I love money cards because they let us re-evaluate the value of s and s. The worst a is worth is a , so we'll use that as a baseline (it's worth more in reality). Also remember, that installing a card takes a . Format [x/c], where x = clicks spent and c = profit compared to using x clicks to click for . At the end is a capita-per-click percentage score.
Smartware Distributor: Turn 1 [2/-2], Turn 4 [3/0], Turn 7 [4/+2], Turn 10 [4/+5]* --125%--
Data Folding: Turn 1 [1/-4], Turn 4 [1/-1], Turn 7 [1/+2], Turn 10 [1/+5] --500%--
Armitage Codebusting: Turn 1 [4/+1], Turn 2 [7/+4] --57%--
Sure Gamble: Turn 1 [1/+3] --300%--
Day Job: Turn 1 [4/+6] --150%--
Liberated Account Turn 1 [4/+2], Turn 2 [5/+5] --100%--
Kati Jones (3-turn cycle): Turn 1 [2/-4], Turn 3 [4/0], Turn 6 [7/+3], Turn 9 [10/+6] --60%--
Kati Jones (5-turn cycle): Turn 1 [2/-4], Turn 5 [6/+4], Turn 10 [11/+11] --100%--
*Assumes that Smartware isn't being used a fourth time
This data shows us that as far as capita-per-click efficiency, Smartware is actually on the higher end of things, so if you want to drop a couple early and dedicatedly click them up each turn, it's not the worst plan ever. Their biggest issue is flexibility and acceleration. If you only have 1 to spare before the end of the game, then a simple Sure Gamble or a Stimhack is going to be better for you. If you have a couple turns left, the flexibility of Armitage or Lib Account are better suited for your needs. In the case of one full turn of downtime, Day Job's the winner. Kati has a little of both, giving you a bit of flexibility as well as long-term investment. If long-term investment is the only thing you need, then you can look into cards like Smartware, Data Folding, or even Rezeki. At this point, I don't think it's a matter of "is Smartware good?" so much as it's "does Smartware fit into the economic tempo your deck needs?" Obviously, Data Folding saves you 3 by turn 10 and nets you the same amount of money, but can you deal with the drought created by the first 5 turns? Smartware offsets that drought period by giving you a much easier point of entry--0 and 2.
That all being said, I think this card can be pushed even further by including it in an Aesop's Pawnshop deck, allowing you to sell it off for a sweet 3 advance without the use of a click when you no longer want it.
It's interesting to see the numbers laid out like this. I never realised just how inefficient Kati is/was. That said, given that: Data Folding is conditional, Day Job and Lib cost inf out of faction, Gamble is single use, and Kati is rotating, I think the best comparison for long-ish term neutral econ is Armitage. Which Smartware evidently compares to pretty favourably, though that's not saying much. With the new in-faction econ options in Gateway, I doubt this will see much play. It'd be nice to have some decent neutral econ options to go along with Gamble and Casts but I suppose you need to be careful not to warp the 'econ war' that's at the heart of Netrunner.
— ptcThe numbers show also how good Rezeki is (not a comparison, since it cost 1 influence). I really appreciated the analysis.
— DiogeneIs this correct for Daily Casts? Turn 1: [1/-4], Turn 2: [1/-2], Turn 3: [1/0], Turn 4: [1/+2], Turn 5: [1/+4] --400%--
— kronossAnd for Telework Contract:
— kronoss(Posted too early by mistake :)), so for Telework Contract: Turn 1: [2/0], Turn 2: [3/+2], Turn 3: [4/+4] --100%--
— kronossHeya Kronoss -- yep, you are correct on both fronts. Regarding Daily Casts at 400%, you can see why it is such a powerful economic card, with the trade-off of course being that you must wait 5 turns. Telework is a great card as well, but doesn't pay off as much at 100%. Its advantage is of course that it pays out sooner and requires less up-front investment.
— Chezni
The best thing is that the investment is really cheap.
— valerian32