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DISCLAIMER:
Please be kind and forgive me my bad English. I come from a faraway uncivilized country 
I've recently come up with a new concept for the BW mod; I've been playing BW for quite a while, and the only thing I was disappointed with was that BW didn't allow using default UT04 guns as well as guns from UT2Chaos Evolution mod. Though BW guns, system and concept are simply marvellous, seems more like a game from a game developing company rather than a fan mod.
By the most part my propositions regard the LoadOut game mode, though I'd like to begin with some points a bit remote from that.
I could start with a more pleasant thing than plain telling that it would be great if UT04 and UT2C weapons were back in the game, just tuned to fit BW rules; anyway, I do say it.
I think that Unreal LoadOut can be improved in such a way that a flexible 'class' system (not actually a class system) can be implemented in the mod so BW can be enjoyable to any kind of player: regardless if they prefer classic UT04 or spent months playing BW, or UT2C.
The main principle I kept in mind while creating this concept was that in no way a player should be confined to choosing a strict-framed class kit like medic, engineer, sniper, etc. It would ruin to much of the game's identity. But one could rather build a custom class himself, so almost an infinity of classes could be available.
Every gun in UT04 and BW is unique; but the very value of this uniqueness only finds it ultimate expression when a player is limited to a selected number of weapons, forced to exploit their original features to the maximum extent and learning how to use their arsenal against the rest of weapons available in the game.
Something of the kind is available in LoadOut mode, though there's not much balance to be found in it: a player who has chosen a couple of machineguns is more likely to win against a player who has chosen a Skrith rifle and a light shotgun provided both have maximum ammo: the former would prevail in firepower and ammo capacity.
I think each player can be given a number of slots both for light and heavy weapons, let's say 2 light guns, 2 heavy guns, a sidearm weapon, a melee weapon and a bunch of grenades. So players would be balanced: you can't carry 4 light guns or 4 heavy guns. Not realistic, but UT04 has never been meant to be a realistic
But when it comes to practice, you clearly see that there's no way to define such a thing as a 'heavy gun' or a 'light gun': all weapons vary in power and almost always there's a subtle difference between two weapons and it's hard to tell which one is the best. Moreover, a player who has mastered the Link Gun can easily defeat someone who has a Flak Gun full of ammo but is not used to playing with it. So, there must be a way to balance a player's outfit.
Don't expect me to start telling you tales about buying weapons CS-style. That's not unrealish (or tournamentesque?)
I think the best way to balance guns is the amount of ammo you get per ammo pack collected. A Flak Gun wielder might get 9 flak shells per pack while a guy with a Rocket Launcher would get 6 rockets. If you don't agree with the numbers, put there any other suitable numbers just to your liking. But the principle stays universal: by tweaking the pickup amount you can balance almost all guns. Though it is obvious, I thought it necessary to repeat the well-known thing one more time.
The last thing before I come down to the details: a request to get UT04 and UT2C guns back. Sorry for getting on your nerves. But lots of players still love the default guns, it's such a pity you can't play with them in BW.
What needs tweaking? Just adding recoil/reload to default weapons. Animations have to be redone, and player's hands have to be added to the model. Quite a job, but many people think default guns deserve to be put into BW.
And just check out these, I can't play without them as many other people do:
Chaos Unreal Tournament Armoury Illustrated
I don't mean plain copying them into BW, but a BW version of those guns (= Chaos Compatibility) would be great! So to say if you run both BW and CUT2, BW-compatible versions of CUT2 guns become available under BW.
Crossbow, buzzsaw and Claw2 are brilliant! You can't miss them, but playing them under BW rules would be most pleasant for BW fans.
When combined, UT04 guns, CUT2 guns and BW weapons can form a flexible and well-balanced weapon system for load-out that would suit any kind of player.
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A NEW VARIANT OF THE OLD LOADOUT SYSTEM
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A NEW VARIANT OF THE OLD LOADOUT SYSTEM
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So, the basic rules are:
+ You start with a number of guns pre-selected.
+ You can change loadoud before respawning.
+ You may or may not drop your gun to replace it with another gun taken from a dead opponent of the appropriate slot type - this is optional is default is No though nobody restricts you setting this flag to Yes.
THE SLOTS:
1. [Melee Weapon] - because it's cool to have one
2. [Sidearm Weapon] - a special light weapon rather than a basic choice; each of BW's sidearm guns has its unique features and none is useless.
3. [Light Weapon A] - actually not quite a 'lite' weapon: anything from shotguns and assault rifles, as well here goes CUT2 crossbow, Link Gun, Skrith Rifle and ASMD.
