Optimization Advice for a Combat Hacker, Help me build a Hacker and the Greatest Swordsman in the World Options

[Yerameyahu]

Monkey feet, too!

[klinktastic]

Really depends on what exactly you want to do for the legs. I'm always a fan of hydraulic jacks.

As for the eyes, may want to consider goggles, but some good mods include low light, thermographic, vision enhancement, vision magnification, smartlink, and maybe flare comp are all good.

I agree with Karoline, between googles, contacts, and a helmet, you can cover all the vision enhancements you need. Cyber eyes aren't really all that worth it...in my opinion.

I'll work something up for you gear.

[WhiskeyJohnny]

Really depends on what exactly you want to do for the legs. I'm always a fan of hydraulic jacks.

As for the eyes, may want to consider goggles, but some good mods include low light, thermographic, vision enhancement, vision magnification, smartlink, and maybe flare comp are all good.

Those eyes sound about right, as far as I was thinking. For the legs, I was also thinking hydraulic jacks (hence having two partial cyberlimbs, instead of just the foot in your build) and a nanohive (for those neo-corticals, as my GM is open to the composure test to use them in stressful situations, and because I intend to do a lot of pre-run hacking, in which they'd be useful). I would be interested in using them in a way similar to that cyberlimbed build (not necessarily a bad build, just not what I'm looking for, mind you) posted earlier, to get good armor and augmented stats, but I'm not sure how all that works. Care to enlighten me?

I agree with Karoline, between googles, contacts, and a helmet, you can cover all the vision enhancements you need. Cyber eyes aren't really all that worth it...in my opinion.

I'll work something up for you gear.

I was thinking cybereyes for flavor and backstory reasons, really, but I'm open to going the goggles and contacts route.

[Karoline]

Main reason for the goggles over cybereyes is it saves you essence and nuyen, but story trumps that (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

Well, first thing you can do is the armor. You can start out with rating 2 armor on each limb, which would give you a total bonus of +4/+4 to your armor. It would take up 4 of your capacity though, and that'll run out quickly with partial limbs.

For the stats, in augmentation are the rules for customized cyberlimbs. Fairly simply you pay 1500 nuyen and have a +1 availability on the limb for each stat over 3 bod/3 agi/3 str. The trouble is that you have to average it with the rest of your body in most cases (and your body counts 3 times, once for each arm, and once for torso) so it'll be very difficult for them to help you out since you already have high stats. This is compounded by the fact that you're talking partial legs, which means you won't generally be able to take advantage of the limbs on their own like you could for arms when aiming a gun.

[Yerameyahu]

*Partial* limbs don't even average their stats at all, except when they're directly involved.

[Karoline]

*Partial* limbs don't even average their stats at all, except when they're directly involved.

Oh, really? Forgot that. Well, that's actually a bit of a blessing, because it means he doesn't have to waste a couple tens of thousands just bringing the partial limb stats up to match his natural stats.

[Yerameyahu]

AFAIK. Based on this: "The attributes of partial limbs (including cyberhands and –feet) may be enhanced, but their attributes only apply for tests directly involving those limbs (such as a Strength Test when gripping something with an enhanced cyberhand)."

[Karoline]

AFAIK.

Yep, you got it right.

[Whipstitch]

Main reason for the goggles over cybereyes is it saves you essence and nuyen, but story trumps that (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

Yeah, we've sort of hit this weird point where I think cybereyes make the most sense for Magicians and Mystic Adepts who want to have decent Perception pools and avoid casting penalties without necessarily having to spend many bps on the Perception skill. Crazy.

[klinktastic]

You are correct, because we debated this a while back and there is no actual ruling staying they average per limb or not. So one would assume they are just the meat score. Anyway, there are pro's and con's to full leg or partial leg replacement. You might be better off with partial leg replacement since you won't have to blow cash on improving the attributes. You can stack armor, nanohive and hydraulic jacks.

[WhiskeyJohnny]

Would that +4/+4 count towards my total armor, or just when the legs are targeted? And would I still be able to get things like Bone Lacing, Orthoskin, Enhanced Articulation, and suchlike?

[Karoline]

Yeah, we've sort of hit this weird point where I think cybereyes make the most sense for Magicians and Mystic Adepts who want to have decent perception and casting pools without necessarily spending bp on the Perception skill. Crazy.

That's what happens when the game increases the technology of the secondary enhancements (goggles, contacts, etc) and not the actual cyber enhancement. Personally I figure that the enhancements being built into an actual eye would have significant advantages over goggles/contacts with similar enhancements, regardless of the tech level.

[klinktastic]

If you went partial legs, for 47,525 nuyen and .78 essense you could get two modular obivous lower legs, both used alpha for less essense loss (not much but helps) with the following:

left lower leg - nanohive 2, armor 2, h. jacks 6
right lower leg - armor 2, h. jacks 6, cybergland (takes up 0 space), data jack, and orientation system (+2 bonus to navigation)

Gives you 4/4 armor, which stacks with any other armor you take, +2 to navigation tests, and +12 to jumping tests, with 240% increase in jump range.

