Idea: Weapon Workshop instead of regular mods (Customization via Energy Grid)

[My face is my shield]

Hello, fellow miners!
I’d like to share an idea about our weapon customization and see what you think. How would you feel if the devs completely removed the current tier-based mod system and replaced it with a full-fledged Engineering Workshop on the Space Rig?

Here is how it could work:
Resource-based tuning: Adjusting your weapon stats would cost a certain amount of minerals and credits.
Energy capacity: Each weapon gets a maximum capacity of energy/power points.
Free allocation: You can spend these points to increase any stat you want (e.g., pumping everything into damage or magazine size).
Give-and-take system: To push a specific stat beyond its base limit, you would have to decrease another stat (e.g., increasing fire rate at the cost of accuracy).
Overclocks stay: Overclocks remain exactly as they are now and apply on top of this energy system.

I feel like this would grant incredible freedom to create unique builds tailored to any playstyle. Right now, some mod tiers offer choices that feel mandatory. An energy-based system, however, would force players to actually balance their gear.

What are your thoughts? Would this break the game balance, or would you love to see this level of depth in DRG?

Rock and Stone!

[Chris!!]

This sounds pretty boring.

[Clockwork]

Looks like Dead Space 3.

[Phytophyte]

From what I've heard of the division over Age of Wonders 3 and Age of Wonders 4, giving players more options in a free-form customization system actually decreases the identity and diversity of player builds. You'll have a few extremely self-driven creative types who really, really want to recreate this amazing idea they had, but everyone else is just going to go "eff it, dump everything into whatever performs the best."

[sam]

sounds neat, although i think a custom mod tier as t6 would be better rather than removing the weapon mods as they are.

Originally posted by My face is my shield:

Right now, some mod tiers offer choices that feel mandatory.

not really too on topic, but some specific mod tiers should have special interactions with overclocks that either pair extremely poorly or have no effect at all (Marked For Death focus shot damage & Double Barrel boomstick firing rate are two that come to mind, but theres a bunch)

Originally posted by Chris!!:

This sounds pretty boring.

do you do anything but whine about people

[Frisky]

completely overhauling the build system everyone has been used to for years is not a good idea, especially this late in the games life, even moreso a more complicated system

Originally posted by Phytophyte:

From what I've heard of the division over Age of Wonders 3 and Age of Wonders 4, giving players more options in a free-form customization system actually decreases the identity and diversity of player builds. You'll have a few extremely self-driven creative types who really, really want to recreate this amazing idea they had, but everyone else is just going to go "eff it, dump everything into whatever performs the best."

also this ^ while we do have existing metas in the current system this new idea wouldn't do much to change that

Originally posted by My face is my shield:

Right now, some mod tiers offer choices that feel mandatory.

outside of certain overclocks just strongly benefitting from certain mod tree upgrades due to their specialized nature I don't feel many standard weapon builds have "must have" mods

obviously your always gonna have outliers but I think build variety is still there, especially considering this games low-difficulty making certain builds even less required (unless we're talking haz 5+ which is its own absolute mess and I don't think we should be balancing the game around anyways)

I would rather see balance changes to these said mandatory mods vs throwing the entire system out for a replacement that might not even fix the issues your presenting

[Chris!!]

Originally posted by sam:

Originally posted by Chris!!:

This sounds pretty boring.

do you do anything but whine about people

I'm providing constructive criticism.

[Derpykat5]

This sounds like it would remove most strategy in picking between upgrades, while simultaneously compressing out every upgrade that isn't a flat stat bonus, thus making all weapon builds incredibly boring as overclocks would be the only way to get interesting effects that aren't inherent to the weapon.

Meanwhile it opens a huge host of balancing issues, like how precise you allow damage to be tunes (for breakpoints), and the energy value of a single bump in any given stat.

[My face is my shield]

Thanks for the feedback, everyone! I see your concerns about flat stat-dumping making builds boring or killing weapon identity. Let me clarify how this system could actually support deep, unique builds:
1. Weapon Identity is Safe: Core unique mechanics would remain tied to the weapon itself, not stripped away. For example, the Autocannon keeps its fear and damage resistance mechanics, the Minigun keeps its stun, and the Engineer's SMG keeps its electricity.
2. Percentage-Based Tuning: Every point spent or taken away would scale stats by percentages, allowing you to fine-tune specific thresholds.
3. Sacrifice for Unique Playstyles: The main goal is to let you cripple one aspect of a weapon to hyper-optimize another.
• Example (Driller's Flamethrower): Imagine creating a pure "Sticky Radiance" build. You could heavily decrease your direct damage, cut your range, and slow down your fuel flow rate. In exchange, you get a massive boost to total ammo capacity and area control.
4. Quality of Life (Reset Button): To prevent players from permanently ruining a build or feeling locked in, there would be a "Reset to Default" button. This would instantly restore the weapon to its base stats.

This is just one example of the creative freedom this system could unlock, rather than just standard "dump everything into damage" meta. What do you think about this kind of trade-off approach?

