Trouble is I have seen rigger players get overconfident in their Big Guns, then complain when security waits in a tactically advantagous position, and begins by gunning down the item of highest threat first. Same for Trolls.

Indeed. Though the flavor text says that hackers write their own programs, the actual rules essentially say that, for all practical purposes, you can't. Writing your own OS takes Years; not something you're going to do during a normal campaign, unless your GM is uncommonly generous with downtime.

Just one more way the rules don't match the intent.

The smartlink is a specialized piece of hardware that among other things, generates a very specific form of AR Overlay that makes the gun feel like an extension of the user's own body. Because of the special nature of this overlay, and the fact that it's intended to be used in combat situations, dedicated electronics are needed to generate it.

This goes back to the eternal debate about what exactly the smartlink does, and why it's so much better than a laser sight, when the core of what they both do is put a dot in your field of view showing where the bullet will hit. There's the fact that smartguns calculate ballistic drop, but in previous editions, if you hooked up the smartgun to a set of smartgoggles, you'd still only get the same effect as a laser sight, so accounting for ballistic drop wasn't the answer by itself. This is why the explanation that the implant made the gun feel like a part of you came into play.

Now we come to SR4's time where a set of smartgoggles are as good as having the implant, and both are better than the laser sight. The only way I can account for it is that your smartgoggles have trodes that can feed the "gun as extension of the body" simsense into your brain. With 2050s tech, it wasn't possible to do that kind of thing over trodes, which is why to get the full effectiveness of it, you had to go the implant route. But by the 2070s, they've gotten a lot better at what they can pipe into your brain over trodes. It only makes sense, seeing as in the 2030s and 2040s, they had to dunk you into a sensory deprivation tank just to give you full VR.

So to sum up, unless your GM is letting anyone who has a commlink with sim module get smartgun bonuses, there's no reason for a technomancer to be able to either. And always remember, "Happiness is a warm gun." I think Hatchetman said that, when talking on the subject of smartlinks.

The book is very specific about what pieces of hardware a Technomancer's special brain gets to emulate: a Commlink with a sim module.

If you let mere mortals get smartlink effects if they have a commlink with sim module but no actual smartlink accessory or implant, then by all means, give that to your technomancers too.

While we're at it, why don't we just let anyone who has a commlink with sim module get free low light vision and vision magnification as long as they're running the Edit utility (or if they're a Technomancer with the equivilent complex form), after all, it's just zooming and cropping the image and upping the brightness; surely the Edit utility has those basic image manipulation features. Make all the accessories obsolete, and do it all in software!

I was just asking a question. I want to understand. I'm sorry if this has offended you in some way.

Then again, maybe VR "only" (quotes because while they can access AR they cannot see, hear, or touch it without extra equipment) is the spirit of the rules.

I strongly disagree. Technomancers have the organic equivalent of a commlink with sim module in their heads. (p.233)

Commlink with sim module is the "easiest and most common" way to access AR. (p.209, last paragraph under the heading "Augmented Reality")

Technomancers are just as capable as accessing AR as they are VR, with no extra hardware, acording to the letter and spirit of the rules.

They do. It's called a SIM module

And they get one free with their organic commlink.

I'm not really sure on the rule either. My intuition tells me you could take the cost to upgrade some device to 5, and the cost to upgrade a device to 4, and take the difference between the two.

Otherwise, it'd be just as expensive to upgrade your R1S2 MetaLink as it would be to upgrade your R4S5 commlink... and that's just silly.

Someone who doesn't want to advertise the fact that they've got a expensive, top-of-the-line commlink?

Also, of the high-end commlink's pricetag.. .very little of it is the solid casing.

In real life, people buy custom cases for their computers all the time - and compared to the price of your monitor, or high end graphics card, its inexpensive.

I imagine that buying a metalink, upgrading it to "full power" and then slaping down 500 for a slick custom case would give you something just as durable as the top of the line stock commlinks. In SR3 you could even buy custom casings for your deck that had armor to protect the expensive insides. I don't see why that would have changed all that much (aside from there being no rules for it in the core book).

In any case, your upgraded commlink would be jsut as protected as a high-end stock-model, perform just as well, cost you less money, and depending on who's looking, you might even get the benifit RunnrePaul mentioned of them not being able to look at it and know what you've got on the inside.

