All dual wielding does in Starfinder is let you switch weapons without using up actions.
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But you have to buy two of them... that seems like a big cost, wealth-wise, for a fringe benefit...
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Accuracy bonuses are very rare in starfinder, and small arms tend to be cheaper than long arms and operative melee weapons tend to be cheaper than advanced melee weapons.
A dexterity primary solarion using multiweapon fighting with two operative weapons would have the least penalty possible on a full attack, allowing them to use deadly aim to increase damage output.
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All dual wielding does in Starfinder is let you switch weapons without using up actions.
Which:
(a) afaict is basically all it does in real life, and
(b) is nothing to sneeze at.
It's important that switching your grip on a weapon and pulling one out with Quick Draw are both swift actions in Starfinder, and taking a swift action no longer allows you to take a full-round action. You can carry a whip in your off-hand for when you need to disarm someone, a pistol for switching between ranged and melee full attacks round-by-round, or different weapons for different purposes (say, an unwieldy weapon for when full attacking isn't an option). In general, weapon type makes a much bigger tactical difference in Starfinder than it did in Pathfinder.
Accuracy bonuses are very rare in starfinder, and small arms tend to be cheaper than long arms and operative melee weapons tend to be cheaper than advanced melee weapons.
Interesting points...
So let's try to do a cost-benefit-analysis here.
Looking through the weapon costs of small arms whose tier = your level, and the WBL guidelines, it looks like an appropriately tiered small arms weapon generally costs between 20-33% of your total WBL. So let's say about 1/4 of your wealth.
So the trade off is roughly this:
--Cost: An additional 25% of your WBL (for the extra weapon), and a feat.
--Benefit: a +1 bonus to attacks when full attacking with those weapons.
So this looks worse than (say) spending a feat on Weapon Focus, since that has a smaller cost (only the feat, no money), and a larger benefit (a +1 bonus to attack with the relevant weapon type that's always on, even when you're not full attacking). But, of course, you can only take Weapon Focus once (for a given weapon type), and this might be something to consider after you've already taken it.
So is a feat and 25% of your WBL worth a +1 bonus to attacks in some cases (when you're full attacking)? I agree that attack bonuses are rare in Starfinder, but this still looks like a hard sell to me...
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ASIDE: I know that extra attacks really slow the game down. So cost/benefit analysis aside, I do like that they're trying to handle multi-weapon fighting in a different way.
Dual wielding pistolero here I come! You get double the bullets and as a move action you make an intimidate check while twirling your guns. If successful your target is dazed for 1 round.
I agree that weapon focus is the more effective feat for accuracy. However, multi weapon fighting stacks with it, and the WBL increases in weapon cost is somewhat offset by being able go longer between reloads, or the utility of having different damage types.
Fair enough!
I didn't cry when 5E got rid of TWF and I won't cry now. Seriously, the "calculate your to hit based on weapon categories, hands used, feats you have and the current moon phase" matrix of 3.5/PF was a bit too much
It also really sucks if you don't have arms. You can't wield your Arms without arms.