Give armor a Health Threshold based upon the materials used in the construction. Cloth will have 1-2 HT while Heavy Battle Armor should have 10. For every attack that goes through the soak of the character, subtract that amount from the Armor's HT, in addition to the WT of the character. This will cause armor to degrade fast and need to be repaired by using mechanics and armor patches. I would say that only materials like laminate or other hard armors can gain the Hardened Mod which halves the damage that is applied to the armor to increase its longevity. I would make the Hardened Mod be like Encumbrance +2 and cost 5,000 credits while taking up two mod slots.

that is way over complicating something we already have a system to handle.

It's not over complicated. In fact, it's rather simple alteration that just means tracking the armor's health. It provides two benefits, one is that the armor will degrade over time and it becomes a money sink to keep the gear operational.

While it isn't a complicated concept, it is rather involved on the bookkeeping side of things. I think this is perhaps what Daeglan meant.

I would rather simply add in a bit of a houserule that says particularly sturdy armor takes extra Advantage to activate the Sunder quality against. Like it's only 1 Advantage to Sunder laminate armor and damage it one step, but maybe your Soak 3 armors require 2 Advantage to damage one step.

Give armor a Health Threshold based upon the materials used in the construction. Cloth will have 1-2 HT while Heavy Battle Armor should have 10. For every attack that goes through the soak of the character, subtract that amount from the Armor's HT, in addition to the WT of the character. This will cause armor to degrade fast and need to be repaired by using mechanics and armor patches. I would say that only materials like laminate or other hard armors can gain the Hardened Mod which halves the damage that is applied to the armor to increase its longevity. I would make the Hardened Mod be like Encumbrance +2 and cost 5,000 credits while taking up two mod slots.

that is way over complicating something we already have a system to handle.

It's not over complicated. In fact, it's rather simple alteration that just means tracking the armor's health. It provides two benefits, one is that the armor will degrade over time and it becomes a money sink to keep the gear operational.

While it isn't a complicated concept, it is rather involved on the bookkeeping side of things. I think this is perhaps what Daeglan meant.

I would rather simply add in a bit of a houserule that says particularly sturdy armor takes extra Advantage to activate the Sunder quality against. Like it's only 1 Advantage to Sunder laminate armor and damage it one step, but maybe your Soak 3 armors require 2 Advantage to damage one step.

That's understandable. The system you proposed still requires bookkeeping though, but it would make a good addition to what I wrote originally.

That's understandable. The system you proposed still requires bookkeeping though, but it would make a good addition to what I wrote originally.

The difference, though (again referencing what Daeglan eluded to), is that this system is already in place . I haven't "proposed" any system Minor/moderate/heavy damage is already a thing. All I proposed was a simple GM fiat of requiring another Advantage to damage gear that is particularly sturdy (which is already in line with other extant game mechanics—for example, the Knockdown quality, which requires more Advantage if your target is bigger). It wouldn't require any additional bookkeeping that what's already in place.

Hitpoints for personal gear would just be very out of place, since 1) the game already doesn't use subtractive hitpoints, and 2) gear already has a simplified damage tracking system.

Plus that, it would make combat rounds take even longer as you account for damage to yourself and your gear, every time you get hit. It's just a bit much, as I see it.

The easiest solution it usually the best one. We see two rules in the RAW that are good guides to what the OP wants Sunder and 2 x Triumphs destroying an ite m. It seems pretty simple to combine the two to something workable.

My suggestion is: 1 Triumph can be used deal 1 step of Sunder. The first three steps can be repaired as per RAW, the fourth the armour is destroyed beyond repair and no longer gives any benefit. Damaged armour has no Combat penalties (there is no mention of penalties for gear when being Sundered, I see no reason to break this convention) but the GM can add a Setback (or Boost) to Presence rolls if appropriate.