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KillaJ
I am looking to incorporate a very modest skillwire rig into a B&E adept. Like a good boy I have been busily digging up old posts on the subject but all I have found are very elaborate setups and some very heated "discussions".

The current setup is Skillwires 3/27 MP, Multi-slot 4, and the wildly underpriced Chipjack Expert Driver all at Alpha ratings. This nets me a effective skill of six in non-combat situations, more then adequate for my needs.

However, with 400,000 I still have a fair amount of cash to burn so I decided to get a pair of cyberhands in order to incorporate the lovely climbing claws and some cyber implant weapons. This has left me with a reasonable amount of essence (I plan on geasing 2 points) and nearly 200,000 nuyen to burn.

I then added cyberears at Alpha so I could get the balance augmenter. I am assuming that it will stack with the climbing claws, please tell me if I am wrong. I also threw in a datajack for it's myriad of applications. This leaves me with a grand total of 4.04 essence and 133,000 nuyen. What a dilemma.

Now instead of a feeble attempt to fool everyone of my real motivation ie "Here's a game for you guys!" I am going to come right out and say that I am bowing to your superior wisdom and beg for your help in spending my final resources. Feel free to throw any of my stuff out if you have a better idea, I just want to end up with skillwires.

I dont know how to add spoilers (pathetic right?) so I won't bore everyone with all the other details of the character unless you want them. Thank you for your time and consideration.
TinkerGnome
Skillwires are good. Rating 3 is good, 27 MP is good. You probably don't need a multi-slot 4 with 4 CEDs, though. I might go with the 4 chip slots, but limit the CED to one or two of the slots. You can only use one rating 3 chip at a time, after all. Using a skillsoft jukebox will let you run multiple chips through it for cheap.

I'm personally no fan of cyberhands, so you won't get a recomendation from me on that one wink.gif

Instead, I'd grab a datajack and get enhanced articulation. Fill up the rest with cheap stuff like Nicitating Membranes or cat eyes which will save you magic points.

The cyber ears work pretty well, though, if you want the augmentor. I'd throw in a dampner to finish it out at standard grade or a better aug if you're doing alpha grade.

Minimum loadout:

Skillwires R3 27MP .6
Chipjack .2
CED R3 .3
Datajack .2
Cyberears w/Balance Augmentor .3
Enhanced articulation (.3 magic loss)

At all basic grade, that's exactly 1.9 points of magic loss. At alpha grade, you can add in climbing claws and another bioware item at .2 index or less (synthcardium or cat eyes are good) and still stay under 2 points.
KillaJ
Thank you for the prompt response. I think I will drop the cyberhands, thanks.
Otaku On Acid
one probelm though, you can't gaesa the magical lose from the bioware, where as you could from any cyberware he took.
Misfit Toy
Skillsoft Jukeboxes are not cheap.

For only 32,500 nuyen and 0.45 Essence you can get a Synthetic Cyberhand with Direct Neural Interface and 1,000 Mp of OMC Memory that performs the same job but allows you to store in excess of 35 ASIST 3/Pulse 27 skillsofts, and you still have 0.25 ECU of storage space available. For five thousand less you can snag an infinitely more stylish Obvious Cyberhand and have 2.25 ECU of space for other gadgets (I like getting an Orientation System and a few other things that wind up actually saving you Essence). The best part is that it can't be lost or confiscated unless someone slices it off, which is doubtful they will since it's all completely legal and largely harmless. Sure, this is true of the Skillsoft Jukebox, but you can much more easily damage or lose the Skillsoft Jukebox at any given point.

No compare that to a Skillsoft Jukebox capable of doing the same thing (loading a minimum of 35 ASIST 3/Pulse 27 'softs), at least as far as the 'soft swapping goes. One that can do that will set you back 661,500!!! nuyen; one that only stores ten will still cost you 54,000 nuyen. In exchange you have to tote around a rather obvious device that's vulnerable to damage, lost, or being confiscated. The Concealability is also significantly worse (10 for the Synthetic Cyberhand as standard grade vs. 3 for the Jukebox).

It's about the only thing cyberhands are good for, in fact.
Kanada Ten
QUOTE
Otaku On Acid
One probelm though, you can't gaesa the magical lose from the bioware, where as you could from any cyberware he took.

QUOTE
Errata
[ Spoiler ]

    Magic reduction from bioware functions like other forms of Magic loss-adepts lose some of their powers, for example. Geasa can be used to counteract magic loss from bioware and a character can still initiate to raise his Magic rating.


Kill A J, {SPOILER} TEXT {/SPOILER} Change {} to [].
KillaJ
I wasnt sure about the compatability of the 1000 MP cyberhand setup and the CED. A similar issue was discussed a great deal on another thread (which I will not link to because it got rather heated and was shut down, not sure of the etiquette here) and it seemed to never get resolved. That was one of the initial reasons for cyberhands though. Although I may be confused as to whether or not that would apply to a cyberhand.

