I apologize for double-posting, but I've started a new run and made progress faster this time. To be honest, this is the result of some research that should have been done before actually attempting a run. Here are the new notes and plans.
1a: REVISED - Samurai. Better starting stats for combat, will hire a decker that starts with stats and gear. [Need 1500 to hire Rhianna, including cab fare]
Deckers have 2/5/2/2 4/3/5.8/0, firearms 2 comp.3
Samurai have 4/3/4/1 2/4/5.9/0, firearms 4.
You can hire a decker with INT6/Comp.6, which saves about 20 karma from leveling it on Joshua. Programs determine your probability of success and upper cap on what you can do, stats determine speed and likelihood of finding something useful in data stores.
Samurai are slower but otherwise better in combat, which is most of the plot.
New/Revised costs:
* Buy Attack upgrades - $11340 [lv5 needed to get through any IC with luck manipulation]
* Buy Deception upgrades - $12960 [lv5 needed to get through any IC]
* Extra Memory Upgrades requires to run 2 programs @ lv5 - $3500
* Extra Storage Upgrades - Initial deck caps at 250 - $100 per 25 - $600ish
Frame Counts:
Lag frames between conversation frames: 12
Lag frames when changing zones: 118 [4 second load times on a cartridge!]
Lag frames in a building's intro text: 30
Lag frames when entering the pause menu: 30
I need to make scripts to count these for me.
Revised Bullet points:
* Intro. Be a Samurai.
* Sell Gear.
* Get Michael's Stuff.
* Hire Ricky. Trade clips to Joshua. Sell Ricky's stuff. Dismiss Ricky.
* Go to Penumbra District. Hire Marrs. Trade Clips to Joshua. Sell Marrs' stuff, especially that $700 shotgun. Dismiss Marrs.
* Go to Downtown Seattle. Pay $150 to enter Matchstick. Hire Rhianna, the best decker NPC in the game, for $1330 about 2 minutes into the game. Go milk the Matrix for cash.
** First run: $4,000. It costs us about $2k total to hire Rhianna, so she's paid for herself and then some already.
** I buy Deception 3 and all the memory my deck can hold, then go back and do some more hacking.
** Second run: I get a good random system (#6), it's the one I milked in my first attempt, but I've got better stats this time. $9200 from 4 files. I have $11,190 including the money I didn't spend from last time. Note that this hack would be practically impossible on a standard run, due to the low chance of actually successfully attacking.
at 8:03 into the game, I have enough money to buy all the cyberware I want that isn't Wired Reflexes, plus the best armor before doing anything else. I can also get about another $1,000 by selling Rhianna's stuff. I'm also considering upgrading the decker gear slightly more, to make future hack attempts easier, but that won't likely help our overall speed too much, since it's just a matter of checking each frame when hacking (I really wish I could find the RNG's output in RAM Watch. Haven't found it yet.)
I've uploaded the move
here, if you want to watch it in Gens. A Youtube version
will be up once Youtube wants to cooperate again. is viewable
here
EDIT: Went back and started looking into the plot side of things, as well as refining out the finances. It looks like 70-80k nuyen might be enough to clear the game, assuming you hire someone to hack locked doors, though my playaround testing cost me closer to $130k due to many deaths hunting hellhounds, hiring a runner for life.
Most of the plot is doable with the equipment I expected, though I did have to upgrade to the $10k armor. You also have to spend 18 Karma to get your Reputation up to 4 in order to do the second plot thread. This will costs you all of the karma from the first plot thread, and some of the karma earned from the third.