Yeah... Weird... Just goes 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, and that's it. Scanner goes the same way.

Time for some .DAT editing!

Does the Personal Comm Unit count as us being able to talk to each other? CC is rather mysterious on that matter.

That's why I recommended what I did earlier, Shadow. But oh well... no worries.

And yes, a Personal Comm Unit is a transiever/radio on acid. It comes with everything we need for a full communications suite. Radio, encryption, ECCM, subvocal microphone, multiple frequences (2 x Rating), those cool headphones that vibrate your earbone instead of covering your ear, etc.

Rock.

Oh, you're all going to get STS Beacons so my guns don't shoot you when in FA.

I took almost all your recomends, except for when TKG or HM had the same spell. Unfortunetly I had no money (and I meen none) to buy fetishes or anyother magical compnets. Plus I was unable to sell money for karma like I originally intended (for reasons that will soon become obvious). I do apreciate all the input, shamanic magic isn't really my bag so this is the first time playing one.

I'm pretty much broke (I have 753 nuyen left, and that's after already dipping into my piddling amount of Starting Nuyen). But if you have the cash leftover and can afford it, I could use the donation.

What rating did you get? We'd have to get a Safe Target System beacon of an equal or higher rating. (They're 200 nuyen per rating point for those who don't have CC.)

Cripes,t hat's gotta bite, Shadow. Wish I had the cash to help you initiate at least once so you could get Invoking. :/

All are rating 6. One beacon for each person, and one mod for each of my FAs, plus an extra. Although, considering the bigger guns will be linked to BattleTac, those will probably get it instead. Meaning two are left out.

When I have more free time (i.e. tomorrow afternoon to Wednesday morning) I'll rework it so all the stuff for the guns are under each other so moose doesn't get confused.

I might even do it by hand instead of by NSRCG. Who knows?

Edit: If anybody has 12k leftover, I can use it to get two more mods so you aren't at risk from being hit by any of my guns. If not, s'ok, I'll get around to it eventually.

The only thing would be a Rating 6 STS Beacon that you each need to buy. They're 1,200 each. Six less that I have to buy means one more mod that I can buy. Which means one less gun that'll continue firing when you're in the two-meter target zone.

Hmm. Lemme see if I can find 500 nuyen in gear I don't absolutely need. If so, I can snag an STS Beacon 6.

Okay, cool, I killed off 300 rounds of Regular ammo for 600 nuyen. Rock. I'm now down to a whopping 153 nuyen in cold hard cash, though. Hope we get an expense account!

Hmm, actually, if we're going to be given ammo each mission (instead of "paying" for it all ourselves each time), I can shave a few more quid off and get a STS on my Alpha, too. I'm going to juggle some resources around and see how much I end up with.

Okay, I managed to shave off 12,540 more nuyen (I had to sacrifice 30 kilos of explosives and lots of fun ammo -- sniff, sniff), so 12,000 of that goes into my own STS 6 for the Ares twins. Now you guys are safe from my pathetic firearms skills. Yay!

Alright, spent every single cent of Jared's starting cred, bought him not only a comlink, but some other comm gear. Also shifted his skills a touch, so he can not only operate, but do basic repairs on the gear. And changed one of his languages, removed the linguasoft for it. No more Salish, he speaks Lakota. Not as good as his Navajo though. They don't call him Windtalker for nothing.

I'll get the R6 STS along with a few other changes (like dropping the shape earth spell). However, it'll not be till later today/tomorrow since I'm out of town.

Wow, two and a half pages of posts since I got off work yesterday, you guys are going crazy.

Ummm... lets see... things I need to say...

Its all about Shadow Wolves!

Seven players and four votes for Shadow Wolves means we're the Shadow Wolves I suppose.

Ok guys....

I did a rework of my character and shot the wad...

And got a Tactical Computer with BattleTac

(did I mention my Aptitude for Small Unit Tactics?)

<orgasm> How many senses?

I have to look at my copy of M&M at home tonight and make sure I run the numbers right, but I'll have a port for each one of you when I'm done (and of course, a port for me and my Orientation System).

Err, you're going to have a minimum of five senses yourself, +1 for each port you buy that plugs into any other enhanced senses you have (Ultrasound Vision, High Frequency Hearing, Hearing Amplification, Vision Magnification, etc.). Orientation Systems count as two senses. You also gain any cybernetic senses of teammates on the BattleTac network, but only from those who have the BattleTac Cyberlink, not a standard receiver. Each one of those senses takes up a radio channel, however, and you only have a number of channels equal to your Personal Comm Unit * 2, I believe (which is still quite impressive).

