To be honest, my main issues are the fact that resources E is the same for Street level and Standard and that you get 2,000 for trading in Karma. I'd probably end up houseruling that 6,000 to 10, 000, and making the trade-in for Karma 2,500. That's just me. On the other hand, the everyone forgets something that happened to a lot of the Karma since characters who were magicians. They had to get upwards of 10 to 15 hits to affect any high-tech items. Since your maximum hits were determined by the Force you were casting, this means that you would have to overcast to do this, which automatically makes the Drain Physical, rather than Stun. I had one GM rule that this meant ALL spells needed to hit that threshold to affect tech, including Combat spells. This meant a very quickly dead party, as the "heavy hitter" had to kill himself to affect most things. That is a call from an adversarial GM, not one seeking to balance gameplay. I rather like that the higher-tech items get Object resistance dice now, rather than higher threshold ratings to affect them. As far as balancing out costs, I managed to get a decent starting build with most archetypes with the way things are now. Do I like that it's shifted to Karma having more use for other characters? Definitely. Do I think that a starting Street Samurai and a Starting Physical Adept should have the same strengths? Oh, hell, no. Like was said in one of the IC threads, that is comparing mangoes and oranges. Superficially similar, but different at the core of it.
Do I think the prices are unbalanced? Not really. Foci did not get any cheaper, in terms of Karma or nuyen, which means that Magicians and Mystic Adepts who could make the most use of those items are still paying out of both ends for that level six power focus. Which has a Higher Availability Rating than anything short of a Banshee.
