after pondering the (insane, silly) effects of the BattleTac Matrixlink program, this occured to me.

Tactical Analysis
Size Multiplier: 10
The Tactical Analysis program acts as a Tactical Computer. The number of ports available are determined by the program rating: each dedicated port costs 1 point of rating, while each non-dedicated port costs 2. Dedicated and non-dedicated ports must be determined when writing the program; altering them is equivalent to raising the program rating by 1/4 its current value.

Wow... just try to imagine the record sheet for that decker!!! You'd probably need a B.A. in Shadowrun rules to GM that player!

Hey man, I have a PhD in Shadowrun rules.

First, I got my BS. Then I got MS, then I started pilin' it high and deep. Heheheh.

What exactly do these ports port into? If it's not for use in the Matrix, then the program already "exists" in the form of the hardware and software of a Tactical Computer. If it's for inside, the only thing really appropriate are the Sensor ratings of the deck, so unless it was dedicated to a single deck, it would need the non-dedicated "ports" I guess.

But uh yeah... what's your intensions for it?

it could work inside or outside. i figure, there's no reason for a decker to install a computer in his skull, when there's already a perfectly good one sitting on his lap. ports could be used to take in your team's radio network, any enemy radio nets you crack, security cameras you hack into, etcetera. your deck's Sensor rating would act the same way as a drone's does, with a cybernetic TacComp.

Can you do a quick cost analysis on this Vs the TacComp?

Figure a dedicated Pocket Secretary as the base computer, plus the memory required, and then the program (Rating 6) Vs Tactical Computer (Rating 6)?

a cybernetic TacComp with 6 ports (including the 5 that come standard) would cost 405,000.

a rating 6 Tactical Analysis program would cost (6*6*10*200) 72,000. i think i'll up the multiplier to 20, though, bringing the cost up to 144,000. there's no way a pocsec could run this program; it doesn't even have enough memory to store it. i, personally, would require a dedicated computer with enough memory to hold the program itself (1080 Mp), which would cost 108,000 for a pocket model. total cost of a non-cyber Tactical Computer with 6 ports: 252,000.

That seems reasonable / comparable. The Transducer is 1/2 price for the external version. Does the computer need to be DNI capable?

First of all you left out the part about how every port on a Tactical Computer needs a program of its own in addition to just the port. Obviously, a TacCom isn't just one program.

Second, your price comparison is a bit odd. A standard Fairlight Excalibur (chosen simply cause the numbers are simple) costs 1,500,000 nuyen. The cranial version is 2,000,000 nuyen. So to reverse engineer that cost, it costs 25% less to have a full-sized computer than one that's fully cybernetic, DNI-capable, and in your head. It comes with the hardware and software to run five dedicated senses (your natural ones) as well.

The Tactical Computer, by itself, is 400,000 nuyen. That means that a full-sized computer, complete with the same base software and hardware, should cost approximately 300,000 nuyen.

Going with your Multiplier 20 for this program at Rating 5 for the five senses, that gives it a size of 500 Mp. A desktop computer that can run that would thus cost 10,000 nuyen while the program itself would cost 100,000 nuyen for 110,000 nuyen total. That's not including the discount that should be there for a computer capable of running only a single dedicated programming suite, either, but we'll assume what discount there would be would be made up with the included five dedicated ports.

So, no, I'd say the price is still quite a way's off. You'd have to increase the multiplier to about 50 to come close... and then calculate how the software and hardware for each generic or dedicated port (the hardware would be pretty cheap; basically just a router port) would cost beyond the five free ones.

Sure, a Pocket Computer version would cost well more than the cybernetic one, but that's arguably true of Cyberdecks, too. Don't blame me for Shadowruns mucked up costs for those. You should just use a tabletop as your basis since that's how it works for cyberdecks and cranial cyberdecks, too.

FUPs, from Matrix, should work for the sensory port hardware. they cost 235 each.

i don't think it's quite fair to calculate the costs of a non-cyber taccomp as a full-sized desktop. part of the reason cyberdecks are so expensive is that they're so compact; i'd go with a pocket computer.

unless i misremember, tactical sense programs cost a stright 50 nuyen each. the closest i can come to 300,000 is a size multiplier of 39: 975Mp, program cost 195,000, pocket computer cost 97,500. the five FUPs cost 1,175; the tactical sense programs cost 250. total cost: 293,925; this leaves 6,075 unaccounted for.

edit: gah, you edited while i was posting. the tabletop/pocket thing, there were rules in VR2.0 for breadboarding your cyberdeck--making it the size of a modern desktop, reducing the cost. for some reason, they removed them from Matrix. i still believe it's fair to say that cyberdecks are so expensive because of their highly compact nature.

