So I hope this hasn't been covered elsewhere in the forums, sorry if it has.

I got in a debate today about upgrading cyber/bioware. If you have a piece of ware (say eyes) that are alpha and you later upgrade to, say, delta, does the lowere essence cost of delta give you some essence back or do you still have an essence hole to be filled by other new pieces, or does it just stack onto the lost essence from alpha ware. I think I know the answer, but just want to make sure.

As far as i know (and i looked) there is no ruling on this regard.

But I have housed ruled that if you do somehow reduce your essence cost of Cyberware or Bioware you get a free "hole" of essence in which you can fill other Cyber or Bio ware in at no extra essence cost (unless it's more then the "hole" and then he only need to pay the missing part) i made this a different "hole" for Cyberware and a Different "hole" for Bioware and thy are not interchangeable.

hope it is of some use to you

There's nothing in the SR4 rules about it.

Traditionally it's been essence hole.

And the FAQ on the SR4 missions they post says it is a hole too. So until augmentation comes out that would be the rule.

This FAQ
http://www.shadowrunrpg.com/missions/srm_faq.shtml
Not the game FAQ.

All previous editions have gone with the Essence Hole idea. That's really not so bad since you can steadily add more cyber without too much more essence cost. This really works well with mages and such. They can get a little cyber at chargen, less than 1 essence point and lose one point of Magic. From there, they can upgrade that cyber and now and then add a new piece without going over 1 point of essence loss.

Or the Street Samurai's can eventually dump the wired reflexs for Synaptic Boosters.

I have reason to believe that when Augmentation comes out there will be a hole.

Indeed, in 4th edition any Essence Loss creates a hole that can be filled with cyberware because the old stuff about separate essence hholes for separate items are all gone. The old rules were so complicated that I actually need a piece of paper and a pencil to describe them properly. The ones from Augmentation are more intuitive: your Essence goes down only if the new cost of the cyberware you are installing exceeds the Essence you have lost so far. It's implied by the basic book but never directly said.

-Frank

You sure meant 'might be'.