Cyberware in Psiberpunk is a little different than in most campaigns. See, all cyberware is founded on one simple principle: people know how to interface human nerves with electronic devices. That's not true here: some corporations know how to do that... and they are deathly afraid of everyone else who knows, because those other people might be able to make psiberware with the same technology they use to make cyberware. Because the benefits of cyberware extend beyond psiberware, though, some middle ground has been achieved. So long as cyberware doesn't interface directly with neurons, it's legal. Responding to reflex is even possible — pacemakers aren't illegal, for example. Once it is consciously controllable, though, it's psibertech, and its wielder is a corpsi or a corpse.
Bioware is also quite a bit different from that found in most campaigns. Again, bioware is typically founded upon the idea of cloning. After all, how else do you get whole kidneys with appropriate genetic tampering than by growing something vaguely resembling a man? Although by 2025 genetic tampering is viable, vat-grown bodies and body parts are not (consider that without speed-growth technology, vat-grown organs would be fully developed that were begun in 2008!). Tissue cloning is possible, but building organs out of tissues is not. Biological enhancements are therefore restricted to individual kinds of cells; regrowing nerve cells to replace those lost in fire, for instance, or replacing hair cells with genetically enhanced versions to give your hair that 'special' color, or even to automatically style your hair. Skin cells that can glow and, in concert with other contiguous cells, track and display time. But no improved hearts, no livers that filter alcohol (although there are cybernetic enhancements for both of these).
Bits and pieces of cyberware can be bought with story tokens and money; if you want to be heavily cybered, without paying for it all, take Unusual Background (Cycho) for 25 points. You can then provide some general description, and use story tokens to say "yeah, I can do that."
This has serious repercussions for headware, obviously.
People who use headware have jacks (based upon an international standard instituted a few years ago) to hook their brains up to external hardware (for upgradability, maintenance, and safety). Datajacks support basic pointer (in two dimensional spaces) and hand (in three dimensional spaces) control, including operations such as 'grab,' 'point,' etc., and a streaming text coming into the head. Actual displays — such as those required by semi-graphical text programs, modern graphical interfaces, etc. — require something else. However, most internet access is still not immersive; immersive access typically requires a replaced eye or two as well as modified ears; separate cables connect from the computer to the eye(s) and ear(s) (olfactory and tactile senses are can not be replicated). A jack costs $9,000, and an interface on your computer to support the jack is $800. Hitting a jack is as difficult as hitting an eye, with a penalty of 9 to the attack roll. A jack has 2 DP, and doing even 1 point of damage will cause it to malfunction (it can be repaired in the field, however); if it takes 2 or more points of damage, it's gone.
Cybereyes and ears typically support immersion connections for free, but it costs an additional $1200 to add the interface to your computer per eye or ear (so stereo sound and vision online costs an additional $4800, plus the cost of the eye and ear). Net sites support usable 3d environments, and software that provides a 3d version of more standard, older interfaces is common. Some sites will be more accessible with two eyes, but for plenty of sites, users with only one eye will do fine. Only sites whose clientéle are expected to have aural mods and the computers to use them will use audio — music sites, typically, or sites targeted at a 'hardcore' crowd. Corner terminals, where they exist, typically only support the data connection.
Visionware is generally implemented in the preneural portion of the eye — typically everything from the cornea to vitreous, modifying the image before it makes it to the nerve (where the modification is placed is largely dependant on who developed that particular eyepiece). The cost varies according to where it is placed. The cheapest way is to replace the whole preneural eye, which costs $20,000, can hold two separate image processing units, and counts as a Poser accessory for determining style (it looks pretty ugly). Nuv&u; of Japan also produces a lens replacement, which can hold a single miniaturized image processing unit in the lens of the eye, at a cost of $30,000 (and with a base Style of Cool). No external connectors (such as dataports for computer connections) can be used on a lens. Cybereyes work as an accessory for any style. For full replacement eyes, Cool costs 5 times as much as Poser, Hot 10 times, and Killer eyes are 30 times base cost. For lenses, Hot costs 10 times as much as Cool, and Killer eyes are 30 times the Cool cost. Because components are not standard across brands, processing units must be of the same style as the eye itself, with the same multiplier.
