I am not sure exactly how to balance this issue, but I do think it needs to be looked at.
The solution is to convince the player culture to seek out characters who can benefit their characters with these skills rather than taking the easy way out with a skilsoft for everything.
One, a combat focused PC can slot a soft and be just as good at tasks as a PC who specialized is. Not really. I have personally seen max UE combat focused PCs slot the best softs and complain that they still can't manage to compete with a PC who specialized in that arena. They CAN compete with a PC who just dabbles but not against one who truly specialized.
Two, a PC can not used skillsofts effectively in combat. Again, I have personally seen PCs slot a soft and go kick some butt. Using a variety of combat skills. Again, they won't be able to compete with a PC who has focused on combat but they can come pretty close. What's more, skillsofts in combat some with unique risks. You CAN put in the time and effort to mitigate those risks. There are things you can do.
Further, there is actually one archetype that truly benefits from skillsofts in a way that no others can even approach that nobody ever seems to complain about them. Which I find surprising. :P
I think the real issue with skillsofts has to do with the skills themselves. Some skills like combat skills give you a reason to want to keep pouting more and more and more UE into them. Others do not and you will never see some skills with more than a moderate level of investment.
Instead of removing skillsofts or nerfing them I'd rather see staff looking at EVERY in game skill and ensuring that there are real reasons for a PC to want to invest in it as deeply as one would invest in a combat skill. Because right now, that is often not the case and THIS is what can give certain skillsofts so much utility.
those are great points. Especially about the balance of 'This skill merits a ton of investment' versus 'ehhh, I'll invest a few dozen UE, there is no reason to go beyond that'.
I think the biggest key factor here is that combat skills are PvP wheras most technical skills are exclusively PvE. If Technical skills were given more Pvp utility, I believe we would see a huge desire to really push into those utility skills.
For example, there is not unlimited flash in the game and the inflow of flash from game systems is intentionally limited. This means that competing for the biggest possible chunk of that flash flow is a PvP endeavor even if you never once rull a skill against a competitor in this sphere.
There are so many ways that you can use skills in a PvP manner that does not involve a skill roll off with them.
Again, this could all use some balancing and attention but I think it would help a lot of players to expand their view of PvP a little.
Say more?
It doesn't seem like it can be both "very broken" and simultaneously so effective that people pay chy for them and don't RP with you.
NB: To me, "broken" means either "buggy" or "woefully unbalanced". If it means something different to you, can you clarify?
In another game skillsofts might be redundant, but at least for some things I don't see how Sindome functions without them.
People greatly overestimate the fuctionality of high-level softs. Someone with any serious training in a given field will readily blow away even the best soft user.
And let's not forget that softs are no different than any other skill in the game. If you don't have the stats to drive that skill, then the skill is going to be shit regardless.
Super bleeding edge solos slotting a tech soft and stealing all the tech work seems like a gross exaggeration, and if those techs are getting their biz stolen, then they need to up their game, because, again, stats matter more than skills.
My experience has certainly been that combat softs are used considerably less often than technical softs, which speaks to that issue. Is that other people's experience? Certainly even a platinum combat softs won't make you competitive at the top end, but there is something thematically interesting about the chromer gang slotting their silver melee soft and rolling out with their chains swinging, which isn't really possible with the current mechanics.
My perspective is that skillsofts are there to plug gaps that a small player base introduces, and there's never any lack of combat archetypes kicking around.
Skillsofts turn you into a fucking chrome pinata.
Besides the inital cost of the chrome, and the soft, AND the stats you need with it, if you ever need to do biz outside of a secure location (or you forget you have it slotted, which is super easy to do) you are losing some big chy. And if you had set up an entire biz apparatus around the skillsoft, you're either going to pay out the nose to get it back from your killer, or you'll have to buy a lower quality one. If someone is rinse-and-repeat whacking you, you'll have to give up the angle pretty soon.
