Necessities For A Frontline Hacker?, What is good for a hacker that DOES'NT stay home? Options

[Jaid]

any hacker can own in combat with gunnery 6 +2 ballistics + R6 command. Throwing down 14 dice on the LMG or grenade launcher mounted on your company steel lynx is more than the street sammie can realistically contribute.

no. it isn't. even if we're only talking about shooting ability, the sam can easily have 5(7) agility, 5 skill in their firearm of choice, a specialisation, and smartlink. that's 2 more dice than you have, and i haven't even made him an elf (let alone metatype), reflex recorders, maxed out either the firearm skill or agility, or used anything outside of the core book (or used any qualities). and again, this is assuming we are only comparing direct shooting ability, and completely ignoring everything else the street sam can bring (for example, 3 IPs, none of which have to be spent on a pilot test to not crash, and also being able to take 2 simple actions per round instead of everything being a complex action all the time).

don't get me wrong, the command program + gunnery + drone-mounted weapon is good, and it definitely allows you to contribute in combat. but it isn't by any means better than a street sam could contribute.

[Heath Robinson]

any hacker can own in combat with gunnery 6 +2 ballistics + R6 command. Throwing down 14 dice on the LMG or grenade launcher mounted on your company steel lynx is more than the street sammie can realistically contribute.

You're forgetting the -3 Gimp Drones modifier. You roll 11 dice, which still isn't bad. You are, however, getting much less out of the investment than if you put that somewhere else.

You also fire a single Grenade as a Complex action.

[Cthulhudreams]

Yeah it is - muscle toner is 20k. If you're throwing that down, the rigger hacker can easily bring it to the party - the investment (Aside from your skill of 6, but I'm not sure what other skill a hacker brings to the table at R6) is very low cost.

[Heath Robinson]

The good things about contributing in combat as a Hacker: Your first 3 IPs cost significantly less than anybody else's (less than 1 BP). Your fourth IP costs about a third of most peoples' third IP (though you need to take Restricted Gear at CharGen to get it). Your fifth IP is ridiculously expensive, but not actually necessary.

[Jaid]

Yeah it is - muscle toner is 20k. If you're throwing that down, the rigger hacker can easily bring it to the party - the investment (Aside from your skill of 6, but I'm not sure what other skill a hacker brings to the table at R6) is very low cost.

who cares if the rigger brings it along. it doesn't do him any good when he's rigging, no matter what method of control he's using. you're still throwing the same number of dice as you were without it.

besides which, if you want to make comparisons that don't matter, then the street sam can bring along a super-amazing commlink with a rating 6 command program just as easily. more easily in fact; none of that is illegal, you can just walk into a store and buy it. what does this have to do with the samurai's shooting ability? exactly as much as the rigger's ability to get muscle toner has to do with his rigging ability: not a bloody thing.