving it an extra marked target (Dahl Mat = 3x Dahl, allowing 3 marked targets in total.) In this case, we have Mat 2, which gives it a grey Urban Camo look and a slight focus on firing speed.
Now let’s take the same gun and swap the Dahl sight for a Maliwan sight:
–Body: Hyperion: High base accuracy and faster projectile speed due to the Jakobs accessory making it semi-automatic.
–Stock: Dahl: Target is Marked with a highlight and takes extra damage. Maliwan Sight gives the marked target extra weakness to the weapon’s element of, in this case, physical damage due to the effects of the Jakobs Accessory changing the element to bleeding.
–Sight: Maliwan: Weapon is now highly elemental, converted to bleeding damage by the Jakobs Accessory.
–Magazine: Bandit: Weapon has a large magazine and fires nails.
–Accessory: Jakobs: Weapon is now semi-automatic, which causes the Hyperion benefit to switch to faster projectile speed, partially mitigating the slower projectile speed from the Bandit nail projectile, increasing muzzle velocity and flatness. Base damage increased.
–Material: Weapon type is now Hyperion due to the body. Base accuracy is increased again and projectile speed and flatness increased even more, making the heavy, high damage nails from the Bandit mag nearly as flat and fast as regular bullets. Mat 3 gives it extra accuracy and damage at the expense of some fire rate.
Take that weapon and swap the Jakobs Accessory for a Torgue Accessory:
–Body: Hyperion: High base accuracy and increased accuracy as the weapon is fired.
–Stock: Dahl: Marks a target when sighted, dealing extra damage to that target. Maliwan Sight gives the marked target extra weakness to the weapon’s element of, in this case, fire.
–Sight: Maliwan: Weapon is highly elemental. In this case fire, causing not only fire damage on hit, but due to Maliwan’s improved Elemental Tech, also leaves a trail of fire behind the target that can spread to nearby enemies and surfaces. Each shot explodes in fire in a small AOE due to the Torgue Accessory, but starts off with slow muzzle velocity that increases over distance.
–Magazine: Bandit: Weapon has a large magazine and fires nails.
–Accessory: Torgue: Projectiles have small rockets attached, giving them a slow initial speed before the jet kicks in, which then increases over distance. Projectile explodes on impact, in this case dealing fire damage in an AOE due to the Maliwan part. Rocket pack on the projectile partially negates the bullet drop effect from the Bandit Magazine, but not as well as 2x Hyperion on its own.
–Material: Weapon type is now Hyperion due to the body. Base accuracy is increased again and projectile speed and flatness increased even more, making the heavy, high damage nails from the Bandit mag nearly as flat and fast as regular bullets, combined with the rocket pack also negating bullet drop, this will make the weapon very fast and flat, but will add an initially slow starting muzzle velocity before the rocket jet kicks in. Mat 3 gives it extra accuracy and damage at the expense of some fire rate.
Now let’s say that the Accessory was not only Maliwan, but the Maliwan Hellfire Accessory:
–Body: Hyperion: High base accuracy and increased accuracy as the weapon is fired.
–Stock: Dahl: Marks a target when sighted, dealing extra damage to that target. Maliwan Sight gives the marked target extra weakness to the weapon’s element of, in this case, fire.
–Sight: Maliwan: Weapon is highly elemental. In this case fire, causing not only fire damage on hit, but due to Maliwan’s improved Elemental Tech, also leaves a trail of fire behind the target that can spread to nearby enemies and surfaces. Each shot explodes in fire in a small AOE due to the Torgue Accessory, but starts off with slow muzzle velocity that increases over distance.
–Magazine: Bandit: Weapon has a large magazine and fires nails.
–Accessory: Maliwan Hellfire: 2x Maliwan increases the potency of the elemental effect, increasing spread chance and DOT. Hellfire Accessory increases the targets fire weakness the more fire damage is dealt, and completely engulfs the target and immediate area in fire, with a high spread chance to nearby targets. Nearby targets affected by the spread do not suffer increased fire weakness unless directly shot by the weapon.
–Material: Maliwan legendary part gives it a Maliwan material and make. In this case Mat 2, which will give higher fire rate and a larger tech pool with a lower base damage. 3x Maliwan, after the Material, increases spread chance and DOT further.
Take into account, in addition, the slight variances in equip time, aim speed, reload speed, mag capacity, tech pool, etc. that style variants 1-5 of each part can create, leading to specific, circumstantial weapon combinations like the Anarchy class of SMGs (created when an SMG has an accuracy below 36, and the double accessory.)
Consider also that this system permits Legendary and Unique parts to spawn on the same item, creating hybrids such as the classic Invader Nemesis or Dove Hornet. Cross-manufacturer legendary part combinations would still be prevented to avoid excessive overpowering, and to maintain legendary identity.
In this way, we could see incredibly diverse weapons that interact with their own parts in an emergent way to create crazy weapon combination strategies, combining the obsessive focus on having exactly the right, perfect combination, with the immediately recognizable differences in weapon types that stood out in BL 2.
TL;DR: I had a fun brainstorming session regarding how crazy weapons could be in a game like this, and wanted to get it out here, somewhere. d: