Why?

It's so expensive that no one will ever take it. You have to install it as at least alphaware, and it's not even really acceptable until you hit delta. And even then, its effects are easy to achieve with combinations of other ware that don't cost 16 million nuyen and chew through your body. So why does it exist? Even if you have the 16 million to burn, you can outfit 10 or 12 soldiers with the same capability, if not better. It doesn't really do anything that other stuff doesn't already do for far cheaper.

I think it was just a cool idea and useful for those making cyberzombies. True, you can get the increases with a combination of bioware and cyberware, but I think it is useful to give to higher up threats.

I've never actually seen a player take one, I think it's what the designers thought was a good idea at the time.

Don

I don't know of anything that mimics the extra-action bonus of MBW4. In addition to its sheer numerical bonuses, it really is the ultimate in speed.

It's there for cyberzombies and not much else.

With Reaction +8, Initiative +4D6, Quickness +4, and Athletics/Stealth +4, such a cyberzombie *will* be going first unless dealing with an adept with Quick Strike. They're less likely to be surprised and more likely to surprise, too. The fact that they gain an extra action in addition to all of that is an extra perk.

And since it is designed almost exclusively for cyberzombies, the fact that they'll have it as deltagrade means it only takes up 3.5 Essence. That's just slightly more than Wired Reflexes 2 with a Reflex Trigger. That leaves a *lot* of room for other deltagrade implants, so not only will they be mindboggelling fast, but loaded to bear, too.

The extra action is really the only thing you can't practically achieve for far cheaper through other equipment. Even if I had a cyberzombie, I'd be packing him full of far more efficient and effective ware. I'm having trouble seeing its use as anything remotely practical, even if I want an impractical zombie killing machine.

The extra-action bonus is two extra actions, really.

And it's just there to be cool.

Cool, maybe, but I'm having trouble rationalizing its existence as anything but a pure prototype system. Down and out runner to corp special warfare project, I can't see anyone who would view this as viable.

'bout as viable as a metal tail or an eyeball gun. It's just there so the runners can feel cool when they beat someone with it.

Except that the amounts of money involved in eyeguns and tails are small enough that someone could concievably buy one for a specific use or make a bad decision. When you're shoving 16 million nuyen into a single human being who will be handling high risk situations, you don't get to make a bad decision with that money.

No one reads flavor text, do they? MBW is smooth as silk in motion. WR tend to be jumpy and jerky, while adept IR tend to just move in starts and fits, MBW is totally smooth and graceful. It's like the difference between watching a UFC match and a fight from CTHD. One is effective but not very pretty, the other is just as if not more effective and also beautiful to watch. Poetry in motion as it were.

From a pure number-crunching standpoint, sure you can get almost all the bonuses with other stuff. But why and at what cost? Will you be looking like a walking trash compactor with all the metal sticking out of you? You can't even tell someone has a MBW system by sight alone.

Oh, plus you can pump the MBW up with Synaptic Accellerator bioware to push it up to Rea + 6d6 Init, which is the highest you can get with any combination I believe.

The Abstruse One

I thought Synaptic Accelerator was incompatible? If it's compatible, I could concievably get Reaction + 9d6 with SA2, MBW4, and BR3, which is fairly nice. I don't believe it's supposed to be possible, however.

In any case, the smooth movement is supposed to be disturbingly, inhumanly smooth. Regardless, there's little use for it when what you need is combat effectiveness. In any case, worth pointing out that as pretty and well choreographed as Crouching Tiger was, none of it was remotely effective in a real life situation, and I'm not even counting the absolutely impossible stuff.

M&M 30, top paragraph on the right:

Well, that seals it. Amusingly, if you take a physad, give him delta MBW4 and Enhanced Reflexes 1 (all he can afford), you get an assounting Reaction + 5d6. Woo.

[edit]

Well, maybe not.

SR3 page 169

People with this system will still be 'twitchy' in the sense that they react to stuff before they think about it. They'll just react really smoothly.

