Guns and Weapon skill upgrades help.

Hi, I'm making a GTA: San Andreas map which so far is coming along nicely. But I've hit a problem. I dont know how many of you have played the game, but when you use a weapon a lot your skill with it upgrades (range, attack speed). So far I hav items that morph you into your hero with a weapon. But I wanted it so that after, say 20 kills with an uzi, you will morph into a level 2 *hero with weapon*. Ive tried using berserker upgrade skills but then when u unequip the weapon you dont go back to being unarmed. So can anybody help me? Thanks in advance.

thats what really annoys me about those gta maps, you gotta upgrade yourself and it uses seperate units...

it annoys the heck out of me... i truely think you should develop an item system and use item weapon attachments then making seperate units...

its like when you buy a gun your peasant becomes a bloodly rifleman.. i mean cmon, its not very good.

lol, too true, but then when you use weapon attachments u have a peasant thumping it's enemy from a distance of 3 metres. :\

So, what should I do?

I have also been developing a GTA map which is, however, more similar with GTA 2 and has a sci-fi setting.

I'm using item-based weapon system (click the gun to replace your hero with a hero 'holding' that gun), with main hero skills and lvl retained when you change your weapon, while each of the guns provides you with several abilities available through a spellbook-like menu.
As you level up, more abilities for each weapon are available (triggers enable upgrades when you gain certain levels, and these upgrades enable the corresponding abilities in the menu).

So, use heroes as units and once they level up enable more abilities. That's a good way I guess.

Thanks for that, sounds like it would work a lot better. Gave you some rep.