Actually You oppose Attack net hits with Defense net hits to determine your actual Net Hits. Then you Stage. 2 (remaining) Net Hits to stage up. Once you hit Deadly, your Power goes up. Then You compare to the Armor to stage Down. Once you have determined Final POwer, you stage Down based upon the Soak Roll. You only ever need 8 net hits to Stage from Deadly to No Damage. The question is: What is the Power of the Damage you are staging Down?

Your power only goes up with net hits in close combat, shooting guns means more hits to resist against.

I do not remember that... No Book to check, unfortunatley. I will have to take your word for that.
Could have sworn it applied across the board and that you could not stage beyond Deadly.

You can't stage beyond deadly.
But you can get more power before the damage in close combat with net hits and you get more hits you have to resist before being able to stage down damage in ranged combat.

But once you have avoided the Net hits in Ranged Combat, regardless of how many extra you have, you should not go beyond Deadly. So no Deadly +1, Deadly +2, etc. What you are describing (previous) is indeed staging beyond Deadly. Been too long.

There is with ranged combat a sort of deadly+X, but it's just that it won't do any more damage than deadly. It's just harder to stage down.

Ahh... okay.

Else you'd be losing net-hits in fire-fights, while you'd still be getting something for net hits in melee.

Why are you losing net hits for firefights?
We may be talking at cross purposes here.

You attack, and they defend (in a firefight).
I have 8 Net hits for my Attack roll. They get 3 for their defense roll. So 5 Net hits. I then apply my 5 net hits to damage. 9M (Heavy Pistol) +4 Net hits equals 9D. My last net hit is irrelevant (I guess that is where we are losing Net Hits, but that happens anyway when you have an odd number of net hits).

My contention is that if you have 12 net hit to his 3, you would get 9 remaining. So, that 9M becomes 9D, and you lose the other 5 net hits as they do nothing except ensure that you had net hits to apply to staging. It should not be 9D+2 (becasue you cannot stage damage beyond Deadly). Am I missing something here? AM I just completely mis-remembering. I know that in Melee, those 5 hits would stage the power, so instead of 9D it would be 11D. I so remember that applying to Firearms as well, but guess it has been way too long. I really need to find me a PDF of 3rd Edition.

it means you can kill somebody even with a light pistol due to lucky shot.
It i roll 16 hits on my attack test using a light pistol and you only resist with 8 dice including combat pool for dodge, even assuming you have 8 hits out of 8 dice so you would stage to no damage at all, because i have still 8 net hits over your hits, you still die. Yes, you died. 2D Damage killed you. Weakling. Can't even take a small little bullet into the nose without keeling over dead. ^^

Just does not sound right... *shrug*
Been way to long since I played 3rd Edition. Oh Well...
What I do remember is that firearms attacks NEVER accumulated that many hits, since I can not ever remember a test being anything less than TN 7+ (even with the Smartlinks). Damned Target Modifiers were always crazy high. Poor Lighting, Rain, smoke, etc (GM used them all). Firefights took forever because of that.

Well, the only real way to start with that many dice was to be a gunbunny adept, i will give you that.
Skill 6, Improved Skill 6, Combat Pool 6=18 Dice to attack. Eye-Stuff-Adept-Abilities and you can, usually, drop the TN to 3 or 4 using a Laser-Pointer.

Body Score to get Resistance Dice was actually fairly easy in SR3, seeing how all appropriate Ware added directly to Body instead of only giving Armor.

Both very true. But like I indicated, that TN 3-4 quickly went to a 7-9 when situational mods were added. Really sucked when most of your rounds downrange only perforated air.

I preferred Melee in SR3. My Troll Tank was base of about 16 dice Unarmed (I would have to go back and look) at a TN of 3 (IIRC). Then add Adept Dice and Combat Pool, and away we went. Worked especially well with the Massive Strength and Body he had and the Armor he wore.

SR3 Melee was superior to SR4 Melee.
Still, just out of curiosity, how did you get to 16 Dice for Attack before Adept Powers and Combat Pool? O.o

Lot of play time (almost 200 Karma, I believe I started out at 8 prior to Adept abilities at Chargen). I would have to check, but I am pretty sure I was in the high middle teens with the skill. Been a while, though, so I could be mistaken. Maybe the Adept Adds are already in that total.

Yes, SR3 had superior Melee abilities in a lot of ways. You can make it work in SR4, just takes effort.

Aaah, lots of Karma.
That was the missing Info.
I never quite got around to that <.<

After just having watched Magical Witch Punie-Chan, i would probably try and do a Wrestling Troll.

Indeed...

Magical Witch Punie-Chan? Dare I ask?

Is that anything like Puni Puni Poemi? (In other words, batshit insane?)

~Umi

It is pretty much batshit insane:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0OI78RFk0F8
Watch this for a small portion in AMV.
Also, japanese-samurai-suicidal vegetables making curry out of themselves.
Hara-Kiri using a potato peeler. Death-Jump into a pot of boiling curry. etc.

Okay, now that I am at Home...

Strength 10, Body 12
Quickness 7
Magic 10 (4 Initiations, and 3 Geasa)
Various Sets of Armor, Average was 10/10

Street Brawling = 18 Dice (Post Adept Powers)
Improvised Clubs = 14 Dice (Post Adept Powers)
No Daichi = 15 Dice (Post Adept Powers)
Kung Fu = 13 Dice (Post Adept Powers)
Chain Weapons = 14 Dice (Post Adept Powers)
Improvised Throwing Weapons = 4 Dice
Ranger X Bow = 6 Dice
Shotguns and Heavy Weapons = 5 Dice

Those were my combat Skills...
Few other Active Skills, Lots of Knowledge SKills and Chipped skills.

Had Aptitude Unarmed Combat

Pretty Interesting Character, all told.

I actually prefer SR4 melee rules in a lot of ways. Some things did not translate well to the TN to dice bonuses/penalties conversion; but melee was improved by it. Friends in melee and reach are still useful without being auto-win buttons. Also, you can combine martial arts abilities, and initiative passes matter again.

This is true.
I miss the counterstrike abilities of Previous Editions, mostly. But Melee in SR4 is not too bad.