[Derpykat5]

Originally posted by My face is my shield:

Thanks for the feedback, everyone! I see your concerns about flat stat-dumping making builds boring or killing weapon identity. Let me clarify how this system could actually support deep, unique builds:
1. Weapon Identity is Safe: Core unique mechanics would remain tied to the weapon itself, not stripped away. For example, the Autocannon keeps its fear and damage resistance mechanics, the Minigun keeps its stun, and the Engineer's SMG keeps its electricity.

Fear and damage resistance are not innate attributes of the autocannon. There are other weapons where you pick between unique attributes in a mod tier. The Boltshark, for example. Magnetic Shafts and Banshee Module are both tier 5 upgrades that add unique features. These would either both be present at once, which would be a flat buff to the Boltshark, or both would be absent.

2. Percentage-Based Tuning: Every point spent or taken away would scale stats by percentages, allowing you to fine-tune specific thresholds.

That level of fine-tuning is precisely the problem. Being able to get your damage exactly to a breakpoint would give you additional energy to use elsewhere that the upgrade system doesn't, buffing a lot of weapons and rewarding a level of game knowledge that's not reasonable to reward.

3. Sacrifice for Unique Playstyles: The main goal is to let you cripple one aspect of a weapon to hyper-optimize another.
• Example (Driller's Flamethrower): Imagine creating a pure "Sticky Radiance" build. You could heavily decrease your direct damage, cut your range, and slow down your fuel flow rate. In exchange, you get a massive boost to total ammo capacity and area control.

This leads into balancing issues. Lowering your flow rate is normally a bad thing, except for sticky flames where it's good. Does lowering your flow rate cost energy, or give you energy? This isn't the only case where there's a similar problem.

This is just one example of the creative freedom this system could unlock, rather than just standard "dump everything into damage" meta. What do you think about this kind of trade-off approach?

The "dump everything into damage" meta does not exist. If you want more variety in your weapon upgrades, you already have the power to do that. Just take different upgrades.

[My face is my shield]

Fair points, especially regarding breakpoints and unique mechanics. Here is how it could easily be balanced:
• Unique Upgrades as Perks: Features like the Autocannon's Fear or Boltshark's T5 wouldn't vanish. They would cost a fixed amount of energy to activate, forcing a choice.
• Fixed Steps: Tuning wouldn't be 1% increments. Using 5% or 10% blocks prevents players from abusing perfect damage breakpoints.
• Smart Energy Costs: Lowering the Flamethrower's flow rate benefits Sticky Flames, so this specific change would consume energy, not grant it.

Standard weapon builds would remain completely untouched. No one is forced into this. It’s purely an endgame sandbox feature for veteran players who want more creative freedom.

[Derpykat5]

Originally posted by My face is my shield:

• Fixed Steps: Tuning wouldn't be 1% increments. Using 5% or 10% blocks prevents players from abusing perfect damage breakpoints.

That's still too much control. You wouldn't be able to go lower than 20%.

• Smart Energy Costs: Lowering the Flamethrower's flow rate benefits Sticky Flames, so this specific change would consume energy, not grant it.

Then any build that wants direct damage but a low flow rate gets screwed because in this one situation a negative stat is considered a positive one.

Standard weapon builds would remain completely untouched. No one is forced into this. It’s purely an endgame sandbox feature for veteran players who want more creative freedom.

It is almost guaranteed to end up either more powerful or too weak to bother with.

[Phytophyte]

Can I pose a hypothetical? Suppose that this entire point-based Weapon Workshop was actually implemented into the game, in every way that you fully intend for it to work. How would you build your weapons? Which stats would you boost for, say, the flamethrower, or the minigun, or the M1000?

Originally posted by My face is my shield:

It’s purely an endgame sandbox feature for veteran players who want more creative freedom.

Is "creative freedom" a major concern for veteran players?

[My face is my shield]

Thanks for the hypothetical, Phytophyte! That’s a fair question, and I’m glad you asked. To give you a concrete example, I would use this system to deeply synergize with existing Overclocks, leaning into extreme specialization.

1. Take the M1000 Classic with the Supercooling Chamber Overclock. Right now, it's already a hyper-specialized sniper build, but with the Weapon Workshop, I would push that identity to its absolute limit:
• Damage / Weakpoint Bonus: I would dump extra energy here to guarantee massive one-shot breakpoints on major targets.
• Focus Speed: I'd boost this significantly (say, to 150%) to make sure those heavy shots can be lined up faster.
• Stun Chance: Max it out to 100% to ensure that if a target survives, it's completely locked down.

What I would sacrifice to pay for it (The Trade-offs):
• Ammo Capacity: I’d reduce the max ammo even further. Every shot must count.
• Fire Rate & Reload Time: I’d tank the fire rate down to a painful 0.5 and increase the reload time to 5 or 7 seconds. It becomes a slow, heavy bolt-action rifle.
• Armor Breaking: Drop it to 0. Since this build is for a precise sniper hitting exposed weakpoints, armor breaking is irrelevant.
• Movement Speed while Focusing: Keep it at 0%. This retains the Overclock's unique flaw and forces tactical positioning.

