Hammer of the Emperor introduces the idea of Variant Equipment patterns. You take a standard piece of gear, and acquire it in such a large quantity that the design has a few positive and negative variations based off of the "default" pattern which gives them unique bonuses or penalties.

My players love the Merovech Assault Lasgun, and have probably acquired well over 100,000 of them by this point to hand out to their trained troops, or to arm enemies against themselves. Then they started making them on one of their Forge moons, so we decided to roll up a variant pattern and name it the "Hos-Pattern Merovech Lasgun".

One of the pregen characters has an Archeotech Accurate Hellpistol, fyi.

I prefer the Minerva-Aegis Las-Carbine to the Merovech Assault Lasgun. And the Dlaku Crusade Hellgun to either.

I prefer the Minerva-Aegis Las-Carbine to the Merovech Assault Lasgun. And the Dlaku Crusade Hellgun to either.

The Merovech can get you 24 full rounds of suppressing fire without needing to pause to reload, plus a free mono-spear for combat and is only Average availability which makes acquiring huge numbers of them easier. They also have Inferno pistols for once people are pinned down with mono-spears.

The cheapest inferno pistol is very rare, though? And the Merovech doesn't have an inferno pistol on it? And adding an exterminator and melee attachment and mono knife to make it count as a mono spear or chain knife to make it count as a chain spear is pretty simple? And duplus ammo clips are a thing? As is training for rapid reload?

It was more being able to continuously lay down suppressing fire which is what we were looking into. Also I was mistaken, it was my Astropath's "elite" troops that got Inferno Pistols. Most people just got a Hot Shot pack that they could slot in for emergencies.

A Bunch of upgrades would work, but they're acquiring Best Quality to avoid jamming issues and an Army sized at a time, so even with the Merovech at Average that's a -50 to Acquisitions. Any upgrade they tack onto that massively shifts the Acquisition down so that it becomes unwieldy since you take the rarest, which is also why they don't have Targetters. These are also going to huge numbers of troops so they get Basic Weapon Training (Las) and when in Melee they charge in to parry down a line to let hot shotting take place, or provide precious +10s for friends in Melee. They also are not viewed as inherently essential.

I did forget about the Duplus Ammo Clips from Dark Heresy, which makes Rapid Reload interesting since with a 1 Round Reload for Full Auto you can theoretically never stop firing. However that still comes out to underneath the goal of infinite suppression, since a Lascarbine can fire for 5 rounds completely, then with the standard three clips means you fire for 15 Rounds total. That's still less than a Merovech's ability to Full Auto for 24 rounds before requiring reloading.

You make the upgrades separately and dedicate some technicians for a few months of putting them together! Also, make them quick-release, that can help.

Or just put together a manufactorum capable of putting together, 'Good Quality, Minerva-Aegis Las Carbines with Pistol Grip, Exterminators, Melee Attachment and associated Mono-Knives, Quick-Release, Duplus Charge Packs, Telescopic Sights, and see if you can get them to be Variable for extra boost when needed'.

Also remember with the merovech, you are putting TWO charge packs in the thing at a given moment. If you only have three more charge packs... that's 1.5 reloads!

You make the upgrades separately and dedicate some technicians for a few months of putting them together! Also, make them quick-release, that can help.

Or just put together a manufactorum capable of putting together, 'Good Quality, Minerva-Aegis Las Carbines with Pistol Grip, Exterminators, Melee Attachment and associated Mono-Knives, Quick-Release, Duplus Charge Packs, Telescopic Sights, and see if you can get them to be Variable for extra boost when needed'.

As the GM of my campaign I will absolutely reject this idea. It sounds like sensible innovation, which is contradicted by every single piece of literature I have read on the topic. Also I have enforced the limit in Hostile Acquisitions of no more than 4 upgrades for a single weapon.

Again, it's not the best setup, but it is the most efficient way to equip a bunch of disposable minions whose job it is to point guns at the enemy and hold down the trigger. We've been a little unclear as to how to read the Merovech description of having two charge packs. We did settle that it can work with two separate packs of 60 shots, meaning they will take one clip of normal and then a hotshot extra, essentially giving them a free Fire Selector if they're going in to combat against a known tough enemy. Also the point is they're not supposed to reload, they're supposed to hold down the button and pray.

It strikes me as a bit against the fluff to manufacture anything of good or best quality. That seems more a matter of tinkering with something until it's more perfect. Tech-priests tinker. Manufactorums produce...mass produce.

Could just be a superior pattern being stamped out.