Thanks for the feedback, I appreciate it.
I dislike it because you're removing a way for people to earn Edge and use it later on.
That's fair, and something I definitely have to watch for. I've always disliked the Edge award, I just don't believe it belongs here, but if that changes the edge economy, I have to respond to that. I think this will only affect character that went all in on AR or all in on DR and were getting edge from this source
all the time.
Now, if there was a suppressive fire action, THAT would make sense to generate edge...Of course another 2nd order effect is that defensive tech makes it harder to hit the target.
Right. Well, RAW, if a defender was going to use their 1 Edge point during this action, the attack test would be the most effective place. And I think this is where it needs to happen, so that firing mode decisions carry risk. Narratively, armor isn't making the attack miss, it's saying the bullet hit a protected part of you. This is ok in my view, because Shadowrun can't have neat and tidy distinctions between hitting and damaging, since to-hit tests are also to-damage tests. However, if it turns out this does give too much power to defense, I can change the defensive advantage case to letting the defender reroll failures on the soak test.
I'm curious why you chose +/-3 as opposed to +/-4, but that's not ultimately a huge deal. . . . I bet if it were +/4 or even 5, it'd be more balanced.
I chose 3 to start, because I want this comparison to be more granular. I want there to be less times where the decision to take cover or use burst fire doesn't change anything. But I'm wary of making it too easy.
I kind of suspect the ROI is highest in investing in DR, so you might need to consider lowering the DR bonus of gear
Absolutely. The more that DR matters, the more obvious it becomes how out of line cyberlimb armor is, for example. It's crazy to think about how the difference between a synthleather jacket and full security armor is the same as the amount of armor you can put on a limb.