So sidearms... Accept the SMG and a few trained ScP users are generally pretty crappy right? And I speak from experience I only have 2 sidearms not PRO so let's get going

Let's take a look back at what other games have done shall we?

minmi tech seems to favor burst so... Normal SMG is burst which would help with total damage output, and the assault SMG would have reduced (4-6HP) damage 1000rpm and full auto and breach needs to be looked at... (Any ideas besides straight injection of damage is helpful)

The flaylock... I am not familiar enough with this sidearm in particular but from my experience is a great finisher, you either have to make it 4-5 shots and let it keep it's crappy hit detection and tiny radius or keep it all the same and increase radius about 1.5-2m

no onto my child... That pisses on the floor falls in it and cries like it's my fault... The ion pistol! Yes one of the worst sidearms only challenged by the flaylock in sheer absolute failure... Well first off I have over 2.5 million invested into this weapon only rivaled by my SMG, I am a plasma ***** so I am always trying to make it work... But it hates me and first off it doesn't do the advertised damage it does anywhere from 60-110 depending on your trigger finger because it slightly charges...

Anyways the way to help the ion pistol is make the spread about that of lvl 5 sharpshooter by default. Or higher and increase the RoF to about 400-500 to install low damage high RoF and so the charges do not overlap and overheat it... Speaking of satan how about when the weapon is charged the hip fire shrinks or just make it so it gets within a hair of overheating once fired full charge and make the heat linger...

The ScP I know a lot of people including myself who want the old RoF back but that's not going to happen... I think it fell into place fine but it is missing good sights... Give us something that can headshot stuff without just hip fire, red dot, hair iron sights but make it more of a marksman weapon than it's iron sights suggest.

The bolt pistol... This is a fun one for about 2 months it was my sidearm for my ScR which worked great but I got bored and went to plasma... The BP people say is buggy but I have had no issue besides the fact it sometimes runs all it's ammo out silently when your messing with the spool up and it causes epic backflips in hostiles.

Magsec time... Good for anything medium frame and under, it's an okay weapon it needs more range and the kick is a bit- of a problem but it's manageable I like it but it's not accurate enough or pray n' spray enough for my style... Plus this is the only other one I don't have Proto. So it's good for drilling through a slower moving target but it's really hard to get scouts...

So the SMG can compete with light weapons, the Magsec is it's slightly more arrogant but weaker brother, the ion pistol and flaylock are peeing in each other's pants... The ScP is a gambler and the bolt pistol makes the enemy a gymnast...

(Nova knives are fine, the mag secs silencer doesn't show up in 1st person I don't punctuate and the IoP still has no Proto colors.)

Those are my opinions and feedback is good if it's helpful not just someone who reads half and thinks I am an idiot because I think the SMG doesn't fit with the rest of the sidearms or that I have PRO IoP.