The first issue is Damage boxes. I do not like having to take body for a vehicle and divide by two then add that to 8 before I know how many total boxes it has. That is stupid. Most metahumans have ~10. 10 is also how many boxes we had before. I like 10. In fact, here is the new proposed damage bar:
- -1DP, -1 Initiative
- -2DP, -2 Initiative
- -3DP, -3 Initiative
- Unconscious
Now that we have a standard damage bar, lets deal with the fucked up armor system for SR4. Armor is now just soak dice, which also determine the rating at which a bullet does stun (or no damage in the case of Hardened. Because we are limited to Body*2 Armor without suffering encumbrance, a maxed armor character will have Body*3 dice to soak damage with (I am of course avoiding FFBA). Now, I have not come up with numbers yet for the armors, but I think a system of DV = DV - Armor is better than our current system of rolling 30 dice for trolls to soak.
Of course this requires a change in Weapons (and I do hate the current damage codes, Assault Rifle = LMG?)
Hold-Out Pistol: 3DV
Light Pistol: 4DV
Machine Pistol: 4DV
SMG: 5DV
Heavy Pistol: 6DV
Assault Rifle: 6DV
Rifle: 7DV
Shotgun: 7DV
LMG: 7DV
MMG: 8DV
HMG: 9DV
Sniper Rifle:
Assault Cannon: 15DV
Also, to bring back the Physical to Stun limit, if the base DV of the weapon (modified only by Ammo) does not exceed Armor rating, then the damage is treated as stun (the weapon does no damage if the armor is hardened). Also, because I am sick of knocked out Trolls, and I think that all Shadowrunners should aspire to not kill (but it is harder to do so), Stun damage is resisted with Body + Willpower, while Physical is resisted with just Body.
Well, that's the basics, hope you like!