Look at the following gear, why a reason why cyberzombies should ever exist under current cannon material is beyond me.

We need more cyber to pack into characters now lol. Hell this character, if not for the avalability restrictions and the cash restriction, could be a starting char with magical ability =p

Eye rt 4 1.5k (993,500) .25
Flare comp 1 750
Lowlight 2 1k
covers 100
smartlink 3 1k
thermo 2 1k
Vision enchancment rt 3, 3 4.5k
Mag 2 1k
rt 6 duplication 1 90k

Ear .5 1.5k (180,000)252050 .25
Audio Enchancment rt 3 4.5k
Balance aug, 4 5k
Sound filter rt 6 6 6k
Spatial recognizer 2 750
Damper 1 750

Torso 1.5 e, 25k (252050) .75
+7 body 1400
Air tank 3 650

Arms .1 15 capacity 15k x2 (153,350 x 2) 1
+3 body 600
+4 str 1k
+7 agi 1.75k
Legs .1 20 capacity 15k x2 (170,850 x2) 1
+3 body 600
+4 str 1k
+7 agi 1.75k
rt 5 hydrolic jacks 10k
Skull .75e capacity 4, 10k (100,800) .375
+4 body 800

3.675e

the limbs cost 749,200
eyes/ears cost 1,173,500
or 273500 if you drop the duplication.

Sleep regulator.15e 10k
booster rt 3 1.5e 80k
Pain editor .3e 40k
Cerebral booster rt 3 .6e 30k
160k

1.275
3.675
4.95e used...

External accesories have gotten a lot better by 2070. A lot of what you used to need implants for, you can get by with the external version without the loss of performance you used to get.

I'm really looking forward to see how move by wires looks in sr4.

oh i thought it was sick in 3rd.

It certainly made you sick, sooner or later. Do you think they've managed to work that problem out by 2070?

I hope so. It was kind of pointless from a game standpoint in old editions.

If you had access to more resources and better technicians than you did as a player character, you could have more Essence worth of implants. Kind of like the old implantation rules where a sufficiently skilled surgeon with enough backup could install a Move by Wire system for no Essence. Reduced Essence Cost was repeatable. You just needed someone who with all the bonus dice and straight bonuses and teamwork and crap could pull off 14 successes and simultaneously get at least one die to make an open test 24 higher than the base TN. That sounds really hard until you remember that it's a technical skill, and you can get TN modifiers of up to -10, and you're rolling a phat stack of extra dice for teamwork and medical equipment. Basically, I'm surprised that people who could make Cyber Zombies even paid Essence. For anything.

Hopefully in SR4 we'll see a Cyberimplantation rule set where that kind of silliness doesn't happen and a Cyberzombie ruleset where characters can actually have it and won't automatically die.

-Frank

I never thought it was repeatable, the essence reduction, I thought skilled surgeons would just be able to reduce the bio/essence index by 5%

yeah going back and reading it, it clearly stats some options as only bieng able to be taken once, but not the essence or bio reduction ones....

That is simply put, crazy. It even allows you to take them as flaws/edge at PC creation if GM allows it.

so to reduce the essence cost of a item by say, 95% you could spend 38pts..

now it also says for surgery, so you could say all the gear was done all at once.

(or 100% as frank suggests) for 40pts.

Not many points for attributes to be used, but damn. Any cyber you want for zero essence cost.

hehe, given 3rd edition rules, no reason for a cyber zombie (of course we can all assume that wasn't meant that way) and 4th edition is iffy also.

From a GM perspective, if you were to abuse the rules in such a way, I would want an explanation of how/why your character would even want all that ware, let alone have found the resources to aquire it.

dranen, in sr3, 40pts is a metric ton of starting points spent, but again your potential is awesome since you can load regular grade gear into a char and be a adept with full powers on top of that hell, be a magician adept hehe.

You're probably better off spending the points for the SotA edge, getting Betaware equipment, and then taking 24 points of Reduced Essence cost. It still comes out free.

-Frank

Yeah squinky, then you end up with a ton of geasa that restrict you.

Also as to the sota edge, you'd need to spend extra cash.

This way at starting char, you can get boosted reflexes lv 3, reaction enhancers rt , Titanium bonelacing, Dermal sheath rt 3 Muscle Replacment 4,

275k is left for other crap too.

Well by doing at as a edge insteed of throwing cash at it, you can just keep adding more and more gear.

So then what geasa could you take that wouldn't restrict you too badly?

essence cost on all that ware is zero, so the answer is none cause you don't need em!

Well, if your twinking the rules that much, just make the cyber itself talisman Geasa, and viola, your set.....

But with these rules, am I understanding that a character can keep that essence for more cyber later? That would frigging be powerful if so....

That is correct. Under SR3 implantation rules it was possible to get cyberware for zero Essence loss. That means that you could either take additional cyberware later, or simply have a full Essence to kick around (possibly being a magician even). A clever use is to take a removable cyberlimb and get a big multi-socket omni router. Then when you get some money later on, you can upgrade the limb into something with crazy strength and a bunch of neat built-in deivces and pay no Essence for it either (because all the DNIs were already "paid for"). You could call yourself "Lockjaw" and fight He-Man.

That kind of oversight rarely strikes twice, and I doubt the SR4 rules will have anything of the kind.

-Frank

I hope not, hell I hope there's errata on the SR page about man and maching and surgical options!