Unique weapons 'Refurbishing' idea

[ciox]

We all know that unique weapons have this issue where you can get them fairly easily so they can't be too strong, but crafting is also quite powerful and soon makes them obsolete after finding them or even before finding them.

So here's the idea of 'refurbishing' to give unique weapons a single one time improvement, which in effect is just a name change and stat change.
Refurbishing could be performed by traders located in Core City before DC and in the Tchortist Camp during DC, and would require a high Mercantile skill to carry out and a very large amount of charons.
Examples:

http://www.underrail.com/wiki/index.php?title=Tommy_Gun

Refurbished Version:
Damage spread from 10-40 to 20-40
Burst precision from -20% to -10%

http://www.underrail.com/wiki/index.php?title=NF_F2500

Refurbished Version:
AP cost from 13 to 11

http://www.underrail.com/wiki/index.php?title=Jawbone

Refurbished Version:
Damage spread from 25-50 to 40-80
Range from 14/9 to 18/13 (or AP cost from 25 to 23)

[Yonaiker]

I agree the idea of getting an improved version of the unique weapons since the game favors in all aspects crafting over buying or acquiring gear, I really like to see something like this in Expedition since I'm beginning to loathe craft everything in most of my playthroughts, IMO I'd ditch the Mercantile requirement to upgrade the gear and just pay the boost, or perhaps add a weapon requirement skill check in addition to the monetary prerequisite.

[STEN]

+ 1 to this.

[Hazard]

I agree with Yonaiker, I'd rather have a weapon skill check. Apart from that it's a great idea and should be fairly trivial to implement.

[Yaruj]

I agree with TS and find the possibility to use mercantile to hire traders for refurbishing a very good idea.
But as I already posted earlier I'd realy like the opportunity to reverse engineer weapons and gear (including unique ones) for getting their blueprints.
The first aproach would be useful for non crafting characters while the second one is great for those who invested in crafting.

[Styg]

This idea (OP) has potential.

[ciox]

This idea (OP) has potential.

Nice, maybe I'll post more drafts of refurbished weapon stats.

[Styg]

This idea (OP) has potential.

Nice, maybe I'll post more drafts of refurbished weapon stats.

I can think of those myself. I just like the idea of upgrading the uniques.

[ciox]

This idea (OP) has potential.

Nice, maybe I'll post more drafts of refurbished weapon stats.

I can think of those myself. I just like the idea of upgrading the uniques.

Oh, I was hoping I could influence you on how some uniques could be upgraded maybe. 

I might as well just mention what I think, it feels like the main things helping uniques feel unique are:
- unique has slightly less damage but can fire more special bullets per turn than any crafted weapon (.44 explosive with tommy gun, 9mm acid with mp5 and spec ops)
- unique has higher stat requirements but also some special performance compared to the crafted variants or it's hard to reach that performance with crafting (Black Arrow sniper, Jawbone although that one kinda needs a buff)

Those are the qualities I think should be emphasized/enhanced with upgrades, when applicable anyway, like an upgraded FN F2000 that lets you shoot more micro-shrapnels more accurately than any crafted weapon albeit at a lower base damage, or an upgraded Jawbone that's even harder to draw but has something truly outstanding to justify it like range almost equal to a sniper rifle. Stuff like that rather than straight upgrades.

[destroyor]

I think Unique weapons should be, well, unique. They should do comparable damage w/ crafted weapons (after upgrade) and offer something special/extra ability or abilities that are not available to crafted weapons.

[ciox]

I think Unique weapons should be, well, unique. They should do comparable damage w/ crafted weapons (after upgrade) and offer something special/extra ability or abilities that are not available to crafted weapons.

That would be great but I doubt that a lot of old unique weapons will get outfitted with special abilities, since we're mostly talking about the old uniques here and the new uniques like the double barreled shotgun do have special abilities like double-barrel-shot. Overall I'm all about them being as unique as possible anyway.

[ciox]

One really cool idea for a unique weapon is to give it 'hybrid' weapon properties.
For instance the Steyr-Aug could be both an assault rifle and a sniper rifle at the same time, meaning you can do all the AR things with it but also benefit from sniper rifle feats like Sharpshooter, Snipe and the new stuff from Expedition. Whether that would be better as a base change or upgrade I dunno.

[LightningMonk]

In regards to the OP idea, I hope that being able to refurbish items expand beyond traders and towards other npc's. Say for example, you have the Dehumanizer in your inventory while initiating dialogue with the "doctor" in the arena waiting room in Core City. He could say that's a nice weapon for chopping up people, but he could make even more effective for some money/a quest generating favor/etc. It could make for a bit of fun by considering what npc's might be interested in the uniques you have based on your knowledge of their origins, characteristics and interests and whether the weapon's description can guide you in their direction.