Back to nature. We got a lot of greasing to do. [Shadowrun]

[spekkio]

Yeah, whatever.

Now what about the update?

 

[ghostdog]

And don't forget that You use filtering in your CT LP, you insincere bastard.

No I'm not, whatever blurriness is there, it comes from resizing the screenshots.
The screens are from the emulator and always come unfiltered/unscaled. Of course I'm actually playing the game with hq3x. Upscaling > blurriness.

Yeah, whatever.

Now what about the update?

 

[spekkio]

upscaling

Holy dog shit! Upscalers? Only steers and queers use upscalers, Brother ghostdog. And you don't look much like a steer to me so that kinda narrows it down.

 

[Damned Registrations]

Update 2: Popping moles with fire and rats.

Lets get back to running.

After doing a run or two and being stuck at 20% physical health, I figure maybe we'll check out that runner back in the Jackal's Lantern. He looked like a shaman or something, maybe he can patch us up with some magic?

Lets chat him up a bit first.

So what's this guy's story anyways?

So he's a rat shaman? Whatever. Let's ask about the city.

So you won't associate with the squatters and transients that got there first, but instead hang around in the RADIOACTIVE area for squatters that can't find room in the rat's nest? I'm guessing it doesn't take a very high intelligence score to be a rat shaman. Well, lets hire him anyways, we need patching up badly.

No healing spell? Maybe we should have asked him about shamanic magic. He might have told us that rat totems only give you shitty spells. (Actually that third one is invis, which can be pretty damned handy I'd imagine.)
He does have some stim patches and trauma patches in his inventory though, we use the trauma patches to fix ourselves up to 'not quite dead anymore' status levels.

Some punks try to get cute with us as we leave the bar, so we light 'em up.

One of the thugs was carrying a medkit, we give it to Ricky in exchange for the trauma patches. He's been a pretty good bro so far.

Forgot to check rat-dwarf's stats. He's actually a pretty tough little bugger compared to us, but slow as molasses. While we can outrun street thugs and gun them down, Riki wouldn't stand a chance. So we let the AI handle him, it'll mostly stay in one spot and spam fireballs. Speaking of which, do you recall the armor ratings referring to 'weapons' (Which actually means melee attacks) and 'guns' (which apparently are not weapons)? Guess what magic isn't. That's right, you can only resist physical magic damage with your body stat, and it doesn't miss either. So it's pretty damned reliable compared to our gun. The drawbacks, of course, are that it's a bit slower and the casting can outright fail. Such a low powered spell also doesn't do much compared to a nice gun, but we don't have a nice gun yet anyways.

We've already seen all the different kinds of runs Gunderson offers, so I won't bore you with more of his ugly mug. And while we're always escorting the same sissy ass shirt, the packages we pick up from different people have their own scenes for pickup and dropoff.

Actually, lets poke our heads back in there and check this place out. Maybe we can make some friends in low places.

Yeah, I don't think opening fire with a pistol and a firebreathing midget is a great plan. Let's jut ask him about the place.

It turns out Ricky won't bail on us after a single run after all; he only leaves if we get paid by the Johnson, and most of Gunderson's runs are courier and escort missions, where we get paid at the dropoff. Between the ammo savings and that trauma patch, this was a pretty good deal after all.

Of course, before long he gives us a ghoul run, and I figure we should see if we can pull shit shit off now that we have some backup.

This is going much better. We're a lot more buff with that extra 2 points in Body, and Ricky can take a punch himself. And we got double the firepower without spending any more ammo. On top of that, if they go after Ricky instead of us, although he won't be able to cast without getting interupted, we can stand still and unload. I'm pretty sure our accuracy is a lot better when both us and our target aren't moving.

Fuck. Looks like vampires are still a notch above us though, we're beat up pretty bad.

Ricki goes down, but it's nothing a stim patch can't fix.

We end up taking the bastard out, but we've blown most of our healing items. Luckily now that we have backup, even if we get knocked out, as long as our teammate is still standing they can patch us back up- we don't get carted off to the chop shop unless we're left for dead or everyone goes down.

Fuck, lets go rest up, at least get our mental health back.

After our nap, we head back to Gunderson. Ricky doesn't actually take a cut out of what was promised to us, but he does take off after we get paid.

On our way to pick up a client for our next run, some thugs come after us. We duck into the Jackal's Lantern to get some backup so we don't need to unload several clips on these lowlifes.

Ricky's cut 40 Nuyen off his hiring price now that he's gotten to know us. Sounds like a sweet deal to me.

