What does a Mage service cost per hour?
Is it cheaper to take squatters from the street and implant skillwires than hiring qualified personnel?
Are drones much cheaper than guards?
Is it worth the investment to give every guard smartlink/lowlight/visionmag glasses?

Here are some calculations. First the assumptions (feel free to use other assumptions):

Taxes, corp profit and stuff: 50% (of pre-tax)

Worktime calculations:
5 days a week, 8 hours a day, 20 days off = 160 hours/month (good condition work times)
5.5 days a week, 9 hours a day, 10 days off = 200 hours/month (average SR4 worktime)
6 days a week, 9 hours a day, 10 days off = 230 hours/month (bad condition worktimes)
6 days a week, 10 hours a day, 0 days off = 250 hours/month (work-slave work times)
7 days a week 22 hours a day, 20 days off = 630 hours/month (drone work and equipment work times)

Baseline:
JoeMage (Average Mage)
-Magic 4
-Attributes 3
-Skills 3
Income: 5000 (net) medium
Worktime: 160 hrs
= 62.5 per hour (pre-tax)

JaneMage
-Magic 5
-Attributes 4
-Skills 4
Income: 10000 (net) high
Worktime: 160 hrs
= 125 per hour (pre-tax)

JimMage
-Magic 6
-Attributes 5
-Skills 5
Income: 20000 (net) high
Worktime: 160 hrs
= 250 per hour (pre-tax)


PatWorker/Guard (Dock Worker)
-Attributes 3
-Skills none
Income: 500 (net) squatter
Worktime: 250 hrs
= 4 per hour (pre-tax)

PaulWorker/Guard (Average Guard)
-Attributes 3
-Skills 2
Income: 2000 (net) low
Worktime: 230 hrs
= 17.4 per hour (pre-tax)

PhylisWorker/Guard
-Attributes 3
-Skills 3
Income: 3000 (net) low
Worktime: 200 hrs
= 30 per hour (pre-tax)

ParkerWorker/Guard
Attributes 4
Skills 4
Income: 5000 (net) medium
Worktime: 180 hrs
= 55.5 per hour (pre-tax)


HarryEmployee/Hacker
-Attributes 3
-Skills 2
-knowskills 3
Income: 2500 (net) low
Worktime: 230 hrs
= 21.7 per hour (pre-tax)

HillaryEmployee/Hacker (Average Hacker)
-Attributes 3
-Skills 3
-knowskills 4
Income: 4000 (net) low
Worktime: 200 hrs
= 40 per hour (pre-tax)

HalEmployee/Hacker
-Attributes 4
-Skills 4
-knowskills 5
Income: 8000 (net) medium
Worktime: 160 hrs
= 100 per hour (pre-tax)


Xdrone (Patroll Drone)
-cost: 2000
-Attributes 3
-Autosofts 0
Maintainance/Operation Costs: 500
Lifetime: 24 months
Worktime: 630 hrs
= 0.9 per hour

Ydrone (Combat Drone)
-cost: 6000
-Attributes 4
-Autosofts 3
-Maintainance/Operation Costs: 1000
Lifetime: 24 months
Worktime: 630 hrs
= 2 per hour


ZEquipement (Any Equipment per 1000)
-cost: 1000
Maintainance: 20
Lifetime: 24 months
Worktime: 630 hrs
= 0.01 per hour


Calculations:


Skillsofts:
difference in pay per month skill 0 skill 3 ~ 4000 (pre-tax)
cost for skillwires 3 + 3 skills rating 3: 6000(hardware) + 27000 (software) = 33000
break even: 33/4 = 8.25 month
maybe less due to volume licensing of skillsoft
maybe more due to "I know have the skill pay me more" arguments

Knowsoft:
difference in pay per month skill 0 skill 3 ~ 500 (pre-tax)
cost for datajack + 3 skills rating 3: 500 (hardware) + 3000 (software) = 3500
break even: 7 months
maybe less due to volume licensing of knowsoft
maybe more dure to "I know have the skill, pay me more" arguments

Wards:
lasts: (magic+will) / 3 weeks
takes: rating hours (+1 hour traffic time)

Ward ratings per month:
1: 4weeks/2.33weeks*2hrs*62.5ny/hr ~ 215 ny per month (joe)
2: 4weeks/2.33weeks*3hrs*62.5ny/hr ~ 330 ny per month (joe)
3: 4weeks/2.33weeks*4hrs*62.5ny/hr ~ 430 ny per month (joe)
4: 4weeks/2.33weeks*5hrs*62.5ny/hr ~ 540 ny per month (joe)
5: 4weeks/3weeks*6hrs*125ny/hr ~ 750 ny per month (jane)
6: 4weeks/3.66weeks*7hrs*250ny/hr ~ 2000 ny per month (jim)


Comparison: Guards vs Drones
Paul 17.4 per hour
XDrone 0.9 per hour (factor 19)
ZDrone 2 per hour (factor 8.7)
(Drones can be hacked, though)

Duplicate removed from SR forum. Topic title corrected.

But, a drone requires a higher initial investment; it also requires maintainance, which nessicitates hiring a technician... The technician may be able to service a dozen drones, but his pay will need to be added to the cost of the drones.

For all services I simply take the employees/contractor lifestyle costs and divide by the amount of time used as a baseline.

e.g. Hire a High Lifestyle Body Guard for one month, pay for one months lifestyle.

Adjust for negotiation affects.

