hear me out.
you made this wonderful mod because you approached some fallacies about the gothic game; the wastefulness of the resources, the lack of meaning about salvaging items scattered around the world, the level curve of improving the main character, the spike of difficulty and making the choice about spending lp vital.
While playing as a mage paladin in my second run about 1 and half year ago i felt that even if i thought this mod can be considered the best mod on par with new balance, or even way better under many aspects, still something was, not really missing, but ALMOST reached about the weapon mechanics; the improvement.
At first i was angry because the paladin didn't have so much good options like the demon weapons from harad and the oriental wapons from bennet, so i i thougt "o well still i can reach the cursed staff of Hoshpack or if i go hardcore i can wield the shaman axe that deal stupid amouts of damages and this is even better" but after i reached 666 point of mana i felt that something was still lacking.
The way you addressed at the problem of improving the character was genius. The problem about gothic is that is that is kinda pointless doing a packrat run and improving the character just with lp and elixirs was boring, like it was boring just to let the game go on for better weapons, so you thought "why don't you let the player improving an exceptional faction or class weapon during the whole campaign?".
One of the problem still the game has is the usefulness about trophies, and you reached a perfect idea of using them through the belt smithing perk to make more money and more stats, but still the weapon mechanic and the trophies mechanic lack of meaning( claws, pelts, teeths, horns are still udeless). and i was hit by an idea.
I was angry i had to rush from ch 2 to ch 3 for the first run as a bandit and the second run as a mage paladin for improbing my gear and not waste time clearing the 3 maps, soooooooo.... instead of running and skipping chapters for better weapons, why don't you let the player improve since the very start of the game the wapons? but how? by spending the trophies!
So now the players cannot skip chapters anymore but they MUST slay monsters for improving weapons, like the Monster Hunter weappon mechanics.
No more need to rush, the more you clean the map, the more your weapon advance in strength. If you skip the chapter you will be overwhelmed by the enemies and your weapon would be garbage.
So let's say, the Nergal of Fire sword or the Ore blade have a total of 50 levels, to improve every level of the weapon you need;
lv 1 30 claws, 40 pelts, 40 teths
lv 2 almost the same and scrolls ( now the scroll perk is usefull for all classes, bandit need dark magic scrolls for katanas and demon wapons, paladin need fire scrolls for the innos weapon, warriors mercenary needs ore items and ore magicks scrolls from the water benders like in gothic 1, where you improve your magic blade into ore, so now with ores and water magick scrolls you can regain Uriziel by crafting this wonderfull legendary blade again)
lv 3 almost the same
lv 4 the same
lv 5 a lot of resources and boss trophies
and so on
and so on
lv 20 ( bandits needs paladins dead trophies like dead paladin npc heads, innos swords needs fire rain and top scrolls holy waters and such, ore blades needs a lot of ores and rainstorms ).
And so on until level 50 where the wapon you obtain since the start has his full potential that is by the way restored every level and gain the full name of the weapon like from the LV 1 cursed odd spear to a level 25 Ominous odd spear until Lv 50 The Bloody Nergal Aspis
so now EVERY single scrolls have a usefull damn use, every stupid dumb wolf teeth, every stupid hammer, every stupid moonwalker lurker claws, every dumb saw, clogs, bone, heads, herbs even more and so on, like every single stupid items.
Every now and then you can still throw around the map a stronger weapon that cannot be improved like the 2 handed huge wooden club, a huge spear, a dragon blade a goblin ass whoper club, a legendary molerat roasted bone, a magic staff and such so you can still have a different approach in difficult situations like dealing with high armored undead for gaining their super rare trophies, shadow beasts for their horns, trolls and high dangerous beasts that needs to be slayed in order to level up the your faction weapon or it will be stuck to let's say level 18 in chapter one.
By doig so now there is no problem in skipping chapters to improve weapons and the player is forced even more in seaching around every corner new monsters to improve their weapon while trying to save khorinis citizens ass from the unavoidable terrible destiny is coming.
COME ON NOW TELL ME THIS IS NOT THE BEST IDEA YOU HAVE NOT HEARD BRO
( my countless years in playing jrpg and rpgs have their meaning coff coff)