What do people think of Skillwires? I like the idea but in practice I can't think of myself wanting access to a ton of activesofts required to make them worth it, as most of the time I think I'd just want knowsofts and linguasofts which are covered with just a Skilljack, and maybe a set of hardwires for a secondary or tertiary combat skill at 6 or something, one that I have no desire ever to buy with karma.
Anyone done cool things with Skillwires? Anyone think MBW 2 is more worth it than Wored Reflexes 2 + REA Enhancers 3? Same average initiative, plus Skillwires, but you lose out on 3 REA for defense tests.
I love skillwires in theory and I'm stoked at the concept of Skillsoft networks. The costing remains the issue. The balance debate is understandable but it need to be considered differently. Your not going to use skills wires to get skills your ever going to run in comparison tests, your just looking for base success, and a the penalty of no edge should really make low rating skillwires much, much cheaper then they are.
MBW 2 is just to essence intensive to seriously consider in a starting game (and that laying aside the availability issue) , which would make it difficult to get anything but a very long running game. MBW 1 isn't a terrible option if you aren't looking for maximum possible effectiveness build. So in a Prime Run. game (Avail 15 starting) you could run Alpha MBW 1 along with biocomp for 2.1 and a paltry 48k and a 5 pt quality, which is 1/3 of Wired 2. You can make a little more effective given the wording of it is it doesn't stack with reaction enhancers, so you can still use Cerebellum boosters (which runs another 50k .3E).
If your ready to go into Cerebellum boosters you can get an extra +1 int, which totals to +2 defense (total 12), and +5 to init. Meaning that you can easily hit Init 15+1d6. Which is decent. No its not the 14+3d6 you could get from wired (Which runs you a cool 175k and 2.88E assuming biocomp). But mbw1 also only ran you 2.4 essence and 98k Which is basically half of what wired would. It also leaves you open to delta Mbw3 when you reach a point where such a thing is possible.
48k and 2.1E for +4 Init and skillwire 2 ain't bad honestly. In a non-prime game it only a little worse, 2.4 instead of 2.1 with non-alpha, and the biocomp quality. So 40k and 2.4 E for +4 init and skillwires 2.
There is no doubt from the combat stand point that 175k and 2.88 for 14 Defense and 14+3d6 is a better option. Which will have an average init 24.5 vs 18.5. But for a combat secondary 18.5 is respectable, and the price in terms of cash is fairly low; Essence wise it's still higher then I'd prefer but it adds a deep utility options in terms of skillwires.