We don't even waste any ammo on these guys, we jsut troll them around while Ricky practices his fireworks on them.

Sweet, one dropped a badly needed medkit.

After the fight, I decide to check out an odd building at the north end of the barrens.

Interesting. Let's ask him what his deal is.

Well, thats something of an answer right there I suppose, looks like he sells information. Lets come back later when we got more change to spare.

During our next run, we bump into a random encounter.

Well, I'm no scientist, but that story isn't completely implausible, and we're not exactly toting SMGs and grenades right now.

Can't complain about easy money. We get back to doing runs.

We decide to check out the nuke plant too after we drop the package off, like we did the prison.

Guess they don't like tourists here. We check out the Rat's Nest while we're in the neighbourhood.

Damn, and I thought our Mr. Johnson was ugly. Speaking of, lets go see if he's got any useful info for us.

The only questions he'll answer for us are newb questions about Johnsons and Shadowrunning. And we're not THAT green, anymore anyways. Lets see about contacts.

Sounds like someone we'd be interested in, but we don't got the creds right now. We head off and deliver some more packages.

Let's go chat with the local gang, see if they got anything to say to us.

Something tells me I don't want to meet the boss just yet. Lets earn some rep first before we go making first impressions. Getting some info off this guy can't hurt though.

News at eleven: Local gang thinks other gangs aren't as good.

We go and do a run from Chiba to Borris' Greenhouse next (That guy we met earlier that wanted to charge us for the time of day).

Well, we've got a decent number of runs under our belt now and we don't look like hamburger pizza at the moment. Let's take another break and take stock of our resources.

700 creds is enough to buy a few healing items, or if you recall from the first update, a new pistol or some cheap body armor are also within our price range now. We could also spend some money on info at Roscoe's or save up a bit for that contact of Gunderson's, keeping Ricky as a full time hire (His price should drop a bit more the next time we cut a deal, assuming it's not after we leave him lying in a gutter somewhere.) or we could just hold on to our creds for now. It'll cost us a few creds to taxi into downtown as well, but we we can make that much with just a run or two.

And we got more karma to spend, for ourselves and for Ricky. What do we spend our hard earned creds and karma on bros? Next update, we'll be moving downtown and making some more serious runs.

I'd like to point out to the people suggesting we upgrade SMGs that it'll only cost us a single point more for generic firearms, which would help us out with shotguns and pistols too. And we don't currently OWN an SMG, and they aren't cheap either.

 

[ghostdog]

You : Computer + SMGs

Ricky : Quickness + Sorcery

 

[Azira]

I vote you save the creds so you can enroll Ricky permanently.

Joshua's karma ought to go for Firearms now, 2 levelups for 14 karma, the last three saved for later. Unless my math is horribly off.

Ricky's karma: 3 into quickness, 8 into sorcery, 2 saved for later.

 

[Damned Registrations]

RE: Ghostdog; You want us to save the creds or just don't care about that? For future reference if it's not mentioned I'll assume it's a non vote, rather than a vote for saving up.

 

[anus_pounder]

I vote you save the creds so you can enroll Ricky permanently.

Joshua's karma ought to go for Firearms now, 2 levelups for 14 karma, the last three saved for later. Unless my math is horribly off.

Ricky's karma: 3 into quickness, 8 into sorcery, 2 saved for later.

 

[Destroid]

Good portrait material in this game.

 

[GarfunkeL]

I vote you save the creds so you can enroll Ricky permanently.

Joshua's karma ought to go for Firearms now, 2 levelups for 14 karma, the last three saved for later. Unless my math is horribly off.

Ricky's karma: 3 into quickness, 8 into sorcery, 2 saved for later.

 

[Damned Registrations]

Good portrait material in this game.

I'd never thought of that. There's a TON of them too.

 

[ghostdog]

save the creds

 

[spekkio]

Save the money for later.
As for the karma - your call.

 

[Radisshu]

Duble post - As your attorney, I advise you to turn the filtering on and/or switch the program you use for screenshots - these pixels look like shit.

lol at spekkio dissing original game screenshots and advising crappy blurry filtering.

Yeah. If you can't handle the pixels, get the fuck out of the SNES LP.

 

[spekkio]

Yeah. And this is Shadowrun SNES, Radisshu?

 

[Crooked Bee]

You : Computer + SMGs

Agree about Computer, not sure about SMGs. Firearms, maybe?

Ricky : Quickness + Sorcery

This.

 

[Damned Registrations]

Incoming massive update.

