Pros of ammo drops: the antag can decide to take it or give it to elite,
an elite meleeing you, doesn't immediatly have the aleph,
if there is a raider who can use it more than you, you can give it to him

but yeah, I'm on team "only drop if you have aleph super boost" as well. Altough not as much as you guys, it's fine as is, and could be more convenient.

thanks a lot for the direct answer, I appreciate it.

Might I include given the new purple coin: how about renting skins for a quite high purple price?
Perhaps 500 purple coin to rent a skin for 1 match?

It's mostly to see if you really like it and the things you can buy with purple coin are extremely limited at the moment.

the drop adds more difficulty than help to the game. However difficulty is not necessarily bad.
Pros: Other players can collect it, if you want the Rak to really have his 5 aleph. Similar with bullets. The Antag can profit, mainly from bullets.
Cons: Is disturbs the flow of the fight if you have to stick behind to gather that aleph. I often wished I could rush into the next fight but remembered that I had to gather that aleph.

I would also favour only excess to be around but can accept that this is adds other interesting factors to the game.

partially true, if Shae is a raider, she is very good against antags, but so is focus and Aasi Dagan as well. Aasi Dagan can wound antags in one shot. It's difficult to kill if he then takes cover.

The Sa-Dhu can kill in one shot, however the weapon has to be fully depressurized and the antag has to be alone or else the shot spreads to other mobs.

So it still seems fair to me. As antag you can pick a character after the raiders picked theirs, if they pick a shae, handle accordingly. Maybe a Doldren could be useful, Alicia would be the least useful. When rushing in, wait for Shae to have done her great shot and is reloading, or try to be sneaky towards her.
Best of luck antagging

dude, ...
I hope I encounter you on the field, you with the Sa-Dhu, and me with guildmates.

I haven't encountered many Sa-Dhu antags, that's true (probably for a reason). But I had my fair share of games.

No worries, I had similar feeling against some other weapons/combos: A Ginebra throwing us off a bridge nonstop, a Iune headshotting us in milliseconds and flying Hans & Alicia hard to aim at and of course the Ignis Harec with good aim.
But all those matches had things in common, the antag was well chosen for that map, the team had no experience with that kind of antag, the team hadn't expected an antag and the raiders they picked weren't well suited for it and the team did no teamwork.

I am concerned as well, that it will push some bad behaviour because everyone wants to do the jobs that bring the most points, but I'll voice my concern (if there is any) after the patch.
I'm sure the devs thought of most things and should be able to patch the things they forgot.

For a low blow, I can highly recommend Valeria with Shakura. I carried a lot of people there with her.
When the map starts, run around, find the levers. There should be 2 levers on in main area and one somewhere in the starting area.
Place Shakura so that the orb floats between both levers in the main part. The portal should be at the levers where most mobs spawn.

And you can wait it absolute safety in the beginner area near that lever, defending all 3.

Every team can put aleph in the reactor. Most beginner do it immediately and near the end, when things get hectic, some doc is gonna release all the aleph and you're screwed. Valeria can stay out of trouble and just concentrate on docs. Ignore players dying, elites and all else, just defend the levers and sooner or later you're gonna win.

With an antag, you're gonna need to improvise, but since they don't see you hiding, they're still gonna be in the main area and your shakura will help your team. So it should still work.