Bioware and Alpha-/Beta-/Deltaware question

[Michael Chandra]

I've been reading through the Anniversal edition and noticed these. Alphaware (/Beta/Delta) costs less Essence than normal cyber/bio but has a higher cost, Bioware tends to require less Essence than Cyberware (1.5 for L3 'Wired' instead of 5) but is much more expensive (240k vs 100k). Will these be in the game, making players pick between long term and short term, or will it simply be 1 type?

Edit: Added the other warequalities.

[primetide]

I think this will be in, but players will need to earn the dough (and may initially not require low essence cost, as they haven't geared up too much)

[Michael Chandra]

True, they can just leave an essence hole when upgrading.

Meanwhile, my offline character is going for the "Bioware counts as Deltaware" quality. ^_^

[Stahlseele]

I think this will be in, but players will need to earn the dough (and may initially not require low essence cost, as they haven't geared up too much)

If there is nothing else that attacks essence, this is true.
But as soon as there are essence sucking monsters, drugs or damage, that goes out of the window i am afraid . . So you make a mundane character. you cyber up. you go to 0,99 essence. Oh, hey, hi there Mr.Vampire. And now i am dead. Same for the Ghouls infecting you with HMHVV. Or DevilRats with VITAS or some other disease . .

[Sangius]

True, although that scenario gets less scary (albeit still being very tedious) considering death won't be permanent. That's a lot of postings right there btw

[Stahlseele]

just noticed activity in here <.<;,
also, if death by essence loss is not permanent . . then what the hell? O.o
i can take MBV3 on used standard for 15 points of essence and not stay dead?

[Sangius]

Well, hm, tricky call. I guess primetide should say something about that. But I guess you could argue like that: dropping below zero essence essentially deals you a deadly blow. Normally, if you got shot down badly, you can be patched together again. But as long as that implant is inside of you, you will receive a deadly blow again in the very moment somebody would try to revive you, effectively blocking the character permanently.

[Stahlseele]

Which is a bit close to bad game design . . And on the other hand, being sucked from 0,99 essence to -0,01 essence means you heal up . . how much essence later on and simply wake up again? O.o

[primetide]

perma death is something that just sits very hard with people, especially as you cannot save a game and may run into situations that kill you by just plain bad luck...and the machine cannot differentiate between stupidity and bad luck.
However given the world of SR with the immense magical and technical capabilities, I don't think being healed again from any fatal loss of health or essence is such a stretch to imagine. If they can clone pretty much anything and AIs can become conscious, why not heal up your essence?
Of course it is a bow towards playability, but honestly: would you like to do a new char, everytime you lose in PvP?
I think what would be equired in your exmaple is to heal the essence loss cause first, then revive, the heal actual essence loss - which can be quite expensive...

[Michael Chandra]

Essence drain can be healed with Genetech, and so can Essence holes. Plus they are already making progress with Essence-zombies that are below 0 Essence yet somehow don't die. If it's just a temporary Essence Drain, chances are DocWagon has an experimental procedure to bail you out with, though at a hefty premium. ^_^

Of course you'll end up being known as that sissy that almost died just from a bit of blood sucking, rather than actual gaping gunshot wounds. Would prolly not be good for your rep.

[Stahlseele]

Forgot about the essence healing stuff from 4th ed . .
Also, cyberzombies, good question . . Technically, they are operating somewhere, where others would face permadeath because of essence not being able to be healed . .

[Sangius]

Don't forget that they need a drek-load of Mojo to be able to do so. The Zombie part in Cyberzombie is not just for the lolz of it.