In general, form follows function in the Matrix. So if you see a guard, you can probably assume its Patrol IC. If you see a camera, it is probably the icon for a camera, etc.

There is a program, called Wrapper, that you can use to change the appearance, so you could have a gun have a commlink icon, etc but in general what you see is what you get.

@Dr. Z,

The information above is probably going to take you an hour or two to acquire, as you are not just conducting a straight Q&A with a contact, but rather talking to lots of different people.

Okay, so can I get a general impression of security, both guards and cameras/motion sensors/et al?

Yes and no - remember that finding an icon in the Matrix does not give its Physical location in the real world. You would have to have 2 Marks on the icon and then perform a Trace Icon Action in order to find it.

So while you can wander around the host and see how many cameras, etc are attached to it, you can't know their real world location without some hacking.

How long do you want to spend scouting around, and do you want to start hacking things as well, or do you want to hold off on that?

I'm not (at least at this point) looking for real world location. I'm looking for numbers and types. Are there endless cameras everywhere, or only a handful? Are there twelve different types of non-video sensors (motion tracking, audio sensors, temperature sensors, et al).

At this point I'm not hacking anything. Unless something changes, I'm not going to do anything illegal. That is, unless you tell me that I've gotten all that I can get out of this mode of investigation.

There could also be hidden icons in the Host. Matrix Perception will spot those.

Yes, but I assume that I would specifically have to look for those, correct? With hidden icons, can I just say I'm looking for hidden icons, or do I have to know what I'm looking for before I roll the dice?

Right now, I'm taking advantage of my ability to be in the host completely legally and just...look around.

You don't need to know the specifics. Inside a Host, it should provide you with the number of hidden icons. Then you have to make Matrix Perception tests against each one to find out what it is. If you have specific information about a hidden icon, you can specify what you are trying to find.

Since it's a Matrix Perception test, it isn't an illegal action.

@All,

Ok guys, sorry, work has been nuts.

Let me recap where we are and what I think we need to do to continue:

1) I need to get Mel a list of what she finds in the Host - should take her probably 30 minutes of game time to do so. (will try and get this up later tonight)
2) Grease will be busy for the next two hours of game time smoozing and gathering intel (and then eventually communicating some or all of that info to the rest of the team.)
3) Jack and Snap have to figure out what they want to do.

As a group, you then need to determine what your course of action is, some salient notes:

1) You still have about 15 to 20 minutes before Stone arrives
2) You are about a 30 minute drive from O'Roarke's to Huiquing's house

Any questions let me know (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

I guess Snap and Jack should probably catch a ride with Sisco over to the target location and take a look around the area to get some on-the-ground knowledge. Mel, being knocked out, could ride along, although I'm not sure if we should leave Grease alone. The bar seems safe, but it is Grease we're talking about...

What exactly are we getting from Stone? Just touching base? I know we were looking to talk to him before we realized we were going to be able to bring along most of our gear.

Getting a lay of the land in the physical (and astral!) world will be useful, and the sooner the better. Same as Mel is doing, we just go there and look from behind tinted windows (or open windows to see astrally?) as we drive by (and of course Jack can record at the same time). The scouting will prove useful for our planning. We can send a spy and/or a spirit for taking a look from overhead of the house. That kind of stuff.

I don't see why not do that now while we wait after Grease. Mel will be done with her stuff by the time we're actually there, too.

Currently you aren't getting anything from him - I was just saying you theoretically were meeting with him if you needed more stuff, but if you don't need anything, no worries.

Assuming you are all okay with heading to the target location, then after I put up the info for Mel, I can post a transition scene. (leaving Grease behind where he hopefully doesn't get lynched (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif) )

I don't think we're going to know if we need anything from Stone (other than the cases... I forgot to ask Tara about those, but it probably doesn't hurt to send some biz to Stone as well, Grease can ask about those) until we assess the security at the target.

Ugh, just had to change a tire in the rain.

