3 Buttons for Powers (3x3 solution)

And that's why I play on PC with a keyboard and mouse...one key for one action.

How would tap and hold work? As soon as you tap, the level 1 power would fire. I guess double tap would work, though.

The trilogy had a perfectly functional power wheel that didn't limit you to only three powers at a time. I hope they will bring that back. Was there some downside to that system with a controller?

Real RP is turn-based. Just saying. But that's a separate issue for you here.

The weapon and power wheels worked just fine. Removing the weapon and power wheels was certainly a choice. Not necessarily a bad choice, but a lot of other factors made removing them a bad choice in my opinion.

I have a few thoughts on the class-versus-profiles discussion. I will try to keep them coherent. These are my opinions, obviously.

Generally, I prefer the class system in the trilogy versus the profile system in Andromeda. I feel that the classes -- more so in ME2 and ME3 -- had an identity. Classes are defined by what they can and cannot do. But within that class system you still have some flexibility. So with multiple classes (and a few ways to play each class), you have some replayability.

There are some drawbacks to the class system, namely:
- Outside of modding, classes are restricted to their predefined power sets, and power unlocks in ME2 and ME3 can prevent some builds.
- If you start hating a class or get bored of playing a class partway through then game, you have no way of switching except starting another playthrough.

The profile system in Andromeda on the other hand, is supposedly more flexible, but somehow manages to be both too restricting and not restricting enough at the same time. Profiles provide unique passive stats and abilities to Ryder (this is good!) However, you are limited to only 3 powers at any time. I have no issues with this restriction, except...
- The profiles available to you are dependent on the talent points spent into the various power categories (combat, tech, or biotic). So you cannot use certain profiles unless you spend enough points into the specified categories.
- The profiles have ranks, which increase as you spend points into the specified categories. That means you will be spending points into powers you cannot (and will not) be using just for the passive increases.
- Each category has at least several passive talent trees (about half of Combat category is just passive talent trees). Several upgrades in these talent trees will increase the more points you spend in that category. That also means you will be spending points into powers you cannot (and will not) be using, just for the passive stat increases.

You can map up to 4 profiles, and can switch between them... but why? If you switch to a different profile, you will immediately go on a long cooldown, making switching a waste. (Exception, you switch to a Soldier profile that contains only powers that use power cells instead of cooldowns). So even if you switch from an Engineer profile to another Engineer profile, sorry but you got to wait.

If you wanted to restrict players to only three powers at a time:
- Lower the maximum amount of available talent points so players can only max 3 power trees, plus passive talents (see next bullet). No sense wasting talent points into powers the player is never going to use.
- Either give enough talent points to max 1 to 3 passive talent trees, or remove passive talent trees altogether from the power categories (combat, tech, biotic).
- Profiles (Soldier, Infiltrator, Vanguard, and so on): Let the player choose the profile type.
- IMPORTANT: Allow the player to respec as many times as they want for a SET PRICE each time (not an increasing price each time they respec).

On the other hand, if you wanted to give the player more creative freedom while giving them a lot of points to spend into a lot of powers, then you need to let them use more than 3 powers with a power wheel or tactical pause or something. Global cooldowns instead of individual cooldowns would work better for that. (Heck, global cooldowns would still let you have your multi-profile approach with 3-powers-only, without needing to go into instant-cooldown for switching profiles. Cooldown only happens after you use a power (since all powers go into cooldown).

I sincerely hope they ditch the profiles system entirely, and unless it is Ryder they kinda have to?

How many SAMs are out there? One less in any galaxy I live in, plug pulled.