Well I guess I'm late for the party, to say the least. But after studying the damage calculation code (thanks to a rewrite in more readable C++ by some fine people here) and the damage tables, I come to the conclusions:
- In original game, AP ammo was basically useless, it was almost always worse, but usually cost more
- Glovz "fixed" that, but now the issue is somewhat reverse. Non-AP ammo (JHP) has become useless. Due to the quirky nature of the formula and how ammo values are configured, JHP ammo only has negligible advantage over the AP for unarmed targets. But overall, AP is just a "better, more expensive" ammo. As result, you just always use AP for best overall result.
- .223 Pistol has become even more overpowered, due to significant damage bonus against unarmored targets, and potentially even more damage against armor (on top of the Weapon Penetrate perk, which reduces target's DT by 80%).
- .44 JHP ammo is meaningless, since now it deals the same damage against unarmored enemies, less against armored, but costs the same.
- Weapons deal more damage than player expects, due to bonus damage against unarmored target, which is almost impossible to read just based on in-game numbers, without studying how the formula works, or memorizing these bonuses for every ammo type. This makes it less intuitive to choose the best weapon in the game.