If two eyes are used, and they have different image processors, then the owner will be extremely disoriented until he or she becomes accustomed, and thereafter, will suffer a -1 penalty to most of their actions when their eyes provide noticably different views. For example, with a light normalizing processor in one eye, and a thermal coloring processor in the other, then in normal situations the owner is fine, and can see variations in heat as coloring in the normal spectrum (to which the owner has already adjusted). In low light circumstances, however, one eye sees a relatively normal (if slightly blurry) view, and the other sees nothing but heat colors, resulting in some disorientation.
Note that standard cybereyes can be used to correct poor vision, or replace damaged eyes, but they can not be used to fix damaged optical nerves. If you think that the governments and corporations are inhumane to force blindness upon people for whom there are feasible technical measures, well, you're right.
Image processing units are not typically bought individually; there is simply not enough space in the eye cavity to put many separate modules. They are instead typically bought as integrated processing units, much like radio/CD player/tape player units today. Up to three processing units can be miniaturized to the size of one, or one unit miniaturized to much smaller size (such as in order to fit into a lens mod), at some loss to quality and/or price. For an integrated unit, either multiply the price of each unit by 10 and sum them, or double the total standard price and use the cheaper versions (you can not have some cheap, and some standard, devices in a single unit). You can also buy the less effective version by itself for half the listed price. Fortunately for you, most people can't read the brand names on these, so you don't get a style penalty for buying cheap.
Camera
(wide choice of brands)
It's a camera, in your eye. You take still images with it. It
requires a dataport to offload images, and will not fit wear a dataport
won't. It can store 60 high resolution still images, or, for the
cheaper camera, 30 lower resolution still images suitable for sharing
with family and friends. It can be used anywhere it will fit.
$1500
Contrast Control
(wide choice of brands)
This unit has preprogrammed "preferred" contrast levels gathered from
pre-operation vision testing, and attempts to optimize contrast levels
across the view. The more effective unit uses edge detection routines to
modify individual parts of the image you see, resulting in greater clarity
of vision across the board, similar to two levels of Improved Vision.
The less effective version performs the same contrast change across the
entire view, resulting in variable and slightly less reliable improvement: a
single level of Improved Vision on visual patches on which you are
focused. These units are affective at any point.
$2000
Flare Compensation
(Kodak, Russia)
This unit is a slightly specialized form of the light normalization
processor. They detect extreme, changes in lighting conditions and
close the aperture of the eye extremely rapidly. Normal units are
effective against flares of up to 100,000 candle power, and the less
effective units can handle 33,000 candle power (which is generously
more than the flash of oncoming headlights). They can only be
affective in a whole-eye or lens replacement; otherwise, the eye will
have taken damage from the flash even if the brain doesn't register it.
$2500
Identify Friend or Foe (From Database)
(Russia, China, Nuvù)
This unit uses a database of three dimensional images and metrics to
recognize people, and edge detection to figure out where their bodies
end. It then highlights them with a semi-transparent color as
configured when their image was uploaded. It can reliably track them
as long as they remain visible. Only the portions of the body that are
or were visibly attached to the face are colored. It requires seeing
the face; it can not magically identify a person by the back of their
head (and does not try to do so, if the back of the head is covered
with hair). It requires a data port to download faces and configure.
It can make use of Image Storage; for every 30 images stored, one
person can be stored. By default it can store 6 people. The standard
version aqcuires uses a skill of 15 to aqcuire targets; the cheap one,
an 11 (an automatic success for most people). Disguises and other
changes in appearance add a slight penalty to the roll.
$8000
Image Storage
(wide choice of brands)
These units are frequently bundled with still and video cameras, as
well as other equipment which requires storage space. One unit of
storage can hold up to 240 high resolution images (or an additional 16
minutes for the video camera belo), or 180 low resolution images for
the cheap version (12 minutes on the low quality version).
$1500
Light Normalization
(Nuvù, Dark Vision)
Although this unit may seem to be simply an extension of Low Light and
mirrorshades, it functions slightly differently so it is its own processor.
Similarly to contrast control, this unit is calibrated prior to install so
that the owner is usually at his most comfortable level. In low light or
blindingly bright circumstances, it halves any penalty to vision (rounding
up, so that a -1 penalty disappears). Yes, with this processor, there is no
penalty for wearing mirrorshades in moderately low light conditions (at
night with streetlights, inside flourescently-lit buildings, etc.). The
cheap version rounds down instead of up, so that a -1 penalty stays a -1
penalty. For either version, there is a -1 penalty to seeing color details
in low light conditions, because of the blurriness light correction
introduces. To prevent damage to the eye in bright conditions, it must
be in a whole-eye or lens replacement.