4. [Light Weapon B] - something from the same list to complement Light Weapon A; must not be the same gun as Light Weapon A. Basically LW-A and LW-B are an [assault rifle + a shotgun] though there an extremely wide choice to please anybody.
5. [Heavy Weapon A] - anything from the range between a Rocket Launcher and a Sniper Rifle: Railguns, Grenade Launchers, Flak Gun, Buzzsaw, anything which is deadlier than a general energy gun or assault rifle, machineguns belong to this slot as well. The difference in weapon power is balanced by the amount of pickup, should some of you say that a Flak Gun is worse than a machine gun.
6. [Heavy Weapon B] - something from the same list; it's good a player is limited only to 2 heavy weapons because carrying a rocket launcher, a railgun, a buzzsaw and flamethrower is no good. Moreover, a good sniper is seldom a rocket launcher master and vice versa. The limit gives some reason for doing some constructive thinking and the game gets a tactics flavour: what 2 guns should I choose and how well will they do against what my opponent has chosen?
7. [Grenades] - choose what 2 types of grenades you want to carry. Each ammo pickup gives you 4 'pineapples' or 2 grenades of other types (poison, incendiary, etc). For example, I can choose Fragmentation + Incendiary and carry 15 of each type, randomly getting 4 fragmentation ones or 2 incendiary per pickup.
8. [Special] - here you choose a class specific kit, though there's no such thing as a class in my system; just choose anything to your liking. The choice is between:
[Sapper Kit] - you can carry 6 Mines and 8 Explosive devices in addition to the rest of Weapons. Can prove extremely useful. Sort of an additional weapon slot.
[Nano Kit] - you can carry a Nano-Processor which allows you to heal your teammates and vehicles by releasing a host of NanoBots. Restoration is rather slow so it takes some time to heal somebody. You can as well heal yourself. A fully charged Nano Kit restores 50 health points and is recharged by +10 points per every ammo pickup. Uses two different charge types (= ammo types) for healing and vehicle repair.
[Spec Ops Kit] - you can carry a backpack-style thingie that can do 3 things:
1. Cloaking Field: you are invisible to your enemies at long distance and transparent at close distance. While Cloaked, you can not shoot, only stab with bayonets and melee weapons. It gives you a chance to backstab your enemy, though if you come closer than ~25 feet to your opponent he begins seeing you as a transparent silhouette. Cloaking drains the device's battery very rapidly.
2. Motion Amplifier: you run faster. The battery is only used while you run; while you stand still in SpeedBoost mode, the charge does not go down. Motion Amplifier drains the battery quite a way slower than Cloaking Field does, though speed bonus is only +25%.
3. Absorption Field - absorbs 20% damage taken by the player; the battery charge is only used when the player takes damage, not all the timew while Absorption Shield is active. While player is hit, the battery degrades quickly and the percentage of damage absorbed is little.
Maximal battery charge amount is rather high, though the recharge rate is very low (battery slightly recharges when you pick up an ammo pack)
You can have only one of the three options active at a time.
[Support Kit] - your maximal ammo capacity is increased by 25% for all types of weapons. You can drop ammo packs containing an amount of ammo equal to 20% of your ammo capacity for your teammates. Ammo packs can be two types: 1. with ammo for weapons from slots 1-3 and 2. with ammo for weapons from slots 4-6. For example, you've got a rifle with an ammo maximum of 100. With Support Kit the maximum is 125, i.e. +25%. If you drop an ammo pack, you'll spent 25 bullets, i.e. -20%. If you drop 3 ammo pack you'll spend 75 bullets respectively.
Note: it doesnt' matter that your weapons aren't the same as your teammates'. You just drop a general ammo pack spending your ammo and the one who picks it up gets a certain amount of ammo for his guns based on the pickup rate for each weapons. E.g. I drop 9 flak shells in an ammo pack, and my teammate gets 6 rockets when he picks it up. Not realistic, but easy and fun.
+ Grenades might be a [Special] option instead of an independent slot, let's say [Grenadier Kit] (I doubt the word 'grenadier' is correct here but it sounds great).
+ [Light Weapon C] and [Heavy Weapon C] additional slots can be enabled via mutator options. Less balance but probably more fun.
+ Having a Slot Manager would be great! I.e. an ability to make custom slot presets where you manually define the number of slots and what can be stored in them just the same way you deal with Weapon Swap Menu in Ballistics. The system described above can be just the basic preset of Slot Manager, not a hard-coded part of the mod.
