My ork street sam upgraded his cyber/bio package and ended up with .2 Essence free. Since I might as well jam something in there as not, I looked through the books and nothing really blew my skirt up. My current implants are:

Cyberware: 4.8
Reaction Enhancer (2) .6
Wired Reflexes (2) 3.0
Plastic Bone-Lacing, Alpha .4
Dermal Plating (2), Alpha .8

Bioware: 1.6
Muscle Augmentation (4) .8
Muscle Toner (4) .8

I can squeeze in another .2 of Cyber or .4 of Bioware. Currently I'm on the fence between an Olfactory Booster and Platelet Factories, but I'm open to suggestions.

Lack of optics is a bit surprising, to me. (Cybereyes are more reliable than goggles and can't be lost.)

Anyway, platelet factories seems like a good way to go.

Oh, how many times have you bought the 'Restricted Gear' quality?

Synthacardium or Reflex Recorders are always nice safe bets for a Samurai. There's nothing more embarrassing than failing an Athletics test despite being a chrome boy, after all.

Yeah, that's another good choice. You could get SEVERAL levels of Synthacardium if you have the cred.

Hold on... are those essence values right? 4.8 + 1.6 = 6.4... that would make you a cyberzombie.

The Bio gets halved. So it's 4.8 + 0.8 = 5.6.

Lower of the bioware and cyberware essence cost gets halved, remember.



-k

Wait... you'd only have .2 Essence on this character? Hope you don't run into any infected or anything else with Drain Essence.

I thought that too.

That's pretty much GM-fiat-murder, sooo…

0.2 or 6, it does not change much. Essence drain only works against subdued victims, so if a critter can drain 1 Essence, he can drain it all. All it takes is a bit more time undisturbed.

I just thought I'd point out, in case you or your group are sticklers for RAW, that Augmentation (p128) says you can only fill 'essence holes' with cyber- or bioware of the same type as that which you upgraded or removed.

One thing you might look at is geneware. Reakt gives +2 to defensive tests, and this would be on top of what you get from your wired reflexes and reaction enhancers.

To clarify that: if the hole is from cyberware, it has to be filled by cyberware, and if the hole is from bioware it has to be filled by bioware.

There is Genetherapy that will fill that hole back up with essence, which you can then turn around and fill with anything you like.

SO yes, it's a concern, but not a giant one.

If I was him I'd get rid of Dermal Plating and use Orthoskin
Also, Trauma Dampener and Platelet Factory are a must have for well, anyone.
neo-epo, synthcardium are also very tempting.
synch, Reakt

I was unaware of the cyber/bio filling hole restriciton. I'll run it by the other GM's in the group, but odds are they're not going to care.

I haven't taken the Restricted Gear quality. The character came out of the gate legal but has upgraded his package in play.

The Platelet Factories are in the lead as far as my 'druthers go. I'm a fan of the Olfactory Boosters because I have a good perception pool already and I like finding clues, but they seem like kind of a pain for the GM. (They give some bonus dice which is fine, but the text implies they impart a lot more information than an extra success or two on a perception test would provide.)

Just use an Olfactory Scanner sensor. Same thing, half the price, no Essence, Availability 4. Buy a spare.

It's more like, it alters the available Perception tests you *could* make. Natural, you can basically never sniff out explosives (etc.) unless they're literally under your nose. No test possible.

Good use of 0.2 essence?

Second hand alphaware chemical gland, filled with your combat drug of choice.

Got ettarated IIRC at least in german who tend to get the etaratas before we do due to a later printing.

What's the cost on internal airtank? It's not one of those thigns that comes up often, but when it does it can literally be a life saver.

Trauma Damper is pretty good.


Wired Reflexes is one of those things you really want in alphaware (at least).

Not super expensive and costs you a lot less Essence.

Bye
Thanee

This or though it likely better to get the cyber foot of doom for airtanks and nanohives if you can get it in the essance if not it might be worth dropping stuff for it.

Why not prepare to switch Wired Reflexes to Synaptic Boosters?

