Perks, Endgame, Custom Perks?

So as I've put a decent amount of time into this game (not nearly as much as some), I've had a very interesting experience with this game. Initially, this game was not my cup of tea, as a friend introduced me to it, and without any perks or levels I felt like the game was too difficult, and because I didn't understand the game, I didn't like it. Dispite this, I gave it another chance, and this game has only been growing on me since.



I initially gravitated to the Gunslinger for the theming, and had a lot of fun. Who doesn't want to paint the walls red with a few revolvers or one of the most satisfying pistols in the modern world? I then moved to Berseker, which felt tough, and I felt like the game wasn't punishing anymore, and I wasn't constantly running. The art of parrying was enticing as a skill to master, and just properly managing swing patterns for where enemies were around me was highly rewarding. Once I was level 25 with my Berserker, the experience I was earning felt kind of wasted, so I moved to try out other perks.



None of these other perks felt sufficient, and I gravitated to Survivalist because of its versatility. Weapons like the eviscerator and the railgun didn't have any bonuses and still felt more effective against hard targets even as an off-perk weapon, and I found myself stuck with inferior weapons for my Perks. My first thought was, "Why don't these guns do anything? It costs the same as the Railgun, but doesnt do anything!" (This is partially because of how damage resistances work etc.) So my response mentally was that "this game isn't balanced, this Perk is too weak."



However, this got me thinking. What if we had entire freedom on how we played the game? What if after playing and leveling all of our Perks to 25, we had the option to CREATE our own Perk? When I finally got my Berserker to 25, I decided I would only use to it to do weekly events or other challenges, as the experience gain wasn't truly going anywhere. This cap in progression was forced me onto other Perks, and when I finish leveling them all, cosmetics and versus would be my only end-game. It would be amazing to have something beyond that, and I believe a PvE custom Perk would do just that.



The way I invision this being executed would be an ability to choose from all skills of a tier, for the normal total of 5 skills. For example, Heavy Armor Training (SWAT) or Skirmisher (Berserker) would be be mutually exclusive, along with all level 5 skills. This choice would be made for all other skill tiers, 5, 10, 15, 20, and 25. (Another possibility would be to allow perks to be chosen from any tier with 5 total, but I believe this would likely make players far more powerful than the base Perks, and would likely require a harder difficulty to actually challenge the player.)



Additionally with the option to pick which ever skill in each tier, there would also be the option to pick 5-6 of each perk weapon; 2 of each tier (For the simplicity of this explanation, Tier 1 weapons are those Đ0-400, Tier 2 Đ401-900, Tier 3 Đ901-1600). For example, a list of perk weapons that would be allowed: T1: Crovel, Caulk and Burn, T2: Double Barreled Boomstick, Centerfire, T3: M16 M203, Eviscerator.



Now, I'd be a fool to ignore how many stats come from Perk Bonuses alone, to which the player would be able to pick the 4-6 of these traits exclusive to their category. (It'd be pretty ridiculous to have +% damage 6 times, don't be silly.) I made this number range because there are utility traits (nightvision, Cloak callouts, etc) that would probably not be picked over stats. A possible fix would be that 2 of the bonuses must be utility out of the 6. There are plenty of iterations of the way that these could be balanced, so you don't get too ridiculous.



Lastly, a simple configuration of starting weapons would be picked, as you could pick your type of grenade (perks that change your type of grenade would likely take away this choice), knife, and 9mm pistol, with your primary starting weapon being based on one of your two selected Tier one perk weapons.



All of this stems from my gaming experience in several games. What I've learned over the years is that, no matter what, the players will find the most efficient way to play the game, thus creating "meta." As a game designer (I'm not one, but I've seen successes with the execution of this concept.) it is ideal to give the power to the players to play the game as they wish. With a system like this, existing assets could be efficiently reused, and ultimately empower the community to create some really fun builds. (Imagine how fast you could run, how much ammo you could hold, or how fast you could get that railgun to shoot.)



Any feedback and thoughts you guys have on this idea are welcome. If someone has another thread with a similar idea, please also link them below. I'd be interested in seeing iterations of this in other people's minds.