Quote:
Originally Posted by Daigoro
The biggest problem with 3e cybernetics, and the one I presumed sir_pudding was referring to, was the 1/5 cost divisor for obvious cybernetics, with baseline cybernetics not being easily distinguishable from natural features.
This meant that a full-body cyborg, whose appearance might otherwise be worth a few points of social disads, could take 1000 pts of cyberware on a 200 pt budget, which was seriously unbalancing. Presumably that's why we don't see it now in 4e.
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I would have assumed it was intended as compensation for the previously mentioned "paying points for abilities that duplicate easily available equipment" problem. Paying 200 points for 1000 points of abilities seems less of a bargain when all of the abilities you buy could be duplicated by a trip to the store. With non-obvious cybernetics, you at least get the surprise factor, and perhaps a chance to take weapons (or whatever) to places where weapons are prohibited but no-one is checking with high security scanners (although the Holdout skill will generally be a cheaper way of achieving that); with obvious cybernetics, you merely become slightly harder to rob (and we already have Signature Gear for that).