The mechanic of picking up a fallen ally's weapon mid-wave to either fight on with it or save it for their respawn is a cool idea, but I rarely see it get utilized. When I attempt it, I find the "drop your weapon to pick up their weapon" logic often doesn't work because the new weapon might be 1 or 2 weight over your limit. Sometimes when I attempt this, I end up dropping my weapon, not being able to pick up the new weapon, and then having to fight on with one fewer weapon since they're both on the ground (since it's not always viable to drop your weapon in an ideal location to pick up a new one, such as when kiting).
Being able to pick up a weapon temporarily and then do the math for what to drop a bit later could help with this; even if a player had all the weapon weights memorized, they can't tell if a weapon has 1 vs 2 upgrades before picking it up (since that usually changes the weight).
A possible solution could be to pick up the weapon, but if it's over the weight limit the newly acquired weapon is unusable (except for bashing). The player can then sort out what to drop to make up the weight later. Having the weapon's despawn timer not reset (until the player is no longer over the weight limit) could be good to prevent exploits. Putting it in the Equipment section in the HUD (and possibly greyed out with the remaining time on it) until the weight issue is resolved could help sell the point, as would a message appearing at the bottom of the screen. Since some players would prefer the old system, having a toggle in an option screen to auto-pickup like this could be good as well.
Basically this would help get more use out of the mechanic, which gives the game more of a gritty/dire feel, as well as better allow players to help out a fallen teammate by saving their weapon and dropping it by the trader.
Being able to pick up a weapon temporarily and then do the math for what to drop a bit later could help with this; even if a player had all the weapon weights memorized, they can't tell if a weapon has 1 vs 2 upgrades before picking it up (since that usually changes the weight).
A possible solution could be to pick up the weapon, but if it's over the weight limit the newly acquired weapon is unusable (except for bashing). The player can then sort out what to drop to make up the weight later. Having the weapon's despawn timer not reset (until the player is no longer over the weight limit) could be good to prevent exploits. Putting it in the Equipment section in the HUD (and possibly greyed out with the remaining time on it) until the weight issue is resolved could help sell the point, as would a message appearing at the bottom of the screen. Since some players would prefer the old system, having a toggle in an option screen to auto-pickup like this could be good as well.
Basically this would help get more use out of the mechanic, which gives the game more of a gritty/dire feel, as well as better allow players to help out a fallen teammate by saving their weapon and dropping it by the trader.
