If we were going to give AP a try, it wouldn't have been much programming for it to be added into this beta. It therefore stands to reason it isn't coming. The hitreg improvements and damage improvements have helped. This TTK problem however is going to continue being very real unless the price of armour doubles or triples. I'd rather not write a no-true-scotsman based diatribe on Call of Duty fanboys or be under some illusion that as an Insurgency fan from the original mod I am in some ways owed decent gunplay. I'm a customer - I can choose to refund or not. This is capitalism.
So, how about we leave the entire damage, price, armour, speed situation where it is. And instead we add a new mechanic, based on real life, which rewards teamplay and makes the game more lethal. Anybody like the sound of that?
Let's call it "Take a Seat" or TaS for short. Let's firstly discuss what happens when a rifle round crashes into a human wearing a SAPI plate. Let's talk with pictures:
https://www.aad.org/Image Library/DermoWorld/slideshows/Oct 2012 military/Slide1.JPG
https://www.strategypage.com/gallery/images/sapi_3.jpg
Now, let's discuss what happens when a pistol round is stopped by the kind've vest a policeman would wear:
https://i.imgur.com/Q0DKZ.jpg
Finally in this thought experiment, let's take a minute to just imagine what would happen to you or I if I or you hit you or I hard enough through a tshirt to cause that kind of mark. I'm not saying you'd be on the floor, but you'd at least consider the possibility that if you weren't expecting it and it came from a funny angle... you may well be. Conveniently, that's in line with real life. Some people get broken ribs, even internal bleeding on occasion. People respond differently based on their adrenaline and other factors, I know a guy who kicked a door down in Fallujah who coigned the "taking a seat" analogy I'm using here. Similarly, I've seen combat footage where a glancing AK round has skipped across a guy's back and he's paused, laughed and carried on fighting. There's clearly variation.
So, let's take the penetration value that already exists for each round and use that number as a base point. That way if you get struck multiple times we can simply add them together. Let's give each player a stat to represent how staggered they are in real-time, which recovers fairly quickly. Now, if you get smacked in the chest while sprinting with a 7.62 NATO, let's have a nice falling over animation with the gun flailing in the air, followed by quickly scrambling to your feet. Two 5.56's should be similar, one should maybe just be a bit of gun flailing and being knocked down to a knee.
This solves all the problems I personally can see.
-Being shot now has serious consequences.
-Animations and "features" look cool as fuck so it's equally marketable to the same peasants that want CoD-style TTK.
-Well aimed shots can now be depended upon much like in INS/DOI. No more getting killed by the guy you doubletapped before you shot his friend.
-Totally handles the issue with people strafing and zooming around while being bullet sponges. One round connects, the followup is all but a coup de grace.
-A teamplay selling point. Your armour can stop a round and give your buddy a chance to handle the threat. Less reason to have armour if you're a loner, once you're hit, you're extremely vulnerable.
The animation rich, marketable solution to the TTK problem: Take a Seat.