[Mad Hamish]

With the changes in pricing and modifications to the system changing how things work (the new initiative system for a start) what are people seeing as changes in good augments for sams that haven't been previously and what previously good ones have slipped down the pile?

[MadBear]

Wired Reflexes cost a lot more, about double what they did in SR4, with a much smaller return: +D6/Rating instead of Initiative Passes. You can get the same effective bonus as Wired Reflexes I any number of ways. 1D6 will give you on average +3.5 to your initiative score.

[RHat]

With the wireless bonus, though, you can a character with Reaction and Intuition 6, Reaction Enhancers 4, and WR 3 for and Initiative of 19+4d6, and a base defense of 19.  The whole "break augmented max" part makes this combination awesome.

[Crunch]

With the increased effectiveness of melee, Spurs and Hand Blades are less laughable.

I read Bone Lacing as being substantially buffed between the melee damage and armor changes.

With the new aug maximum the Synthcardium gets a slightly larger niche.

The increased cost of Skillwires makes Reflex Recorder more appealing.

The armor change makes Orthoskin and Dermal Plates seem more attractive.

A Sam now really needs a melee option, even if its just taking clubs and hitting people with the butt of his gun.

Just my 2 cents.

[phydaux42]

With the wireless bonus, though, you can a character with Reaction and Intuition 6, Reaction Enhancers 4, and WR 3 for and Initiative of 19+4d6, and a base defense of 19.  The whole "break augmented max" part makes this combination awesome.

What does that set-up cost in Ess & nuyen?

[All4BigGuns]

With the wireless bonus, though, you can a character with Reaction and Intuition 6, Reaction Enhancers 4, and WR 3 for and Initiative of 19+4d6, and a base defense of 19.  The whole "break augmented max" part makes this combination awesome.

What does that set-up cost in Ess & nuyen?

For standard grade it comes to 456,000 nuyen and 5.9 Essence for that. (Can't get Reaction Enhancers to rating 4 either, they are restricted to 3.)

So, in effect, far too much cost for having to tell your brain to take a long walk off a short pier and ignore any and all security considerations in keeping the two implants signed into Facebook to get the bonus.

[ZeConster]

So, in effect, far too much cost for having to tell your brain to take a long walk off a short pier and ignore any and all security considerations in keeping the two implants signed into Facebook to get the bonus.

Runner FragDaPolice has entered Joe's Donuts on Main Street 182.
   Seattle SWAT Team likes this.

[Nal0n]

So, in effect, far too much cost for having to tell your brain to take a long walk off a short pier and ignore any and all security considerations in keeping the two implants signed into Facebook to get the bonus.

Runner FragDaPolice has entered Joe's Donuts on Main Street 182.
   Seattle SWAT Team likes this.

Made my day, thanks Bro! 

[Michael Chandra]

I thought it was 256k and 5.9 essence for basic grade?

[Csjarrat]

I thought it was 256k and 5.9 essence for basic grade?

Jeebus. 5.9 ess? good luck walking through a MAD with that lot installed!
looks like combat adept overtook the street sam this edition

[Michael Chandra]

Wired Reflexes and Reaction Enhancers always were expensive. All that happened is that their ware costs increased from 130k to 256k. So not sure why you think they overtook them purely on this example alone, which now allows for one to hit 6+6=12 Reaction rather than 3+6=9 as in SR4.

[Csjarrat]

not just on that example alone, apologies for lack of context.
with the (somewhat contentious) changes to wifi, all that ware presents a bigger vulnerability than an adept does through his internal magic. with astral perception and a weapon focus, he can actively protect himself that could hurt him, whereas all a street sam can do is hope his firewall holds out or pray that the team's hacker can defend his implants.
The adept qi focuses also give some very nice progression whereas if you've spent 5.9 essence, where does the street sam go from there? he is one datajack away from cyberzombie land.
I'm not moaning at all here, just making an observation based on my (very limited) experience with chargen so far.

In SR4a, a lot of people talked about adepts being underpowered vs street sams, now i think the balance is at least equal if not wieghted in the adept's favour

[Michael Chandra]

Only a Street Sam that depends on wireless bonuses (which rarely any ware really has) has to worry about being hacked. It's plenty easy to make a character lacking that problem. But yeah, you really shouldn't look at the insane case that nobody in SR4 did either as example.

[Xenon]

Don't have book in front of me, but I was under the impression wired reflexes III was off limits at chargen due to availability rating.

[phydaux42]

Don't have book in front of me, but I was under the impression wired reflexes III was off limits at chargen due to availability rating.

yup

Wired Reflexes (Rating 1-3)
Rating 1 2 — 8R 39,000¥
Rating 2 3 — 12R 149,000¥
Rating 3 5 — 20R 217,000¥