Retinal and Inner Ear Modifications Options

[Phylos Fett]

As a player (or GM) do you ever design characters with retinal or inner ear modifications instead of cybereyes and cyberears? If so, why? If not, why not?

[Artemis]

Quite simply,cost.

Fitting out a cybereye with all the tricks and funstuff becomes costly in essence and Nuyen whereas sticking image link and smartlink in as a retinal mod and then buying goggs is considerably cheaper, also since we house rule that contacts cant be used with cybereyes it makes some sense

[KCKitsune]

Quite simply,cost.

Fitting out a cybereye with all the tricks and funstuff becomes costly in essence and Nuyen whereas sticking image link and smartlink in as a retinal mod and then buying goggs is considerably cheaper, also since we house rule that contacts cant be used with cybereyes it makes some sense

Money wise it is more expensive to go with cyber eyes, but Essence wise, it's better to go with cybereyes. Rating 1 cybereyes have a capacity of 4, cost the same price as an image link and come with Image Link and eye recorder for free. You can add in the Smartlink mod and still have 1 capacity left over... just enough for a Flair compensator. Sure you're paying 750 (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nuyen.gif) more, but it does give you come more bang for your buck.

[Stahlseele]

Well, in SR3 natural vision was better than the cyber-version.
so take a dwarf or troll, give natural lowlight, implant eye-light system and flare compensation, both on alpha.
you now have the perfect night fighter. ^^

[Phylos Fett]

Well, in SR3 natural vision was better than the cyber-version.
so take a dwarf or troll, give natural lowlight, implant eye-light system and flare compensation, both on alpha.
you now have the perfect night fighter. ^^

SR4 doesn't discriminate between natural and cybereyes as far as modifiers go, unlike SR3.

[Medicineman]

with an awakened Char who does'nt want to loose toooooo much Essence ? !


with an essential Dance
Medicineman

[wind_in_the_ston...]

... just enough for a Flair compensator.

Um, you're not wearing enough Flair. I'm gonna need you to switch off your compensator.

[Tyro]

I put low-light vision in my dwarf magicians all the time. Cybereyes would make them lose their natural thermo, and unlike other mods, they need their vision enhancements to be cyber (so they can target with them).

[paws2sky]

with an awakened Char who does'nt want to loose toooooo much Essence ? !


with an essential Dance
Medicineman

Thing is... as far as a magician is concerned, 0.0000001 and 1.0 Essence worth of implants is the same; both result in a loss of 1 Magic point. From a game mechanic standpoint, whether you send .5 for some fully tricked out eyes or .1 for a retinal mod is a non-issue... unless you're on a budget.

Now, some characters wouldn't want to replace their meat eyes. Some might think that a retinal mod won't hurt their magic as badly (they obviously didn't do their homework). And then some might be on a budget.

*shrug*

-paws

[BIG BAD BEESTE]

Used to use retinal/aural modifications rather than full replacements quite a bit throughout 1-3e. Why, well various reasons for different characters, but generally...

1: As Stahlseele said earlier, natural eyes were better than the artificial ones - less vision TNM. Used a lot with metahuman characters who wanted flare compensation as an enhancement to their natural low-light/thermographic vision or those who wanted to combine the cheaper electrical vision maginification with smartlink implants. Of course, 4e doesn't have different natural/artifical visual modifiers but then you can get most enhancements as Essence-friendly, non-implant contacts and general AR clothing stuff now anyway. No more bulky night-vision goggles or "discreet" mirrorshades at night.

2: Essence-economy. You can only put so many gizmos into the replacements before they run out of Capacity and start eating up Essence. But admittedly, if you're going this route you're getting replacements to max out the gagets anyhow. Some enhancement modifications were cheaper than outright replacement Essence costs though.

3: Nyuen. Some people just want the bare bones and why pay for stuff that you don't really need when your meat versions already work out fine.

4: In character roleplaying reasons. The perception of more organically friendly than outright replacements is one factor in a strictly roleplaying sense. However, in a game effects situation there is less chance of things going wrong in horrendous ways. The Cybertechnology, Man & Machine, Street Samurai Catalog and Shadowtech sourcebooks brought across the rules for implant damage as well as general information about cyberware maintenance. If your replacement ears/eyes got damaged all internal upgrades got canned with them, whereas if just your flare compensation modification got snazzed you can still use your eyes to see with (assuming the attack hasn't buggered them up too). Another consideration is the GM take on maintenance. If you're character is deprived from their cybereye-cleaning kit, they're more likely to fail eventually. Oh, and don't forget the social interaction nuances with certain groups of people - technophobic neo-tribals might be a littel wigged out by all chrome/black/bright glowing neon blue optics. I always liked the TNM's for low Essence characters and applied hem moreso to social encounters when the ware was obvious. Eyes especially,as they are the traditional "indows to the soul" - freak a few normal people out, impress some techheads, or improve your deadeye poker face stare - hard to emote through artificial optics y'see.

