Before I begin, I'd like to agree at the start that the SYS benefit block is already an interesting purchase in it's own right. For those who are unaware, the BB provides "supreme firewall software for you and your company."
This translates to:
Your company cannot be hacked and money stolen.
Your anonymous bounties cannot be revealed.
Your battle stats and cash on hand cannot be spied.
Edit: turns out this is false.
The hacking immunity is great in it's own right, but let's be honest it's reserved for the ultra-rich who decide to carry tens of billions in their company. As it stands, there is only a paltry 4.2b shares of SYS total; it's clearly a stock that is not highly acquired.
The actually secret bounties are more for trolling than anything.
The part that this suggestion builds off of is the battle stat invisibility. Off the top of my head, I can only think of two players who use this reliably: rapid_riser [262223] and DeaLeR [375042]. With the addition of stat modifiers being visible in-fight, I think this could further open this niche and really allow the "stat stealth" build to be viable.
The way I envision this working is the player's base modifiers from the following are hidden:
Drug addiction and effects
Books
Merits
Faction specials
Education bonuses
Radiation sickness
So, when a player initiates an attack on someone with a SYS BB, they see something like this:
[image: i.gyazo.com]
Afterwords, effects from temporaries can still be added on top (i.e., flashbangs or syringes), but the player only sees the effects from that temporary --> open for debate and thoughts, as I can see this being confusing for some.
Selling point: Having a SYS BB hide stat modifiers allows for expanding upon a particular niche style of gameplay, that of hiding your stats for a significant cost (currently around $1.4b). While there are some players who do this already, they are extremely few and far between. Furthermore, opening this style of gameplay up will 1) draw some more money out of the economy, and 2) shut up the people whining that they don't like that enemies can see their modifiers.
Edit: CJ's revelation that it is a theater company special, not SYS, which hides stat spies took the wind out of my sails a bit on this one. Nevertheless, I'd be interested in hearing what Ched's thoughts are on the idea, or even tacking this ability on to the theater special.
This translates to:
Your company cannot be hacked and money stolen.
Your anonymous bounties cannot be revealed.
Edit: turns out this is false.
The hacking immunity is great in it's own right, but let's be honest it's reserved for the ultra-rich who decide to carry tens of billions in their company. As it stands, there is only a paltry 4.2b shares of SYS total; it's clearly a stock that is not highly acquired.
The actually secret bounties are more for trolling than anything.
The way I envision this working is the player's base modifiers from the following are hidden:
Drug addiction and effects
Books
Merits
Faction specials
Education bonuses
Radiation sickness
So, when a player initiates an attack on someone with a SYS BB, they see something like this:
[image: i.gyazo.com]
![[image: i.gyazo.com]](https://i.gyazo.com/eaea5ac4843a075bbd97fd8eaca6348f.png){kind=link}
Afterwords, effects from temporaries can still be added on top (i.e., flashbangs or syringes), but the player only sees the effects from that temporary --> open for debate and thoughts, as I can see this being confusing for some.
Selling point: Having a SYS BB hide stat modifiers allows for expanding upon a particular niche style of gameplay, that of hiding your stats for a significant cost (currently around $1.4b). While there are some players who do this already, they are extremely few and far between. Furthermore, opening this style of gameplay up will 1) draw some more money out of the economy, and 2) shut up the people whining that they don't like that enemies can see their modifiers.
Edit: CJ's revelation that it is a theater company special, not SYS, which hides stat spies took the wind out of my sails a bit on this one. Nevertheless, I'd be interested in hearing what Ched's thoughts are on the idea, or even tacking this ability on to the theater special.
Mentions: DeaLeR [375042] · rapid_riser [262223]