As far as wepon customization goes I'm willing to let everyone discribe how they've moddifed their weapons in a minor way, though these modds will NOT effect stats. As far as picking up a deadman's weapone your marine needs training it it's use. For example the average marine dosn't have the training to use the Smartgun. Nor the wrist computer, ect ect, If/when characters die I'll decide who would be able to use their weapons based on intellegence. The same method will be used to decide who can use any weapons you find during the mission. ALSO for the sake of ballance I'm not going to allow anyone to pick up a piece of exclusive equipment unless they are the same type as the person who dropped it. I.e. if you lose your synthetic your sentry guns arn't going anywhere. It is nearsighted as far as a military outlook goes. But at this point it's more about ballance than anything else. Losing a character should be something that really screws the team over a bit not just a 'well their dead...lets grab their stuff!' thing.