Some good ideas on your Blog, OP.
I had a thought about weapons though. Ok, lets say that your VH reaches level 10, you get a quest from Marcus called 'Do it yourself' or something along those lines. You go and see him and he says that part of his 'Customer Relations Improvement Therapy' (C.R.I.T.) he has decided to let VH's design their own weapons from parts you can either buy or loot. (Parts are graded in rarity the same as guns and shields), you then choose what sort of weapon you want (Pistol, shotgun, SMG etc) and select parts from a list of 3 per part (Barrel, receiver, stock, so on... the manufacturer of the receiver would determine the manufacturer of the finished product). You then put the gun together on a crafting table found in Marcus' shop (You can use this to build countless guns).
Once done you can name it and make it your signature weapon that levels up with you (You can only do this with one weapon at a time, any of your crafted guns goes into a primary slot, it levels up, you can only level up 4 guns per playthrough and they're capped at L50).
Come on Gearbox, you know this could be done.
