Small Homebrew for more lethal combat.

Context: Typically I'm not the kind of GM that homebrews systems much, but I've been running Cyberpunk RED by the book for about a year now and I've come to the solid conclusion that the base rules are not deadly enough for my tastes. Running the game RAW and using all the official content doesn't do a very good job of preventing the combat from devolving into slugfests between bullet-sponges on both sides. Trust me, vehicle combat, environmental hazards, hardened enemies, traps, poison, across the board it's not as deadly as I would prefer. And as far as I'm aware a lot of you feel the same.

So in this post I'm going to share some small homebrews I've implemented that have successfully upped the lethality of my game toward my taste. Some of these also just speed up combat. I'm interested to hear your guys' thoughts and potentially some of your homebrews as well if you have any!

Also, I'm not criticizing the game. I actually really enjoy the base design, the math is just not how I like.

Below will be my individual rules tweaks, the reasoning behind their implementation, how they have affected my game, and some miscellaneous notes:

1) All ranged attacks using the Handgun, Shoulder Arms, or Archery Skill have ROF +1
- The first in a series of buffs to ranged weapons
- Before this buff my players were completely unafraid of getting shot at. They didn't care about positioning or cover at all. Even the squishiest character at my table wouldn't blink at the prospect of getting shot by 6 mooks in a turn. Now my players use cover
- Ranged combat turn is more satisfying now that you can make multiple attacks
- More attacks in a round means even trash mobs have a chance to deal damage to players
- Ammo-tracking is now necessary, previously my players never had to reload. Now they burn through ammo twice as fast, so ammo capacity is a meaningful stat
- Armor ablates faster (more on this later)
- I added higher damage variations of some weapons that still have 1 ROF for diversity

2) Aimed Shot is no longer restricted to 1 ROF
- Nobody ever bothered attempting an Aimed shot prior to this change. Now it's more practical to attempt an Aimed Shot and it's something players have to actually consider
- Helmet armor is actually meaningful now (more on this later)

3) Autofire is 3d6x instead of 2d6x
- Ex.
Max Damage SMG: 3d6 x 3 = "9d6"
Max Damage Assault Rifle: 3d6 x 4 = "12d6"
- Mostly compensates for the previous buffs
- Autofire is mostly the same. I didn't have any issues with it to begin with, this change is made so that the math lines up with the other weapons

4) NEW BULLET-DODGING RULES: "If you are able to dodge bullets, when hit by a ranged attack you may attempt to roll 1d10 under your Evasion Skill divided by 2. On a success the attack misses"
- Ex.
Evasion Skill 14 = Dodge Value of 7
Roll 1d10, on a 6 or lower the attack misses
- Before this my bullet-dodging players were all Neo from The Matrix, it didn't help that they didn't care about getting hit anyway
- Now the system is similar to the Death Save rules
- Dodging is still good but you can still get hit by a shot, even at max level Evasion Skill
- Speeds up play. Now the player only has to roll if they get hit, instead of every time someone shoots at them
- Preserves the spirit of the original rules. There is still an element of chance and risk to dodging a bullet, it will always be a better move to just avoid getting shot at in the first place

5) Armor Penalty is split between Head and Body
- Ex.
Medium Armorjack: -1 to REF, DEX, and MOVE
Flak: -2 to REF, DEX, and MOVE
Flak Body Armor + Medium Armorjack Helmet = -3 to REF, DEX, and MOVE
- Now armor is something my players actually think about, before they all went Light Armorjack because that is objectively the best armor in the game
- Higher SP armor is more valuable. The downside to wearing heavier armor is cut in half, so now my players are more likely to use it. Heavier armor is also more valuable in general now that combat is more lethal
- Players have to consider whether or not they want to wear a helmet. Light armor helmet means you have more maneuverability and better damage stats, but leaving your head exposed makes you open to lethal Aimed Shot damage
- To be honest I don't know why this isn't how it works in the base rules, for my game it's so much better and it seems like a very natural and obvious game mechanic

6) Armor Ablation only takes effect once the current turn has ended
-Ex.
Mook with SP 7 gets hit in the body 3 times for 11, 7, and 9
7 damage hit is blocked by armor
11 and 9 get soaked by armor and become 4 and 2
HP: -6
SP: -2
- Speed of play rule
- I hated having to do math every time one of my guys got hit, now I can just do all the math while the next person in combat thinks about their turn
- It doesn't shift the math too much. Technically speaking this is an armor buff, but it's a negligible change to DPR and therefore doesn't change strategy that much

7) Dropping into Negative HP equal to half your maximum HP results in instant death
- Flavor rule
- More satisfying for my GM style. RAW everyone dies by bleeding out on their turn in the time of the RED
- Now there's a mechanical definition for what constitutes instant death and I don't have to track as many useless mooks at the tail-end of combat

So yeah, those are my rules. Super long and exhaustive post, but that's my GM style. Let me know if you have any thoughts. And honestly, if you think these rules are stupid and I'm a fucking idiot then I'm interested to hear why you think that. These rules work for what I want, I'm not gonna presume that they "fix the game" or anything. At the end of the day, one of the skills most useful for a GM of any system is being able to tailor a game to fit their unique tastes. These are my tweaks, what are some of your guys'?

Edit: I didn't change melee combat at all, it already worked completely fine for me. I have a few players at my table with melee builds, and they don't have an issue. If I had any changes in mind it would be to up the damage of all melee attacks by 1d6. I might try that out, but for now it's not super necessary.