The change is small
There's alot of discussion on changing rules that could have fairly large impacts on the game...
The change affects 20 cards, so this affects less than 0.5% of all cards. On average, it would affect less than one card per deck. When quantified in this way, it is hard to see how this is "large."
Even so, the number of interactions that do change among these cards is small as the change barely affects how dual personnel work in the global picture:
-They still add their attributes to totals in the same way (which is how most dilemmas and mission work).
-They still pair in personnel battle the same way.
-They still staff ships in the same way.
-And with rare exception they still report and download in the same way.
The fear is overblown.
Never in the history of OTF has a personnel card been banned for having too high attributes and/or too many skills. Regarding dilemmas, almost all of the outstanding impacts of the change involve specific dilemmas, many of which are scantly played anyways. Except for "God" (a top 10 dilemma), no other dilemma significantly affected (except Chula dilemmas) has seen more than 25 uses among posted decklists in the past 3 years in OTF. At worst, there will be a mild shift in the dilemma meta as a result in this change. As a note: Despite James' comments, this proposal has no effect on Spatial Rift.
There is confusion that needs to be addressed
... for the sake of very little confusion with the current rules.
There is plenty of confusion with the current rules. Case and point, here is a thread where the entire community (including many now rules experts) misinterpreted the rules:
viewtopic.php?f=24&t=18479&start=21. As evidenced by this thread, these misunderstandings continue today especially by newer players.
The current rule would never be be implemented
Let's turn the picture around. If the proposal was the current rule and the current rule was a proposal, it would be safe to say the now current rules would never be considered let alone adopted.
Conclusion
The change affects a small subset of cards, and even among those cards, 99% of the interactions involving those cards remain the same. It's easy and clear to understand- far more so than the current rules.
Sounds like a good proposal. Punch it, James.
Other Points and Clarifications
It is possible for dual personnel cards to have more than two staffing icons, so only two of them should apply.
DUAL-PERSONNEL CARDS wrote:
However, unlike most personnel cards, a dual-personnel card with multiple staffing icons may contribute up to two of them toward ship staffing simultaneously.
The proposal leaves several remaining questions about assimilation:
How do you determine icons and attributes of an assimilated dual-personnel?
Can you now assimilate a dual-personnel as a counterpart?
Dual-Personnel wrote:
When a dual-personnel card is assimilated, the classification on the left becomes the assimilated personnel's first-listed skill, while the classification on the right becomes the second-listed skill and apply the requisite transformation (drone or counterpart) separately for each set of staffing icon and attributes
Assimilation - Personnel and Borg Rule: Personnel Assimilation (7.7.0.2) wrote:
...
Except for dual-personnel
no personnel may have more than one copy of any given subcommand.
[/color]
...
Dual-personnel cards may not be targeted for assimilation as a counterpart.
//
For this reason, you may not target dual-personnel cards for counterpart assimilation
...
For assimilated dual-personnel cards, apply the requisite transformation (drone or counterpart) separately for each set of staffing icon and attributes[color]