Every two senses hooked up to the Tactical Computer then give you a rating of 1 point. Each rating adds +1 to Combat Pool and Small Unit Tactics. You also gain the ability to use 25% of your Combat Pool in Surprise situations. Not sure if you can distribute those Combat Pool dice to people on the team or not, though.

Unfortunately, the only "cybernetic" sense that my character has is a Chemical Analyzer/Gas Spectrometer, so I'll only be taking up one channel and adding +1 sense to your total. All of my improved senses are adept powers. I imagine a guncam or vidcam (the latter of which I have) should be able to add in, too, but by the letter of the rules they don't. Unless there's a new rule in some completely different sourcebook that I'm unfamiliar with, which is a distinct possibility.

Ok thanks. I actually have cyber comm units installed (rating 8 ), so I should be able to pick up plenty of signals through that.

Can you tell me if I need Dedicated Ports or Generic Ports?

I'm using NSRCG and it lists both of those, plus a Tactical Sense Program. What all do I need to hook up my eye mods and more signals from the team?

And correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't the computer come "out of the box" with ports for my five senses? I think I remember reading that. I just need to buy ports for extra senses like my cyber ones.

Since we're a well-trained team, you can get away with Dedicated Ports. You'd only need Generic Ports if you only wanted a few senses plugged in at any one time or would be working with people who had senses you didn't know about.

But to answer your specific questions:

Yes, the Tactical Computer is automatically hooked up to all five of your natural senses. You can also add in other natural senses, like a dwarf's thermographic vision. It's up to moosegod if my adept's senses (which are considered natural for all intents and purposes) can be applied. If so, add +8 to the total from me (7 Improved Senses and my Chemical Analyzer).

For each sense you have plugged in, you need either a Dedicated OR Generic Port with a Tactical Sense program to process that sense. They are both the same price, so it's really up to you which one you want to do. Either way, you have to pay 0.1 Essence and 10,000 nuyen per additional sense you want hooked up to the computer, including all thoses pulled in via the BattleTac Cyberlinks on other teammates.

Hmmm... is that the only difference? Then why do Generic Ports cost less than Dedicated ports? Wouldn't the generic ones be better since I could "reprogram" them for different things on the fly?

Generic Ports require a Tactical Sense program, and each Tactical Sense program costs 5,000 nuyen, and you need a different program for every conceivable sense you might hook up through it. Dedicated Ports don't need them. It's up to you, though. Basically, Dedicated Ports are Generic Ports with a hardcoded Tactical Sense.

For future's sake, you really would be better off with a Generic Port and Tactical Sense program. The costs are identical and you only have to worry about getting a new program when you go to replace one sense with another.

And how many would I want at the most? 8 senses give me a rating of 4 on the computer which is +4 combat pool, 100% for surprise tests, and +4 to Small Unit Tactics. But would I want more than 8 for some reason?

Damn this thing is confusing. I'm sure once I get things strait it will be worth it though.

I think 8 senses is the max you can get, but sometimes not all senses will be applicable to the situation.

You may just want to get 8 Generic Ports and spend the cash on about 10-20 Tactical Sense Programs so you can juggle them as you need to in any given situation.

And yes, it is well worth it just for the Combat Pool bonus alone.

If it helps, here's a complete list of all my available senses (assuming Moosegod allows the natural ones). Everyone else who invested in a Cyberlink might wanna do the same...

Dampener (not applicable), Flare Compensation (not applicable), Improved Scent, Microscopic Vision (rarely applicable), Olfactory Booster, Select Sound Filter, Spatial Recognizer, Chemical Analyzer (cybernetic).

So that's really 5 that would be useful to you.

Ok. I got 8 Generic Ports with 16 Programs.

One more question...

Cyber commlink, is it basicly the same as a Personal Comm Unit, where it has the ECCM and Encryption already installed in it? If not, could I buy the items as gear and have them installed into the cyber commlink?

Nope and yep respectively.

But let me ask you this, how much did you spend on the cybernetic commlink (Essence and nuyenwise)? I might have a better alternative for you.

Cyber Commlink 8 is .15 essense and 40,000.

Yeah, the extra senses might apply. But a gas spectometer won't help you in most situtations. Neither will your sense of smell or taste.

Hmm, out of curiosity, why do you say that? Joaquim's sense of smell is superhuman to the extreme; he can tell when someone is approaching from quite some distance. The chemical anaylzer and gas spectrometer would also be useful anytime there's any explosives or ammunition around, not to mention odorless or colorless gases, mines, and things like that.

Taste and touch I have to agree with, though.

Sorry, I'm not adding anything from myself yet. I need the money to get the Cyberlink. Hopefully Alpha or Beta.

Then we'll be cooking with gas, as it were! Low-Light, Thermo, Ultrasound... And whenever I get ear stuff, that too.

Oh, do all my guns being connected count as stuff for it? I don't think they do, but if they did... Crispy.