 

[anus_pounder]

 

[Damned Registrations]

Update #3: Guns Blazing

After upgrading our stats (Firearms for us, Quickness + Sorcery for Ricky) we do a couple more runs with Mr. Gunderson to secure Ricky's fees and some cab fare.

Our chum Ricky is cutting us an even better deal than he offered last time:

Time to move on to a bigger pond.

We don't know anyone to phone yet, and there's not much point in jacking into the cybernet without a run.

So, into the heart of the beast.

Here we are in the big city.

And we're being hassled by the bronze already.

We got nothing to hide though, so they move on to look for someone they can really lay into.

Lets check this place out.

That's pretty steep just to get into a random bar. I'm sure we can find some other place to gather info.

How about this place? Looks a little more non-descript.

Or maybe not. I doubt this guy will even offer to let us in without an elf with us. Lets try just asking for information.

Ah, the pains of being a nobody.

We find a random building to check out nearby:

Hey! It's that skirt we had the holo of!

We update our notebook and move on. The hospital here can install the same cyberware as Chiba's, but the prices are even higher. Lets try to find some work.

Well frag, I don't think these guys will want to hire us.

We

Distinctive logo, wonder what it's for?

Ah. Probably a few places like this downtown.

We run across another random encounter while flatfooting it around.

No harm in patching a bro up right?

Ah, the best kind of gratitude.

Lets check out this little hole in the wall.

A fixer huh? Wonder what kind of data he wants? We try selling him something-

Ah, he means files not removed from inventory. We don't got anything to offer.

We find another unmarked building to check out.

Guess it all looks the same from down here.

The booth just has a geezer in it so we check out the wavy dude in the trenchcoat.

Another magic user eh? Lets find out what he knows.

Plus, he doesn't look and smell like a rat. Thats a perk.

Don't know if I'd consider barrens I can't get to without a cab ride 'local', but hey, free info is nice.

We ask him about contacts next. Even if he wants to charge us, it's good to know our options, right?

What a bro. We'll call the prof up later. Let's see how much he want to charge us to come on a run.

Doesn't sound too steep for a semi-competent mage, but we're just browsing for now. Time to hit the street again.

An inn huh? No harm in poking our heads in.

Sure is a lot pricier than Stoker's, but on the other hand, we get more than a glorified coffin to sleep in too. Don't need to rest right now though.

We notice something odd while looking for another palce of interest:

Doesn't really concern us either way I suppose.

We end up wandering west from downtown into the Penumbra district, and find another bar.

Good thing we're not here for the food.

Let's check out the green dude at the bar.

Looks friendly. Doesn't looked chipped though, so maybe he's not that serious about his work. Let's ask him.

Well, that's one way to keep things simple.

Looks like a bro got trolled. We keep up with the questions. Free info is a nice luxury.

Hit a nerve eh?

Might be easier if you had some creds? You want to run with us?

Until we run out of ammo anyways.

That's a bit steeper than I was expecting for a thug with a big gun. Might be worth it though if we land a run where we want some real firepower.

We'll leave him here for now and see who's in the booth.

Sounds like we can make some real cash here. Lets see what he'll give up for free though.

Well, guess he's a serious business kinda man after all. So lets get down to business.

That's a lot of flash, but I don't know if we're ready to handle something like that just yet. Lets see if he can line us up something easier.

Now that's more our speed. We accept and start heading for the nearest terminal.

Of course, we run into trouble on the way there.

This looks kinda freaky, lets not risk it.

Trips out to the barrens cost a little extra, but we'll make a good profit on this run, so no worries.

Now to start looking for the Underground 93 place.

We don't want any trouble, especially while we're on a run. We'll just move along.

We find a bar, maybe this is the place?

The wanderer? Thats where that mage said he knew a Mr. Johnson worked out of. We find a dwarf over by the bar and talk to him first.

Bro is hardcore wired. Let's ask our fellow decker about the trade.

Lots of talking, but nothing much useful. He doesn't even know any contacts, he's probably small time. Maybe he'll work for cheap, like Ricky?

Well, he's not asking for a ton, but we don't exactly need another decker anyways. Maybe we'll look him up later, in case we just need a cheap gun.

Let's check out the guy in the booth.

We'll he sure knows the right things to say, but a rich guy in this neighbourhood? Seems about as trustworthy as a used car salesman.

Well, that is a nice price for a contact. If they're useful, it almost seems too good to be true.

Kinda of like the thought of him having useful free info for us.

