How many things which go against Impact can you use cover to defend against? Not that I'd recommend neglecting Ballistic, but you can't make up for a low Impact as readily.

On the other hand, the main form of impact damage (melee) has a bigger DP to defend with, which generally makes up for lacking cover.

Which is why I tend to think of melee skills as an anti-shanking measure, with the possibility of taking out someone yourself being just a bonus. You typically need to outclass your opponent by a pretty healthy margin for melee to be half as efficient as gunfire.

have we considered the wonderful world of non-conductivity in armor? rating 6 non-conductivity basically takes all the sting out of SnS.

I may house-rule the availability OR make non-conductivity a trait that comes with most forms of armor for free.

Does it take the '-2 stacking pseudo-wound for hit' out? I thought it just acted as extra armor against the Stun and the Drool. Even then, with the max (6), you're not much worse off. Weaker armor, halved, +6, is only slightly higher, and this is only the people who have it.

Free low-grade nonconductivity is an interesting idea. Logically, that's the only reason you even get to use Impact in the first place, though. Maybe just remove the -Half?

Yeah even at +6 nonconductive it is still not doing much worse for many guns than other specialty ammos. Though I wonder if you have FF level 3 and your normal gear what is the cap on nonconductive and do they stack.

There was a little thread about that last month, IIRC. I'd say say that armor mods don't stack, but you can mix (e.g.) chemseal underoos with nonconductive over… (ohs?). I'm not sure what RAW says.

RAW generally has a 'things don't stack' attitude. Two smartgun links don't get you a +4 bonus, can't use two foci at the same time, etc. So, I'd figure that you couldn't have multiple nonconductive armor things (And expect them to stack) but could wear layers of armor with different protections and be okay.