[Hobbes]

Yes and Tailored pheromones (Rating 1–3); Rating x 0.2 Essence ; Rating x 31,000¥

[I_AM_ZHOUL!!!]

For transhumanist prototype 2 or 5 is not bad. I though that was the negative on Synaptic booster. I was thinking more for a face or secondary combat role archetype.

If you've got no other Initiative boosts, sure.  Technomancer maybe?  Tough to see a Technomancer with resources C or better.  Prime runner Technomancer? 

Burn outs with an aversion to sustained spells maybe?  Anyway, Level 1 Synaptic Booster loses out to Synaptic Acceleration in Nuyen and Essence cost, so unless you're looking at an upgrade down the road Synaptic Acceleration is usually a better choice than level 1 Synaptic Boost.  Level 2 Synaptic Boost is okay for Essence constrained Samurai builds if you can't spare the extra .5 essence for #3.

Synaptic Acceleration is incapable with Prototype Transhuman as of right now.... Geneware used to count as Bioware but it doesn't in Chromed Flesh. I've asked about this point specifically in the Errata thread as well as Graded but have yet to receive an answer.

[FasterN8]

I'd go with option 3 at chargen and then later on down the road upgrade the Reaction enhancers to Betaware for about 50k (after 30% rebate on the trade-in) to free up almost .5 essence!

Also, if you're playing missions where you can trade for karma at 2000/1, Cerebellum boosters aren't really worth it until you've already boosted your Intuition to a 5 or 6.  Since the 50k price tag is also the karma cost of raising intuition to 5 (essence free!).

[Marcus]

Does Synaptic Acc stack with Reaction enhancers?

[I_AM_ZHOUL!!!]

Does Synaptic Acc stack with Reaction enhancers?

No but yes... Synaptic Acceleration changes Initiative & gives a Defense Die, so it's the equivalent of getting a +1 Reaction that is only affected to Pilot skill Tests. So stacking without stacking.

[Hobbes]

I'd go with option 3 at chargen and then later on down the road upgrade the Reaction enhancers to Betaware for about 50k (after 30% rebate on the trade-in) to free up almost .5 essence!

Also, if you're playing missions where you can trade for karma at 2000/1, Cerebellum boosters aren't really worth it until you've already boosted your Intuition to a 5 or 6.  Since the 50k price tag is also the karma cost of raising intuition to 5 (essence free!).

Resources A can fit in Cerebellum Boosters at Chargen without too much trouble.  Especially if you go with #3.  Toss in ReAkt and you're sitting at around 17 dice on defense tests.  Basically immune to small arms fire from anything less than Threat Rating 3.  Quite flashy.

[Whiskeyjack]

The opportunity cost of +1 INT over other ware that could help more at chargen is pretty high.

[Hobbes]

Option #3 w/ Cerebellum booster, Used Muscle Replacement 3; and Reakt with Biocompatable (Cyberware) runs around 300k and leaves you with around 1/2 point of Essence still for a few fiddly bits.  Covers the basics anyway, and gets you to 15+2d6 for init and 17 dice base for defensive tests (assuming base Reaction 5, Intuition 5).   

*shrug*  depending on what you're after it's quite possible to grab with Resources A.  If you've got something more complicated in mind, then yep, Cerebellum Booster is the first to go. 

The Street Samurai build from http://forums.shadowruntabletop.com/index.php?topic=12881.30 is an example. 

[gradivus]

You left out move-by-wire in your table

[Hobbes]

Move-by-Wire characters pretty much need to be built from the ground up around the MBW.  Restricted gear, skilljacks and skill softs and whatnot.

Or to put it another way, you're not likely to be doing a side by side comparison of Synaptic Acceleration and Move-by-Wire for the same character.  It's quite possible to be comparing a Move-By-Wire character and a more standard Street Sami build, but you're not just going to plug and play with MBW on a build. 

[gradivus]

That's an interesting way of looking at it.

But the thread is labeled Initiative Augmentation options and well, MBW is an option.

Yes, a more specialized option, but an option none-the-less.

And of course MBW[1]  does not require Restricted gear.

[falar]

And of course MBW[1]  does not require Restricted gear.

It's also not really worth it. You gotta go spend half your essence to get +1 Reaction / +3 Initiative and Rating 2 Skillwires. That's just a crock of crap.

You gotta go [2] to be worth the investment, and if you go [2], you should go [3].