And then I don't worry about it anymore.

I have enough trouble tracking my budget so I can afford to buy the next SR4 book when it comes out.

A few considerations:
Drones need a rigger to be even slightly effective as guards. Also, drones can be hacked, and if they are floating around armed, they have a greater danger of causing bad PR incidents (like kids with sins getting shot up)

But yes, this does seem to lead to the conclusion that we should be seeing a lot more drones and a few less guards.

Drones have a higher start-up cost, but lower long-term cost, than security guards, but also have a terrible turnover rate ... a guard with 20 years on teh job is a seasoned vet. A drone with 20 years on teh job is a rusting pile of junk.

Figure a drone has to be turned over every six years at worst, but every three years preferred, then realize that they're more easily hacked and aren't so hot unless being piggybacked actively by a rigger. In certain situations, a drone is better, but for most, you need a person.

For Skillwires, you could toss off a Rating 3 implant, and matching Activesoft, for a professional-quality worker on demand, but you'd still have to pay a living wage (Say Low Lifestyle), which comes up losing against just paying teh same rate for someone with the skillset you needed ... remember, people are cheap. Skillwires, overall, are a poor investment, unless used on a core of emergency workers... a cadre of reliable, Corp-Loyal sorts that can be called in whenever there's a shortage, chipped for the job, and instantly go to work.

Strikers shutting down a plant?

No problem!

Call in 200 Wired Men, chip 'em for production duties, and they're off and running while you train a replacement crew. Teh 200 can be rolled from there into other companies, dealing with paperwork backlogs, translation duties, acting, even producing the next round of bland SynthPop for the kiddies, chipped to sound almost as good as novahot stars but selling their tunes for a fraction of teh price!

Just chipping any ol' person, tho, is a waste of cash.

Lastly, for mages, any WageMage will be pulling no less than Middle Lifestyle. They just *aren't*, due to the high demand. Most small companies thus rent, rather than buy, investing in standard issue wards, which signal when they're broken, so that central magical security and attending spirits can check out the intrusion. One Magical Security Provider could thus service a couple dozen businesses with only one or two mages on duty at any time, thus charging fairly low rates, allowing for more contracting.

generally speaking, attribute 3 skill 3 humans aren't going to stop anything serious any more than a hackable drone with pilot 3 autosoft 3 is going to.

honestly, if you're using attribute 3 skill 3 humans, you're not using them to keep out runners... you're using them to keep out the people who would otherwise break in (vandals, for example) who are not highly trained professionals.

not that skill 3 attribute 3 is bad... but rather, it just isn't competitive against runners.

If runners are detected the run is mostly over. Patrol-Guards are not there to fight, but to spot intruders and call the cavalry. Maybe to keep the intruders busy till the cavalry arrives.

And believe me: 10 combat drones waiting to be unleashed with 3/3 rating backed up buy a security hacker WILL be a problem. And they are cheap, compared to slaries.

Umm, also why do people assume that the Corps will bother to pay a 'living wage' in a Cyberpunk World?

Perhaps its a matter of taste, but I like the feel of a world where selling your soul to the Corps isn't enough to ensure you won't sarve this month, not to mention what you have to do to make ends meet if you have children...

@ Ravor

Thats certainly your prerogative, but my impression from most of the background story I've read on corps is that they try to keep their wageslaves happy, to ensure loyalty. They're not showering them with gifts, exactly, but if you're willing to give up your freedom for a predictable, comfortable lifestyle, you can. Besides, what could possibly attract all the college graduates that the corps need to fulfill their middle management and up positions if their employees still need to sell blood/bag groceries/etc in order to be able to eat?

As I said, its a matter of taste, but the way I see it working is more along the lines of my understanding of the company store from the days of ol', your average wage-slave isn't paid enough to really survive without taking out crushing loans from the corp. Then in order to afford to keep paying the min payment they are forced to start signing up for the more mild 'extra duties' like donating blood or signing up for the minor medical research, ect...

OF course, even then the corp still doesn't really pay enough to survive, and the wage-slave is forced to take out further loans, and sign up for the more extreme 'extras', and the cycle repeats...

For the few 'rich kids' whoes parents were the very few able to actually attend a 'real college' focused on learning to actually think and not merely the cheap dime-a-dozen corp brainwashing facilities then things do look alot less grim as I see the corp execs actually caring about this class of people, after all, these are the ranks where the execs making the decisions belong to themselves and they aren't going to make their life any harder then they have to.

The reason why people don't simply jump ship to another corp? Well, since this is SOP then they won't be treated any better elsewhere and as the new guy already branded as a traitor things are likely to be even worse at the new corp.

After all, there has to be a reason why coruption is so rampent in the Sixth World, if the Corps really did provide a comfrontable but boring lifestyle then I don't see the graft reaching nearly the levels as it must in order for street scum to be able to lay their hands on the very high tech and highly illegal toys so easily. I see it as one of the things that nearly everyone does in order to afford to put food on the table.

But remember that as bad as things are for anyone who doesn't belong to the 'elite' few, they thank the corp daily because if not for the corp then they would be forced to live on the streets, and although the stuff in the corp store is the cheapest junk possible (Think of the really, really cheap toys that are lucky to survive more then a week and expand that to everything.) but at least the empty and meaningless consumerism appears to fill in the void.

Of course, by doing so all they are really managing is increasing their debts and falling even further into the cycle described above. And in the end only the Megas win.