Requirements
If this is going to work, ALL of the weapons AND augments MUST be equally useful. Whether this requires balancing of the weapons or some core game changes is not up to me, that is Splash Damage’s job, even though this latest Thunder update set them on the path to fixing the augments already, there is WAY more work that needs to be done with this.
Weapon Skins
For the loadout skins, this system could be replaced for a system similar to CS:GO, where the weapons themselves have a skin. These weapons could now be selected in the custom card system that will be explained below. RNG will still play a role in WHICH skin you get.
Acquiring Weapon Skins
In order to get these new weapons skins, there will be separate cases that you can buy for real-life money, similar to the Elite case system that we have now.
Merc Skins
Now the problem that arises is this “OMG IF WE DO THAT THEN ALL THE COBALT CARDS WILL BE USELESS!!1!” Well here is the solution for that. The current system of LEAD->IRON->BRONZE->SILVER->GOLD->COBALT will still be in effect, but the cards themselves will not have augments or weapons pre-applied. The rarity of the loadout card itself will still determine how many augments can be attached to it. With this new system, weapon skins would be detached from the loadout cards. Now, instead of weapons skins being attached to the loadout cards, MERC skins will be attached to the card itself. These merc skins will be tiered, so that silver rarity gets Tier 1 skins, gold gets Tier 2 skins, and cobalt gets Tier 3 skins. The higher the tier of skin you have, the cooler/ more interesting it will look. RNG will still play a role in WHICH skin you get.
New Card Characteristics
The following is a list of what would be associated with each rarity of card:
LEAD-> 1 augment slot, merc name
IRON-> 2 augments slots, merc name
BRONZE->3 augment slots, merc name
SILVER-> 3 augment slots, merc name, merc skin(Tier 1)
GOLD-> 3 augment slots, merc name, merc skin(Tier 2)
COBALT-> 3 augment slots, merc name, merc skin(Tier 3)
Merc Name is simply the merc that the card will work for.
Cases
Obviously, the current system for cases will have to be changed, but the changes are not as drastic as you might think. The RNG will still play a factor, BUT the RNG only decides WHAT LEVEL of card you get. The cards you obtain from cases will now just be blank, with nothing but a RARITY assigned to them (and a merc skin as well if you manage to get one of the higher level cards).
Trade-Ups
This system will again function much the same way as before, but the cards will be stripped of augments and weapons, leaving only the rarity(and merc skin if you are trading to a silver or higher) attached to this system.
The System
My idea is this, instead of the current system where we have predefined loadout cards where many of them are not useful, the player should be able to choose the augments and weapons they want to use. Once they have chosen which augments and weapons they wish to use, that is saved to the card that they selected before choosing weapons and augments. The 3 loadout per match system will remain the same in that even though you may have multiple different loadout cards for different situations, you may only bring one of the cards with you.
The Advantages
- It will rework the RNG system to make it more fair
- It will give Splash Damage a new form of income from the weapon skin cases
- It will allow the PLAYER to cater their loadout for their playstyle
The Drawbacks
- Splash Damage would have to actually spend time balancing the entire game
- Splash Damage would have to find a way to give players with high rarity cards the weapons with the skins from those cards, so that they are not cheated out of skins and money.
- Splash damage would need to put time into making these skins
This is something that I have been pondering for a LONG time now, so if any of you have any criticisms of the system, or anything that you might want to see changed, go ahead and leave a comment about what you have to say. If I have missed something that you think needed to be explained in here, then I’m sorry but you can leave a comment below with what I missed and maybe your solution for explaining it. Hopefully we can get this system refined to the point where it could be implemented.