I gotta disagree with those points, Neonivek
But specifically, I think you're mistaken about the mods? You don't need skill to attach mods, only to create them. So if you pull one off another gun (by crafting a basic part, which is... dumb, but arguably balance I *guess*) then you can place it on the weapon you want.
The crafting skills are really just for convenience and expediency.
My issue is more that the modification was supposed to be expansive... but there are so many "the same thing but slightly better"... add onto the fact that many guns have the same modifications but require different skills...
1. Why does placing a recon scope on one weapon take more skill than another? it is the same recon scope.
2. I actually think that it makes the weapon variety feel smaller then in previous Fallouts.
3. So yes you CAN place a 10mm silencer on ANY 10mm... But that same silencer only works on a 10mm even though it is the same silencer that almost all the other weapons use... and when you create them it might be anywhere from 1 to 4 gunnery for no reason other than game mechanics.
In otherwords the problem with modification is that... It is so aggressively game... well one problem at least.
bold points added by me
1. It doesn't, remove the scope mod and attach it to any other, no skill required. The only stupid part about this is that removing the scope for some reason requires you to "build" a standard sights, which is ridiculous but I haven't seen a weapon for which I couldn't do it without needing a rank in the gun skills. Yes, that applies to the Deliverer as well.
2. You have pipe, pipe bolt-action, 10mm pistol, .44 pistol, submachine gun, syringer, laser, plasma, gauss rifle, gamma gun, Institute, laser musket, hunting rifle, sniper rifle, combat rifle, assault rifle, sniper rifle, double barrel shotgun, combat shotgun, minigun, gatling laser, missile launcher, fat man, all the melee weapons and the explody stuff (mines and grenades).
I am counting Institute as separate weapons because they do feel separate (higher ROF, better ammo capacity. They are well suited to autmatic upgrades. Least they would be if they weren't ugly as sin). If the "It's just laser but weaker and fugly" logic were followed, you could trim all weapons in all Fallout games to the strongest representative of the Plasma, Laser, Semi-auto, Automatic, Bolt-Action, Shotgun and Explodey categories and argue all other weapons are just weaker and fuglier/prettier variants of the same weapon.
I am however willing to concede the point on couting Institute, Laser, Plasma, Pipe, Pipe Revolver and Pipe Bolt Action as single entities rather than dividing them into pistol and rifle category.
Anyway, onto actual numbers:
Just keeping to firearms, energy weapons and heavy weapons, in FO4 you have 23 different weapons and 7 truly unique weapons (I.E. they have different models to the others and cannot be bought at vendors). All in all that's
30 different weapons (disregarding named weapons which are basically ordinary weapon models but with names and Legendary weapons), all of which are also highly modifiable.
sauceNow, in fallout 3, limiting myself once again to firearms, energy and heavy weapons (and only counting those available to you in the base game, without the DLC), you had 22 different weapons (yes, I counted the laser and plasma rifles and pistols as separate weapons) and 5 truly unique weapons (dart gun, railway rifle, rock-it launcher, Alien Blaster, Lincoln Repeater). So all in all,
28 different weapons. Then you also had the named weapons, but since I did not count those towards FO4, I shan't do it for FO3 either (because that'd mean all of the modifications for changing the weapons from rifles to pistols also get on the table).
sorsFallout New Vegas, on the other hand (same limitations apply) had 28 weapons and 17 truly unique weapons (with the added caveat that some of them are only texture modifications). All in all,
45 different weapons (give or take a few, I think I may have lost count a couple times), with most of the standard ones being somewhat modifiable. Again, I disregarded named weapons (at least some of them, because NV usually gave them a texture swap) and weapons added via DLC.
sűrsSo while it may feel like FO4 has less weapon variety than previous fallout games, in reality it's only below Fallout New Vegas (And moves closer to it if you consider some modification paths as unique weapons) as far as the new fallout games are concerned.
3. untrue, silencers are heavily dependent on the weapon IRL. You can't take a 9mm pistol's silencer and screw it onto an AR-15 and have it be silenced. Hell, given the way silencers work IRL you can't even screw it onto another 9mm pistol and have it work unless that pistol has the ability to even mount a silencer in the first place.
WRT to some modifcations being obvious upgrades: I believe that was kind of the point. Like it has been said, most modifiable weapons can go two routes, eiher automatic or semi-automatic (higher dpsecond vs. higher dpshot) as far as damage is concerned and 3 routes as far as range is concerned (long-range, mid-range, short-range). All of those routes consist of obvious upgrades (with the routes being mostly sidegrades, depending on the player's playstyle) in order to prolong the weapon's useful lifetime within the game.
This way, keeping weapons and giving them names actually makes sense instead of discarding them the instant something with a higher number comes along. hell, I'm well into late game and still my fully upgraded 10mm pistol finds its fair share of use in combat.