This is something I originally posed in relation to a video covering the recent Hyper Scape beta.
The D-Tap is basically Titanfall’s Smart Pistol, only it seems less complicated as I don’t see it taking time to acquire a lock-on (but that might just be something not visually communicated, it has a ring around its target but doesn’t indicate that it’s gradually locking on — it seems practically instantaneous to my eye) and not having the distinction of being a primary weapon, if that is even a consideration in a battle royale. Balance-wise I would not let it have infinite ammo, full stop, because that is ridiculous. Maybe reduce the drop rate, so it’s a less common occurrence, perhaps limit the mag size somewhat, and otherwise punish “cheap” spam fire — lose lock-on accuracy with successive shots, needing time to reacquire, making it a lot harder to use as the sole damage dealer?
From what was showed the D-Tap seemed to be quite potent in close range thanks to it making aiming very forgiving against a fast moving opponent trying to juke you (since you can guess wrong and still get a couple shots in and kill them). This is unlike the Smart Pistol, which suffered in CQC despite only being able to lock-on within a short 20 m range, but this was exactly because the lock-on took time to acquire and when not locked-on (using iron sights) it suffered again as the time-to-kill of the other weapons were quicker at close range (they actually dropped the damage in iron sights). The Smart Pistol excelled when you got behind an enemy, same as can be said for any gun, and with it’s lock-on warning sound (ignoring weapon mods) and lower time9to-kill meant that if you died in that scenario you were probably going to die no matter what weapon they had if the enemy was accurate enough.
This was discussed a huge amount in Titanfall and in Titanfall 2 it got turned into a special “Boost” weapon rather than a primary. It also doesn’t appear in Apex, for what that detail’s worth.
I was a fan of the Smart Pistol since I felt it was a nice compliment to the movement system that meant if you got chased down and didn’t outmanoeuvre your pursuer it let a player weaker in aiming but strong in movement still have a viable weapon and strategy in close to medium combat. Given the abilities to teleport or go invisible, then if the D-Tap also required time to lock-on then these abilities become really nice counters as you can break line-of-sight upon hearing that someone is trying to lock onto you, and there is then an element of strategy in determining where they were the moment you broke line-of-sight, allowing you to reverse an ambush.
I don’t feel it’s going to be perfect no matter how you dice it and understand why some would rather these weapons be gone, however I do personally like how the Smart Pistol could help even the odds between two players where one is strong in aiming and the other is strong in movement. Whichever way Hyper Scape takes the D-Tap, I do hope that it’s less the nuclear option of flat-out removing without consideration for the accessibility — the game still needs something viable for early or weaker players to get opportunistic kills and validate their experience, especially one that could reward them learning a different aspect of the gameplay such as movement. It’d be a shame for it to die a quiet death like so many shooters that try to keep the skill ceiling high without conceding that there have to be ways to make up for a certain degree of newness and lack of skill in certain aspects (if you’re really good at moving around, tracking and outsmarting your enemy, but then die because they snapped around and got off some a cheap headshot at the last moment, and you couldn’t react to in time then you’d likely feel a little robbed and somewhat peeved).
[Edit: Hilariously, Hyper Scape seems to be mostly forgotten. However, much of this applies to Titanfall and any other games looking to follow in its movement-focused lineage. I still think it’s a good weapon to have, though difficult to balance around because of its inherent differences with other weapons. I’d like to see some of the ideas explored in other games, such as with lower fire-rate or more emphasised bursts with extended times between bursts for lock-on or such.]