In SR4A pg. 345 the description of Cat's Eyes states "This bioware is not compatible with cyberware eye enhancements." Which I take to mean you cannot use the individual eyeware systems (the version you pay essence for) in Cat's Eyes. Obviously (to me at any rate ) cybereyes and Cat's Eyes are incompatible.

But the description of Troll's Eyes in Augmentation on pg. 67 states "This implant is incompatible with cybereyes or cat’s eyes." The incompatibility with Cat's Eyes, again, seems obvious to me. But I take the cybereyes part to mean the actual cyberware replacement eyes, but not inherently the the cybereyes systems (the essence payment versions).

Given that Troll's Eyes and Cat's Eyes seem very similar in nature it seems to me (and my player) that Cat's Eyes should be allowed to use the eyeware systems and what the statement was meant to convey is, like Troll's Eyes, you cannot have both actual cybereyes and Cat's Eyes. but can use the essence costing versions of eyewear systems with Cat's Eyes (which I'm an inclined to rule).

The reason I ask is, I have a player with Cat's Eyes that wants to get an implanted image link (and an implanted sound link, to go with an implanted commlink ). By RAW he can't. But another player with Troll's Eyes can (and does) have Image Magnification, Smartlink, Flare Compensation, and an Image Link (for the smartlink, of course) and that's alright, by RAW.

It has also been pointed out to me that metas with natural low-light vision are not restricted from getting cyberware eye enhancements.

Thoughts?

P.S.: I know it seems like an easy answer, buy I've been lurking around here for long enough to know there are no easy answers in SR
But there are some damned entertaining ones

Just a glitch. Houserule around it; it's hardly abusive or overpowering if you allow it, or you could disallow it for both.

I agree with Yerameyahu. Just allow the player with Cat's Eyes to implant piecemeal vision enhancements. Ultimately it will cost him more Essence, so its clearly not a game breaking advantage.

As an aside, its also not unreasonable from a scientific perspective: all the Cat's Eye mod would entail is addition of a thin cell layer called a tapetum lucidum to the inner surface of the vitreous chamber of the eye. This allows entering light to bounce around longer before striking the photoreceptors of the retina, improving night vision. I don't think this would preclude implanting some other device that projects images onto the retina or magnifies the incoming image or whatever. I would allow it.

Both Troll and Cat Eyes are full replacements. Barring a great reason, I assume the rule is 'natural or bioware meat eyes, then aftermarket cybermods'. At chargen, you can assume the Troll Eyes come first; in play, you'd obviously replace any existing (cyber)eyes with the new Troll Eyes.

Thing is, if you buy cybereye add-ons without buying a cybereye, that's legal because it's retinal implants then (like those we have today, only working). I'd say cyber replacement is out of the question and they pay for every enhancement the full essence cost, but those are not incompatible, if you ask me. It's a houserule though.

Basically, as Yerameyahu and Method say.

Many thanks for the replies.

I agree its probably a glitch and that the higher essence cost, then cybereyes with enhancements, means it doesn't break anything.

I'll house rule that in for this game and probably any future games.

I though about disallowing it in both types of Eyes, but why punish non-magical characters for taking implants because they not only provide some benefit but, to quote one of the players "...could look really cool, and doesn't leave me with digital cameras in my face ". Though apparently a "robotic arm" is OK.