So, I was thinking... We have a random mount and random pet button, but what would be cool is if we had a weapon-based item (or series of them I guess) that would encode whatever weapons you set to it (even if you get rid of the item from your inventory afterwards) including what color crystal was equipped to the item when applicable to it's appearance, and would pick one weapon from the list of weapons encoded to it whenever drawn.

So for instance, let's say you're playing a marauder and have two of these items. You encode a list of lightsabers or vibroswords to each of them, and draw them. The one in your right hand draws the gamorean axe because why not, and the one in your left hand draws the unstable arbiter's lightsaber with a red/orange color crystal (which is the color crystal it was encoded to.) The next time you draw them, it draws the basic starting saber you got at the beginning of the game in one hand and the cathar honor sword in the other. You can also encode the same weapon multiple times with different color crystals, so each time you draw the weapon it has a chance of having a different color crystal equipped. The mods are on the item itself, however, so no matter what weapon you draw, it's always going to have the same base stats.

Why is this a good idea? Threefold:

Some people really like a bunch of different items and are indecisive about which ones to use. I have a large list of different lightsabers that I love using, but can't exactly use each of them every time I play a character. I have to pick one (or two if I go marauder/sentinel) and that's that. Further, while I have a decent number of lightsabers, I have an absurd number of color crystals I like... This could give people like me who keep a large number of weapons in their cartel collection a chance to see all of them getting use, and give people who collect these weapons reward for having gone out of their way to do so!

The other is for roleplayers. This gives people who RP a chance to have a time of equipment that shows variability in kit, such as someone who collects weapons or has a large arsenal. I have a friend that enjoys roleplaying as a sith who collects the lightsabers of force users they beat in battle, and using them. This would be incredibly flavorful for that user, and give them a way of seeing out that fantasy without having to kit out and change out the weapon they are wielding every time they want to exemplify this in a meaningful way.

And a reason for the company is I could see this making a VERY large amount of money, and a large number of users wanting it. On top of it being an item that could work to a large niche of roleplayers, and give them something to exemplify a part of their character, it also rewards players that have built up a large cartel collection of weapons they want to show off with a fun way of doing so. This would not only be an item a lot of players that collect weapons and crystals would go after, but would influence users to want a large host of various weapons with cool looks, and color crystals that go with those weapons. It likely would be a big seller as a result, and have the added effect of influencing purchases of other weapons. Bundle it with a weapon that fits the category of weapon the item is meant to represent (I would like it if it was just a catch-all that simply payed attention to class weapon lists, but honestly it's probably easier to just make a few weapons that could act as different categories, such as "sniper" or "saber") and it would likely fetch better prices too. Even if the weapon was a random item drawn from a list of that category (one random lightsaber drawn from cartel market lightsabers with a lightsaber weapon randomizer) it would probably see good purchase sets, and would be a very popular item in the cartel market.

I would definitely personally purchase this item if it saw itself added to the game. I spend a lot of time agonizing over which of my favorite weapons to use this time... and honestly, there's just so many fun weapons to use that I never find myself having time to use every single one of them. Please make this a reality? It would honestly be so fun!

Practicalities speak against it. Not necessarily "totally", but definitely against. Here are the main things that occurred to me...

General:

* What does the weapon look like when it's stowed? (Affects rifles and cannons more than sabres and blasters, because they are bigger.)

* What about the crystal's stats? Where do they come from?

* What about mixed types? I'm thinking here of mixing rifles and cannons, mostly, where there are abilities that could be randomly disabled, and for which there aren't rifle animations anyway.

Lightsabres, vibroswords and dualsabres (with electrostaves lumped in with dualsabres):

* Where do they draw from? (Hip? Shoulder?)

* Where do they carry? (Links back to the question of what it looks like when stowed)

Practicalities speak against it. Not necessarily "totally", but definitely against. Here are the main things that occurred to me...

 

General:

* What does the weapon look like when it's stowed? (Affects rifles and cannons more than sabres and blasters, because they are bigger.)

* What about the crystal's stats? Where do they come from?

* What about mixed types? I'm thinking here of mixing rifles and cannons, mostly, where there are abilities that could be randomly disabled, and for which there aren't rifle animations anyway.

 

Lightsabres, vibroswords and dualsabres (with electrostaves lumped in with dualsabres):

* Where do they draw from? (Hip? Shoulder?)

* Where do they carry? (Links back to the question of what it looks like when stowed)

When the weapon is stowed it probably does this sorta "dematerialization" and "rematerialization" effect similar to summoning a mount. This would include drawing rifles and cannons. It would also be a really cool way for someone to be able to keep a weapon equipped but not have it *on* their character, tbh.

The stats of the weapon comes from the mods on the weapon itself. The encoded color crystals and the like will only affect appearance. The weapon would be a modifiable weapon in it's own right that applies it's stats to all weapons. The only thing is the color crystal that's equipped to it won't actually matter.

As for mixed types, as I said, it would encode what weapons each class requires. You wouldn't be able to encode a cannon on a character that requires rifles to fight. Likewise, a sniper wouldn't be able to encode on an agent that uses rifles.

As for the sabres/vibroswords/dualsabres, the draw would likely pull from wherever the randomly decided weapon draw point would initiate from upon selection of the weapon. So if it's on the back the draw point would read that it's drawing a vibrosword-for instance- and draw from the back. Likewise the hip for a lightsaber. Once again, when you go to pull the weapon out, it materializes in the same way as a vehicle does, so where it "visualizes" isn't a problem.

Practicalities speak against it. Not necessarily "totally", but definitely against. Here are the main things that occurred to me...

 

General:

* What does the weapon look like when it's stowed? (Affects rifles and cannons more than sabres and blasters, because they are bigger.)

* What about the crystal's stats? Where do they come from?

* What about mixed types? I'm thinking here of mixing rifles and cannons, mostly, where there are abilities that could be randomly disabled, and for which there aren't rifle animations anyway.

 

Lightsabres, vibroswords and dualsabres (with electrostaves lumped in with dualsabres):

* Where do they draw from? (Hip? Shoulder?)

* Where do they carry? (Links back to the question of what it looks like when stowed)

basically speaking, the orb IS the weapon, and it copies/saves the other weapons/colors on those weapons to it, literally acting as the weapon version of our dressing room, all the cool looking armors we want, all the colors, none of the stats