I do not think the UAC weaponry idea would work like you want to.
The UAC weaponry list is large and heterogenous.
UAC carbine is ubiquitous and pretty good, but clearly an early weapon.
UAC Rifle is a bit later, rare, but not quite having a good niche.
UAC Pistol is even more rare, but is actually plenty useful compressing the rifle use case in a portable sidearm format.
UAC Nailgun is gnarly but is a NPC weapon, and you are unlikely to even see it until year 2.
UAC plasmagun is very useful but really rare, and sourcing ammo for it is difficult.
BFG 9000 is a monster of a gun, even rarer than plasmagun, with it being a plasma Rocket Launcher.
UAC Rocket Launcher is a fast firing rl that can be taken to space, so it cas quite an use case.
All these weapons are VASTLY different, operate differently, ammo is sourced in different fashion, and you rely on them at different part of the game.
Just because you know about the common as fuc UAC carbine does not entitle you to knowledge about BFG operation.
mhh I don't know I've always wondered why the uac arsenal has always been so scattered in the research tree. Perhaps the logical and underlying answer in the game is that less powerful uac weapons are more common to find, even on the black market? And because the researchers - who are civilians - are sometimes armed with uac carbines, shouldn't it be the prerogative of military units or bandits? Maybe there are links between uac and academy? If yes, I believe that this should emerge from research, throughout history, perhaps with a couple of topics
In any case, I noticed that zombiermen are sometimes armed with domestic shotguns and pitchforks, but in reality they should always have the basic weapons of the uac, i.e. pistol, rifle, and perhaps the aforementioned carbines, wouldn't it make more sense? Maybe the more advanced uac weapons unlocked with research to be purchased should be unlocked with a dedicated research topic? What do you think?
To make game less frustrating i'd lower the rank for hunter-killer manufacturin, as of N4.0.2 is "boss", and a 14mm cannon or At least its ammo should be easily unlockable in early phases of the game in the black market, so we might replenish ammo stockpike for crappy craft (buckaroo and such).
In closing, reading this post
here i was thinking: wouldn't be nice if every contry in the world would give access to an unique craft, after unlocking it with research? Aside the buckaroos and more sh***y vessels (the birds family) that can manufacture everywhere? Might be used the existing ones or even some more might be added so we should get one vessel unique per country. Deal?