.2 Essence, hmm?

Adapsin.

Which of course will lead you to want to replace all your other cyberware. Creating a bigger Essence hole.






-k

Platelet Factories is a no-brainer. Hardly anything can compete with it for 0.2 essence.

I'd really think about freeing up some more essence as well but Platelet Factories are worth getting. As you can't really use all of your .2 essence as hitting 0 kills you. Alphaing your wires seams a good idea it will free up soem cyber essance and you can take the hand/foot of doom using the capisty rule to get a nanohive for much less essance and an air tank opens up some doors.

He already got lowlight vision, since he is an ork.
And you can almost alway wear glasses and/or contact lenses for vision enhancement. The only exeption is when you get captured. But that should be seldom if you aren't part of the A-Team. And then still cybereyes wont help that much. You wont have a gun to use smartlink or a comlink to use image link.
The "more reliable" is seldom usefull. Does that really justify the essence cost?

And don't forget: If a hacker hacks your glasses, you can take them of. If an hacker hacks your cybereyes you are simply screwed.
That makes successful hacker attacks against you in combat unnecessary fatal. You cant even run away anymore.

Its still ok for a sam to get cybereyes, but its far away from a must-buy.

You really have no business being a shadowrunner if your eyeballs run wireless.

Poor cybereyes.

I wish they were more viable.

I don't know if this even conflicts with RAW, but I would houserule that glasses are always wireless and cybereyes never are.

Well, glasses are somewhat limited now in SR4A. You can cram everything into even moderate Rating cybereyes. Biggest plus being the camera, I don't think that option exists for glasses.

Bye
Thanee

Thats for sure, but I am not talking about that.
The normal case is that your cybereyes communicate with your comlink and your weapon, to get advantages of image link, smartlink and tac soft. You do this of course with Skinlink or minimum range wireless signals. But that still means, if someone has hacked your comlink, he can hack your eyes next. And no matter how good you secure your comlink, a hacker that is better is always possible.

You can always go OH NO MY EYES ARE FUNNY turn of com fixed.

Run a commlink without wireless for your personal stuff and then another one for everything else?

Don't forget Symbionts. All .2 ess.

There great conversations starters.

The hacker is out then, but if he knew what he was doing the damage is already done. Mess around with the cybereyes operating program, or deinstall it completely. Or install malware in there, that continues the job when the connection is cut. You wont be able to see, and repairing that will take time and effort. Deadly in a combat situation.


Yes that would work, but is a drastic move. It means you don't get boni from tacsofts. And for other ordinary information from the matrix you still have to look at your second commlinks display, istead of having it directly in you field of view. The last point is only burdensome for your character, and has nearly no effect to the game. But still I think thats a lot of effort, only to have cybereyes, compared to the advantages they give.

What's a good way to fill a .2 Essence hole? I reccomend a dollop of spackle.

Unfortunately, I don't know your augmented stats....

Suprathyroid Gland (0.7 essence halved to 0.35 essence)

Cyber Essence: 4.8
Bio Essence: 1.15
Total Essence: 5.95

Most cyberware shouldn't have or need any wireless functions. Common sense tells you that hard wired systems would be safer, more secure and more efficient. And the fluff tells us that a lot of cyberware has diagnostic ports. Plus, any character with a datajack or chipjack would be able to load any firmware/software updates that way via DNI. Controlling everything through the PAN makes sense until you imagine what happens if you forget to charge your commlink one night, lol.

However, the way they redesigned the smartlink to go from a body mod to an eye mod would require wireless capability to function, or at the very least a skinlink or datajack. It was a very poor move on the part of 4e changing the nature of the smartlink, especially since it makes less sense without the processor and simsense rig.

Just so everyone's aware, that's already in Unwired. It says, 'many cyber items, like limbs, wouldn't have wireless'.

Plus you can typically have wireless removed / hardware disabled when you buy a device or implant, or simply buy the non-wireless version. No cost to downgrade, chummer.