Why make the MBW system?
Because it's the drek!

Why install a 16 million nuyen piece of gear into one person?
Because it makes it far less likely that the other 32 million nuyen you spent on the fragger will be damaged!

Why bother when you can just use Bio+Cyber for the same bonus?
Because IIRC Bio+CZs don't mix that well.

Crap, sorry. That was 2nd Ed Cybertechnology you could cram a synaptic accellerator in there too, but only at level 1 and only if you paid extra or something. Enhanced Artwinkulation doesn't say it's not incompatable with the MBW though...

The Abstruse One

When Shadowrun says "not compatible," it generally means "use whichever one gives the most benefit; they don't 'stack'."

Why not? Would be a better question

It's cool
It gives sammies something to dream about. "One day I could be that fast".

It insures that no matter how fast your PC's get you can allways bring out the MBW4 CZ.

Did I mention that it is cool? Unlike the eye gun which is stupid IMHO.

Well, it's cool except for the minor having-to-have-your-brain-cut-out part.

That's only uncool if you have a brain to start with.

Init 41 MBW-4 d00d (MBW) vs Init 43 Wired-3+RE-6 d00d (WRE):
43-WRE
41-MBW
41-MBW
33-WRE
31-MBW
31-MBW
23-WRE
21-MBW
13-WRE
11-MBW
3-WRE
1-MBW

The extra actions are worth it, if you've got craploads of nuyen to spend. In the time most people act 2 times, the MBW-guy acts 4.

Unfortunately it all falls to pieces when you're shot in the head by the adept uber-sniper with the Barret 121.

GM: "Suddenly, everything turns black. A second later, you hear the suppressed crack of a f**k-off huge sniper's rifle."

Not at all.

Any combat-oriented cyberzombie worth his gold is going to have a Guardian Angel Nano-Biomonitor at the very least, and most likely a Trauma Damper and Damage Compensators. With a high-end Body score, that combo will knock down most Deadly wounds to a Moderate or even Light wound. Once that happens, the cyberzombie simply dives for cover and then the jig's up.

Assuming the combat was taking place outdoors and/orin the open to begin with.

I'm aware of that, which is why I specified Wounds not Damage. Body comes into play with the Nano-Biomonitor and Healing Tests.

Trauma Damper automatically drops a Deadly wound to a Serious wound (9 boxes).
Nano-Biomonitor kicks in, rolling 6 dice against a TN of 6 (lowered by a high Body score).
Single success drops it to Moderate (3 boxes).
Damage Compensators 3 allows him to ignore the effects.

Note a complete and total lack of any mention of "Damage Resistance Tests."

Let me relate the first player interactions when a table I was GMing encountered MBW:

FX: "Damn, that new guy is quick."
Mo: "Gosh, see how smooth he moves!"
FX: "Frag if he doesn't have MBW!"
Mo: "Gosh, that must be worth millions."
(Both pull weapons and hang back until the MBW guy slaughters the opposition, taking a moderate wound in the process.)
FX: Puts two bursts into the MBW guy.
Mo: Puts an autofire-burst into the MBW guy.
FX and Mo: "Oh man, this is great. All this money to split between us."
(Both characters look at each other.)
FX (reacting faster): Puts two bursts into Mo.

FX to Street Doc: "Doc, can you take some cyberware out of this body? I think it's worth something on the used market.
Doc: Sure, I'll examine the body and tell you what it'd cost.
(Doc leaves)

(Nurse enters 2 minutes later)
Nurse: Here's a soft drink and some cookies while you wait.
FX: Thanks.
(Everything turns black as FX passes out.)

Next time we visited the Doc, he had a bunch of new equipment.

Worth pointing out that a lot of this doesn't hold up when you start factoring in Over Deadly, which most snipers should be dealing out on a regular basis.

Assuming it's being used. It is an optional rule, not a core one.

