As per the RPG rulebook, there is some kind of universal income established so anyone can barely survive (albeit without most of the luxuries a worker could achieve) which is common to every faction in the Human Sphere. Do not expect however 'free lhost re-sleeve' nor any other kind of first aid treatments.
I have a feeling that PanO description in this matter is taken over from current state of "medical insurance" in USA. That being said afaik (and was informed) if you are really out of cash there are institutions which will help you (you probably can't count on experimental cancer therapy though). People who are "really" screwed are people with enough money to not receive "free help" and not enough to fully afford treatment they need (hello "go fund me" campaigns).
The RPG states in the social class section that "it's become incredibly difficult for true poverty to exist" though some people do live in that condition. It's very rare though. Like, Ateks are in that situation, but Ateks are a vanishingly small part of the population in PanO, much fewer proportionately than people living in poverty in, say, the US right now. The Demogrant class is, in fact, the equivalent of that. "...a basic income guaranteed to every member of the major powers (and most of the minor powers, too)." It then goes on to talk about the immense manufacturing capability of the modern powers added to the resources available to the automated interstellar human civilisations means that it is possible for everyone to enjoy a "more than comfortable" standard of living. If you are born in the Human Sphere, the chances of you living in poverty are a fraction of a fraction of a percentage, I imagine. You've got to be born in a place where the Demogrant status cannot exist due to some sort of restriction to the local habitat, maybe you live in the Ariadnan backwoods, or on a remote illegal space station in the Human Edge, or in the ruins of war-wracked regions of Paradiso. But that's rare. And one of the major directives of ALEPH is to minimise this situation wherever possible.
Being a JSA-player (or rather collector as I very rarely get the time to actually play) I'm excited for what the future will bring and I'm looking forward to the story progression. I have thoroughly enjoyed reading the discussions in this thread but that being said, I must ask you vanilla/ISS players one thing. Which profiles are you so afraid/angry of loosing? I can't really see that many gaps in your lists that can only be filled by JSA-profiles. I guess the argument could be made for the Ninja but who knows? You might get an exciting new profile that will fill that role in the near future should the ninjas vanish. We will simply have to wait until the actual reveal to find out what CB has planned.
Raiden? Aragoto? Something that can damage the thing in Looting and Sabotaging and costs less than 50 points? Shinobu? A TAG which is interesting to play? You know, things.
So you say that NCA is miserable in this situation as even in mentioned cutofff it would have less options for L&S thatn ISS after deleting ALL JSA profiles (NCA having "only" Locust and Engineer fullfilling mission requirements, while ISS can do that with Pheasant and Zhanying (in 5 man HI link team ^^)).
I was talking about Vanilla, where you can take Neko the destroyer of worlds. In ISS you can just run a Crane with 5 Celestial Guards and crush the thing, yeah. Blam, B5, CC22, Damage 20 DA in your face.
scythe confirmed, we full durara now Kinda wish it was a naginata or yari instead though as I worry it wont match with JSA aesthetics with the heavy notches I kinda wonder how it would even work as a mounted weapon, notches are for catching things like swordbreakers, does she intend to drag people along with it? ill probably see if I can mount it like a real warscythe
We still have TAGs for L&S. It isn't that difficult to save your Engineer in order to let him run for the destruction of the AC2 at the last turn.
