Complexity Challenge (CC)
The Complexity Challenge (CC) is a trait representing the Challenge presented by performing an action on a technological artefact (conjugate, schema, scaffold, or assembly).
CC, CC-Q & CC-S
Regardless of the stage that an artefact is in (conjugate, schema, scaffold, or assembly), it has a complexity. This is often the same as its cost in credits, if you were to buy it. This complexity determines the Challenge of the common actions, when applied to the artefact, and this is captured in the Complexity Challenge (CC).
The CC is the most basic number that you must overcome to get a successful outcome for actions on the artefact. The complexity is the first number in the cost of the artefact. Thus if an item is listed as costing 45:2 credits or 800:1 credits, the complexitiess are 45 and 800, respectively.
The following table presents the conversion of the complexity component of the cost into the CC (plus some other details).
Complexity and Build Costs
| Complexity | CC | Time days (Cost 50%) | Tooling Level |
|---|---|---|---|
| 100 | 12 | 1 | kit |
| 1K | 13 | 3 | kit |
| 10K | 14 | 10 | kit |
| 100K | 15 | 20 | pack |
| 1M | 16 | 40 | pack |
| 10M | 17 | 80 | facility |
| 100M | 18 | 160 | facility |
| 1G | 19 | 320 | facility |
The times shown are the times to make the artefact to the schema (or conjugate) stage, and assume that you are spending 50% of the normal cost of the artefact in doing so. You halve the time taken to design the schemas, by doubling the cost, similarly you can halve the cost by doubling the time.
Going from the schema to the finished artefact involves activating the schema: this has its own build time. The only time in the game we see moving from a conjugate to an artefact is in contest conjugation by chopper or engineer characters.
Certain skill checks for some of these actions need to be compared against the Quality CC (CC-Q), or the Security CC (CC-S), rather than the CC. Both the CC-Q and the CC-S are equal to the CC by default, but both can be higher.
To save you from consulting the above table all the time:
- the CC is listed against artefacts in the equipment tables. The CC-Q and CC-S are listed only if they are different from the CC.
- the CC is nearly always equal to 9 + the place number in the cost. Therefore if the cost is 1200 credits (4 place numbers), the CC = 13 (or 9 + 4). Another way to remember it is 10 + the number of places after the first number.
So the three CCs for equipment, vehicles, weapons and armour are:
- CC. The Complexity Challenge of the artefact, derived from the complexity component of the item’s cost.
- CC-Q. The Quality Complexity Challenge of the artefact, usually equal to the CC, but can be higher in items of better quality (easier to diagnose, repair, or detect hacks in)
- CC-S. The Security Complexity Challenge of the artefact, usually equal to the CC, but can be higher in items of better security (harder to hack, easier to detect hacks and counter them).
Complexity & Rarity
Most purchasable equipment carries a cost trait - this representes the [money] required to buy it
24000:2(cost)
This lists an item at complexity 24000 and rarity 2 (24000 is usually expressed as 24K).
The base Complexity Challenge for this item is 10 + the decimal places in the complexity number. For the example above, the CC is 14. This is the number you would need to overcome with the appropriate engineering skill to fix an item that you are familiar with.
If you wanted to see if you can recall what an item is, you add the rarity number to base CC, so in the example above, that would be 16.