The way I've always played it is that move-by-wire doesn't have the same problem with "reacting before thinking to sudden events" problems that Wired Reflexes has. After all move-by-wire users are described as unnaturally smooth in their movements. This makes it the perfect reflex system for cyber-zombies who aren't known to be quick thinkers anyway.

Given a character with 6 base reaction.

Move by Wire 4 -> 14 + 5d6 -> 31.5 ( with 2 extra actions) -> 6 actions
Wired Reflex 3 + Reac Enhancer 6 -> 18 + 4d6 -> 32 -> 4 actions
Boosted Reflex 3 + Synaptic Acc 2 + Reac Enhancer 6 -> 14 + 5d6 -> 31.5 -> 4 actions

So a maxed out reaction characters are pretty close in average reaction. Of course the wired or boosted character could possibly give themselves a greater edge using the Super-thyroid gland and Adrenaline pump but the line has to be drawn somewhere. The edge has to go then to the move by wire character who benefits from the the 2 extra actions.

Is it worth the drawbacks? Not really.
Is a character likely to get the resources to get this implanted? Not unless he gave a certain jewel to a certain megacorp owning dragon.
Does it make for some truly scary NPCs? You betcha.

-------------------

By the way.....

I'd say that a beta-grade or delta-grade high level move-by-wire system would be
worth very little on the streets.

We're talking about one of the most dangerous cybernetic enhancements when its implanted by highly trained professionals working in state of the art corporate cyber clinics. It'd be suicide to have it implanted second hand by a street doc. He wouldn't even begin to have the skills or resources to implant such a cybernetic device. The people who could implant such a device probably are too high up the food chain to consider working with second hand merchandise anyway. It's only value might be in selling it to a second tier cyberware corporation so they can study it. And you'd need some mighty good contacts to pull that off.

That's using optional liberally. Yeah, it's not core, but the game is just so much sillier and so much more broken without it.

It is a core rule. There is no OPTIONAL tagged to the Deadlier over Damage rules in my Book.

Oh good grief.

<just bangs his head repeatedly on the desk>

Oh, cowboy the fuck up already. This childish bullshit has got to go.

If it was an optional rule, they would specify that it was just like all the other Optionals they have. But they didn't.

Sheesh. By canon, Deadlier Over-Damage is not a standard damage rule. Gamemasters can apply the Deadlier Over-Damage rule if they find problems with the standard damage rules. A second form of the rule is also presented, which makes for an even deadlier game. SR3.126

<Bangs head against file cabinet, in time to the thumps coming from Lime's desk.>

Read it very carefully, not one time is "optional" mentioned in that entire paragraph. Yes, by Canon it is not a standard rule, but it is not an optional rule either.

It's an optional rule the way tackling is an optional rule in football. That is to say, idiotic children are the only people who play without it, and the game just ISN'T FRIGGIN RIGHT without it.

Toturi,

Someone should heed his own advice.

(Just for yoo: sum won shood heed his own advice.)

I've pointed things out rationally to individuals like toturi and Kakkaraun several times in the past, especially regarding plain English things like this. It's a pointless endeavor. If my frustration annoys you, I apologize. But blatant ignorance like that annoys me every bit as much.

But the fun part is when it turns out that you're obviously entirely wrong and you try to run from it! Now, in this case, you're clearly right. But that doesn't excuse your puerility.

Oh, and Arethusa: why does he get a whole eloquent paragraph and I get stuck with one meager, simple sentence? I feel left out .

Here's a thought:

Since the Cyberzombie gets the extra action, he can, in FA mode, fire 12 bursts using 2 weapons before anybody else gets an action.

That means if you equip the 12 other guys who can be rigged for the same amount of money using other reaction ehancing cyberware, the Cyberzombie can quite possibly kill every last one of them before any of them gets a shot off. Granted it's a bit unlikely given the modifiers the CZ will have, but still possible. Makes the 12 Wired guys seem obsolete when you think about it.