1. Agreed, really. But if we're to take realism into the equation, wood would also be a rarity - at least wood you could make durable weaponry out of, so they'd be somewhat plentiful but degrade at a higher rate.
2. All for it, they add to the dark humour of FO, as long as they are set within certain parameters, but that i'm sure gamesas has fully under control. (read: fitting into the "the world continued as they predicted in 1950 sci-fi").
I'd tend to lean towards they are something you'd have to make, and rarely be able to buy - they are "fantastic" after all, and some people may not be as ingenious before they've seen a couple of creative creations. But, as for "your own recipes", i'd lean towards a "no", main reasoning being server load and balancing issues.
3. Sounds good on paper, but really it loops back to point 1, answer being the same but with an added "times 10"
Also, can see a few issues with how to handle picking up -> equipping -> utilizing something in the middle of a fight, where you would need the option the most.
4. All for weapon mods, but again, within FO parameters. X-Ray scopes sound wonderful, but when they get to the point of "wall-hack"-ish ability, they should start to add some negative effects (increased weight, or some such.), or only be mountable on big guns (in this particular case. X-ray scopes can't be that light weight
)
5. Aye. If the market is player driven, doubly so. Make them higher level production items, leaving standard ammo to the lower level market.
Also, what about pointed vs. arrow-headed vs blunt headed vs. explosive ordanance bolts and arrows? In regards to point 1. ^^
6. I'd agree with you, here. Makes sense, and increases the possible character builds, without making the player unable to "focus" on one specific aspect of the combat portion of the game. Also, increases usefulness of various stats so players are even less likely (perhaps) to feel they can safely focus on 3 - 4 stats alone with no ill affects.
As for how many, well - What if we divide them up much like you did, size and type.
Types: Energy, Explosive, Projectile
Sizes: Big guns, Small guns, Thrown, Melee, Unarmed.Could be fun if rarer guns could end up requiring more than merely two skills to operate optimally.
Say, a Rocket-launcher that fires containers of irradiated plasma-goo that explodes and splashes on impact. Explosive, Energy, Big Guns.
Or a glove that has needles on the knuckles that draw tiny amounts of your own blood and irradiates it, adding damage over time and higher crit chance. Unarmed, Medicine, Science.
7. I'd say, no. They are show-stoppers in my mind. They remove the game from "Human ingenuity" towards dark humour at too high a cost (How the diddly did everyone get one!?). That, and the relative rarity on Earth compared to how "standard" they truly are, they would at the least have to be considered very rare weapons in and of them selves.
8. Certainly. But they should require a high amount of skillpoints in repair+appropriate weapon type modifier to maintain, just because someone managed to irradiate a pair of Brass knuckles and somehow avoid getting radiation damage on their hands, doesn't mean you can do the same thing when you find a rusted pair of them and superglue them together. In that particular case you'd require a high Science, Repair, and Unarmed skill - i'd wager.
9. Wouldn't this basically boil down to highly advanced mods, as you present them? (Advanced here meaning having ducttaped a regular laser pistol with a laser sight mod on top to a rifle and running a string from the guns trigger to a nail in the opening at the rifles trigger)
10. After having answered some of your questions, a thought popped into my mind; species semi-specific.
I'm no fan of excluding any weapons to any race, but i have no problem in seeing downsides to some using them and not to others.
If we take the brass knuckles from point 8, for example. Ghouls and Super Mutants could use them with no harmful effects. Humans can use them as well, but they continously take on radiation - but seeing as its localised this translates to ever-increasing penalties to how much your strength adds to your damage modifier - as it's only your arm that gets fracked up.
Other examples could be stop-sign fists, as has been seen, rotor-blade tipped finger gloves, radiator shields, irradiated versions of normal weapons, and so on.
Only problem i see off the bat is that I personally can't think of anything that only humans would benefit from using.
"This rifle's trigger is exceptionally tense and tiny. The spring has been tightened considerably, so much, in fact, that should a ghoul attempt he'd suffer limb damage each time, and should a Super Mutant attempt it, he'll be occupied all day."?
(suffers limb damage each shot - slower rate of fire)
But then again, Humans' strength could lie in the ability to utilize all semi-species specific weapons, whereas i'd like to see a skinny ghoul try to wield a radiator and not delivering a blow swiftly followed by a crunchy, squishy cracking sound from his lower back. But again, i'm not fond of the idea of excluding a species from using any weapon.