@lobo: sounds good. Grease will schmooze and try to gather some quick Intel. If Jack mentions they're scouting the target, grease will give him his fly spies to help out.

DrZ

Ugh, that's miserable.

It was certainly less fun than I could have hoped! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/cyber.gif) "short cuts make long delays..."

Sorry to hear that Dr. Z - that's what you get for cutting cross country Frodo...

@Mel,

Ok, so here is what I think is a reasonable thing for you to do.

Call up a list of devices slaved to the Host. I've looked over all the Matrix actions, and honestly I don't think any of them apply, my guess is the closes would be a Matrix Search:

Int 5 Comp 6, +4 for the codes from the Johnson
15d6.hits(5)=4

More than enough hits to find it

So in under a minute, you've called up the following, which is in Mandarin, but a simple cross feed into an online translator gives the following:

25 cameras
10 drones
6 commlinks
12 weapons
5 Sensor Suites
8 Maglocks
Various pieces of cyberware
Various pieces of gear (think vision and audio enhancers built into glasses, etc) (too many to list individually here)

What is your next step?

ETA - I put all the information that I think you would be interested in (I left out the numerous other devices (refrigerators, coffeemakers, etc) that would be slaved to the host. If there is another type of device that you were interested in that I left off of here, give me a list, and I can tell you how many there are (if there are any).

Ok - next step, Jack or Snap, one of you should post about:

1) Telling Grease where you are going
2) Contacting Stone and telling him you aren't meeting (or at least that you aren't meeting until later)

and then I can put you guys on your way to the target's house.

In addition (and either you can do it or I can do it), given that Grease is going to give you the Fly Spies, he'll have to invite Marks on them so that you can then send messages to them and control them.

@Lobo:

I would like to search for building schematics...electrical blueprints, something that shows not only a building plan, but also points where cameras would (or could) be mounted.

I think Grease should probably meet with Stone while we're gone since we already have a meeting setup. I think Grease made the final arrangements with him and those cases may not be that easy to track down this late at night (in the event we want to actually attempt this at 4AM or 5AM.

I should be able to put up a Me and Snap post in a bit.

I've uploaded three photos into the dropbox with the building schematics.

You do not find any electrical blueprints, however - those do not appear to be in the host.

I agree Grease should meet with Stone by himself while we're at it.

ETA: Nice post Jack!

Thanks. Feel free to add to it if you want. Since I know you're available, I didn't want to take too much agency, but I figured Amy would want to say something.

Thinking through stuff that might be useful to us:

- Anything that can help us open locks that might not be electronic. We ran into that last run but never fixed the problem, as far as I can tell. Autopickers are Availability 8, so that could potentially be within reach. They're 500 (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nuyen.gif) per point of rating. They're also, unfortunately, WAY more expensive here in the CAS than the UCAS. So it's more like 1650 per point of rating here which probably puts them out of our reach from a timeline perspective. We can't use a lockpick set either since Locksmith is a non-default skill.

- I am hoping Mel can deal with most of the security devices we might encounter.

- I have an ultrasound sensor that I will likely set to a passive bounce to help us detect motion sensors.

I'm pretty sure we are all set for the transition scene to Huiquing's.

Mel, if you have any more questions, feel free to ask, as you will be doing this all while in transit.

Jack and Snap, if you wanted to do something before you leave, just let me know, and I can always edit my IC post.

Will take me a little bit to get the post up, but it will be up by 12:00 (EST) latest.

As always, if you need something, let me know.

ETA - Jack, remember that the COLA doesn't affect the Availability test, so if you buy a rating 2 Autopicker, the time is still base 1 day (although the cost is obviously still much higher).

Oh yeah, forgot that and we just talked about it. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/frown.gif) I'm still not sure if 1,650 for an R1 Autopicker is something we would want to spend, especially without knowing we have a specific need for it. I figure we may have other ways to get around locks if necessary. They just tend to be kind of loud.