The standard desktop computer in Shadowrun is the size of a keyboard. The standard cyberdesk is the size of a keyboard. The difference in components is reflected in the difference in prices, but the main units are still the same size -- they both effectively use the same basic motherboard or what have you. So yeah, going with the desktop computers is more appropriate than a pocket computer. You can't fit a cyberdeck in your jacket pocket, and breadboarding just makes it easier to swap components out (and is just as available for a standard computer as it is a cyberdeck, or at least it should be even though there's no point in it mechanically).

Tactical Sense Programs cost 5,000 nuyen and takes up 50 Mp, which is needed for each individual sense plugged into a Generic Port (also 5,000 nuyen). Dedicated Ports cost 10,000 and come with their dedicated sense's Tactical Sense Program. The only difference between the two is a Generic Port can be easily altered to a different sense (such as a vehicle's or deck's Sensors) while the Dedicated Port cannot.

Those Tactical Sense Programs alone have a base cost of 100 nuyen per Mp which is the price for a program with a Rating of 3 or lower. I'm going to assume that it's a simple Rating 1 program since it only needs to send a single sense to the main computer, so the Multiplier for it would be 50. (And wouldn't you know, that fits in with my guess above, too. Go figure.)

Then you have to figure out the Ports themselves. A simple Generic Port costs 500% more than a Datajack but takes up half the Essence.

Now assuming that a Tactical Computer is just a regular computer with fancy software (even though the prices indicate something else entirely in my opinion), that also indicates that the Street Index for the software alone is 4 while most Rating 5 Utilities -- even Killjoy or Black Hammer -- are 1.5 and has an Availability of 12/60 days. So obviously, the programming skills required for this kind of thing are astronomical.

Basically, I don't think anything like this should be made available to players. Everything indicates the hardware is more than just a computer or even a cyberdeck, and the same is true of the software. If it were as simple as coding a program -- even one with a Multiplier of 20 as you wanted to go with -- it would be a dime a dozen in the shadows. Just like how every decent decker has a Black Hammer utility (the description for it says as much). But it's not, and it shouldn't be in my opinion.

gaaaah. another aspect of SR that Man Was Not Meant To Calculate. your multiplier of 50 can be made to work for a rating 5 Tac Comp, but it breaks down instantly at any other rating.

non-cybernetic TacComps already exist. they can be plugged into a cyberlimb; if you can fit it in a cyberlimb, you can fit it in the palm of your hand and link to it through a datajack.

however, instead of ramming my head against the fact that the rules weren't meant to be reverse-engineered (any more than i already have, that is), i'm going to admit that a purpose-built TacComp can't be faithfully reproduced by a regular computer and a set of programs, for the same cost. i suppose i could still make programming rules for a Tactical Analysis prog, but it'd be useless to deckers--too large to use.

instead, i'll just make it an add-on module that can be built into your cyberdeck or remote-control deck. same prices as the cybernetic version (since that's the price for one built into a cyberlimb). workable?

And the one that gets shoved in your arm is exactly the same one they shove into your head. Only difference is Essence loss (and I'm not even sure about that -- I don't have my book handy at the moment).

I think a Matrix-only Tactical Analysis program has a lot of merit, and a Multiplier of 20 would be good for that. Encounters in a computer are much more controlled, and Sensors much more static, in an artificial environment than they are in the real world, so I think it would be easier. Especially since the program would mostly just be keeping track of all the activity going on around you and suggesting possible threats and whatnot.

And using the same price (maybe with a 25%ish discount for being non-cybernetic) for an add-on device would be cool if you wanted it to serve the same function as a standard TacCom.

the only essence cost a cyberlimb TacComp has is DNI. a cyberdeck or RC deck module wouldn't require that, since it's hooked to the user through the datajack. 300k for the module and five senses: sec cameras, radio... what else?

so, the Matrix-only Tac Analysis prog would have a multiplier of 20, and have one 'port' per, what, 2 points of rating?

0.5 Essence for the Tactical Computer itself (which is 250% more than a full, complete Datajack) and 0.1 Essence for each Port is more than just DNI.

As for the Matrix part, I'd say it would need to have a Rating equal to the deck's Sensors (or the Rating's value in available Sensors it can take advantage of at least), with all of them assumed to be Generic Ports so you could copy them from one deck to another.