OK, I was thinking about a character concept for a hacker, and cyber commlinks are nice and all, but honestly why do I need a transmitter on every single one of them*? I was wondering if anyone thought about a device like a commlink, but no transmitter. Would such a device be smaller (Capacity 1), cheaper (you don't have to pay for something that you're not using), or both.



* == The concept is "Nexi-Man" a hacker with 4 commlinks built into a cyber leg. Three of them would be clustered and then slaved to the main commlink. I should be able to run all my programs without having to worry about Response being reduced... at ALL.

Well, at signal rating 0 the range is only a couple of meters, and you can use a skinlink to reduce the range even further, or you could just take out the wireless connectivity all together and use fiber optic cords.

In any case, there are rules for clustering multiple nodes together in Unwired, and they are not the same as slaving. Slaving a device means that all quarrys to that device must go through the master device first.

Clusters do increase program and persona limits, but they can be expensive because if all the nodes are not good, they bring the hole cluster down, which can make the cluster expensive. Using ergonmonic programs is usually an easier way to run many programs at once. With ergo programs a standard 5/5/5/6 commlink can run 10 programs at once, which is more then you will likely ever need.

TheOOB, what I was asking about is the pricing and capacity for a commlink with the wireless connectivity ripped out.

I figure that a custom made commlink without a transmitter might be smaller (takes less capacity in a cyberlimb), cheaper (you don't have to pay for a Signal chip), or both.

I'd just take the price for the Response chip. Prices for fiberoptic cable to link it into the main commlink should be negligible.

This device would be sitting in a cyberlimb and therefore connected via DNI.

Ascalaphus, do you think this device might be smaller or still the same size, but cheaper.

Well, I'm checking out how I'd do/rule it..

SR4 p. 240 gives thresholds, nuyen costs and intervals for making your own hardware. It looks.. easy. 12 hits on a Logic+Hardware test, with bonuses for a shop, is pretty doable. My own hacker would get 15-19 dice, meaning it'd be done in 4 days on average. (Logic 7, Hardware 4, Shop +4, maybe AR specs +2, perhaps Superior Conditions and/or Superior Tools, but I think the Shop would cover that.) For 4000 nuyen, that's a Response 6 chip. (Self-made halves the costs for "upgrading")

Build a heap of those chips. Cluster them. Ignore costs for cables to connect them (trivial). Now to load it into a cyberlimb..

I'd rule that each Response chip requires 1 capacity, since a normal commlink with 1 response and 1 signal chip takes a capacity of 2. (Augmentation p. 165)

So, to build a 4-core system uses about 5 capacity (1*Signal, 4*Response), has a Response of 6, Signal of 6, Processor Limit of 12, Personal Limit of 24, and costs 17500 nuyen (1*3000*0.5 + 4*8000*0.5) You might want to stock up on some of the goodies available as modifications to commlinks however..


Irritatingly, they put a modification limit on the amount of mods that fit on a commlink (4), without considering the possibility of investing in a somewhat bigger casing..


EDIT: the system above does have an Availability of 16