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So, the greatest tragedy with the computer glitch gremlin--actually, I'm just gonna call it the glitch gremlin, because "computer" seems redundant (we can call the other one a "starship gremlin" or something)--is that, apart from a few guns, he has basically no tech to interact with at time of writing. This is a shame, because being able to wreak technological havoc would make for some incredible scenarios: the little dude could trigger hazards, hack/break important gear, or serve as a crash course for offensive use of the computers skill. But we don't have any of that yet, so for now this tiny stink-man has to make due with only half his kit.
Said kit, though, isn't half bad. I'm not sure where the fire weakness comes from (I guess computers don't like overheating?), but overall he's consistent with most of PF2's gremlins: tiny, limber, frail, and with a nasty little gimmick intended to make him as annoying as possible. The fact that he's tiny, can climb, and has decent stealth and acrobatics means that he can squirrel himself away in a hard-to-reach place and play tech-wizard puppet master from relative safety. The 20ft range of his spark attack was a bit awkward, but since he's got thunderstrike and electric arc too, it works well enough as a fallback if he really needs two actions to do something else. He's missing his networked technomancy ability from SF1, but adding concealment checks on top of the glitching condition would be a little TOO annoying, methinks. Maybe there can be, like, an elder glitch gremlin with a larger spell repertoire that shares the mystic's network spell feat?
Actually, let's talk about glitching real quick: while I like the element of randomness, the glitch aura flow chart is a little long for my tastes: Are you in the gremlin's aura? Okay, did you fail your will save? Okay, do you or any of the gear you intend to use have the tech trait? Okay, did you fail your flat check? Okay, NOW make the actual roll to Do Your Thing with a minus one. That's up to FIVE mechanical beats to accomplish ONE action. And while each is either a simple yes/no check, a d20 roll, or preschool arithmetic, these little steps add up quick. It's playable for sure--and an appropriately obnoxious representation of misbehaving machinery--but I'm wondering if it's worth cleaning up at all. Or maybe I just need to get used to it? I imagine SF2's going to be just a touch more complicated than its older, high fantasy sibling, and maybe that extra dash of crunch will stretch the bounds of the engine while helping SF1 fans feel more at home.
Anyway, I only ran one combat test with this guy, since as a -1 creature he's only threatening for a very brief, early game window. Since I wanted to make this one encounter really count (and give him some tech toys to play with), I rolled up a level 1 vesk soldier and android mystic, using the updated rules from Thurston Hillman's forum post on the subject. It was an extreme-difficulty, four-on-two encounter in a cramped computer lab with lots of places for the gremlins to scurry around and hide. And... it was pretty easy? Once the gremlins ate up their thunderstrikes, they couldn't do enough damage to compete with the two player characters, despite being fairly hard to hit. Glitching caused a couple missed shots and one stun--with that many gremlins in that small a room, both characters spent the entire combat glitched--and the amount of available cover combined with the short range of the soldier's weapon when on auto made it so that she only managed to hit multiple targets once. Her mystic buddy had no trouble keeping her healthy, but got a little frustrated with how she kept wandering out of their bless aura. They'd wanted to use runic weapon initially, but tech weapons can't take runes, so... >:( (Nah, as a balancing decision, it's fine; juicing up the damage and accuracy on stuff with range, AOE, and elemental damage would basically turn every single shot into a first-level spell or better. Those gremlins would've evaporated instantly.)
I think the big takeaway from this is that the glitch gremlin will function best when put in proper context. It needs some environmental toys to play with, and allies who can benefit from digital telepathy and the recharge weapon cantrip. Unlike tashtari, which you can throw into any wilderness encounter or showdown with the elf mafia, gremlins need to cause problems other than player HP removal.
As for the player options, I didn't spend enough time with them to really get a proper feel, but the mystic seems awesome (possibly the most accessible caster so far?) and I already like cool robots and big lizards. But the soldier... feels weird. Like, there's some inherent MADness to playing a character whose attacks will always be split between at least two physical stats--DEX for shooting, STR for melee, and CON for AOE--and only one of them will ever reach peak potential. I hope it gets legendary weapon proficiency eventually, as otherwise it'll have the worst accuracy of all dedicated martials, except on those turns when it can afford to burn two actions and half a clip on an attack.