[sway]

Well let's see, assuming you're going nuts and are willing to blow all three of your possible Restricted Gear uses on just your commlink, under standard creation rules:

Singularity Battle Buddy Basic (comes with armor, hardening, and biometric lock) 10,000
Response Upgrade 7 24,000 [this assume you're GM will let you start with a rating 7 anything]
Response Enhancer 5 10,000
Simsense Accelerator 15,000
Optimization (whatever your focus is) 500
Customized Interface 250

So... 63,750 as an implanted commlink (you could go higher with various widget accessories, but you'll be getting little out of it and you'll just be asking for GM ire) and in addition to nyuen you've used up 15 BP on restricted gear and .2 essence. For .04 essence you can half that price and make it secondhand. Is that unprecedented discount in cyberware terms? Quickly skim the core book... and... no. Retinal Duplication (Rating 6) is 90,000 nyuen and .2 essense... so .04 more essence saves you 45,000 nyuen buying it secondhand and you've only blown 5 BP for Restricted Gear to get it. 

Of course, pairing the above hypothetical secondhand commlink implant with a secondhand simsense booster makes for some descent hot-sim VR initiative (14 + Intuition) and passes (5) for less than 70,000 nyuen.

[JustADude]

And don't forget the so-restricted-you-can't-even-get-them-with-Restricted-Gear stuff you can get after play starts.

Renaku Suterusu (ditto Lock + Hardening + Armor) = 32,750¥
Response 10 = 192,000¥
Response Enhancer 6 = 12,000¥
Semsense Accelerator = 15,000¥
Optimization = 500¥
Custom Interface = 250¥
Implant Charge = 2,000¥

That's 254,500¥ in hardware at 40F availability. Buy it used and the price drops to 127,250¥ at 39F... much more obtainable.

[sway]

And don't forget the so-restricted-you-can't-even-get-them-with-Restricted-Gear stuff you can get after play starts.

Renaku Suterusu (ditto Lock + Hardening + Armor) = 32,750¥
Response 10 = 192,000¥
Response Enhancer 6 = 12,000¥
Semsense Accelerator = 15,000¥
Optimization = 500¥
Custom Interface = 250¥
Implant Charge = 2,000¥

That's 254,500¥ in hardware at 40F availability. Buy it used and the price drops to 127,250¥ at 39F... much more obtainable.

If you have Winnie the Pooh post-lobotomy as a GM... perhaps.

[JustADude]

And don't forget the so-restricted-you-can't-even-get-them-with-Restricted-Gear stuff you can get after play starts.

*SNIP*

That's 254,500¥ in hardware at 40F availability. Buy it used and the price drops to 127,250¥ at 39F... much more obtainable.

If you have Winnie the Pooh post-lobotomy as a GM... perhaps.

There is a standardized test for finding really hard-to-get items.

If you have the Nuyen and are willing and able to put the leg-work in (preferably through the group's Pornomancer, if you have one, or burn off a good chunk of your discount and use a ultra-high-connection Group Contact... or both) then it's just a matter of waiting out the rolls to make the threshold on the extended test to track it down. Buying hits, it'll take you about two months of in-game time to track it down.

Also, the -20% cost from the fact that it's stolen (inevitably looted from the body of a dead soldier!) would cancel out the +20% for the "market" being dry thanks to it being such a rare find.

[sway]

Yes, but that entirely depends upon whether or not your GM says the device in question even exists for you to find... beyond just dry market... there simply is no market at all. The only soldiers with that high grade an item are not nameless types that whose corps' can be readily looted, their bodies and implants are always accounted for. The device is considered so dangerous given the fear of privateer hackers getting their hands on them that they are all rigged to self-destruct upon an implanted soldier's death. The rare lucky bastards who do managed to pry one out of soldier's kester aren't inclined to sell them at all. They are either earmarked for corporate security specialists and more prestigious hackers than you or the current pilferer/owner stole it for themselves. There is an infinite list of reasons a GM can come up with which alone or in accord with each other simply make an item "not available at all".

While there may be a standardized method for possibly obtaining any item, no GM is bound in any fashion to actually permit your character to obtain it. That's not even house ruling, that's the basic game-balance monitoring duty of any GM. 

[Crash_00]

There is a standardized test for finding really hard-to-get items.