[ Spoiler ]
tisoz
The thing I hate about cyberlimbs is how they usually reduce Quickness and Strength. The characters I want to use the cyber on usually have those two attributes above the base Quickness and Strength for the cyberlimbs. Having to pay 30,000 nuyen (IIRC) for each cyberlimb for each point of Strength or Quickness gets expensive.
Xirces
I like the cyberhand with OMC setup - pretty whizz and I can see an application for just about any character (if you need more storage then get a lower arm replacement).

However, I wouldn't allow the CED to work on a skillsoft from the memory - surely it has to come through the chipjack (I know this has never been confirmed either way, but my opinion).

An option that would work with that is to DiMAP the skillsofts howvever.
TinkerGnome
Jukeboxes are cheap, depending on how you interpret the "ports" part of it. I've heard on semi-good authority that the cost of the jukebox is (number of output ports) x mp x (some number of nuyen). The jukebox can hold as many chips as you want. The advantage over a cyberhand is that it is cheap in both essence and cash. The OMC in a cyberhand setup costs more, but is less likely to not be there when you need it. A similar advantage could be gained from just your skillsofts on a small handful of cluster chips, thus cutting down your need to change them (costs a bit more cash on the skillwires and the chips, but no more essence).
KillaJ
At the risk of restarting the whole argument, what do you guys think about getting the CED built into the hand? Unless it has been errated a cyberhand has 2 ECU. I already have the omc chip inside so that accounts for .5. Would it be reasonable to say that the CED could fit into 1.5 ECU? If so would there be any essence cost? The hand is already DNI'ed and I dont know if the CED would require any interaction from a human brain to work on the chip it is attached to. I guess I should ask whether the CED could even be attached to the OMC chip?
Misfit Toy
You have to have the Direct Neural Interface to allow neural control of the memory chip, so that's 0.25 ECU.

In any case, you don't need the CED to be built into the hand. As long as you have it routed to the augmented chipjack (which you need to do anyway), the information the CED receives is the same as if its downloaded from the original chip or the exact same information it downloaded into memory. There is no hidden, magic information on the chip.

The CED is just like having a really nice video card installed in your computer, and the Skillwires is the monitor. The video game you were playing on your monitor is exactly the same video game it was before you installed the video card, but voila, now the rendering of the video data is heightened to a whole new level... yet its still doing it from the exact same video data it was originally receiving. Because its the CED/video card that's doing the work, not the skillsoft/video data "encoded on the chip/CD."

If it truly was limited to something magical in the skillsoft chip, then that would be a skillsoft modification. The CED is pure hardware. Some people just attribute way too much to the little fluff line of "encoded on the chip" in its description. No where does it actually say that it only grants the bonus when reading directly from a chip. And if it did, even a Skillsoft Jukebox wouldn't work since it's only transmitting the same data to the chipjack that headware memory would since the Jukebox wasn't modified either.
Xirces
I can see that, but IMO the chipjack is a specialist device - it's like a cut down datajack - one of the missing things is the connectivity a chipjack can only read direct from the chip and not from internal (or external) memory, hence the CED can only work on skills direct from the chip.

Otherwise wouldn't you just use a datajack/memory/CED combo instead and miss out the CJ?
Misfit Toy
Nope, because the Chipjack Expert Driver is a modification for Chipjacks, not Knowsoft Links. You still have to have the augmented Chipjack installed in order to route the data from memory to the CED, and then from there to the Skillwires (the latter step only being needed for ActiveSofts).

You are correct in that Chipjacks don't have the free router ports that Datajacks do. That's why I always snag a Datajack as well to connect all three devices (the Chipjack, Cyberhand, and Skillwires) with the free router ports it comes with, with the Datajack acting as the data hub. Datajacks are infinitely useful, too, especially when used with an external Transducer (cheaper and no Essence loss).
TinkerGnome
Note that the clustered skillsoft option is there for a reason. Chipjacks can't accept data in large chunks like you can feed directly to the skillwires. You can have the stupid-huge OMC in your hand, but if you intend to feed it back to a chipjack, you need a controlling program in order for it to get the CED bonuses.
Misfit Toy
Nope, that's a special (and odd) requirement for a chip itself. You need no such program for headware memory or any other similar setup (if you did, it would have been mentioned in the main book or even the expanded rules in CC, neither of which even mentions it). Alledgedy, the DNI control you have over the memory is all the control you need to juggle the software.
TinkerGnome
Given that you're trying to make the OMC work as a chip to get the CED bonus, I would say that the restriction still applies. If the chipjack doesn't work that way, then there's no reason that the CED, which only reads through the chipjack, would be designed in a different manner.

If you just want to tie the OMC to the skillwires and not get the CED bonus, I'd have no problem with it. The first word in Chipjack Expert Driver is Chipjack, after all.
Misfit Toy
I'm just sayin'. smile.gif There's nothing in the rules to suggest that anything like that would be required. If anything, the rules are saying that users don't have the same level of control over the data on a skillsoft that they do over data in headware memory, thus requiring the 'soft to have a directory program to handle it.
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