Let's see what kind of jobs and paycheck's he's offering us.

Guess we'd have to finish our run before we can find out. Back to hunting down that Underground 93 place.

Jackpot! I was hoping we'd stumble on that inn the letter came from while we're here, but this is an ugly part of town and I don't want to hang around with Fred in tow. We find the nearest vidphone and head back to downtown.

Nicely done.

With our run finished, lets check out some other places int he Penumbra district before we head back to Reed for another run.

First we find another bar:

But it's another elitist spot we can't get into with our lousy rep. Though even if we could, it's probably too high end for or pockets to handle.

We find an inn, probably cheaper than the one downtown.

We don't need any rest right now though.

Next spot we blunder into is another gang headquarters. Let's see if they want to brag to us.

Well, thats enough of that, lets get back to making money. Looks like we'll need a lot to track down our bro, by the price of all these runners and contacts.

Now thats a much better deal than what Gunderson was offering us. Lets hire that troll at the bar and see if we can't rack up some creds.

Looks like we got what we paid for. The guy has some nice gear.

And he's pretty buff for someone with no wares. As a Troll, he's not capped at 6 Body like we are, or even 7 for that matter. With some work, this guy could be a real monster.

We run into some clown while we head over to the ghoul den.

He just takes a pic though. We manage to convince Marrs that his soul wasn't stolen.

This, my friends, is a fucking gargoyle. It's also target practice and dies before it gets anywhere near us.

As you can see, Ricky is a little touched in the head and likes to try punching shit to death at complete random for no reason at all. We'll have to manually control him if we want to rely on his firepower.

We manage to kill enough ghouls to turn a tidy profit before we run out of clips, and head back.

We ask Reed to line us up another run.

Well frag. Why weren't we doing these from the beginning? No ravenous zombies, no guns, just us ripping off some corporate whores.

And you'll pay us HOW much? Holy shit.

We'll check out our deck before we go anywhere.

Load up some programs...

Except this one. It's fucking useless and we don't have any more room anyways.

What kind of gear are we using anyways?

Damn. Having any stats at 0 cannot be a good sign.

And it looks like nearly half our storage is taken up just by the shitty programs we own.

Let's start the run.

We have a note of what kind of node we're looking for in our deck.

Wow, this weak ass system doesn't even have ice on it's system access node. Doesn't get much easier than this.

So we're in.

Looks like the CPU node is right there. We can access the whole system from there, so there's no point in dicking around with the I/O node if we can crack that.

We'll try some deception diplomacy first.

That kind of ICE is immune to Deception programs. Guess we're doing things the hard way.

Eat it bitch!

It's trying to send out alerts, but as long as our attacks connect, the alert signal gets canceled and it has to start again. Since this is a low end system, the signals move slowly, occur infrequently, and the ICE can't evade us very well. Of course, our programs, skills and deck are all shitty too, so breaking the ICE is going to take a while.

That's not good.

Fortunately for us, it's SUCH a shitty system that even when a signal gets out, it isn't guaranteed to raise the alert status.

Stupid fraggin' ICE.

DIE!

Owned.

Now we're in the big chair. The rest of the run is easy, since we can always run back here and dick with the alerts.

Plus we can see the full system map. We pick a random data store and get cracking.

We try our diplomacy again.

It failed, but it wasn't invalid, which means that it can potentially work. If we can successfully deceive the node, we won't have to face the ice, it just gets shut down without a fight.

Come on.

Open sesame bitch!

Looks like the wrong datastore (We wanted a management DS), but it's a level 4 orange node, so it might have some decently valued data for such a shitty system. Lets not remove some from inventory, shall we?

Nice, but that file is so fat we don't have any more room for downloading. Lets delete something out of spite.

Hah! Take that, random company we have no affiliation with!

Well frag. Let's stop deleting things out of spite until our run is finished.

We hop back into the cracked CPU node,

and turn the bells back off before heading to work.

This weak ass green node folded on the first try.

And it was the one we were looking for.

Lets crash the place and bug-out.

Like a pro.

We run into another bleeder on the way back to the bar. More easy money right?

Or not. Lets smoke this fragging vamp!

One more body for the pile.

Time to collect our pay.

Up till now we've pretty much been inching along, but that was a big chunk of cash all at once with no costs in ammo or medkits. Matrix runs seem like a good deal.

Lets go see if Roscoe want's a slice of the pie we lifted from that financial data DS.

Sounds like a sweet deal to me. I think it's time to go shopping.

We might just do that, chummer.

