The grade 1 unengineered weapons have to be trash to make fully engineered weapons not be insanely overpowered. Having on foot engineering focus more on special secondary fire modes, special effects, more exotic equipment or new weapons entirely rather than vanilla stat buffs would allow base weapons to be more effective against low ranking enemies making early on foot combat more fun. Feeling like one has to grind like crazy just to get a weapon that shots straight from the get go is not fun, and will deter players from engaging with Ody combat content.
Possible Examples:
Upgrades to a Kinetic/explosive rocket launcher to be able to launch a flak shell that obscures the ground, and stops ship projectiles like missiles from reaching the ground.
Upgrades to a laser rifle that adds a plasma based secondary fire mode with limited ammo.
Upgrades to a kinetic rifle to allow a shield by pass effect as a secondary limited ammo/time firing option.
Upgrades to a laser rifle that allows a secondary fire to grant a much higher rate of fire for a short period of time with a long cool down.
Possible Examples:
Upgrades to a Kinetic/explosive rocket launcher to be able to launch a flak shell that obscures the ground, and stops ship projectiles like missiles from reaching the ground.
Upgrades to a laser rifle that adds a plasma based secondary fire mode with limited ammo.
Upgrades to a kinetic rifle to allow a shield by pass effect as a secondary limited ammo/time firing option.
Upgrades to a laser rifle that allows a secondary fire to grant a much higher rate of fire for a short period of time with a long cool down.