I was talking to Mr. Zitro while eating lunch earlier today, and I had an idea based on what we discussed, and also based on my own observations since I started into this Beta in Replication.

First of all, I would put forward that the Breach rifle was not actually overpowered. Rather, it seemed that way by the fact that it was designed for a role that wasn't really suited for it, but fit a different role far better: a mid-range precision weapon, and a very capable one at that.

It seems like after the E3 build, CCP wasn't really sure what to do with this weapon, since it's very description states that it is built to be a close range weapon, but it's characteristics are most conducive to using it at longer ranges thanks to it's small cone of fire and low rate of fire.

So, in light of this, I wanted to propose something I've seen work quite well in Planetside 2, as well as many other shooters I've played: select-fire weapons.

So, my proposition is this:

Standard AR remains as it is, but gains a single-shot fire mode. This way it can hip-fire at closer targets, and allow passable performance at medium range. This also factors into my idea for the Tac rifle, which I'll outline in a minute.

Burst AR keeps current stats while gaining a full-auto mode. Everyone playing Codex knows that the currently broken Tactical Rifle is a fan-favorite with how rapidly it downs enemies. I would propose that the Burst rifle have a lower hipfire spread than the Standard, but with a faster bloom rate, and a complete inability to hit anything further than close-mid range without being in the burst mode.

Tactical Rifle adopts the characteristics of the old Breach rifles while keeping it's semi-auto mode. This would allow this weapon to provide slower-firing automatic fire across the mid-range, and still keep the single-shot mode for hitting more accurately against smaller targets at longer ranges. Also, it would have a slight delay between shots in single-shot mode, ensuring it can't just be abused through macros as some people have been fearing it might be.

We all know there aren't many buttons to spare on a controller, but I'd propose that since the symbol buttons are unusable while in the selection screen, that for instance the combination R2+Circle could be used to switch firing modes, providing rapid access to this function. This could also serve as a means to allow quick selection of under-barrel weapons, as the concept art and some Dev posts in IRC have suggested are coming soon.

Thoughts?