The hardware argument is a good one. If I want to upgrade the CPU on my computer, I can't just buy an add-on, I have to replace it... and I won't get anything for the 3-year old one I have. However, that said, I don't see any reason why players won't all be rolling with (modded) MetaLinks instead of actually upgrading machinery that is decent to begin with. Because of that point, I would be tempted to rule you can "upgrade" that equipment even if it makes less sense to do so - at least until some better commlink customization rules come along.

After character creation is another story... but a response-5, signal-5 commlink should have the same "value" to a starting character whether it started as a MetaLink or as a Fairlight Caliban. There are minor differences based on the case, as people have said, but since hte rules don't support you ever accidentally breaking it, or anyone targetting it for an attack, there really is no advantage.

Yes. For clarity:

For AR, you need two things:
A Commlink, and an Image Link.

For VR, you need three things:
A Commlink
A Sim Module
A direct neural interface.

Commlinks are available as cyberwear, or external units.
Imagelinks are available as cyberwear (cybereyes) or external units (goggles, glasses, contacts, etc.)

Sim Modules are available as an addon to your Commlink (which means either internal or external)

Direct Neural interfaces are available with either a Datajack (cyberwear) or as Trodes (external)

So, you can do AR, or even full VR, with no essence loss at all.

Note that if you have a sim module, and some way for it to output into the brain (Datajack, Trodes, etc) you can get AR overlay without having to have an external or implanted Image Link.

However, getting your AR Overlay via sim module leaves you open to simsense emotive-track spamming. While it's probably not complex to disable the emotive-track outputs of a sim module, that specific task is not covered anywhere in the rules, so it's up to the individual GM.

Also, all implanted cyberware commlinks come equipped with a sim module as part of the sticker price, and do not need any form of datajack or trodes, as it's wired directly to the brain during implanting.

Yes, I meant to include that if you have access to VR, the same equipment can give you AR. But the mashed potatoes where done (why yes, we *DO* have thanksgiving here at 2am. What of it?)

As for the other part... do implanted comlinks really come with a sim module? And "trodes" (or their equivalent?) The sim module I had always assumed that you needed the separate Sim Module Cyberwear. Having looked, I still think that is the case, though it *could* be a standalone module. The cyberware version references the Sim Module on page 318, the description of which sounds like a standalone module. The gear chart underneath that lists the prices, though, only lists it as an accessory.

I can't tell if that means you need to buy a "comlink with sim module accessory" as the cyberware comlink, or if you need to buy a cyber comlink AND a cyber sim module to get VR.

Not so sure if the headware commlink comes standard with a sim module already installed (thought I remembered seeing it, but going over my book, I can't find it). But having it shoved into your brain means that (more than likely) it's got a DNI connection - so no need for trodes or a datajack, unless you want non-wireless access to external devices, too. From the looks of things, you can either have the sim module built into the implanted comm, or get just a sim module itself installed into your brain, if you want. I'm assuming the latter option is there if you want the sim, but not a whole commlink stuck in there (though one would think there'd be an essence break for going with the partial)

The stand-alone sim module implant would useful for a number of reasons. You can turn it on or off without drawing attention by switching your commlink off or into stealth-mode. You can discretely slot your beetles w/o having them show up if someone scans your commlink (if you have a datajack). And it means you'll always have VR access, even if the device you've been forced to use at the moment might not have a module installed.

"Simrigs (both worn and implanted) and cranial commlinks also contain sim modules."
-- p.228, 2nd paragraph under the heading "Virtual Reality"

Which is the last place anyone would think to look for it, I would imagine.

Thanks!

I've noticed an awful lot of page-flipping required in this book. Rules seem to often not be where I would think to find them. This is a good example; I read the descriptions for implanted comlinks to see if they had Sim modules. Instead I needed to read the Virtual Reality overview. I don't know if it's the locations that don't quite make sense, or if it is my own . . . ah, shall we say. . . eclectic sense of "organization."

Anyone else having trouble with this?

Simrig is for recording, sim module is for playback.

The real problem is *all* cyberware is wireless-enabled by default now, and all of it is DNI, so you have potentially dozens of radio transmitters frying your brain all the time. And oh NO, people will LOOK AT YOU WEIRD if you decide you don't want brain cancer, and ask for all those transmitters to be disabled.

See, I've got my excuses all lined up.

Wouldn't be the first time implants caused brain cancer. That's the in-game explanation for why Program Carriers never made it out of First Edition. Shame too, because "Decking Naked" was so fun to say.

So, does the same thing go for Technomancers?