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I've been messing around with a few changes to combat. Here's what I've got so far.

Hit Location: I've been using the hit location chart from COMPENDIUM OF CONTEMPORARY WEAPONS. This allows for 'critical hits' such as head shots. It also allows implementation of body armor.

Aimed Shot: when not moving during a turn, a soldier can take aim at a single target. He gives up any additional shots that round and makes ONE attack with +15% bonus.

Called Shot: soldier can try to hit one of the locations on the hit chart at a -25% penalty.

Grenade/Explosive scatter: When lobbing or launching a grenade or other explosive device rather than hit roll and scatter being separate rolls they are combined. The scatter roll is the only roll used but it is modified by subtracting the adjusted relative skill on the scatter table. Example: Red Dukowski wants to toss a grendade at a VC machine-gun team. His Grenade Throwing skill is 84%. This is Stand-Up War situation and both he and the enemy are under cover. His penalty is -40. His modified total would be 44. He rolls on the Targets Distance from area affect weapon chart, subracting 44 from his roll. He rolls 56 for a total of 12 (56-44=12). His grenade has landed 16-20 feet from his target. That would be enough for D100 damage for a standard frag grenade.

Initiative: all players and enemies act in order of their AG scores, highest to lowest. Each characters actions and attacks are resolved before moving to the next. a character is considered "not moving" until they have declared movement on their initiative turn.

Hit Distribution: on a characters turn, he may declare his firing to be against different targets. He decides BEFORE he rolls any dice where his shots are going. As long as he can see the target, he can assign shots to it. He then resolves his shots in any order. When firing on full auto, he must begin by assigning a minimum of 3 shots to a target. If he cannot assign 3 shots, he can assign 2 but a leftover of 1 is lost. Example: a Pigman can fire 10 shots on full auto with his LMG. He chooses 3 targets and assigns 3 to the first, 3 to the second and 4 to the last. full auto penalty still applies to all shots. This represents laying down fire in an area or multiple short bursts.

Flak vests and Steel Helmets: These only protect against explosive damage. a flak vest grants a -50% damage reduction vs explosive damage. a steel helmet grants -10% damage reduction vs explosive damage. all fractions round up. Example: a mortar round lands within 50 feet of Cpl Hunk Webber. The damage roll is D100. The roll is 57. Hunk has a Strength of 40, this would normally kill him. But he's wearing a flak vest and helmet, so his damage is reduced by 60%. In total, he takes 23 points of damaged. Still wounded, but not dead. Results of FATAL and GONE are not reduced.


Things i'm working on:

implementing a simple shock/blood loss system.
examining the potential of implenting a supressive fire mechanic.


This is a work in progress and is still being tested. Please feel free to test these yourselves and/or offer any feedback you have.

Found this on Wiki about helmets in WWI:

"Ballistically this increased protection for the wearer by 10 per cent."

Another article stated that in general, helmets were ineffective against bullets and machine-gun fire. But, at long range or an angle, can prove a little protection.

Yes, as noted steel helmets only protect from explosive (shrapnel) damage. They dont protect from any kind of firearm. A kevlar or ballistic helmet might offer some, probably up to class III. Some data indicates that a Class III (A) will protect against a long range rifle bullet due to the shape of the helmet. The curved armor can sometimes deflect a bullet. Obv, not at close ranges.

latest update:

I've implemented the Shock & Blood Loss system thats found in COMPENDIUM OF CONTEMPORARY WEAPONS. In doing so, I also experimented with their recommended weapon damage stats as well. Overall, weapons do less damage, but their hit location along with shock & bleeding makes them deadly. The system, while still using Recon firearms rules, works very well and is realistic. The problem is that is slows everything down. Now you're rolling hit location, making shock checks and so on for every bullet hit. As I said, its much more dynamic and realistic system but it really slows down combat. I'll consider a few more options but I feel like i'm going in a huge circle and that i'll end up with basic Recon weapon damage again.

Example.

Recon says a 7.62 bullet does 4D10+10 damage. Thats an average of 32 damage. That means it will kill 32 percent of people in the game, since strength ranges from 01 to 100.

COMPENDIUM OF CONTEMPORARY WEAPONS says that a 7.62 does 5d6 damage. thats an average of 17.5. a little more than half that of Recon's value. But if using hit location and shock rules, that lesser damage can still be deadly with a headshot for example. This system was also made to fit into the Palladium RPG system, which tends to have lower hit points for characters by roughly a factor of 3 or 4. This comes from the Recon guide on conversion which says if converting a character to stand up to recon weapons, you multiply their P.E by 4.

Recon offers a fast and still deadly system. Its drawback is that being hit and taking damage that doesnt kill has no real penalties. a character with 1 hit point left can still fight normally. Using the hit location, shock and bleeding rules gives a wide range of states. loss of skills, unconscious and of course bleeding needs to be addressed.