This makes tech characters who don't rely on softs more reliable. Especially for dicey jobs. The mano with a plat soft is more likely to chicken out or overcharge than the mano who just needs to pay for a clone.
Additionally, I've experienced firsthand that "slot and win" just isn't how it works for tech skills. I invested a lot in chrome for a particular skill and found out I was absolute horseshit with it even with the best available chrome; because my stats weren't there to support it. Also, there are some weapons that lend themselves better with softs. Especially in more of a supporting role.
If you know someone who is running a riot with skillsofts, a cool move would be to get them out in the open and then bop them. If you're a technical character who's having trouble competing, get your hands on their chrome and wreck shit up with their softs until you can compete on your own!
For how expensive they are (and the setup), slotting one and then not knowing what to do with it (if anything) feels very disincentivising.
I see us all having our own very different, limited opinions on skillsofts, which shows that their intended use is not obvious at all.
When opsec is often an issue, so much easier to slot shit and do it yourself than trust whomever. It doesn't matter if a 'real' skill user can do it 120% better, if you can do it 90% and not have to trust in anyone while also still being street sam joey badass the trade off is a laugh.
Saying that's all fine bc softs 'fill gaps' is insane reasoning. If players new rich solos couldn't fill the gaps maybe they wouldn't feel disincentivized rolling those skills.
The stat balance argument doesn't hold bc stats overlap quite a bit and it doesn't take much to have a large impact.
All skillsofts provide the same degree of skills, and all skills have specific stat requirements. They're meant to be used as a support for your character not as a main skill grown organically.
Skillsofts are also very expensive and very easy to lose. They can lead to PDS. So if I want to blow money, accept all these risks, and accepting the fact I'll never be as good as a natural mechanic, so I can do my own auto repairs why shouldn't I be able to?
Please leave them alone. They are themely and cyberpunk AF.
Given the numerous coded systems in the game, they give players the option to explore more of those systems than the limited UE available would otherwise allow.
At a minimum, they give players an understanding of what is possible and what they might want to hire other characters to assist them with.
Thanks for reading. I hope to explore this cyberware more In the future.
I and so many others know very well what it can be like sometimes when you got a target drawn on your back and you feel like you can't trust -anyone-, and people go a long way to make you feel like you can't leave your apartment. Heck, it even comes up in IC threats. People literally tell you to enjoy not leaving your apartment.
Skillsofts allow someone to sink money into something to make their lives a little bit more manageable when they're someone who can't just waltz down to the local mechanic for their needs.
Especially when disguises only render you indistinguishable, but don't blend you in with the crowded streets enough to not be randomly accosted for whatever convenient reason of the moment.
Or whose paydata is so valuable they can't trust it with the recommended grid hacker, et cetera.
It would be nice if we were all the time in a position to hire out to people, but if you take a step back from the game, and read these boards, and recognize just now common betrayal and subterfuge is, you'll realize that even with the large player base, sometimes this is just asking for a death, and it may not be the kind of death you'd be satisfied with, you may be trying to build up and prepare for a player plot or a GM plot that gives you a worthy death.
Yes, you want more player business, but what you're actually asking for, is for more paydata to come with that business, with more information to possess to exploit or to sell. That's the bigger picture here, and it feels a bit disingenuous to ask for it under the guise of skillsofts are bad and cut into your skillset.
So, as a shadowy figure you need to spend that chyen and get your skillsofts, and make due until you're ready to bring your RP to the forefront. I think it is great that this game makes that possible. I think if it weren't possible, we would see even less of the things we love to see from time to time.
I do believe that player economy is best economy in these types of games, but we need to enable people and I think the staff has done this successfully here, to sink their wealth into solutions that allows them to do bigger and better things at the same time, and if that has to be done without involving other players all the time, then it's just a side effect of this game having a significant combat/non-combat PVP focus.
If what Villa said is accurate about how they're balanced and such, then I think there is definitely no need to touch them, that sounds like fair trade offs.
Thank you for taking the time to read this!