East of downtown is the Renraku Arcology. It has a number of different stores, mostly legit stuff. But it's a hell of a lot safer than a place like Puyallup Barrens, and has much better gear than Redmond offers.

Merlin's is the closest to the entrance, so we stop there first.

Looks like they have that healing spell we were looking for.

Spells cost 1000$ per spell level, and you have to upgrade one level at a time. The mana zap spells would be fairly pointless since we already have a firebolt spell.

They are resisted by the Willpower stat instead of Body, and do mental damage instead of physical (Although iirc enemies don't have separate health totals.)

Mana Storm, on the other hand, hits all our enemies at once, and could come in handy. Unfortunately, it's also harder to cast, and would burn through Ricky's fetishes (Consumable items that absorb spell drain for magic users so they don't suffer mental damage from casting, a rough analogue for ammo) in no time with the drain.

Merlin's also sells some nice amulets that can enhance our defense,

or combat abilities. Assuming, of course, that we're filthy stinking rich.

They sell spell focii as well, but they're too expensive and their selection is for lame spells mostly anyways.

We'll check out the decker store next.

Deception is an illegal program, so we won't find upgrades of it here.

Slow is an alternative to the attack program. It has the advantage of weakening the ICE as it accrues successes against it, making further hits easier to land, and the ICE's own actions take longer and longer to perform. But it's also a memory hog, and no matter how powerful and skilled you are with it, it takes a long time to slow something all the way to destruction, so going without Attack isn't much of an option.

Defensive utilities can be fairly effective, but we don't have much room in our deck for fluff right now.

As you might have noticed from the prices, Software price doesn't increase linearly with level like magic does. High end programs cost ludicrous amounts of Nuyen and take up massive amounts of memory and storage.

There is a very broad selection of options to use while decking, even among the fully legal programs.

These guys also carry hardware, including decks-

and various upgrades for decks.

Our persona's attributes are already maxed out for the crappy deck we're using.

Weapon's World is next on our list.

This pistol is about as weak as our current gun, but holds twice the ammo per clip. Since clips are universal, this means we spend less money per shot fired. Clips are only 25$ in Redmond though, so reloading in combat is probably a bigger concern for us.

This gun is available in Redmond too, but it's cheaper here. It's probably the most useful of the pistols, as it's only slightly less powerful and damaging than the Warhawk, which carries a measely 6 rounds per clip, instead of 15 here. It would be a major combat upgrade for us without spending a lot of money.

This is what our troll bro was using I think. We don't have a lined duster though, so if we were carrying it it'd be easy for the Bronze to sniff it out, and it's also fairly expensive. Shotguns also can't be modded like pistols and SMGs can be.

The Medkits here are twice as expensive as the ones at Ares in Redmond. I guess if you've got enough money to buy shit like those combat talismans 400$ is chump change anyways.

We run into some more trouble while randering in the Arcology:

Now that I think about it, a guy with pale, cold skin sounds like either a vampire or a victim of one. And if he were a vampire, he wouldn't be an 'escaped patient' now would he?

Creepy much?

Just doing my part to fight the faggy vampires taking over Seattle.

We find an epic looking building and decide we should stumble into it for no real reason at all.

Whatever. We'll be back with bigger guns some day.

While we're in techno land here, lets grab a vid phone and call up that professor contact we got a hold of earlier.

The Prof' seems pretty busy for a guy who chats with people for free.

More contacts are always good.

Fairly high price. How about that club?

That might be helpful if we had tens of thousands of credits to spend, or knew where that shop even was.

What about the paranormal critters?

Well, that's actually some good info for a free contact. Thanks chummer.

We manage to find a dive bar in this glitzy place.

25 creds is no big deal. Lets check it out.

There's nobody in the booth, but we find a guy in a blue trench coat by the bar.

A decker. Maybe a bit higher end than the mini-bro we ran into in the barrens on our run?

Lets see what he's asking for his services.

That's a bit over our heads. He's probably a better decker than us though. Lets see if he can give us any pointers.

Hopefully not on pun-based humor.

That's cold, man.

Way to stick it to the man, elf-bro.

Sounds like there's more than one way to rake in some cash with hacking skills.

How about getting gear for that kind of thing?

Figures. So, whats with the ears, Spock?

Cool story bro. Catch you later.

We head back over to Penumbra district to earn some more cash.

Of course we find some trouble.

Don't tase her bro!

Well, I guess we can't interfere much more than that without risking a firefight with them, and they got some big guns and nice armor.

