[Suggestion] Dual Wield Sidearms for LA

Put a sidearm in the main weapon slot and it gets equipped in the sidearm slot making you dual wield them.
Jetpacks and dual wielding guns, how cool would that be, and would give LA's some more flavour.

Double reload times and sidearms have low ammo count so it sticks to the fast attack style but wont last long in a drawn out firefight, and wont be able to use scopes just basic aim.

Akimbo LAs have been put on the table since LAs and Tables were in the same room together. If not a coding nightmare, it would be a balancing one: Weaker MAXes that can fly, if too strong, or not used at all like ever if too weak.

At the ranges most pistols are used, anyway, you might as well stick with a CQC Primary

The Devs proposed Akimbo weapons on LA back in 2013. That's like 3 years they could have used to get the community to accept that LA should be the highest DPS infantry class. HA's should be tanks, and LA's should be DPS.

Instead we have HA's being the tank, the damage, AND the AV class all rolled into one.

So yeah I much prefer their original vision of LA than what we have now. Heavy Assault relegating EVERY other infantry class to some side-job or curiosity.

I'd suggest:
1) have to equip 2 Secondary Weapons
2) can hit 1 to wield just Secondary Weapon in Right Hand (zero time if starting from "Duel Wield Mode"): this is not duel wield
3) can hit 2 to wield just Secondary Weapon in Left Hand (zero time if starting from "Duel Wield Mode"): this is not duel wield
4) can hit "x" to activate Duel Wield, drawing and equipping both Weapons
5) can Hipfire both Weapons while in Duel Wield
6) if ADS while Duel Wielding, you just aim only with 1-gun. Right Hand by default. But if Right hand Mag is empty, it will then aim with Left Hand.
7) reload takes double the time to reload both. But it will load Right Hand first, then Left Hand, so you can interrupt during the Left Hand load and still be able to use a Loaded Right Hand Weapon if needed.

It's a balancing nightmare if done the way OP suggests, but there's another, very easy way to implement dual wielding.

Dual wielded weapons would be an LA-exclusive primary, unlocked and equipped in the primary weapon slot. Sidearm slot remains functional and isn't affected in any way.

This DW primary functions the same way every other primary weapon does, it will just have two weapon models in front of player's eyes instead of one.

As far as weapon mechanics are concerned, they could function like a shotgun with 2 pellets, essentially firing 2 bullets per shot inside own, small pellet spread.

Players would be able to aim with DW weapons same way HA aims with MCG - brings weapons closer to the face and magnifies vision.

Balancing wise, DW weapons would have similar effective range and accuracy to SMGs, but remain accurate while flying on the jet pack and jumping around. There could be additional bonuses, like faster movement while aiming, or no restriction to ADS speed at all.

If DW weapons are designed this way, we don't have to worry about bringing complex MAX DW mechanics, and we don't have to worry about rebalancing already existing sidearms.

It's also an opportunity to introduce some faction flavor the same way HA heavy weapons do.

They don't necessarily have to be pistols, or belong to any existing weapon class. They can be made as unique as we want, including wrist mounted plasma launchers.

Would these things make you happy?

Sound ideas imo.

They would be fun toys for sure, and would solve some of the issues LA is facing, but PS2 needs something bigger to move LA from "somewhat viable" to "necessary".

The reason why not is fairly simple, apart from the coding issues

Duel Repeaters vs duel Beamers...

Which do you think will be good and the other meh...

Now if duel wield was restricted to the Beamer and its counterpart pistol amoungst the TR and NC, apart from the humor aspect of the worst pistols now being bought up just to be duel wielded it wouldn't be so bad.

Dual Commissioners for all!

i'd be running a pair of Xbows (probably witgh explosive darts) XD
it'd be a OHK on direct hits and also dealing nice damage splash damage.

if Xbows are'nt included then i'd run 2 inquisitors, the new inquisitor is really really good from my experience,
runner up would probably be commies or emissaries

Could introduce a new weapon type thats dual wield and balanced on its own, leaving the sidearms alone.

My infil would also like to have dual wielded pistols
He told me he was going to use them to hunt LA

Let's put it as objectively as possible:

Side-arms have a short range overall.
Equipping two side-arms would give the LA another option for short-ranged high-DPS combat.
Effectively the LA would not change much in any of his usages. At best we get a new option to play with, at worst the option is either too good and everyone takes it or it's too weak and no one does.

In any case, dual-wielding is a bad, bad thing to be working on. If we had unlimited developer time and money to allocate, sure why not, but it wouldn't do anything for the class as a whole.
You might as well propose a weapon in between a shotgun and a Carbine and think that will make the class unique enough, even though it does not fill any niche role or make the class really unique with all the weapons already available.

that's not a bad idea actualy,but it can only be a side arm no dual wielding primarys,and on that note light assault need C4 removing from them.

because...?

Because this would do nothing to give the LA new roles or capabilities, other than an aestetic change and a slight difference in use in CQC? I mean, it's just a modification to SMG combat after all, only with more shotgun elements (more COF probably) and longer reloads.
What does this have to do with C4? Why would C4 need to go because of an arbitrary system that doesn't change the LA as a whole? What reasons do you have to remove C4? Do you realize that complete removal of any system is counter-productive, and that the only true option is changing things? If you come to that realization, how would you change C4 overall, or on LA specifically? What do you want to solve with this change, and how will it enhance both the game experience of the tanker as well as the LA's experience? The key here would be improved interplay, where both feel they have options to deal with the other.

C-4 fairies dispel the child-like fantasy that they have wrapped themselves in indestructible armor. That they should be immune from infantry because they walked to a terminal and picked "tank".

And they hate us for that.

The fact is if you get in reasonable range for a pistol, then why not using a shotgun? Would time to kill be that different?
The only reason why I am against this change is I'm afraid it would simply add nothing to the LA class.

Why? Because you didn't put the Radar in the defensive slot of your tank?
Be honest: how many times do you get c4ed by someone who is not a LA?

C-4 fairies dispel the child-like fantasy that they have wrapped themselves in indestructible armor. That they should be immune from infantry because they walked to a terminal and picked "tank". I love to do that. It's just so much fun


And they hate us for that.

Just make dual-wielding exactly like Max dual-weapons.
This means no aim down sights.
Which is a huge nerf in this game, which is very dependent on aim down sights for anything even remotely approaching good accuracy. Not to mention that sidearms are already very weak, anyway.
And it would also remove the main function of the sidearm, which is a quick switch option for when there's no time to reload.

If anything, it would be laughably underpowered. I'm not sure what kind of niche this fills that a shotgun doesn't already fill.

You mean their own faction default pistol, the Repeater?