I think @zapp tried to ask that question in https://forum.corvusbelli.com/threads/jsa-split-options.1982/ But... let's go through them, will they be missed or will they be ignored and why? Aragoto - ambivalent - They are useful for vanilla, functioning exactly like for JSA but at much lower density. Not having a reliable defensive link does make them a bit less attractive since they don't function quite as well without on to guard their backs. Keisotsu - missed - They are reliable compared to Kuang Shi and cheap compared to Zhanshi and provide regular orders. Yuriko - missed - Yu Jing's best Engineer. Unlike Tokusetsu, she can fight. Kempeitai - ignored - They literally do nothing for vanilla. Tokusetsu - missed - Cheaper option than Zhanshi Yisheng/Gongcheng, gaining courage in the process. Raiden - ambivalent - While they would do the same as in JSA, Raiden are not quite as unique within vanilla due to access to sniper mercenaries that JSA do not have. Domaru - ignored - not a bad source for a survivable and cheap LT, but that's about it. Haramaki - ignored - there's skew lists where these can be excellent for specific missions, particularly Biotechvore, but otherwise they manage to be sufficiently high cost and with B1 weapons that they get hard to use as the high-powered warbands they could've been. Karakuri - ambivalent - survivable specialists with a swiss army assault rifle for weapon. I'd rate them as better than Shang-Ji for brawlers in the same price range, but that's not saying much. Shikami - ambivalent - if I can figure out how to make this model work well in JSA, they'll be missed in vanilla as well, but as it is they are the coolest profiles that I probably won't succeed with regardless of faction I play them in. O-Yoroi - missed - I rate this one as the better of our two TAGs, but it's such a tight decision that it's mostly being the lower cost that makes the decision. Ninja (KHD) - Nooooooo! - probably Yu Jing's most used profile. If I were to break the unit down into its most basic parts I'd say; infiltration, TO camo, decent wip, specialist, reasonable price. It's not difficult to design a unit to replace the Ninja in their role, but currently it is unique. The non-KHD Ninja profiles are, frankly, not a great loss. Oniwaban - ambivalent - It's a useful profile that does a lot of stuff, but in general I'd mark Shinobu as missed simply because you typically only need one Oniwaban, so why not miss the one that stands out the most? It's worth noting that Yu Jing doesn't have assassin units outside of JSA. Shinobu - missed - The faction's best assassin unit, most notable for having a slightly higher chance of infiltrating compared to regular Oniwaban. Shinobu's other qualities aren't quite as useful in vanilla by comparison. Now, let's talk about actual loss - let's discuss Zhanshi. While it's obvious that the O-Yoroi is a quality of life TAG compared to the Guijia, and the loss of the former wouldn't be terrible, and that the Ninjas provide something unique to vanilla, the Keisotsu class soldiers are different. Mainly because Keisotsu perform the same role as should Zhanshi, but at a significant cost reduction. Zhanshi themselves best compare to the cheaper Moderators and while in general you can't cross-faction compare units as such, this comparison is important because it highlights something terrible - +1 CC at +1 pts is the only difference and for a low cost order mook, that is a lot. Losing Keisotsu/Tokusetsu means Zhanshi needs to step up to a task they are currently incapable of handling, and the overall loss of points that this would mean has the result that the vanilla faction will be increasingly forced to rely on Kuang Shi for their orders and I don't see this as being a sign of a healthy state of affairs. Kuang Shi should be more of a specialist tool, not the backbone of the army. If Zhanshi are to be more expensive than Fusiliers or Moderators, they should also have distinguishing features that you can exploit to gain an advantage, and a single point of CC just isn't an advantage.
I know, I'm just pointing out that the NCA has "naturally" a bit more problems with L&S mission than ISS would have if JSA units were removed from their rooster ;)
The impracticality of the scythe may not even matter... while I'd hold that being due to CB having an unfortunate disregard for that sort of thing when choosing designs, one could argue that blade is something children can scribble on notebooks and spraypaint on walls. A distinctive symbol of Japanese resistance (or, unlikely, the suppression of such).
if they split JSA I think it might be more, yu jing keeps a loyalist JSA themed sectorial, while a separate renegade JSA unaligned faction gets added, with characters being moved to each depending on their loyalty. loyalist JSA gets access to a few imperial agents now to keep order but lose kempetai, leaving access to ninjas and keisotsu in vanilla traitor JSA lose a few bits but gain new troops
I find posting this particular picture while talking about JSA quite hilarious.... But hey, at least those warscythe were actually used in Uprising....
Funny you should say, OS probably cost a point too much for exactly the same reason as Zhanshi and Celestial Guard ;) (but it's less important for the latter due to having unique enough stat line)