We take a nap at the Gates Undersound since we're rolling in cash at the moment.

We got some karma, but not a lot. The runs we've been on take a lot longer but only give a little more karma. They're mostly good for the cash. We buff up our computer skills in case we get another matrix run, and give Ricky some more Willpower so he can be slightly more aggressive with that firebolt spell without frying his brains.


We head back to Reed to earn some flash.

You know what? Let's take this on. The matrix run paid better and that was a cakewalk.

We'll hire Marrs in case we need some muscle while we're in there. How hard can it be to bust out one dude?

Much nicer deal for us now. We'll spend some of our creds to stock up on ammo and medkits while we're at it.

Let's roll boys.

May as well take a peek in these safes while we're breaking in anyways.

Not bad.

This could be pretty profitable after all.

Errr, quick Ricky, think of something! You've got high Charisma right? Intelligence? Negotiation? A trustworthy face?

Frag.

Suppose we should have cast that invisibility spell before we bumped into the guards.

Damn, these guys take their work seriously, busting into a corp building to save my ass.

Marrs and Ricky are going to be pretty pissed about how that turned out, and most of our cash is gone (Again.) But we're not some popamole Fred that's going to give up. We'll be back! We'll tear all the shit down!





From here on we're in the midgame, and it'd take forever to progress if I either stopped every 5 runs to ask what to spend shit on, or went for a whole bunch of runs without upgrading our gear. So suggest what you want us to spend our creds and karma on, who you want hired from the runners we've met so far, etc. and I'll try and get around to everything as resources become available. We got a fairly clean slate as far as who to hire now, since Ricky had 2 good runs with us before our glitched run, and Marrs had one good run. I've pointed out a lot of potential contacts and info sources, so if you want them checked out, say so.

Also. FUCK that took forever to write up. I've been working on this update sicne that last post non-stop. You cunts better be grateful.

 

[Azira]

Nice update!

I think you should aim to hire Marrs and Trent permanently, make it a decker/mage/samuari group, for maximum flexibility, though Ricky has been useful. I just don't trust d0rfs..

Joshua should be focusing on computer skill and build firearms on the side. Probably put some points towards negotiation as well, to make prices lower.
The samurai should build body to soak damage, and combat skills to deal it.
The mage should build sorcery skill almost exclusively, but take some willpower as well to soak mana drain.

You'll be wanting to upgrade Joshua's decking gear, Marrs implants, especially wired reflexes and body armour would be useful. Trent should focus on getting better and more varied spells, possibly a power focus if one is available somewhere? Those are ridiculously expensive, if they're priced anywhere near what they are in the PnP game, yet they're also immensely useful.

And it should almost go without saying, in Shadowrun, you can never have too many contacts.

So, Decker, Mage and Samurai.

 

[anus_pounder]

^ What he said. Trent seems more versatile than Ricky, so while the rat bastard has been a bro, lets go with the trenchcoat.

 

[Zomg]

Do people actually use the controlling type spells in this, for me combat is like 5 seconds of chaos every time

 

[Damned Registrations]

I don't think I've ever actually seen any of the wall spells. Then again, I usually don't use magic at all. Once everyone is cybered to the gills healing magic doesn't work and you can put out damage easily enough against almost anything.

 

[Azira]

That's true. Healing an essence 0.4 samurai with magic is a painful process. It's not impossible, just darn hard, and your mage will be taking a lot of fatigue damage.

So if you intend to cyber up to the maximum, you should ditch any and all mages. Is there a second samurai available anywhere? If so, your group should be Joshua and two samurais for max damage output.

When I play though, we always have a mix, as magic can be darn useful at least in our PnP sessions. Though one player has a body 13 troll samurai that shrugs off shotgun blasts to the face..
I dread when he finally takes damage, as I play an aspected sorceror, so it'll probably fall to me to try and heal him with magic. Which will be painful, to say the least.

 

[lightbane]

If I recall correctly there's a mage somewhere that's even better than Trent. Of course, it's terribly expensive, but Mars is indeed the best warrior (well, actually, there's a "secret" sidequest that once completed will give you a very powerful and already "cyberized" samurai for free). I suggest that you now focus on maxing Computers and Reputation as much as possible. Btw, a cool exploit that you can use in certain Matrix runs: Whenever you're asked to retrieve "x" file from the "y" system, download that file AND THEN delete it, as long as you managed to download it the game will think the run was succesful, it doesn't matter what you do with the file afterwards, then you can download more files you can sell for tons of cash.