Well apparently on Buckingham the suits have a slot for melee weapons, and the Nova Knife is a caldari weapon. This leads us to believe we'll get racial variants on melee weapons. So you'll probably be able to trade out that knife for something else Soon(tm)

in this current build, i am currently specing movement, shot guns and and knife handling among other stuff i would really love to be able to have a sword axe some form of melee weapon stronger then the default l3 attack available as a secondary or primary weapon, melee is very much undermined but with level 3 knife handeling i got into a fight with what looked like a militia heavy (i don't know drop suits off by heart but it looked like one) in one knife hit i took away all his shields and with the second slightly over half his armour, having a melee spec is a viable option for a scout class like my self to haven't and considering i am getting up close to people with my breach or Cerberus shot gun it would be nice to be able to use a different melee weapon just to spice things up

Yeah, we also need space horses in dropsuit barding with space lances. Ooh and we can go space dungeon raiding when they implement the new space class system. I'll probably be a space dwarven space fighter with space weapons specialization (space dwarven urgosh) with full space plate or maybe I should stick with space human for an extra space feat and four more extra space skill points. Hopefully we can make it to space level 20 so we can space fight the red space dragon.

theres a point when you go from been opinionated to been a douche

Yeah, but at least I'm a douche with a valid point whereas you're trying to advocate Dust should become some sort of medieval combat simulator set thousands of years in the future.

i dont simple use melee weapons if you read my post properly i point out my main weapon is a shot gun and when you spec knife handeling you can deal some heavy damage, your not even arguing this your just trolling, if your gunna do that not that i can stop you but at least try to make up a remotely valid point. Patches The Hyena agreed with me and different melee weapon's isnt as crazy or senseless then the other post, just take a deep breath and look at this subjectively and not as a douche who just wants to egg all my ideas.

Of course I'm trolling you, you're so ignorant of what you're talking about it's hilarious. Obviously you're going to see different melee weapons, but they're all going to be racial variants and levels of combat knives, you are not going to see a freaking bardiche or a voulgue on the Dust battlefield. Because in a setting with freaking guns, melee weapons are non-viable except for utility-tools like combat knives which double as mine cutters or can be used to saw through wood in emergencies.

Here's the question - outside of racial variants of secondary weapons (i.e., Caldari, Minmatar, Ammar, Gallente combat knives) - what would this add to the combat equation?

Without becoming a melee combat simulator, it couldn't add much. As you already noted, the melee weapon can be a very powerful piece of equipment. In the new build, it is apparently getting even more powerful. So...yes. You could have a Minmatar Thukker Tribal Axe...but how would it be better than the knife? And at what point does carrying an axe or sword simply replace the standard weapon in comparison to a combat knife? And then, does that weapon have to be made powerful enough to be a viable main weapon choice? And then how does the game NOT become a bunch of scouts running around cutting at each other with lightsabers...er...KOTR?

well at a base level maybe emp knifes to knock out sheilds, knifes with maybe a burn or posin effect, swords could have a cool down timer like you get x amount of attacks with it then go;s into a cool down perioud, since a simple blade would hurt sheilds it would need to be a laser or plasma based edge and the axe would be a variant of this sword set up.

Heh...maybe the Amarr equivalent of the Papal Guard?

[I'm not sure I like the sword/axe idea. It does seem a little too...WH40K.

Well, pretty much anything you get hit with is going to 'burn'. The Nova Knife, for example, seems to have an edge of charged plasma. If it can cut through shields and advanced ceramic plating, it'll undoubtedly 'burn'.

As for poison, I'm not certain but I believe DUST clones are bioengineered to be almost entirely immune to the effects of poison. To be fair, the effects of a typical rpg 'poison' would be interesting - temporary slowing of movement and/or a 'bleeding out' effect could make things interesting.

I'm not sure I like the sword/axe idea. It does seem a little too...WH40K.

Of course I'm trolling you, you're so ignorant of what you're talking about it's hilarious. Obviously you're going to see different melee weapons, but they're all going to be racial variants and levels of combat knives, you are not going to see a freaking bardiche or a voulgue on the Dust battlefield. Because in a setting with freaking guns, melee weapons are non-viable except for utility-tools like combat knives which double as mine cutters or can be used to saw through wood in emergencies.