I just got this as an email from one of my players and I've not hada chance to look yet. Is this accurate?
There’s something weird (wrong) about the Karma costs for Technomancers complex forms. For everybody else in the games, Karma cost for stuff is 1-2 times what it costs in BP’s, however for technomancers, complex forms can cost Karma 3-4 times the BP cost.
Example:
Comparisons of costs to buy stuff at a certain level total BP to total Karma
Active skill @1 costs 4 BP or 4 Karma
@2 costs 8 BP or 8 Karma (total)
@3 costs 12 BP or 14 Karma
@4 costs 16 BP or 22 Karma
@5 costs 20 BP or 32 Karma [Almost double the BP cost]
While for a complex form @1 costs 1 BP or 2 Karma
@2 costs 2 BP (total) or 4 Karma
@3 costs 3 BP or 7 Karma
@4 costs 4 BP or 11 Karma! [Almost triple the BP cost]
@5 costs 5 BP or 16 Karma!
@6 costs 6 BP or 22 Karma! [Almost 4x the BP cost]
Given that the program versions of these complex forms can be purchased for 1 BP or 1/10th of a BP worth of cash at character creation, I feel paying 5 to 50 times the program cost to get a complex form is balanced. (That is, paying 5BP’s for a complex form that costs a hacker 5000 Nuyen or 1 BP for the hacker program AND 5 BP for the Analyze complex form and 500 Nuyen or 1/10th of a BP for the program). So then hosing technomancers on Karma as well seems harsh (Note for mages spells cost 3BP or 5 Karma).
I would suggest the costs in Karma for technomancers complex forms is halved. This brings cost into line with all other BP to karma costs for active skills, knowledge skills, languages, and spells (and is also closer to the Karma costs for buying advantages or buy-off disadvantages).