>>53936
In my system (a heavily modded version of Cyberpunk 2020), I have modified the way the neural implant works to expand more on it.
Basically, the original system describes the neural implant as an injection of nanomachines that combine themselves with the nervous system, and are controlled by a small computer located at the base of the back, which is what contains all the modules you can add. It always baffled me how, despite being the most intrusive implant by far (it's a bunch of nanomachines touching your brain inappropriately in places), it has a really low humanity cost. Given, the causes of humanity loss and cyberpsychosis are kinda handwaved as "you get transhumanist smugness issues", and thus it makes in universe, but I wanted to reflect on the rewiring of the brain in my system, and thus, I gave a more important role to the nanomachines of the implant.
Now, these nanomachines are specifically named Soma nanomachines. They are a highly proprietary model, unique in the world, barely understood by its creators (and much less by the rest of the world, hence why they haven't been replicated by any other company yet), that manage to incrust themselves deep inside the brain of the patients to wire them to a dedicated computer. These nanomachines, depending on the orders they are given during injection, will penetrate in different ways in the brain of the subject. The most common orders are the following:
>Stage 1 assimilation: the Soma nanomachines barely penetrate the brain of the subject. Instead, they kind of act as "spy electrodes" located in the meninges, or very shallow locations of the brain. This stage does not allow for feedback, and thus, are just used to read brain activity and act on it. An example of a usecase of this stage of nanomachines is "capability extension", which defines any implant that adds, not replaces, any function not present before in the human body, such as popping up that gun inside your arm, switching the vision modes of your cyber eyes, the smartgun link, basic control of any regular computer system, some heavy machinery link controls, etc. It costs 1d6/2 HL. It rarely rewires more than 1% of the brain.
>Stage 2 assimilation: this is the most common stage, and the most similar one to the vanilla implant. This stage penetrates quite deeper in the brain, and latches itself more tightly to several brain areas to offer better readings, but more importantly, feedback. This is a must for AR or VR (cybermodem modules would fall in this category), or any module that alters your senses, with the exception of reflex boosts. While the nanomachines should ideally just navigate the interneuronal spaces to lay down themselves and their wires, they usually destroy some connections or neurons in their path; usually barely noticeable, but in some cases, it subtly manages to warp the personality of the individual. Costs 2d6. It usually rewires 12.5% of the brain, but it can go as far as 25%.
>Stage 3 assimilation: this monstrosity is what you need to truly alterate the way your brain works. At this stage, the nanomachines not only penetrate every area of your brain, but they go as far as even rebuilding completely some brain areas by replacing them with more Soma. This stage is required for braindance recording/streaming, intelligence and reflex boosting implants, and anything else that requires changing the way the brain fundamentally works. This stage may replace and rewire up to 50% of an individual's brain, and thus, has a cost of 4d6 HL.
