Now, I consider myself a fairly experienced player, and an alright GM.

However, I just accepted a new player into my group who decided to play a decker (A role my group has trouble filling, no one seems to like playing them and they tend to die unnaturally quickly). Anyways, the long and the short is that this player decided to order a deck from Hacker House; and he built it using the "Matrix" ordering rules.

And he got it up to MPCP 40, among other things, and still kept the price under 800,000. That cannot be right, so what am I doing wrong? I read through the modifiers and multipliers and etc, but I could not find out what we had done that messed up the equation, because he has the best deck of all time right now.

0.0

That CAN'T be right.

well, did you remember to do both hardware and software multipliers, as needed? did you remember to use the square of the mpcp as the multiplier?
try listing everything he's got on the deck, and i'll got hrough it and see if i can't figure out where he went with it, but considering that the examplie deck in the matrix book is only an mpcp 8, at over 450K, i agree that something most likely got skipped

Probably he's using the Custom Designed Cyberterminals rules on p.66, Matrix and not counting the software multiplier for the MPCP beyond 140.

Just as an example, a MPCP-40 (which is all there is in the deck) would cost:
Hardware: (MPCP)^2 x 8 = 12,800
Software: (MPCP)^2 x 140 = 224,000

Not bad, eh? But if you increase the software modifier accordingly...well, it gets nasty. He should still have paid more than 800K though.

My advice? Make the availability 40. He can roll every week to see if they're done with his deck yet.

Parts to install that MPCP will cost ¥56,000. The firmware will be rating 40, multiplier 8, for a size of 12,800 megapulses and a cost of ¥12,800,000, purchased straight-up.

I'm still digging for the rules for shop installation pricing, but I suspect there's some missed math somewhere.

Edit: never mind, AH noticed some rules I missed. But… wait, those make the cost harsher. Worked that way, it's 224,000 megapulses and ¥224,000,000. Ancient, you're forgetting that that's the MP count, not the final cost.

Edit2: crap, the rules have an exception in them (and I'm surprised why?). For some reason, unlike every other software calculation, that gives cost instead of size. How deliciously stupid.

~J

Thank you, I knew I was doing something wrong.

Where is the formula for Size instead of Cost for MPCP software?

My first calculation was done with the multiplier given in the rolling-your-own section. Unfortunately, the rules specifically make an exception in the buying-from-deckmeister section that results in the incredibly inexpensive chips AH was talking about that your player is probably encountering.

~J

I will charge him the "screwed" prices because I would rather he pay a fair amount than insanely cheap just from a rules loophole.

Thank again for the help.

My advice is to just declare that MPCP tech tops out at Rating 12, or at most 14 or 15. I mean, close the pricing loophole too by all means, but I doubt the bleeding edge of corp technology will be less than the bleeding edge of practical technology period in this case.

~J

Highest Cyberdeck MPCP yet recorded: 13
Owner: The Dodger

I'm willing to bet that FastJack has a point or two on him, and that Zurich-Orbital Geimenschaft deckers would have about the same. Everyone else probably tops out at 12.

Thanks for the statistic. Where is it recorded?

~J

correct me if I'm worng , but wouldn't the deckmeister have to be Leonardo to build an MPCP 40?

You cannot write programs at arating higher than your computer (programming) skill, and isn't the limit of an MPCP that you can build your comp skill x 1.5 , meaning his deckmeister would have to have a computers-27 or so to build that deck?

Kagetenshi: Brainscan

Figured. Thanks again.

~J

Well, I would never actually let him have the MPCP 40 deck, the point was that he was able to make it, which seemed wrong.

Availabillity and game-sense were naturally on the side of being reasonable, and the player agreed that he should not be able to go past a Fairlight Excaliber pretty much ever.

On to the metaplot discussion; Fastjack > Dodger > ZOG > The Rest. Although Dodger has an AI on his side, which might imbalance a fight.

I agree that that's the progression in terms of skill, but I think the ZOG deckers ought to be at least as well equipped as Dodger.

~J

ZOG ? zurich orbital geim - whatever?

Zurich-Orbital. The Geimenschaft Bank. The Corporate Court, silly.

Zurich-Orbital Geimenschaft, both the Corporate Court's bank and the LEO satellite on which it and the Court reside.

Edit: I am beaten by the master, but this is no shame.

~J

Zurich-Orbital Geimenschaft has an appreciable set of dickers. I would have thought the corporate court would have been happy with GOD (overreach division).

Edward

yeah, the maenads and fates and all that nastiness. Thanks for the spelling btw

Most appreciable set in the Sixth World, in fact.

~J

I hear the Fates are quite pretty.

If anyone still cares about the original question....

MPCP-40 deck, without any of the associated hardware/firmware (bod, evasion, memory, ect) that makes a deck a deck, except for the cold ASIST (since that seems to be the bare minimum you need to log on -- MPCP + ASIST), would cost more than 13 million nuyen.

The total hardware multiplier would be 9 (8 for MPCP and 1 for cold ASIST). You then multiply that by the MPCP squared.
9 * 40^2 = 14,400¥.

The total software multiplier, however, is the killer. The multiplier for the MPCP is equal to it's rating, and the cold ASIST equals half the MPCP rating (round up). Add the two together, and you get 60 as the total multiplier. Now we take that total, multiplied by MPCP squared again, and we also use that handy little table on page 66 of matix -- the "Software Multiplier" table. It says that since the MPCP is rating 10+, we multiply the software cost by an additional 140.
60 * 40^2 * 140 = 13,440,000¥.

Don't forget the matrix link. (35¥)

So the total cost would be 13,454,435¥.

This excludes Bod, Evasion, Masking, Sensor, Response Increases, Hardening, an ICCM Biofeedback Filter, a Hot ASIST, a reality filter, or any memory (active or storage), or any I/O Speed.

I'm not sure how you got 800,000¥.

I made this nifty little excel spreadsheet that does the calculations for you (with the exception of the software multipliers. I could have made one monster of a nested if, but I cheated and just had that user-entered). If you want, I can find some place to host it and I can link it for you (anyone) to download. I'm pretty sure I've got all the formula's correct. (heck, it's only 25k in size, I could e-mail it to you! -- just PM or post here if you want it hosted/e-mailed.

and the required skill level to build it?

to answer my own question, and maybe answer some other questions for NL:

*Scribblescribble*

Deckmeister name: Prince Albert in a Can FastJack

Done. Now what?

~J

now come up with the to pay him

Off Topic, but personally i don't rate Dodger all that much, i'd quite happlly put alot of the regular (Decker) shadowtalk posters equal if not better.

well he's supposed to be near legendary in the shadows. Like in the novel Striper Assasin (interesting plot, just dorky characters) the talk about 'the ebon boy with near awe.

Uh Ancient, just a curiosity... where do you think Professor S is with his "Fairlights" the ones he "spent a year upgrading"

Due to someone's e-mail not working (not mine), I have uploaded the spreadsheet.

http://www.yurami.net/Decker.xls

That is all. (have fun doing quick builds and rebuilds. remember, if upgrading your deck through a deckmeister, multiply the final total by 1.1)