D&D Armor Idea

In another thread Raphael posted that he thought D&D's concept of Armor Class wasn't realistic enough for his taste. He'd prefer a method that didn't reduce to hit, but rather reduced damage. That got me to thinking. There are already rules in D&D for reducing damage directly...they call it Hardness and use it for damaging objects...well armor is an object...so why not. So heres what I figure: Variant Armor Rule 1) Armor Bonus from physical armor does NOT affect Armor Class (this should result in significantly more successful hits) 2) Armor Bonus is now treated like Hardness. The Armor Bonus is subtracted from the damage done by every physical attack. Excess damage does not affect object HPs (as usual for objects) but goes to the character's HPs 3) An additional amount of damage equal to the Armor Bonus is converted to Subdual damage. This is still damage, but is more likely to incapacitate rather than kill. 4) Regardless, a successful hit will always inflict a minimum of 1 point of subdual damage per 5 full or partial points of damage rolled. Examples: 6 points of damage against Padded 1AB becomes 4 damage 1 subdual 6 points of damage against Leather 2AB becomes 2 damage 2 subdual 6 points of damage against Scale 4AB becomes 0 damage 2 subdual 6 points of damage against Full Plate 8AB becomes 0d 0s but because of the minimum still inflicts 2 Subdual. This would have the additional realistic effect of requiring heavier weapons to deal with heavier armor. 5)Optionally a Fortitude save could be made to avoid the minimal subdual damage. 6)Shields would still provide Armor Class bonus, but for any attack that "misses" due to the shield bonus, the weapon would make an automatic attack against the shield as an object per normal Object rules. 7) Against area of effect or impact damage Armor will protect only by converting a number of points of damage to subdual equal to the Armor Bonus. 8) Optional Weapon type effects: Bludgeoning: Against medium or light armor the armor is only half as effective at converting additional damage to subdual. Against heavy armor, the armor is twice as effective at converting additional damage to subdual. Piercing: Any critical hit reduces Armor Bonus by half. All armor is twice as effective at converting additional damage to subdual. This is just a first draft. Any thoughts or comments?