If you have the Nuyen and are willing and able to put the leg-work in (preferably through the group's Pornomancer, if you have one, or burn off a good chunk of your discount and use a ultra-high-connection Group Contact... or both) then it's just a matter of waiting out the rolls to make the threshold on the extended test to track it down. Buying hits, it'll take you about two months of in-game time to track it down.

Assuming the GM lets you buy hits. For something that is reasonably attainable it might be fine, but for SOTA military grade gear that's going to net the buyer and seller a couple decades in prison, I can't think of any GM's that wouldn't make you roll every interval (week for anything over ten grand). For starters, a glitch will show that you've attracted unwanted attention, and a critical glitch is going to kill the process entirely most likely and may net you a stint in prison as a result as you make your buy from that Lone Star agent.

Also, the -20% cost from the fact that it's stolen (inevitably looted from the body of a dead soldier!) would cancel out the +20% for the "market" being dry thanks to it being such a rare find.

You can pretty much expect there to be a crackdown on high grade military gear at almost all times. We aren't talking about something that is restricted here. We are talking about SOTA MilSpec commlinks that even law enforcement aren't able to use. Likewise, in most areas, the distribution of such hard to acquire military equipment will most likely be severely monopolized. It's not like it just falls off of trees to be distributed, it has to come from somewhere and few people have access to that kind of gear.

Similarly, the cost guidelines are suggestions and subject to GM discretion. The middleman is always going to be wary of buying stolen goods, but rarely is he going to offer a great deal because they were stolen. Especially in cases where the only way to obtain the item is to "steal" it in some way.

As for the second-hand commlinks. It's one of those grey areas to me. The page given for reference is the page for the reference of Commlink (not the actual commlink models). I don't think the grade should ever have any impact on software at all, ever and the implanted commlink doesn't make any reference to software. I can only assume that with no rules reference, the augmentation suites that include OSs in the cost are a mistake (which is understandable since it is fairly grey the exact intent). I surely wouldn't allow software of any kind to get a cost reduction (or force a grade multiplier on it). I'd allow second hand hardware, but second hand ware isn't necessarily the most stable of augmentations.

[sway]

I don't believe any of the examples in Augmentation include OSs being affected by grade. The only pseudo-application I can spot is the encryption rating on a datalock being affected by grade.

[KarmaInferno]

There is a standardized test for finding really hard-to-get items.

That test works fine, but only as long as you don't have anyone optimized for social skills.

Even minimal levels of focus on Negotiate results in Availability becoming much less a limiting factor. And if a character or contact is actually a Face, Availability is a total joke.

I'm not entirely certain if this is a function of having too many bonuses to Social dice pools, or because of having the Negotiate roll be an extended test.



-k

[BreederofPuppets]

Yes, but that entirely depends upon whether or not your GM says the device in question even exists for you to find... beyond just dry market... there simply is no market at all. The only soldiers with that high grade an item are not nameless types that whose corps' can be readily looted, their bodies and implants are always accounted for. The device is considered so dangerous given the fear of privateer hackers getting their hands on them that they are all rigged to self-destruct upon an implanted soldier's death. The rare lucky bastards who do managed to pry one out of soldier's kester aren't inclined to sell them at all. They are either earmarked for corporate security specialists and more prestigious hackers than you or the current pilferer/owner stole it for themselves. There is an infinite list of reasons a GM can come up with which alone or in accord with each other simply make an item "not available at all".

Wouldn't all of the above be taken into account the 39F restriction code?  I am all for the GM placing additional issues in getting such a device (or just saying its not available), but its still hard as hell to find it.

Personally, I am in favor of using getting the device as a subplot ("Hey, I got a lead on that commlink you wanted.  But you gotta move now if you want it.  Some sorry black-ops guy just got sliced up on the east side, and his body is still cooling.  If you hurry, you can get there before the ghouls do..." or "Say, you still looking for that shiny implant phone you mentioned earlier?  There was a guy in here just a few minutes ago, and my scanners tagged him as having one.  He was a bit of a prick, so if you want to harvest it from him, I sure won't complain.  What?  Oh, yah,  He was mil-spec, gear and attitude.  So were the other five guys.")

[Blue_Lion]

Reguardless of any itmes avaiblty code the GM can say it is not on the market.
The code is a way of saying how hard something should be to get if avaible not that it is avaible.