5: Unusual encounters and situations round out the main reasons. Say a mage is targeting you with a Destroy Cyberware spell they've created or with 4e you've got cybereye-seeking nanites to worry about too. Certain environments might bugger them up too - polar conditions, undersea water pressure, dodgy thriftware getting static when someone turns on the microwave or getting tuned into the shopping channel via tailored viruses inserted by upset technomacers. Natural ears and eyes should still work, even if TNMs are applied.

[Mäx]

Oh, and don't forget the social interaction nuances with certain groups of people - technophobic neo-tribals might be a littel wigged out by all chrome/black/bright glowing neon blue optics. I always liked the TNM's for low Essence characters and applied hem moreso to social encounters when the ware was obvious. Eyes especially,as they are the traditional "indows to the soul" - freak a few normal people out, impress some techheads, or improve your deadeye poker face stare - hard to emote through artificial optics y'see.

Cyber eyes are availebul as completly natural looking, so their not obvius if the character doesn't want them to be. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/cyber.gif)

[Heath Robinson]

hard to emote through artificial optics y'see.

Most of the eye emoting is done through things apart from the eyeball itself. Which, incidentally, cybereyes don't replace.


I do use retinal and inner ear modification. For grunts mostly. Package modifiers are easier to justify when you've got more than one piece of 'ware in them.

[Stahlseele]

Well, if you don't go for the really obvious cyber-yes, that kinda seem to replace the upper half of your face O.o

[cryptoknight]

Cyber eyes are availebul as completly natural looking, so their not obvius if the character doesn't want them to be. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/cyber.gif)

Yah I tend to put what I call the "eye package" into everybody if they go the cyber route.

Cyber Eyes - rating 3 alpha
Vision magnification
Thermographic
Low Light
Flare comp
Smartlink

for my mages it's optical vision mag, for the cybered guys electronic (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

If I put cyber in... I always put that cyberpackage in.

[The_Vanguard]

People with full eye or ear replacements are much more vulnerable to hacking. Losing your flare compensation is not nearly as bad as when your eyes are switched off completely.

[cryptoknight]

People with full eye or ear replacements are much more vulnerable to hacking. Losing your flare compensation is not nearly as bad as when your eyes are switched off completely.

That's why you turn off wireless to your eyes and do skinlink + DNI only.

[The_Vanguard]

So no TacSoft, AR support and team data sharing for you? I'd rather invest in a good ICE defense.
Besides, that's a pro tactic. Joe Corp and his son will happily invite you to join their aweZomE live feed.

[Tyro]

So no TacSoft, AR support and team data sharing for you? I'd rather invest in a good ICE defense.
Besides, that's a pro tactic. Joe Corp and his son will happily invite you to join their aweZomE live feed.

You route the feed through your (Firewall 6/Encrypt = System) commlink, of course (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[Rotbart van Dain...]

And run 24h Strong Encryption on all of them.

[AllTheNothing]

People with full eye or ear replacements are much more vulnerable to hacking. Losing your flare compensation is not nearly as bad as when your eyes are switched off completely.

Cybereyes have a DNI of their own, they don't need to have a wireless connection active unless you are using the smartlink, and even that can be taken care of using a skinlink.

[Stahlseele]

technically, you could route everything through your eyes and/or ears, with their built in DNI-Connection.
would save some essence and using skinlink also clear up security problems.

[The_Vanguard]

Of course, nothing is stopping you from disabling all outside connections. But having one can be beneficial, too. Do you want an overlay map your hacker chummer is updating with the enemies' positions in real-time? Then you need a data flow from him to your eyes, and as the Cajun hackers from the Everglades say: "If there is a river, you can take a dump in it."

But this is getting off-topic. Anyway, I can imagine that some corps would not allow full sensory replacements for security reasons. The execs can't disable their outside connections when the have to be able to receive calls from around the world 24/7. Disallowing them to install camera and ear recorder tech is the only way to make sure that no one is eavesdropping on the next board meeting.

[Tymeaus Jalynsfe...]

You route the feed through your (Firewall 6/Encrypt = System) commlink, of course (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Of Course... That is exceedingly obvious... But still, some people do not think of this...

[KCKitsune]

You route the feed through your (Firewall 6/Encrypt = System) commlink, of course (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

With Optimization why would you limit yourself to just System for Encrypt?

With Encrypt having a zero availability rating, you get Optimization and Ergonomic built into Encrypt and have Rating 6 running 24/7.

Now another thing to do is cluster all of your other ware and then slave that cluster to your commlink. The Cluster can act as a commlink and you can run IC on that to support your regular commlink. Heck, with the Persona limit allowed on a cluster run multiple Agents and have a mini Agent Smith Shit Storm waiting for the stupid hacker who tries to hack you.

[Tymeaus Jalynsfe...]

Now another thing to do is cluster all of your other ware and then slave that cluster to your commlink. The Cluster can act as a commlink and you can run IC on that to support your regular commlink. Heck, with the Persona limit allowed on a cluster run multiple Agents and have a mini Agent Smith Shit Storm waiting for the stupid hacker who tries to hack you.

Never thought of that (slaving a cluster to a comlink, I just tend to network Comlinks myself)... sounds like an interesting time....