Item Upgrade and economy

[Micheal Smith]

So I had an idea that may help issues with the 10% sell back. So lets use Laser Rifle as and example.

Lets say I have a Laser Rifle, azimuth and i want the Laser rifle, corona. What if instead of seen it back for 10% they just upgrade to the next model and pay the difference. But I would have to trade in the weapon and a fully charge battery? It's sort of like when you upgrade your cell phone every year. Now I am not sure, haven't delved too deep into the economy and WBL yet, if this will break the economy and make it overpowered for PCs.

Here are the numbers I cam up with, if my math is off in any way shape or form let me know
Buy: Buy with selling previous model for 10%
Trade in: Trading in previous model and paying difference

Laser rifle, azimuth
Cost: 425
10%: 42

Laser rifle corona
Cost: 4650 (10% 465)
Buy: 4650 - 42 = 4608
Trade In: 4650 - 425 = 4225
Saved: 383

Laser rifle aphelion
Cost: 14300 (10%: 1430)
Buy: 14300 - 465 = 13835
Trade In: 14300 - 4650 = 9650
Saved: 4185

And so on. Thoughts?

[Deranged Stabby-Man]

Not sure you could do that at the store, per se, but someone with enough ranks in Engineering and enough Credits/UPBs certainly could gut the weapon in question and build the better replacement parts.

[Saros Palanthios]

This seems like going to a Ford dealership and asking them to upgrade your 2003 Taurus to the 2017 model by swapping out parts. It doesn't work that way.

If nothing else, labor cost would swamp any potential materials savings.

[EC Gamer Guy]

For homegame play, this "trade-in" idea would work fine. The GM just has to keep an eye on WBL which wouldn't be much more difficult than the rest of tracking treasure. I think as long as the players have 1 item that is tier- their level +1 or +2 and the rest is level or lower then it doesn't really matter how they get there. The real unbalancing part would be having 5 or 6 level+2 items; a gun for every occasion.

For Society play, I am hoping there is an upgrade option for like items. But it's not part of the rules except in a few exceptions.

[Micheal Smith]

Saros Palanthios wrote:

This seems like going to a Ford dealership and asking them to upgrade your 2003 Taurus to the 2017 model by swapping out parts. It doesn't work that way.

If nothing else, labor cost would swamp any potential materials savings.

That is nothing like that. You are not swapping are trading in your old weapon for a newer model. That is why I suggested your phone upgrade. Every year I trade in my old phone for the newer upgraded model,

[Maezer]

When you do So, do they give you 100% of the old phone's original value as discount Or is the discount substantially reduced. Granted probably not to 10%. But the probably give you less than the current (much reduced) price they sell your old phone for.

[Nixitur]

That would basically be similar to being able to use 100% of the previous item's wealth to craft a different item and I would be very careful with that. A limited version of that is the Mechanic's level 20 ability and they can't upgrade, only downgrade.
You could use that as a quick and sensible way to generate WBL if the party's lagging behind on that, but definitely don't make it too easy or often.