So, generally throwing knives are a gimmick, fun but not especially combat viable compared to most other secondaries. They require a lot of juggling, the DPS is not especially notable, you have to retrieve the knives afterwards, and the total amount of “ammo” compared to other secondaries is very low. I think the idea of knife throwing in combat to be really cool, so I had an idea to maybe reduce the sweaty tweakfest of a skill floor requirement to something more reasonable.
When a throwing knife is in hand, you will have access to two potential attacks, Precise throw, and dagger spray, which will replace the standard throwing mechanics.
When throw mode is active, you will prepare a precise throw. This will add a small dagger icon over your head similar to other icons when performing an action, to give your opponent some clue you have the attack prepared so that it can be dodged and mind game’d. With throw mode active, click on a tile (if you click on a mob it will redirect to the tile itself) Whatever mob is on this tile (or whichever entered it last) will receive high damage, and if they are a xenomorph, a 10 damage bleeding effect that lasts 3 seconds. The precise throw has a good chance to break bones or temporarily disable limbs (think starship troopers 1).
Clicking on a tile with throw mode off performs a dagger spray. A low commitment, shotgun blast of three throwing knives, which requires a total of 3 knives on your person including the one in your hand to activate. This also has a DoT effect, but significantly less damage. Dagger spray has a 7 second cooldown to prevent spamming.
I think this would be a fun secondary weapon, about on par in strength with an m44, with the caveat that you still have to manage individual knives and juggle them when using precision throw.