I've seen several people mention that they like the fact that SR4 has less (or easier to calculate) combat modifiers than SR3. Maybe I'm missing (or seeing) something, but almost all of the modifiers are still there.: Visibility, Recoil, Smartlink, Situational (Attacker running, defender running), Cover. In many cases the modifiers are identical, just the "sign" has flipped. I guess I don't understand when people say that SR4 modifiers are easier to calculate as they seem the same to me, except now they modify dice pool.

I've wondered about that myself. The number of modifiers is basically the same, the only difference is in how much they effect your odds of success compared to SR3. I must say I do prefer SR4 in this regard.

They're easier to calculate from a statistics standpoint, and from the fact that you never again have to decide how much of your combat pool to use in each of the four initiative passes (more wth combat drugs), and how to divide it between offense, defense, and "emergency funding for the last pass when that bastard GM rolls way above average."

In SR3 a +3 TN modifier was exactly the same as +2, as was every other break point at a multiple of 6. In this aspect SR4 is better. -3 is a huge difference compared to -2, especially at lower skill ratings.

I didn't like in SR3 how intensely important modifiers were. Changing that target number on a d6 is a pretty big difference, and I disliked how crazy hard things got once more than 2 points of modifiers got put on. It made things like damage compensators and smartlinks way too good. I prefer the more "forgiving" nature of modifiers now. Having said that, I do think that the new modifiers do fly in the face of the more "gritty" feel that folks are touting as a benefit of the new system. Plus, I prefer that being good directly compensates for bad conditions. Although I grant that that's pretty much an asthetic preference and not based on practicality, realism, or anything else.

heh. the reasons you stated for liking the way modifiers work in SR4 are a close match for the list of reasons i don't like the way modifiers work in SR4. i like the fact that, once you slap on a few modifiers, most tasks become really difficult for even high-end characters.

I'll take the "6=7" problem over the "modifiers have reduced your skill to 0" problem.

@mfb

Fair enough.

Wait a minute, did we just amicably disagree on our preferences between SR3 and SR4 without resorting to inflated arguments, flame wars, or personal attacks? Civility on teh interwebs! Yay!

can't have that. you're a stupid, and so is your mom!

STOP IT, BEING CIVIL IS NOT ALLOWED HERE!!!
GET BACK TO THE KNIT PICKING AND BITCHING!!!

thats more like it

YOU'RE more like it!

well that is clearly the straw man fallicy.

(I wish I had brains...)

Which is almost always better than the straw man phalluscy, at least for those of us who aren't straw women.