We got a Tactical Computer!

This was mentioned earlier, but I wanted to make sure it was clear.

Everyone should take some language skill in Sioux Handsigning for times when we can't even use radios.

I've got 4 points but 3 should be enough, try to take at least that much please.

Does one point of the language with a level 3 mnemonic enhancer work? Should be about the same level of understanding.

Yep.

Say, Moosegod, are you using the errata for Man & Machine? If so, I might rejuggle some of my implants and stuff. I could really use some of those bioware implants now that they're geasable.

Goodness... Our pre-starting thread is bigger than most real threads! Scary!

Anyway... I'm going to get to work on a clean version in the morning. I'll most likely use Wordpad so as to avoid anything I don't like in NSRCG.

Also... Do we really need lifestyle? I mean, we've got the barracks. I think I remember reading that, but I could just be going insane. (Too late!)

I bought a lifestyle of my own. We have enough income to maintain a Middle lifestyle plus 75,000 nuyen/year on top of that (apparently), so no worries.

Also, what is everyone's callsign going to be? It should be something different than your actual name, as the entire point of it is to keep the enemy from knowing who's who. I'm going to be using "Windsinger" for my character, SFC Joaquin Laughing-Snow, Ph.D. How about you guys?

Cub for Arctus Susru. Uh TsP and M.

I'd already pegged Jared for being Windtalker... being he's Navajo, keeping true to his code talker anscestry...

Oh, sorry. I must have missed that.

It's all good...

I'll likely use either "Wolf" or "Hunt".

Okay, I made a few significant changes to my character. I have biomonitors for the entire team (sounds worth linking to the battletac system, to me), unless someone objects. I took the Battletac cyberlink because of the new M&M errata (I wasn't geasing my point of lost magic, anyway), a spare radio (no spare battletac), and a rating 6 STS transponder. I ditched the earth moving spell as well.

Doing a little reworkage myself. I was reading the "High Stats" thread and went "Oh, wait, I have Qui 6 already, so my Muscle Toner 4 would only do Muscle Toner 3... I'm waisting money!" Knocked it down to three, took an Autoinjector, the Platlet Factory, and am now spending the rest on anticoagulants for the injector.

Oh, and all my guns that can support themselves have the STS mod now.

I'm making some minor but significant changes, too, to help "specialize" him a bit more. I droped his Supersquirt in favor of a Blowgun, for instance (seems more appropriate), and that sort of thing. Since Moosegod is away for Thanksgiving I figured I had a couple of days to do so.

Still trying to think of a good callsign, though. I really liked Windsinger and I'm smacking myself upside the head repeatedly for not noticing Digital Heroin's Windtalker comment earlier.

Oh, and thanks for the Biomonitor! I don't have much to buy for the group, but everyone who's getting Light MilSpec armor might want to include the Hazmat EnviroSeal with it (or at least get some Chemical Seal for other types of armor) if you can afford it. I decied Joaquin is more of a Chemical Warfare Specialist than "just" a Demolitions Expert. Think along the lines of Nicholas Cage's character in "The Rock." He's still very proficient with explosives, though.

Also, which do you guys think would be the more appropriate "standard issue" mods for an Ares Alpha? Do you think we're going to be doing stealth missions more than heavy firepower missions? I can get either a total of 6-points of recoil compensation and a sound suppresser or a full 10-points of recoil compensation, and I'm not really sure which one is more appropriate for most of our missions.

In other words, what do the Shadow Wolves specialize in? Long-Range Recon and Sabotage, or Close Quarters Combat and Urban Conflicts/City Takeovers?

I dunno, but I've got all the mods for my Light Milspec, except Gel Packs. As for contributing, I really can't do much since a lot of it is going towards my guns/cyber and bio. I would hand out beacons, but I really needed that extra 6k nuyen for another mod so one of my guns won't accidentally hit you or somesuch.

Hopefully we'll never come into a situation like that, but, eh, who knows.

Going on the theory that the reason many of the options light milspec armor has should be directly translatable to light security armor, I loaded up as well. While it's not explicitly allowed to get the hazmat seal for the security armor, I went ahead and bought it figuring that MG will let me know if it's not good

That suit of armor ran me 150k when all was said and done.

If you guys are interested, I found a cool little website discussing various things about the Sioux Wildcats. It's where I was inspired by the name Windsinger, even. You might want to give it a look over for some inspiration...

The Sioux Nation Wildcats

I haven't read a lot about the Wildcats but i think they are probably closer to Navy Seals then Army Special Forces (the top two covert ops organazations). Seals do recon missions, extraction missions, and sabotage missions. Where SF mainly goes into an area and teaches the indiginious poeple how to fight.

So if I have a vote, then I say lets be Seals!