It’d be perhaps a good touch if soldiers became more skilled at using a particular weapon over time as they became more familiar with that weapon, in particular the aim percentage.
Doing this would create a cost/benefit to switching up a soldier’s weapon whenever new technology became available. Do you want to do more damage at the cost of a temporary drop in that aim percentage, or do you want continue hitting more targets, all be it with less damage output?
I could see this as more of a visual & cosmetic issue. Because think of it this way. If someone is used to using a sniper rifle, and likes the feel of a wooden stock and solid front grip, then they might opt to include that in the design of a new rifle. In short, even when they upgrade to gauss rifles, they could make one that’s built using a solid wooden stock and grip, just because a certain soldier asked for it. So you would wind up with something advanced, but looked oldschool or retro. Advanced alloy-cored electromagnet setups, but solid oak butt-stock, and the comforting rub of a familiar trigger and trigger guard to fire it.
That’s because personalized equipment would be a highly important deal to keep morale up among the irregular soldiery of the mid-21st century. It’s like when people get a new truck IRL, but they take the gearshift cover off and replace it with the one from their old truck.
I’ve said this in another thread already, but I think it would fit here too:
I like the idea of soldiers getting more familiar with their equipment. Maybe not on a “used x times” count, but rather as a “passive skill” based mechanic. While the timed mechanic would of course be more immersive, I’d find it hard to implement properly, without it having some arbitrary barrier: “You used this rifle for five missions and got seven kills, now you suddenly can handle it better.” While the skill barrier is not in the least any less arbitrary… as a player, I would feel more comfortable with it. But that might just be me personally.
Continuing on the original thought, this could not only be implemented for weapons, but also equipment. Training in medkits/jumpjets/etc., so they won’t use willpoints, or are more effective (longer range, higher charge) It would be one way to specialise soldier for their task.
On the note of weapon customisation, I think it has been said already that Phoenix Point will have a rather extensive character and weapon customisation, so I can see this “personalized weapon for each soldier” happen no matter what. But that is just a speculation on my part.
(Still, I’d love to see it actually in game)