We already had Nova Knife as default melee in past. I personally like it how it is now - you can more easily recognize players that prefer more hard and challenging gameplay thanks to that. Sometimes when I see guy with knifes I engage him with melee instead of shooting him from distance, because I know that walking with knifes is extremely difficult.

That makes like what, less than 1% of the total population? NKs are underused, and with good reason. People just dont see them justifed as a sidearm weapon.

I havent played early DUST builds but I dont see why they would need to make NK share the sidearm slot when most games that have a more complex melee system has melee as their own weapon slot.

If you be telling me that you seen in past "(...) a more complex melee system (...)", think about those games where you have to press different buttons every each second to finish or fail melee animation, I agree that it is making a game look a truly complex, but in fact just in negative form. I like to play games that are real tactics, not those that pretend to have it.

How would you guys feel if CCP were to replace the default melee with equippable Nova Knives?

Personally I thought it was rather dull that I could do a quick 1/2 sec elbow blow or pistol whip, however, being able to draw out my knife in Counter Strike added a whole nother level of melee immersion that I havent felt in any modern game (halo, CoD's paper cut knife, battlefield's scripted animation). What I want is a third weapon slot dedicated to nova knives on all suits to replace weapon melee.

All suits start out with a MLT Knife at 0 CPU/PG cost, it'll be weaker than standard but cost absolutely nothing. If you want a stronger knife, you'll have to replace the default fitting with a STD, ADV, or PRO, at which point it'll start costing CPU/PG. The suit's default knife cannot be unequipped, instead it stays on all suits (starter fits, BPOs, and market bought BPCs) and can be exchanged.

The way it'll work is pressing the right analog button will do a quick one handed knife animation thats more akin to a fist punch while still maintaining your main weapon at hand, holding down the right analog would holster your weapon and draw out both knives and enter into knife mode that is pretty much what we currently have when we hold nova knives.

Once all racial knives are implemented, CCP can match all suits with it's default racial knife.

Currently Nova Knives are underused, I want to steer clear of the horrible elbow bunt animation and hope to add a universal stealth element that everyone can use but not everyone can master or use in most situations. It'll be both fun and tactical and allows everyone to experience knifing. Since nova knife will no longer take a secondary sidearm slot that would leave room for people to carry a sidearm but I think it'll still be balanced because the no one will really use MLT knife over a sidearm under normal circumstances and upgrading the knife would cost CPU/PG so you would be trading in sidearm effectiveness for better knifing.

Pros
+A third equippable weapon
+All players can experience a more immersive melee gameplay
+Better melee animation that makes more sense than an elbow bunt
+At 0 sp 0 cpu/pg, a stealth weapon that everyone can use by default
Cons
-Wont be that strong unless you upgrade it, costing cpu and pg [tradeoff]
-Requires some coding work to make the melee button (R3) function so you can take out knives if you hold down the button, everything else can stay the same, no change necessary
-Bitter hipsters wont stop talking about how nova knife use to be a sidearm weapon

This is not a suggestion (yet), it is simply a discussion about a possibility and how people would react to such a change.
Any thoughts and comments?

case in point.

Was there a reason why they removed it?
I'm gonna guess it's because CCP wanted a halo/CoD styled quick melee over a slow equippable knife melee system. I see no reason why we cant have both.

That makes like what, less than 1% of the total population? NKs are underused, and with good reason. People just dont see them justifed as a sidearm weapon.

I havent played early DUST builds but I dont see why they would need to make NK share the sidearm slot when most games that have a more complex melee system has melee as their own weapon slot.