This also gives you the ability to swap out lower limbs later, for skimmers, raptors, or whatever.

[klinktastic]

That's what happens when the game increases the technology of the secondary enhancements (goggles, contacts, etc) and not the actual cyber enhancement. Personally I figure that the enhancements being built into an actual eye would have significant advantages over goggles/contacts with similar enhancements, regardless of the tech level.

They do, you can't be disarmed of them. Or well it takes a significant amount of effort to remove cybereyes as opposed to removing goggles. If you are surprised, you still have your cybereyes on you, you might not have your goggles or glasses.

[klinktastic]

Oh crap, just saw this. You might want to increase willpower, since that is your defensive attribute for stun damage and in the matrix. Probably drop reaction and intutition one each to get will to 5.

[Karoline]

Those are mild advantages at best. 99 times out of 99 a person isn't going to waste their action disarming you of your goggles. You might not be wearing them when surprised, but you also might be wearing them, especially if it is contacts/glasses instead of goggles. And even if you aren't wearing them, you put them on. If I had $2,000 goggles/glasses to give me superhuman vision, you can bet I'd never not have them on me, and rarely not be wearing them.

[Karoline]

Oh crap, just saw this. You might want to increase willpower, since that is your defensive attribute for stun damage and in the matrix. Probably drop reaction and intutition one each to get will to 5.

Willpower 3 should be enough. He has to prioritize stats, and willpower is basically only used to resist damage from DS and BH/BO. Given the build, he is likely to be hacking in AR, which means he never suffers those, which make a high willpower pointless, and even if he does go VR, spending 20 BP to raise it to 5 isn't even going to take off a full box of damage on average per test. He'd be much better off investing in a good biofeedback filter than burning a bunch of BP on willpower.

[klinktastic]

Willpower 3 should be enough. He has to prioritize stats, and willpower is basically only used to resist damage from DS and BH/BO. Given the build, he is likely to be hacking in AR, which means he never suffers those, which make a high willpower pointless, and even if he does go VR, spending 20 BP to raise it to 5 isn't even going to take off a full box of damage on average per test. He'd be much better off investing in a good biofeedback filter than burning a bunch of BP on willpower.

Yeah, I suppose. Don't see much value in Intuition with this build, but the will helps against magic as well, which is always nice.

Anyway, I'd recommend trying to take as much from Karoline's original build as you can. First buy all your programs and commlink. Then buy what you can in the 'wares department. If you want to skimp on cost for some of the biowares, you can get used standard grade stuff, half price for a bit more essence, but since it's halved because you'll have more cyber, its not that bad of a trade off. Priority 'wares woudl be as follows: the partial legs, PuSHeD, Encephelon I (probably used standard to reduce cost), muscle toner 2, wired reflexes II (think about getting just lvl 1 and upgrading later), a couple skill recorders, platelet factories, sleep reg, and then if you have any leftovers cash you might need a gun or two and some body armor.

[Karoline]

Alot of the ware that can be used in my build already is. Most of the ones that weren't was for consideration about the cost:essence ratio. Wired reflexes for example would have saved only 16k, but cost .6 essence, and the build was already pushed to 5.875 or so essence used.

Also, I suggest not using the used alpha route at all unless you want your GM to smack you, as he/she rightly should for exploiting that erroneous oversight. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nyahnyah.gif)

[WhiskeyJohnny]

What's the erroneous oversight of Alphaware? My GM isn't anathema to me using it, but I'm wondering what the issue is.

[Zyerne]

Nothing wrong with Alphaware.

Used Alphaware on the other hand is basically the same as standardware for cost purposes, both nuyen and essence.

Edit: Depending on how you apply the multipliers, it could be 0.96 of the essence cost of standardware at the same price as standardware, which is probably the exploit Karoline is referring to.

[Karoline]

Nothing wrong with Alphaware.

Used Alphaware on the other hand is basically the same as standardware for cost purposes, both nuyen and essence.

Edit: Depending on how you apply the multipliers, it could be 0.96 of the essence cost of standardware at the same price as standardware, which is probably the exploit Karoline is referring to.

Well, if you apply the multipliers like the book says that you are supposed to apply the modifiers, it is a an essence reduction for nothing. And yes, this is what I was talking about. Plain old alphaware is just fine. Used alphaware is just the stupidest thing ever, and so I always treat used as its own grade.

[WhiskeyJohnny]

Ah, I see. Well, I'd rather not go that route if I can afford it. And I may not be able to get PuSHeD at chargen, due to the GM's rules on geneware's relative rarity. Is there something else I could fit that would serve similar purpose?

[klinktastic]

Nope....PuSHeD and Encephelon are the only two that give you that type of bonus. Or well adept magic powers can give you bonuses too.

[WhiskeyJohnny]

Ok, I'll ask him about it then. I've got a question about the modular Cyberlegs - do I need them at this stage? They seem to add expense when I could just upgrade to them later on. Is there any immediate benefit, and would that be worth the (marginally) increased cost?