Regarding manufacturers, I love the gimmicks and the fact that they don’t produce all weapons. It gives them character.
However, I think there are some weapon restrictions that don’t make a lot of sense.
This is assuming the manufacturer gimmicks in BL3 remain the same.
-Bandits, being the scavangers of everything they can find, should produce all weapon types. The only weapons they don’t produce in BL2 are sniper rifles, so… Bandit snipers!
Bandit sniper rifles have huge mag sizes, even more than Vladof-barreled Vladof snipers, above average damage and fire rate, but at the cost of increased reload times, reduced accuracy and only a 370% critical hit bonus compared to the 400% of other snipers.
BUT WAIT. WHAT ABOUT LASERS.
Bandit lasers have increased damage, and of course enormous mags - no Bandit laser has less than triple digits in the mag. However, they are the least accurate of them all and with non-Maliwan and non-Bandit barreled Bandit lasers, the fire rate is inconsistent - firing a shot randomizes the fire rate for the next shot. The next shot will either fire up to 30% faster or up to 30% slower.
Bandits also have their own laser barrels. Bandit-barreled lasers are turned into short range "flame"throwers, damaging enemies in a continuous but short ranged cone. The visuals of the cone change depending on the element - a standard flamethrower for fire, a violent stream of lightning for shock, and a spray of acidic or cryogenic gasses for corrosive and cryo
-Dahl should have a fully stocked armoury, as they’re the most militarized weapons manufacturer on Pandora. And as it stands, they’re missing shotguns and rocket launchers, which are pretty important things to equip your armies with.
Dahl shotguns, like all Dahl weapons, fire in bursts when zoomed in. They have, as is Dahl tradition, low recoil and high stability. They also have above average mag size.
Dahl rocket launchers also have burst fire when zoomed. During burst fire, however, they have reduced accuracy, meaning that the rockets will be spread across an area rather than all of them hitting one target - the first rocket in the burst always flies straight. They also have increased projectile speed and a mag size enough to last about two bursts.
-Tediore is the everyman’s weapons manufacturer. They should be making guns to fulfill the preferences of everyone - this means dirt-cheap assault rifles and sniper rifles made of plastic!
Tediore assault rifles have low recoil and above average damage, but a slight inaccuracy and rate of fire problem. Their reload is slower compared to other Tediore weapons, but the blast radius is much larger and the explosion happens on impact.
Tediore sniper rifles have above average damage and fire rate among sniper rifles, as well as reduced recoil. This comes at the cost of having reduced magazine size - 5 or 6 shots at best. When thrown, the gun’s flight path has less of an arc compared to other Tediore weapons.
-VLADOF NEEDS SHOTGUNS. PERIOD. SMGs aren’t as important however, as their role is already filled by both assault rifles and pistols. And Vladof’s high fire rate gimmick doesn’t translate well to lasers.
Vladof shotguns, of course, have high fire rate, as well as vastly increased mag size - almost enough to rival Bandit shotguns. This comes at the cost of having one less pellet per shot compared to other manufacturers, as well as decreased accuracy.
Also, Vladof shotgun barrels are rotary. As is glorious Vladof tradition. They increase the rate of fire of any shotgun they are atttached to, but deduct one pellet from non-Vladof shotguns. They cannot spawn on Jakobs shotguns.
-Maliwan shotguns really, really should be a thing. Maybe not assault rifles though.
Maliwan shotguns, like all Maliwan weapons, always spawn with an element. Every pellet from a Maliwan shotgun has 15% splash damage. They also have average fire rate and low recoil with a tight spread, but this comes at the cost of below average damage. In addition, Maliwan shotguns have increased elemental DoT damage and effect chance - their DoT damage is almost unrivaled and while their effect chance is lower than sniper rifles and rocket launchers, they’re still higher than other Maliwan weapons and the multiple pellets will almost always guarantee DoT.
Pretty much the only downside to having Maliwan shotguns is that Jakobs shotguns will be able to spawn with Maliwan parts. Yay.
-Hyperion, if it returns, I don’t think needs to make more weapon types. Assault rifles and rocket launchers are too brutish for Hyperion’s accuracy-focused design.
-Torgue doesn’t need to make more weapons either. SMGs, sniper rifles and lasers are too elegant for a manufacturer like them, and Torgue himself says that lasers physically cannot explode.
-Jakobs lasers and rocket launchers should not happen. Ever. And no amount of “Oh, they should fire cannonballs!” will change my mind. As for SMGs, I have no idea if anything remotely like an SMG existed among old firearms but if it did, I’d actually love to know.
Wow, I got a little bit carried away here. Too much typing, my arm’s hurting now. Help.
