The Assault carbine at max damage cannot pierce the standard boy scout uniform of an average NCR goon. Meanwhile even though I have around 300 HP now I lost almost half my health with a 20 DT from their Hunting rifles shooting standard. It's still 2-3 mags without armor piercing. I tested the surplus ammo on the Gun runner goons and didn't notice a change in the number of clips needed to drop an 18 armor 150-180 HP human. I just recently encountered some Cazadors myself and I had no problem taking out an advlt and two babys within one clip of an All American and another hip firing my Hunting Rifle with JSP in under five hits so Even without the extended mag I wouldn't have to reload. So yeah I'd consider Normal mode along with hardcoe to be the default game when talking about balance discussions. I don't like that the harder difficulties are basically a multiplier to enemy damage with a nerf to player damage instead of say more intelligent/better equipped enemies.