$1800
Low Light
(wide variety of brands)
This unit kicks in when there is a sufficient lack of light to result in a
penalty. It halves the resulting penalty, rounding up or down as with the
Light Normalizer above. However, because of the greater space dedicated to
handling the problems of low light, there is no penalty to perceiving color.
It does not need to be anywhere in particular within the eye.
$1800
Magnification
(Canon, Kodak, Nikon)
You can use this unit to 'zoom in' on specific parts of your vision. It
tracks the owner's focus, and increasingly magnify the image when the owner
blinks in a specific pattern. They can work up to 15x magnification, using
increasingly more powerful lenses. The cheap version can go up to 8x.
Because these units require a series of lenses, they can not be shrunk,
although they can be combined with cameras.
$1600
Thermal Tinting
(Kodak, Nuvù)
Thermal tinting overlays your vision with colors corresponding to
temperature. The colors are slightly transparent, and smoothed so that
they don't interfere with regular vision much. In low light or no
(visible) light conditions, they allow a person to see general shapes,
but not to discern details. In low light conditions, halve penalties
(rounded away from zero) for discerning shapes or navigating, and
reduce the penalties for other vision-related problems by 1. In the
less effective version, color bleeds and only slowly disappears, so
take a -1 penalty to discerning colors, and lose the penalty reduction
in low-light conditions for other vision-related problems. This unit
must be in a lens or whole-eye replacement, and not just operating upon
what the eye has already seen.
$2000
Thermal Vision
(Kodak, Nuvù)
Thermal vision does not overlay normal vision, but simply replaces
it, mapping the range of the infrared spectrum to the range of the visible
spectrum. It also uses an infrared light (that emits no visible light)
to 'paint' the area, so that there is less reliance on ambient heat.
This is one of the few units that have an on/off switch, accessed by
rapid blinking in the proper sequence. When turned on, it negates
penalties for low light the same way a flashlight does; color, however,
can not be discerned. Because of the requirements for an infrared light
source, this unit can not be shrunk, but it can be cheapened (the light
source emits a visible red glow that is useless as a flashlight in the
visible spectrum, but great as a target). This unit must be in a lens
or whole-eye replacement.
$2000
Video Camera
(Canon, Kodak, Nokin)
A video camera records digital video for later offloading. It can
store up to 4 minutes of high resolution video, or 2 minutes of lower
resolution video for the cheap version. It can make use of Image
Storage. It requires a dataport connection, but can otherwise fit
anywhere.
$2500
Cybernetic ears are also available in two forms, either unobtrusive or undetectable. The vastly cheaper option is to have 'listening' devices that are attached to a small processing unit and crystal vibrator embedded next to the stirrup bone in the ear; it does not interfere with normal hearing at all, but it
Most bodyware is a mixture of biological and electronic components, such as arms that include natural (or cloned) nerve cells so that as little about the way electronics can mimick nerve cells is apparent. Other additions, such as adrenal boosters, have processors that intercept and respond to normal neural communication (such as the desire to relieve oneself) in abnormal ways.
The fastest way to significantly change your strength is to add muscle tissue. As mentioned above, muscle tissue can be vat-grown, to specification, and it can be mixed in with your own muscle. It's even easier to keep it dense, so your mass and strength can be much higher than your size would indicate... but there are some problems. what problems?
For another kind of strength, hyperfast-twitch synthetic fibers are available; it's hard to improve upon Nature when you play her game, but with hyperfast-twitch muscle fiber you can decide you need a different trade-off of immediate strength vs. fatigue without millions of years of evolution.
Of course, with strong muscles must come strong support; bones, tendons, and ligaments all strengthen naturally when ever you add strength the old-fashioned way, but that doesn't happen (immediately) if you add ten pounds of muscle in a single day's operation. There are two major ways to adapt; spend more money on having tissue packed into your bones, tendons, and ligaments, or spend more money on a specialized form of physical therapy designed to prepare the rest of your body for the muscle it now has.