So I'm pretty sure ill never buy a new cyberdeck Options

[DWC]

I can't help it. Despite loving shooting the shift in character, and occasionally totally losing sight of the job at hand when the character is otherwise focused, the proud Keoish cheese weasel blood still hammers through my veins. I admit it.

This comes up as I'm putting together a decker for Missions S5 and looking at whether to splurg on the best cyber deck I can get or pick up a bunch of smaller pieces of supporting gear. Unfortunately, unless I can set up another attack helicopter theft ring, start up a side business undercutting NPC fixers, or convince a free sprite to start printing money for me, I hae a hard time believing a character is going to come up with 350 grand for an R4 cyber deck, let alone get the cash for an even better one. Admittedly, there will always be NPC deckers to rob, but that's a huge gamble that probably won't pay off until very late in the character's career.

I wish it weren't the case, because I hate having a "right answer", but that's how it looks right now. Anyone have a contrasting perspective? I'd love to have something I'm overlooking pointed out to me.

[BishopMcQ]

That's pretty much how it was in SR3 and earlier... Deckers would beg, borrow, and steal to get a better loadout, or get friends to help them knock over a high-end electronics boutique. In previous editions, building your own deck was SUBSTANTIALLY cheaper than buying one of similar quality--the downside is that it could take months of downtime to put it all together or a deckmeister contact who you were paying all their bills AND paying for the deck to get it done faster while you worked.

You could always steal a few lower end decks, and say that they're upgrades, then fence the decks on the black market when you don't have to cut the rest of the team in on the deal (good way to get shot if you work with the same crew again). With the payout from the main jobs, some paydata, and a little bit of luck added in, you could probably get an upgrade after 6-7 Missions. The Excalibur will always be nothing more than a dream though, as it should be...

[DWC]

I'm really hoping that the next Matrix book includes rules for doing incremental upgrades on cyberdecks, to mitigate this issue. SR3 and SR2 had the option to build your own, and SR4 had the option to at least upgrade your commlink. I was hoping SR5 would have something out of the box, or at least would make hacking programs expensive enough that every starting decker couldn't start with every program.

I guess it'll be a matter of buying a CIY-720 at character creation, and spending the first lump on cash on a cerebral booster while I wait for WWW.GETPHATL3WTZ.CU.UCAS (or what ever the Matrix splatbook get called) to hit the shelves.

[Aaron]

Don't forget about the device ownership thing when you're stealing stuff. It can be harsh if they track you down before you finish hacking the device's owner settings.

[DWC]

Don't forget about the device ownership thing when you're stealing stuff. It can be harsh if they track you down before you finish hacking the device's owner settings.

That's what the Area Jammer is for. You plug your deck into the other deck, fire up the jammer, and hack the owner settings while you're unreachable.

[Bull]

I'm fairly certain you'll be able to buy upgrades for your deck once the Matrix book comes out. And I'll be able to beat anyone who works on it to make certain that's included.

[RelentlessImp]

I'm fairly certain you'll be able to buy upgrades for your deck once the Matrix book comes out. And I'll be able to beat anyone who works on it to make certain that's included.

Make sure they include building decks from scratch, too.

[Bull]

Make sure they include building decks from scratch, too.

I hope that's in the book too, though that will not be available for Missions play. Crafting can quickly cause problems in a Living Campaign since tehre's very little control over downtime activities.

[SpellBinder]

I'm fairly certain you'll be able to buy upgrades for your deck once the Matrix book comes out. And I'll be able to beat anyone who works on it to make certain that's included.

Hopefully some love for technomancers, too. I've still got a sour feeling for the changes to SR5.

[cndblank]

I'm fairly certain you'll be able to buy upgrades for your deck once the Matrix book comes out. And I'll be able to beat anyone who works on it to make certain that's included.

Thank you.

Give them an extra whack for me if they don't. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

[Aaron]

That's what the Area Jammer is for. You plug your deck into the other deck, fire up the jammer, and hack the owner settings while you're unreachable.

How does that help you? If you're the only one in the jamming effect, then all it does is reduce your ability to fight back. While noise can cut off Matrix bonuses and make Matrix actions harder, it doesn't cut you off from the Matrix completely.

[DWC]

You can connect to a device that has too much noise to connect to anything in the outside world?

That's idiotic. I guess we are back to taking stuff apart to remove the wireless radios.

[The Masked Ferre...]

You can connect to a device that has too much noise to connect to anything in the outside world?

That's idiotic. I guess we are back to taking stuff apart to remove the wireless radios.

The Area Jammer would not effect a hardwired link.

[DWC]

Of course not. The point of the jammer is to stop the device I'm hacking (to take ownership of) via the cable connection from being tracked over the Matrix. That should also keep GOD away while I'm at it.

[The Masked Ferre...]

sorry, misread your statement

[LurkerOutThere]

Honestly while the ownership change rules are non trivial if you are built as a decker already you are uniquely suited to make the 25 hits needed to get the ownership changed provided the GM lets you roll at table.

[The Masked Ferre...]

Honestly while the ownership change rules are non trivial if you are built as a decker already you are uniquely suited to make the 25 hits needed to get the ownership changed provided the GM lets you roll at table.

If you have at last a 15 in hardware + logic (after modifiers) you can guarantee success without glitches.

[LurkerOutThere]

Did they sneak an autosuccess rule in somewhere that i missed?

[The Masked Ferre...]

You can buy an automatic success for 4 dice. This is true in both 4th and 5th edition.

[DWC]

Buying Hits did make the transition from 4th to 5th. The rule is on Page 45.