Hobbes is right. MBW is a full character concept.

[Whiskeyjack]

There's a character in a game I'm in who went the MBW 2 route. We talked about it a lot beforehand and on multiple occasions I just recommended he ditch it for the standard WR 2 + REA Enhancers 3, because I feel like skillwires are of extremely low value.

He went with it and likes it though yeah he basically had to totally build around it versus it being just something you add to the cart like wires reflexes. I recognize that MBW provides more consistency with initiative, but I just love dice spikes, and I'll take all the extra REA any day over skillwires. We haven't been in a fight since he joined the game so it'll be interesting to see how his Sam stacks up against the "traditional" wired reflexes Sam when it comes to initiative and the like.

So yeah I agree with you Hobbes.

[gradivus]

There's a character in a game I'm in who went the MBW 2 route. We talked about it a lot beforehand and on multiple occasions I just recommended he ditch it for the standard WR 2 + REA Enhancers 3, because I feel like skillwires are of extremely low value.

He went with it and likes it though yeah he basically had to totally build around it versus it being just something you add to the cart like wires reflexes. I recognize that MBW provides more consistency with initiative, but I just love dice spikes, and I'll take all the extra REA any day over skillwires. We haven't been in a fight since he joined the game so it'll be interesting to see how his Sam stacks up against the "traditional" wired reflexes Sam when it comes to initiative and the like.

So yeah I agree with you Hobbes.

MBW 2 will on avg perform on avg better than WR[2] +8+1d6 (11.5) vs +4+2d6(11)
Add Reaction Enh[3] and wired 2 is better at the cost of being wireless though you could get a router to solve that problem.

While I agree that stad alone skillwires are to expensive for what they do in MBW[2] you have an equal in initiative to WR[2] at a cheaper cost with the skillwires thrown in as a bonus.  Getting the Skill Jack[4] while making the combo as expensive as WR[2] opens up for a wide range of things.

Personally it would only go on characters that have at least soft capped bot LOG & INT.
Add a trust fund so they don't need to worry about rent and get the basic subscription: now you have every knowledge/language at R1 albeit one at a time. Need the plans to modify your car-no need to buy them, just download it.Yes it will take a while to build up a library of level 4 active softs but how many do you really need? Each one you buy is like a 20 Karma skill(40000nuyen worth) with the caveat that you don't get to use edge. A decker w/LOG 8 and a R4 First Aid Active along w/a medkit 3 averages more boxes cured that a medkit 6 by itself. Yes, he's capped at 4 but the Medkit is capped at 6 hits period which means 4 hits healed maximum (just like the decker) but with fewer dice than the decker. (this assumes of course that the Decker has 6+limit in Mental and really how many deckers have you seen with a mental limit of 5 or lower?)

[Hobbes]

MBW 2 will on avg perform on avg better than WR[2] +8+1d6 (11.5) vs +4+2d6(11)
Add Reaction Enh[3] and wired 2 is better at the cost of being wireless though you could get a router to solve that problem.

While I agree that stad alone skillwires are to expensive for what they do in MBW[2] you have an equal in initiative to WR[2] at a cheaper cost with the skillwires thrown in as a bonus.  Getting the Skill Jack[4] while making the combo as expensive as WR[2] opens up for a wide range of things.

Personally it would only go on characters that have at least soft capped bot LOG & INT.
Add a trust fund so they don't need to worry about rent and get the basic subscription: now you have every knowledge/language at R1 albeit one at a time. Need the plans to modify your car-no need to buy them, just download it.Yes it will take a while to build up a library of level 4 active softs but how many do you really need? Each one you buy is like a 20 Karma skill(40000nuyen worth) with the caveat that you don't get to use edge. A decker w/LOG 8 and a R4 First Aid Active along w/a medkit 3 averages more boxes cured that a medkit 6 by itself. Yes, he's capped at 4 but the Medkit is capped at 6 hits period which means 4 hits healed maximum (just like the decker) but with fewer dice than the decker. (this assumes of course that the Decker has 6+limit in Mental and really how many deckers have you seen with a mental limit of 5 or lower?)

I guess if you're going to spend the nuyen and karma on restrictive gear and subscriptions why wouldn't you go with MBW 3?  Not saying MBW are bad, but you're not getting Restricted gear and SkillJacks and subscriptions with the other options.  It's not apples to apples.  MBW are more expensive overall, but get you more.