I like this one actually. +1

+1

Leave theme park garbage in theme parks.

Here is my view:

Add some mobs like bosses or sorta, maybe combined with missions. Note - that shouldn't be observers cuz those bots will have different purpose.

So you need some team to deal with that boss. In his loot you can find some special item, let's call it "unusual" (i.e. "Unusual Gauss Gun".

In the terminal, you can "research" it (completely different from kernel research). This new operation reveals to you what was so "unusual" in that item - some upgraded part. In gauss guns, for example, that could be enlarged barrel, or extended magazine, or improved trigger system, etc. Each part will have it's own bonuses and drawbacks, which will be more or less random - like, enlarged barrel could have stats like "+15% range, +6% energy consumption", etc.

Each unusual part also will have "complexity points" - a random or stat-based attribute which purpose I'll explain later.

Each item will consist from 3 to 5 (or any other number) of such unusual parts. Let's now imagine that you collected full set of parts for a gauss gun. Having them all, you perform some brand new operation - "T5 prototyping" - on a special window you kilda "construct" your gauss gun prototype using these parts - just put all the parts in appropriate slots. There is one limitation - each part, as said above, have it's own complexity points, and overal complexity of a prototype shouldn't be more than some specific value - that encourages you to combine different parts with different stats trying to get the weapon of your dream. Once you've done constructing your prototype, you press "Finish" button and voila - you got your protutype with all the stats it's parts had. That prototype you can then equip or reverse-engineer and mass-produce, whatever - like you do with common prototypes.

Later you can apply such system to everything - any tier fits, robots, etc. Items produced in that way could have corptag or player name in the name or description - like "produced by DoY" or "produced by Ville", whatever. That will allow players to create their own brands.