Weapon levels. #2
Description
I really do not want to end up with a system where 80% of the weapons generated are unremarkable. Ideas here.
Proposed idea:
White weapons are obvious. These are the trash weapons. They excel at nothing. They are good at nothing. If you're using these past level 15, you're doing something really, really wrong. You will never find an elemental white. Sell them for ammo.
Green weapons should be the baseline. Weapons here should be usable in all situations the weapon type is meant for, but they shouldn't really impress. There's no shame in using these, but if you can find something better, you should.
Blue weapons are specialists. They do one or two things really, really well, like damage and reload time. Everything else suffers as a result of it, like magazine size, recoil, accuracy, and the like. Amazing at a few jobs, they fall short at the rest of them. You'll find one you like... eventually.
Purple weapons are the specialists, and then some. While they still only have one or two traits they're really good at, they can still do the rest, albeit not as well. They'll tear straight through the situations they're built for, and they'll still sustain you in the other ones. They'll last you quite a while.
Orange weapons do something cool that nothing else below them does. Whether it's ammo regeneration, firing beams of plasma instead of incendiary rounds, charging your shield on successful hits, or if it's just something like a belt-fed, automatic, accurate shotgun, it's here. Get something from this category, and things die.
Pearlescent weapons are orange weapons and then some. Anything you find in this category is a bonafide game-breaker. A rocket launcher that doesn't use ammo? A chain-shotgun that regenerates ammo? A vampiric, slagging SMG that fires four rounds per shot? Why the hell not?
Special categories:
Eridian weapons would be weird. Dealing almost exclusively with plasma and electricity, corrosion and shock is the name of the game with these. Usually carrying some significant drawback to hold back absurd power, and using recharging Eridium cells, they're not weapons for everyone, but they're weapons for someone. These weapons would appear mainly around Eridian ruins, although Atlas and Dahl areas will be likely to carry them. Rarity would rise somewhat in the Borderlands 2 segments. Category color is lavender.
E-Tech weapons would show up very rarely in the Borderlands 1 segments, being relegated exclusively to Dahl areas and extremely rarely at that. They'd show up a lot more in the Borderlands 2 segments, especially around Hyperion constructs. Sharing an emphasis on plasma with their pure Eridian counterparts, they throw away the huge drawbacks in exchange for not being quite as powerful. Unlike Borderlands 2, these would not use multiple ammo per shot. That's stupid. This category would have a bright magenta color to it.
Are seraph weapons worth keeping? This being a roguelike (or similar), raid bosses have no place, and by extension neither do seraph weapons. If they do appear, they'll be slightly above orange weapons to offset their rarity, and will have an as-of-yet undecided theme to them. If they show up, their color will be faded red or faded green.