the Assault rifle has little damage power it does not even affect KActors (movable objects) as shown here
[video=youtube;aLy9QMdVn1U]
the dammage affects how materials interact (movment or bullet holes and some other stuff)
as for the scorch marks, well i do beleve that will be in the UDK virsion you will see a lot of cool things in the UDK virsion, most things you have pointed out will be fixed in the UDK as the UDK virsion is not baced on UT3
but hay WTF are you whinging about, this Mod is ACE, yer it dose not have some things that Renegade has but it has alot more that Renegade and its still in BETA, and the UT3 mod will be dead soon and from the ashes, UDK RenegadeX will come forth and kick even more ***