Alright so a lot of games have single weapons or dual weapons, and then slots where you can shove effects and bonuses. Sockets, as they're often called.

Well this is different from those, and is a basic idea that'd allow logical weapon customization which could turn out to be fun for players and easy for designers.

What if you put in two to three weapon slots. Now, instead of putting actual Weapons in these slots, you put weapon components. Example: You could have a sword for player A. Slot 1 would be the Hilt. Linen Wrapped Wood. (+2 Agility) Slot 2 could be the Blade. Folded Steel Katana Blade. (+5 Damage)

It's no more complex than adding an accessory slot, but it makes players feel like they're customizing their weapons. You could even do a little paper doll for them to see how the components look together if you have artistic skills.

Perhaps you could have certain players who do well early in the game by having 3 slots all available, but then have other players with 2 slots and an Aura slot that adds auras to the weapons. (Attainable later game.) Some hilts could be shared between daggers and maces, and some wooden shafts could be shared between lances and staffs.

What do you all think? I personally like the idea. I feel it could even allow silly combinations or unique weapon ideas. I'm actually surprised I haven't seen this idea in many games yet. Does anyone think they might use it in their game?

I like the idea and its sounds familiar, I'm thinking a bioware game had something similar maybe...Jade Empire? Not sure.

In essence its the same as slots that give upgrades but has the thematic effect that they are components of weapons themselves. A simple edit of a weapon customisation script would be all you need to pull this off and an edit of the scene_menu to include a window that shows where the components are going.

I personally would not use this kind of system in my game, characters already have character slots to customise so I would not want to bog down and over complicate matters by making weapons custom as well.

Cool idea! The diversity in this mechanic is admirable. With this system the size of a weapon can be set too. For example: the player has 3 slots total but if he equips a small blade and a hilt it results in a dagger, while a spear, for instance, needs two hilts and a small blade (kind of Minecraftish I suppose). Furthermore hilts can be fist weapons in themselves. Along with dual-wield this system can certainly produce a vast array of possibilities (if all 3 slots in 1 hand are filled, this signifies a two-handed weapon). This approach could even be implemented on skills (combined with equip skills script)...all in all a fun mechanic that I would like to see done.

I like your take on the idea. That too could be a very versatile way to customize a weapon and change it's properties of classification.

The spell customization idea reminds me of Oblivion's ability to make your own spells.