Wired reflexes cost the same amount of essence as it did in third when nearly every other piece of cyberware cost a whole lot less, on top of that Synaptic Booster does the same thing. But let's look at the costs.




Ware essence nuyen
Synaptic Booster (1) .5 80K
Wired reflexes (1) 2.0 11K
Synaptic Booster (2) 1.0 160K
Wired reflexes (2) 3.0 32K
Synaptic Booster (3) 1.5 240K
Wired reflexes (3) 5.0 100K

Even you make the wired reflexes delta grade, you wind up paying more in both essence and nuyen. So why would you ever buy wired reflexes unless you were totally strapped for money? If it is the reflex trigger then I can understand a little more essence and money but not this level of costs.

You can use Wired Reflexes for "Low-Tech"-Kampaings. Normal und High-Power-Player will often be using SBs in SR4.

SYL

I don' t know. Maby the thought that since you are no longer married to any enhancement, and that you don't gain unuseable essence when upgrading, they thought that Wired can be a poor man's enhancement, and when you get the newyen, you can upgraded to the booster and fill the recovered essence with other cyberware.

at the level 2 level, the Wired is essence expensive, but not prohibitivly so. And the Booster is nearly 5 times the cost in newyen.

Well, the boosters is great for adepts as well. while not a great choice in character generation the very low essence cost versus power point cost make them a great deal if you have the money, especially with the increased 'cost' of initiation. As an extra bonus you can still keep the 'free points' of the sensitive system flaw.

Just to keep a smooth progression, we've ruled that Wired Reflexes are 1.5 Essence and 20,000 per level. This means that they take up 300% of the Essence at only 25% of the price compared to an equivalent Synaptic Booster.

We've also reduced the cost of the Adept power that provides the same bonuses to 1.5 power points per level. A relatively minor change, but it keeps a smooth progression and we like it.

Jay

Yea cyberware is outdated and shit. Yes make rules based off bad and horrid flavor text. Why not make rules for cyber decks as well? The wired reflexs of 2070 are not the wired reflexes of 2040,2050, 2060, or even 2064. If something is outdated and worthless they don't make it anymore. But really in the end it is about balance, and these two things aren't. Not for money or essence.

Even if Wired Reflexes cost 1 Essence and 11,000 per level, it would still eventually be a bad deal. By the time you jack it up to Delta Grade, you are paying no less Essence and 30,000:nuyen: more for something which is exactly the same.

It's all very well to have it be a "poor man's solution", but it still sucks. Wired 3 doesn't even need to exist, since players aren't allowed to start with it and it's so ludicrously expensive in essence and money compared to the bioware version.

Off the shelf Synaptic Boosters are better than Delta Grade Wired by a substantial margain, and cost scarecely better than Alpha versions at the high end. And for reasons still not explained, you can get Synaptic Boosters as Alpha or Beta as well - and a Beta Grade Synaptic Booster is cheaper than a Delta Wired System even in terms of money (960,000 for the Beta SB, 1,000,000 for the Delta WR).

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A more reasonable cost for Wired Reflexes would be:

Wired Reflexes (Rating 1-3)
Availability: (6 per level)
Cost: (11,000 per level)
Essence: (1 per level)

And you know what? In high powered teams, people still wouldn't use them. But at least they'd be an option for people who lacked the cash for Synaptic Boosters.

-Frank

I can turn off wired reflexes.

If I´m poor and not looking to max out my implants it´s a good deal.