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Rajaat99
The Decker in my game is an NPC, so I read through Matrix once without any real indepth look. Until, that is, I decided the NPC wanted to make his own deck. Then I started reading through it again.
The first Component is Active Memory. The parts cost is: "OMC @ (memory size x 2), plus 1,5 nuyen.gif x memory size."
I understand the "(memory size x 2), plus 1,5 nuyen.gif x memory size." part, but what is "OMC @"
Cray74
OMC = optical memory chip

OMC cost is, IIRC, 5 nuyen per MP.
Moon-Hawk
I think that was erratad to 0.5 Mp per chip.
Rajaat99
OK, thank you. Maybe I'm still missing something, maybe it's too early. How does that pertain to the parts cost?
Cray74
QUOTE (Rajaat99)
OK, thank you. Maybe I'm still missing something, maybe it's too early. How does that pertain to the parts cost?

Several items in cyberdecks are built using OMCs. For example, the active memory you were interested in.
Cray74
QUOTE (Moon-Hawk)
I think that was erratad to 0.5 Mp per chip.

Really? How cool. I need to get an updated copy of Matrix.
Moon-Hawk
SR3 errata
See entry for page 296
Lindt
Actually if your building your own deck, and have a chip burner, everything is on OMCs. And if they are only .5 each, I have a BIG revision on a deck to do...
GrinderTheTroll
.5 per MP insteaed of 5, so a factor of ten.
Rajaat99
So if I wanted 2000 Active Memory, the cost would be?
Kanada Ten
OMC @ (memory size x 2), plus 1,5 nuyen.gif x memory size."
I understand the "(memory size x 2), plus 1,5 nuyen.gif x memory size

[.5 * (2000*2)] + (1.5*2000) = 5000¥

Note that the Errata only covers SR3, so a nasty GM might charge you 5¥ per OMC MP (making it 50,000¥ - which is more inline with deck costs, neh?).
Nikoli
Wasn't the size of OMC's limited though?
Or is that a house rule?
Fortune
I think the maximum listed example is 1000mp, but I recall no hard canon limit.
GrinderTheTroll
QUOTE (Nikoli)
Wasn't the size of OMC's limited though?
Or is that a house rule?

They are limited to 1000mp per chip, but that doesn't change things. This is the "parts cost" and the exact "number of chips" is irrelevant since internal components don't come into play outside of construction.
Johnny Reb
I stil lwonder where deckers get this kind of cash. Decks *start* at, what, 80Kor so?

How many computer-geeks do you know with 80K laying about for a new system?

Note to self: When working on the Seattle by the Streets, insure that MCP-4 deckers without response increase both exist and have things to do.

-- Johnny Reb
GrinderTheTroll
Huh? Choose your tech priority at 400k or even 1Mil for heaven's sake. 90k is no way to play a *true* decker, unless you talking Otaku, but that's a different ball of wax.
Voran
Would stealing a lot of pocket secretaries help?
Fortune
Um, Deckers have the potential to break the system when it comes to cash acquisition. A few choice datasteals, or double the amount of smaller solo runs can potentially set any Decker up with enough cash to buy anything they can find.

Deckers have the least motivation to run the shadows in a team, in my opinion. They can easily hire their own physical protection, and make nuyen hand-over-fist from anywhere in the world.
Fix-it
Sorry for the de-rail (it's kinda going that way anyway)
but is there an upper limit for Active and storage memory?

I can't find anything in Matrix or the decking section of SR3, so I'm assuming all you have to do is have the skillz and the money for a memory upgrade, and decking becomes a bit easier, when you can have defensive, offensive, and all your other progs loaded at once.
Cray74
QUOTE (Fix-it)
Sorry for the de-rail (it's kinda going that way anyway)
but is there an upper limit for Active and storage memory?

No, no upper limit.

I know in earlier editions that running a lot of programs gave you a big signature in the matrix. Don't know if that holds in SR3.
Johnny Reb
QUOTE (GrinderTheTroll)
Huh? Choose your tech priority at 400k or even 1Mil for heaven's sake. 90k is no way to play a *true* decker, unless you talking Otaku, but that's a different ball of wax.

Nono, where would that 400K or 1 mil come from, is what I'm curious.

And it *should* be feasable to make a Decker on 90K, or even 20K.

It just isn't, unless an Otaku.

-- Johnny Reb
Kanada Ten
The starting resouces (aka 1mil or 400K) don't represent actual money per se. The decker could have found his starting deck on the street, or built it from spare parts collected from the garbage dump, or whatever, one still must use the starting resources as a limit.
Fortune
QUOTE (Johnny Reb)
And it *should* be feasable to make a Decker on 90K, or even 20K.

