Race choice

[Gukal]

From a game mechanic perspective (i.e. all role-playing flavor aside), why would I recruit humans or replicants as jocks?

I see from the guide that they have trivial bonuses to starting stats - but nothing I can't acquire by spending accumulated development points.

Conversely, cyborgs and androids have real differences/advantages that cannot be later acquired (i.e. innate resistance to shock damage for cyborgs - innate resistance to nuetron blasters for androids).

Are there hidden perks to being a human or a replicant?

Would the optimal squad necessarily be comprised of some mix of cyborgs and androids only?

[rosary]

One nice advantage of humans or replicants. They heal.

[Thorgrim]

Androids might look very good, but they heal very slowly when hurt. Cyborgs, they have lower Cha and a bonus to Con. Cha is not that bad, since it lowers the XP threshold for promotions (and Humans have a Cha bonus). Cha is also good for Leadership, which in turn dertermines Bravery, which then affects skill checks in combat (not just for the leader). Replicants are very vulnerable to radiation, but their initial bonuses are awesome early in the jock's career. They also make developing those attributes later on a lot cheaper. (racial bonuses don't "shift" the DP cost accordingly, they keep the unmodified stat's DP cost)

[aquietfrog]

Those bonuses may seem trivial at the start, but when you start pumping DP's into your attributes, you'd be glad you had a replicant who started with say, 14 on his/her Intelligence or Dexterity... because as you go up with the stats, it would go as far as 150 DPs for each category. I've got a few jocks who are stuck with with 12 or 13 skills because they are lacking in DPs in one category, being unable to add more because I don't have enough Intelligence.... I tend to have tons of Movement DP's. The shortage is usually combat DP.


(i hate that "in reply to:" parameter... It never addresses the right person because I tend to just click on fast reply)

[Thorgrim]

Int, Dex and Ins actually can go up to 175 DPs, for 19->20.

Also, Androids get light damage on EMP cockpit hits (as opposed to minor) in medium+ titans. Replicants are not recognized by active scans (they show as humans), so they have some degree of protection in that respect (for example you might want to target a specific titan with NBs if you knew it was a Rep piloting it).