I wanted to put together an early brainstorming suggestion regarding the current weapon crafting system on SWG Evolve and get community feedback on the idea before turning it into a more detailed proposal.

Core Concept

Instead of the final weapon craft determining a weapon’s overall DPS and damage output, all primary combat stats would instead come solely from a Weapon Core component.

Under this system:

• The weapon itself would primarily determine appearance, attack speed, special properties, and playstyle flavor.
• The Weapon Core would determine the actual DPS and damage values.
• This would allow a much wider variety of weapons to remain viable instead of players gravitating toward only a few “best-in-slot” crafted weapons.

The goal would be to create a system where players could use the weapons they enjoy aesthetically or mechanically without being heavily punished in performance.

Progression & Loot Integration

Progression could still function similarly to the current system through:

• Rare dropped schematic versions of Legendary Weapon Cores
• Different quality tiers of Weapon Cores
• Vendor-purchased cores through existing in-game systems
• Loot-based acquisition tied into current content loops

This would preserve progression while opening up weapon diversity.

Crafting Depth & Enhancements

Another possible layer could be the addition of dropped enhancement components that are incorporated during the Weapon Core crafting process.

Examples could include:

• Critical chance modifiers
• Armor penetration bonuses
• Elemental or proc-based effects

This could add another level of complexity and customization to the crafting system while still keeping the core idea approachable.

Potential Benefits

• Greater weapon diversity and build expression
• More viable endgame weapon choices
• Increased value for weapon appearances and styles
• Expanded loot opportunities
• Additional crafting depth without invalidating current progression systems
• Easier future balancing since stats would be centralized through cores instead of every weapon individually

Discussion Points / Concerns

Some things worth discussing:

• Should cores be removable or permanent?
• Would this improve or hurt the weapon crafting economy?
• Should certain weapon families still maintain unique strengths?

This is still very much in the brainstorming phase, and I’d really like to hear thoughts, criticisms, and additional ideas from both players and crafters. The goal would be to continue refining the concept together into a more complete proposal if the community sees value in it.