This is exactly what I mean by "creative freedom" for veterans. Instead of a balanced, jack-of-all-trades build, I can choose to play a high-risk, high-reward "glass cannon" sniper who relies entirely on their team for crowd control, but deletes giant bugs in seconds. It allows us to play the game in entirely new ways!

2. Another great example would be completely transforming the "Lead Storm" Minigun with the Burning Hell Overclock. Instead of using it as a traditional bullet-hose, I could trade away almost all of its direct kinetic power to turn it into a dedicated utility and heat-generation support tool:
• Kinetic Damage: Tank it all the way down to a measly 2 points.
• Ammo Capacity: Boost it up to a massive 15,000 rounds.
• Rate of Fire: Reduce it significantly to stretch that ammo pool even further.
• Stun Chance, Spin-up, Spread, and Movement Speed: Leave them all completely at baseline to keep the weapon's core handling familiar.

The Heat Customization (The Core Trade-off):With an energy grid, I would want two ways to tune the signature heat cone of Burning Hell:
1) Option A (Sustained Burn): Keep the 15,000 ammo pool but accept the standard 50% faster heat buildup. This lets you fire in controlled bursts for a very long time, maintaining constant area control.
2) Option B (The Instant Furnace): Cut that massive ammo pool down to 5,000 rounds, but in exchange, crank the heat generation to 3x the base rate.

With Option B, the gun would overheat almost instantly, but it would instantly ignite entire waves of Grunts in front of you, perfectly setting up combos with Volatile Bullets on the Bulldog or opening up massive synergy with Aggressive Venting for constant heat explosions

This is why a free-form Engineering Workshop beats the current static mod trees. It lets players completely rewrite how a weapon functions based on what they find fun.

3. The "CQC Brick Wall" CRSPR Flamethrower (with Fuel Stream Diffuser)
Normally, this OC increases your range at the cost of fuel flow rate. I would completely flip its purpose upside down to create an unstoppable, close-quarters defensive powerhouse:
• Direct Damage: Crank it up heavily from 11 all the way to 30 points.
• Fear Factor: Max out the fear chance to 100% on the flame stream.
• Fuel Flow Rate: Tank it down to about 40% of the base speed, allowing me to fire continuously without chewing through fuel.
• The Ultimate Trade-off (Range): To pay for that insane 30 direct damage, I would cripple the weapon's reach, dropping its range from the upgraded 15 meters down to a mere 5 meters.
Combined with the Flame Radiance mod (T5 heat/damage circle around the Driller), you become a walking fortress. You lose the ability to burn distant targets, but nothing can physically cross that 5-meter threshold. The 100% fear chance constantly pushes bugs back, while the massive direct damage and passive radiance instantly melt anything in arm's reach.

None of these builds are a generic "dump everything into damage" setup. For veteran players, this point-based Energy Grid opens up a massive sandbox of hyper-specialized, utility-focused, and high-risk playstyles that the current static mod system simply cannot support. It allows us to play the game we love in entirely new ways.

Rock and Stone!

[Phytophyte]

Originally posted by My face is my shield:

This is exactly what I mean by "creative freedom" for veterans. Instead of a balanced, jack-of-all-trades build, I can choose to play a high-risk, high-reward "glass cannon" sniper who relies entirely on their team for crowd control, but deletes giant bugs in seconds. It allows us to play the game in entirely new ways!

...

None of these builds are a generic "dump everything into damage" setup. For veteran players, this point-based Energy Grid opens up a massive sandbox of hyper-specialized, utility-focused, and high-risk playstyles that the current static mod system simply cannot support. It allows us to play the game we love in entirely new ways.

Let's see if I have this straight: The M1000 build just turns the SCC overclock up to 11, the Lead Storm build is a Burning Hell-Volatile Bullet combo that never runs out of ammo, and the "CQC Brick Wall" is a super-buffed Face Melter build?

Is "creative freedom" and "playing the game in entirely new ways" really just min-maxxing existing builds?

[My face is my shield]

You are misunderstanding the goal. This isn’t about killing bugs faster; it’s about changing how the weapon functions.
Right now, almost every weapon and overclock in DRG boils down to the same thing: just dealing damage in slightly different ways.
My examples show how you can turn a weapon into a highly specific utility tool:
• The Minigun build completely stops being a primary DPS weapon. With 2 kinetic damage, it’s useless for raw shooting. Instead, it becomes a pure control tool focused entirely on crowd ignition, stuns, and instant fear explosions from overheating.
• The Flamethrower build isn't just about higher damage; it’s a high-risk defensive wall that forces you into point-blank range (5 meters) with 100% fear control.

This system is about free-form customization for specific roles (pure crowd control vs. hyper-specialized damage). It's not about power-creeping or min-maxing; it's about giving weapons a completely new functional identity that the current static mod trees don't allow.