House Rules, Ammo questions Options

[Deadjester]

Greetings all, my first time here and I have enjoyed reading the fourms and have seen quit a few intelligent people here discussing this and that so this seemed the place to go to.

My group and I have played Shadowrun on and off over the years and have now bought SR4. We think SR4 is a great improvment over the previous versions but still needs some tweeking like any game and so we are working on a few of our own.

We had done quit a bit so far and may post them later to see what everyone thinks but for now I have this question.

Right now we are working on ammo and I was talking to a x merc friend I know about the Explosive rounds and it raised a few questions for us.

It describes the explosive rounds as a solid slug that fragments and explodes on impact. Well it can't be solid by its very nature, its more or less like a hollow point with some explosive in it from what I was told by my friend.

So these are my questions.

1) Should a explosive round be off of Ballistic or Impact Armor?

2) Based off of Ballistic, shouldnt the stats look more like:
a) Explosive rounds: +1 AP, +1 DV
b) Ex Explosive rounds: +1 AP, +2 DV

From what I have read and talked to some military people I know, I don't see how it would have such a AP mod as it does. It would seem the explosive, fragmentation part would be more damage then it would be AP, and would expend its force on the armor and then the body.

Also from what I know of AP rounds, shouldnt any type of AP (APDS) rounds actualy reduce the damage by -1 DV while reducing the AP value? Since they more or less pass right through you without any fragmentation or bounce effects going on within the body?

We are debating of making all rounds on the ballistic chart for ease of ammo comparison and leaving impact for all else.

Such as if Flechette was based off ballistic, it might look like +3 AP, +2 DV and be very cheap and availability. Not everyone shoud be walking around in armor 24/7 and would make it effective ammo for those that are not.

Also, things arent always fair or equal on give and take when it comes to tech, somtimes the balancing factor is in the cost and availability which I think many forget.

Looking foward to hearing your thoughts on this.

Deadjester