It just isn't

Sure it is. Do what half the people that play Deckers do. Build a Decker and then acquire a deck in-game. wink.gif
GrinderTheTroll
Well so you start with a deck out of SR3, do some data runs, then build your own. 400k or 1mil gets you a good starter if nothing else, but the challenge is indeed the <90k route.
Sandoval Smith
QUOTE (Johnny Reb @ Jan 10 2005, 10:11 PM)
Nono, where would that 400K or 1 mil come from, is what I'm curious.

And it *should* be feasable to make a Decker on 90K, or even 20K.

It just isn't, unless an Otaku.

-- Johnny Reb

(most) Characters don't win the lottery, and then go out and decide to chrome themselves to the gills, or go cruising the matrix with a brandnew kraftwerk. Starting resources doesn't mean that a charachter actually had a million nuyen at any one point. However, over the course of their lives, they've gotten the cyber, gear, and contacts to represent that much money.

Heck, they could've had a lot more than that. A character could've had a high lifestyle, three fairlight excaliburs (one for the office, one for home, one for the toilet), and driven a different, new Nightsky every day of the week. Then, the mob bookies he'd manage to scam catch up with him, and all he's left with is a street lifestyle, a datajack, and a couple of whiz programs that he was able to hide at the last moment (possibly a cyber arm too, if those bookies took a lot more than just a pound of flesh). End result, 90k starting decker.
Johnny Reb
QUOTE (Kanada Ten)
The starting resouces (aka 1mil or 400K) don't represent actual money per se. The decker could have found his starting deck on the street, or built it from spare parts collected from the garbage dump, or whatever, one still must use the starting resources as a limit.

"Wow, good thing someone just tossed out this here MCPC-8."

Gadzooks!

"Huh. Some poor mook left his Black Hammer-8 just laying there on the table. Finders keepers!"

...

I have small problems with this. smile.gif
Sandoval Smith
What's the problem? In that case, they lifted the deck,or the data files on a physical run, or it fell off a truck, or aftering pulling off hundreds of datasteals using nothing more than a modded TI-81 graphing calculator and a roll of ducktape, they FINALLY saved up enough to buy it (semi)legitimately. They followed the smell of burning meat and found some guy cooking at a jackpoint. Not like he needs his deck anymore, and although it was a little cooked, I was able to pull some whiz data off of it.

*nitpick* I don't have my books, but I don't think you can have either of those at chargen anyways.
Cynic project
The cost of items are purely game balance tricks. You have to make things work so that a deck,and it's software witch is a big of deal for a decker as cyber is for a street sam,as toys for a rigger... All cost the same amount of money.

Seeing as they wanted to keep cars and such very costly,the other items cost a lot of cash as well. It is the cycle of games.
hobgoblin
lest see, you have a bout 1-5 paydata points in a blue host, each with a size of 40-240mp. you can get a allegiance sigma for about 14000, add some basic apps (with a focus on stealth most likley) and then go to town. each paydata point is on avarage worth 5000...

or if you feel lucky, try a cyberterminal, its cost is 1/10 of the equivalent cyberdeck. no evasion (mostly), no masking and only cold asist...
Kanada Ten
QUOTE (Johnny Reb @ Jan 11 2005, 02:08 AM)
"Wow, good thing someone just tossed out this here MCPC-8."

Gadzooks!

"Huh. Some poor mook left his Black Hammer-8 just laying there on the table. Finders keepers!"

I have small problems with this.

Corporations trash thousands of cyberterminals every year to keep up with SotA. A competent decker could scavenge the dumps and collect hundreds of pieces that added together equaled a single MPCP. They programmed their Black Hammer from bits of code found here and there, like those Black IC design notes they managed to steal and the odd bits found scattered across the Matrix. They took their mommies cyberterminal which cost 12,000¥ and spent five years trading code and favors to trix it out to the max. Maybe the Mafia traded a few months system design for a brand new deck (that they just happened to find lying around dead.gif). How doesn't that make sense?

You can't compare today's computer prices to anything in SR. Half the population found it necessary to install a 5,000¥ Datajack plus surgery costs. Why? Because cyberterminals are the car of the future and the datajack is the key. Cyberdecks are trixed out cars with hydraulics and headers. Hell, many people in SR never leave their tiny one-bedroom closets, so I don't find it surprising that a decker would have a computer with the equivalent value of a Indy racer.
GrinderTheTroll
Just doesn't sound like a shadowrunner...going dumpster diving for deck parts IMO, but whatever, roleplay it and make it happen.
Kanada Ten
QUOTE (GrinderTheTroll)
Just doesn't sound like a shadowrunner...going dumpster diving for deck parts IMO, but whatever, roleplay it and make it happen.

Just hire on the the Divers to do it for you.

[ Spoiler ]
Voran
For a decker, their initial resources rating could reflect hacker type larceny. You might have a piece of crap before you 'go pro' but you use that to change shipping orders, mislabel and reroute gear, etc.

So you end up with a nice MPCP 5-8 labeled as "Candy Suxx volume 4 box set" sent to your house. nyahnyah.gif
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