Weapon Distribution:
[Melee Weapon] - anything that is melee, including the shield gun
[Sidearm Weapon]
"M806" High Velocity Pistol
"MRT6" Shotgun Sidearm
"A42" Skrith Sidearm
"XK2" Sub-Machinegun
[CUT2] Chaos Pulse Pistol ( aka CPP )
[UT04] Assault Rifle
[Light Weapon]
"M763" High Power 12 Gauge Shotgun
"M290" Double Barrelled Shotgun
"A73" Skrith Assault Weapon
"M50" Standard Assault Rifle
[CUT2] Crossbow (yessss, our precious...) (seriosly, crossbow rocks! a must have)
[CUT2] MUG
[UT04] ASMD Shock Rifle
[UT04] Link Gun
[UT04] BioRifle - tweaked a bit, this b*tch has never been a heavy gun despite its high damage.
[Heavy Weapon]
"M353" MachineGun
"M925" .50 Calibre MachineGun
"R78A1" .50 Sniper Rifle
"M75-TIC" Railgun
"G5" Rocket Propelled Grenade Launcher
[UT04] Flak Gun
[UT04] Rocket Launcher
[UT04] Minigun
[UT04] Sniper Rifle and Lightning Gun
[CUT2] Claw2
[CUT2] Buzzsaw
[CUT2] Chaos Grenade Launcher
[CUT2] ERDW
All other BW guns not mentioned in the list go to the appropriate slots according to the common sense (including future additions)
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EXISTING BW WEAPON ENHANCEMENT
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Skrith Rifle A73 - can be improved to be a lot more fun to use.
1. Shielding. When activated with Weapon Special Button, an energy shield is spawned in front of the player. While active, it drains the weapon's charge. When it drops to 0, the shield is turned off until you get a new battery in, then it reactivates unless you turn it off manually.
+ While shielded, the player can not shoot, only stab enemies with the bayonet.
+ The shield deflects 75% of bullets, laser beams, etc, and the rest 25% that manage to get through the shield do only 20-50% of damage.
With shielding function, A73 can get a unique tactical use and give an opportunity for the player to counter-attack a heavily armed opponent and stab him to death.
A73's bayonets would look better if a stream of disruptive energy flowed through them (not an actual upgrade, just an eye candy; after all, it's a technically advanced alien gun)
+ Auto-Rechargeable Battery - any time you can stick an ARB into your A73. The effect is similar to Skrith Sidearm Battery: A73 begins regenerating charge, though rather slow, and the power of the weapon is only 60% compared to normal battery. An ARB has a larger capacity than a normal battery, though the decrease in weapon power and slow recharge rate makes it not the best choice. Use an ARB only if you've run out of ammo (standard batteries).
+ When using an ARB, A73 shielding function is disabled due to ARB's low power.
2. "M763" High Power 12 Gauge Shotgun - can be improved with a Shock Rod.
Because in the 31st century it's silly trying to hit your opponent with the barrel
A shock rod is attached to the barrel like a bayonet. The tip of the rod sparkles with disruptive energy. When you stab an enemy with your shock rod, they get stunned and suffer a heavy damage, being unable to shot for 3 seconds.
You can activate/draw back the shock rod by pressing Weapon Special button. The only reason to draw it back is that it might be annoying to see the sparkling thingie under your barrel all the time. When fighting melee with your shotgun, it is extremely advisable to keep your shock rod activated. Pressing the Alt Fire button for a time results in making a series of rapid hits. Double pressing Alt Fires makes you dash forward and make a powerful stab.
Being a short-ranged assault weapon, M763 could greatly benefit from adding a shock rod to it. Run out of ammo? No time to reload? Charge your enemy in an instant and stab him so he will get stunned for a couple seconds; while he's unable to fire, finish him off.
3. "M290" Double Barrelled Shotgun
Almost the same upgrade as M763: a Plasma Bayonet. Looks exactly like a sharp-pointed short version of laser sword from Star Wars. Makes more damage than a shock rod but does not stun enemy. Two hits are enough to kill an opponent. Can be turned on/off.
Switching between single/double fire can be done via switch firing mode button, and Alt Fire can be used for stabbing.
The reason of upgrade is the same as of M763.
4. Skrith Blades can be augmented with a force field generator.
The principle is: when blocking, a force field is generated in front of the player similar to A73's force shield. When attacking, the force field dissipates. Another way to charge an enemy in close combat with a chance not to get shot the next second. Though while attacking you'll have a good chance that your opponent will get a shotgun load right into your head so you'd better be quick.
So that's all I wanted to propose
Post Scriptum
1. Plz forgive me my bad English once again. Usually I write in it quite okay but today I'm sooo damn tired that the only thing I could squeeze from myself are short moronic phrases. Sorry.
2. Plz don't beat me to death for proposing to get UT04 weapons back in BW.
