Actually my group has never used suppressive fire. I am actually neutral on the subject from a rules exposure stand point. I just have an issue from a logic stand point that the bullets fired by a slower character will suppress an area longer than the bullets fired by a wired adept or street samurai. It makes no logical sense to me. I could see me using suppressive fire under my current system or RAW by sec guards. But I would use suppressive fire in that circumstance under either system.
Given how crappy you've made it, I really don't wonder why your group never uses Suppressive Fire. In real world combat situations, which you should bloody well care about because that's what the combat system is trying to model, suppression is
highly effective at making people hit the dirt and keep their heads down. The game version needs to be buffed up, not made even more useless.
The problem is
NOT that Low IP characters somehow
magically are able to suppress longer than they should, because it actually takes 2-3 seconds to fire 20 bullets, even just holding the trigger down and dumping ammo. The
PROBLEM is that High IP characters are required to waste an extra 60 ammo a round to do what should only take 20. Having a 1 IP character spray 20 bullets in 0.75 seconds just makes the situation even less balanced and more unrealistic.
Also, I really don't appreciate being accused of Hyperbole and being given a point of negative rep because I bring up a valid point. Some of us actually
DO care about the science and physics of our games, thank you very much, and would appreciate attempts to find a stream-lined way to make the game fit better with reality rather than have some jackass who thinks he knows everything about game design trying to tell us that the real world doesn't matter and that the wonderful, fantastic kingdom of Balance in the land of make-believe will make everything all better if we just drink the magic kool-aid.