I see where you are coming from but disagree.

Let's assume you have all possible racial variants in across the board for rifles...so 16 rifles (4 races and 4 categories). By design as stated but he Devs each race has a preferred or "base" category. The basic idea is that a given given races base weapon out performs other races spin on the variant BUT they all need to be at least competitive (but not equal) in effectiveness.

Caldari basic category is Breach (low ROF, good damage, high accuracy, long range) other races breach variants will underperform when directly compared to the rail rifle. That doesn't mean they aren't viable; I've got some buddies that us the Gallente burst variant to great effect and they've stuck with it even with the combat rifle out.

In response to your direct recommendations:
A) you can change the looks but why? Not opposed to it but seems like an inefficient use of development assets
B) not a bad idea. I like being able to identify weapons by sound and visual signature (color and type of tracers)
C) this is really where we part ways...see reasons in paragraph above.
D) 100% on board with you as long as they adhere to the racial playstyle rubric.

I see where you are coming from but disagree.

Let's assume you have all possible racial variants in across the board for rifles...so 16 rifles (4 races and 4 categories). By design as stated but he Devs each race has a preferred or "base" category. The basic idea is that a given given races base weapon out performs other races spin on the variant BUT they all need to be at least competitive (but not equal) in effectiveness.

Caldari basic category is Breach (low ROF, good damage, high accuracy, long range) other races breach variants will underperform when directly compared to the rail rifle. That doesn't mean they aren't viable; I've got some buddies that us the Gallente burst variant to great effect and they've stuck with it even with the combat rifle out.

I agree with your points, however I still feel the burst is under performing versus the KRR. It has to have some sort of benefit over the RR or else I dont see the viability.

I personally feel that each weapon and its variants should be tied into their racial creator, the problem is that CCP decided to "balance" these weapons as such we get these variants that should be dominating in there own way.

Example Pallete Caldari: Gauss (assault), Rail (marksman), Bolt (breach), Forge (Anti Matter). Each weapon should be classed/modified to meet specific roles and overall change the entire weapon system.

Example Pallete Caldari 2 Weapon variation name: Starting off with a weapon not yet within the game (or if it hasn't been removed from the drawing board) Gauss Rifle, high rate of fire low damage. Rail Gauss Rifle, marksman variant capable of hitting targets at greater distance, greater damage, requires charging, medium- high rate of fire. Bolt Gauss Rifle greastest damage extremely low rate of fire compared to standard and marksman variants.

Forge Cannon (Forge Gun), high damage anti material drilling armament, capable of medium-high damage to vehicles, low ammunition capacity, low rate of fire, requires charging. Rail Forge Cannon, semi-automatic, capable of medium damage to vehicles, slightly greater rate of fire. Gauss Forge Cannon, fully automatic variant, lacks damage, lacks range, greatest rate of fire of all variants, highst ammo capacity of all variants, capable of low damage to vehicles. Charged Forge Cannon, greatest damage of all variants, charging time required increased compared to standard variant, low rate of fire, capable of high damage to vehicles.

Kudos to all who read that, and yes i've put SIGNIFICANT thought into just what you possibly read/skimmed over, as shown above, each race should make variants based on their own race, not based on others. (As you clearly saw there is no burst model). Now practically your taking a standard weapon and remodelling it to fit an entirely different situation.

Each race has their own breach, their own marksman, their own anti material, and assault, but some unique races (like the minmatar) has unique variants, (that will obviously be allowed to gallente for various reasons) that allows them to be different and sometimes depending on the situation, better than their opposition. Doesn't fix TTK but you definitely bet that these weapons will do better than they have now.

There was ALOT more here but apparently my ps3 is ********, but from forge cannon part you guys get the jist.

I assume the breach ar still puts out more dps than the RR, has less range and is less accurate.

I personally feel that the burst and breach AR has no real attraction and therefore its use will die out. In order to keep these rifles ( as well as any other rifle that seems to be under used) attractive and viable, we need to tweak the rifles to make all of them as deadly as the other. Otherwise, dust514 will turn into combat rifle 514, or rail rifle 514, or so on.

I think a good way to make the rifles more attractive is to
a) change what the rifle looks like
b) change the sound effect for the rifle
c) buff the weapon over all in some way
d) release other race variants of the rifle

any other opinions / suggestions?