The Idiot's Guide To The Matrix Thread, Support for the Matrix-challenged Options

[Pavlov]

Hindsight is 20/20 I guess. But, this thread has re-awakened my interest in Decker characters--if you could pick your programs over again, what would you change?

[Kurukami]

Knowing that it's Matrix overwatch and that I'd have to do a great many Slave tests, I'd definitely upgrade that Spoof program to 6. That'd be the primary thing, I think. One other alteration I might make is to have at least one of my Attack programs be targetting, to make combat quicker and/or more deadly to my opponent.

[gknoy]

[Kurukami]

[Synner]

Kurukami - Your alternative solution is the one I would take when it comes to low-risk situations like external cameras. However it requires more tests which makes it a bigger risk overall. I'd be using Spoof on the cameras to make sure I have total control if something goes wrong...

Matrix Overwatch Walkthrough

Regarding the cameras, each "screen" on the "control panel" rotates through 4 different cameras and represents their feed. Spoofing that "screen" gives you effective control of the 4 cameras associated to it. In this case the external feeds you need are concentrated in 3 "screens" - one includes the 2 closest fence cams, the second controls one "landscaped bush" hidden cam on the route up from the fence, and the final one controls two mounted cams on the relevant wall and the camera on the delivery bay door.

On her first Spoof Cheng gets a single success, which means the Host chalks up yet another success for the Security Tally but she has control of the fence cameras.

[Lilt]

Questions:

In both of these scenarios, the player has seen an IC before it attacked him. Is it possible for a player to attack an ice that is not active?

Are scramble ICs ever-present or do they only spring-up once you reach a particular security tally? If ever-present, could they be set to activate on a particular security tally?

If I attack a scramble IC program, does it destroy the data?

If no to the above, if I attack and kill a scramble IC program, is the data decrypted or do I just need to decrypt it without risk of the IC destroying the data?

If a scramble IC is put on a slave device (such as a maglock control system), what happens if I fail to decrypt?

[Kurukami]

Let me take a stab at those answers.

I'm not quite sure what you mean by "attack an IC that is not active". If you mean can you attack IC that is reactive, like Tar Pit or Probe, then yes, you may attack it once you've detected it. If you mean IC that hasn't yet activated because the Security Tally hasn't reached a certain level yet, then no -- that particular IC has not yet been loaded into the system.

I'm fairly certain that scramble IC is always present. It's more of a barrier than something which directly interacts with a decker in-system -- it's there to slow hostile incursions and to protect valuable data.

(As an aside, I personally think that Decrypt should be more than just a quick "you succeed or you don't" thing. After all, you shouldn't be able to break every code in one action, and that's how it currently stands. You either break it immediately, or you don't. Were I to rewrite the decryption rules, I'd be tempted to make them more similar to the spirit-banishing rules -- you roll your Decrypt against the Scramble IC rating in a contested test, and for each net success you get it decreases the Scramble IC by 1. That way, high-level Scramble IC would take quite a while to get past, and DINAB/frame solutions might be more common.)

With regards to attacking the scramble IC, I'm not certain. Someone who has their SR3 book close to hand will have to answer that one.

As for the last question, you cannot control a slave device until you've decrypted it (as far as I am aware).

[hobgoblin]

you can attack it but from what i know you must kill it in one blow or it will go down and the its data with it...

hmm, me like about that take down scramble ice. it take it every test allso trigger a response from the host thereby skyrocketing your tally if you dont have the hottest detection rating you can have.

still i thinkl that the all or nothing way is a bit more "realistic" as if its key b that have been used key a and key c will not get you any closer ot the data exept tell you that those keys its not the ones that have been used...

[Lilt]

Thanks. I have my book right here but I was more wanting to check that other people's oppinions agreed with mine.

My oppinions:

Scramble IC are usually always on, but could probably set to go on if a security tally gets too high. IE: The access system, preventing/slowing a decker who is trying to move past a bottleneck (but not otherwise obstructing the bottleneck).

From my reading of the SR3 rules you can just attack a scramble IC but you'll need to suppress it. It dosen't say if this will allow you access to the data though.

The last question: The problem is that if I fail to decrypt the data, the IC destroys it...

[hobgoblin]

well then down goes the slave system :)

ok the destry data shit i think is a bit on the extreme side. feel free to disregard it and say that you get a display of the system but everything is just a mess :)

attacking a scramble ice works just like any other matrix attack, the refrence to the need to supress must be read with the thought in mind that earlyer in the text it was stated that a decrypt didnt require a supress. its just the writer makeing sure...

[Kurukami]

[hobgoblin]

ok, shot me. i seem to be doing this a lot today. looks like my mind is in hibernation...

[Lilt]

[Kurukami]

Cheng could feel the host trying to surge against her commands to the slave, and carefully manipulated the cameras on the exterior fence to loop their inputs and conceal the presence of the approaching runners.

Next on the list was the negation of the necessary segment of the perimeter fence. Throwing a quick glance at the video monitors to make certain no security guards were approaching the corridor she was going to open for her teammates, she drew out a trio of slender sticks -- one smoking with the scent of sandalwood, the other two covered in tiny characters and akin to slim wooden skewers that might be used for cooking small morsels of meat. Sketching a few runes in midair above the targetted slave-icon, she waits for the smoke to indicate the weaker spots in the programs and carefully begins to probe for control with the tips of the skewers.

First things first. Cheng maintains her control over the external cameras with a Free Action to continue the monitored Edit Slave operation.

Now, having successfully looped the exterior perimeter cameras, Cheng's next task is an Edit Slave on the (presumed) alarm circuit for the electrified perimeter fence. She wants to tell the main security system that there's no problems with it, and that everything is status quo, and maintain that message while the runners are coming through. Climbing the fence is not an option, particularly with monowire on the top, so most likely the team will cut through the links of the fence with wire clippers or the like. Hopefully, they'll have some method to quickly reattach the penetrated section, such that it will appear intact to the casual eye and won't trigger any alarms when Cheng releases the electricity.

Second on the agenda is cancelling the current flowing through that portion of the fence. No alarms going off has little overt benefit when there's a troll convulsing and lit up like a skylight off in the distance. :D So, my second action after I maintain the initial two Edit Slaves with Free Actions will be a Control Slave operation. (I'm presuming here that I have sufficient time to wait and dump my entire Hacking Pool, if necessary, into these operations.)

The first roll (to disable the alarm circuit for the designated portion of the fence) has my seven Decking dice, plus four dice from my Hacking Pool. My Spoof utility is only rating 3, making my TN quite high. I roll: 14, 9, 5, 5, 5, 4, 4, 3, 2, 2, 1. Two successes, I think.

(Small note: from the numbers I've rolled and the net successes I've gotten, I can deduce that the Slave rating is no greater than 12, and might be an 11. If I had a Spoof utility rated 6, I'd be getting a lot more successes on these attempts.)

The second roll (to seize control of the current flowing through the perimeter fence and deactive the segment the runners plan to enter through) will have the same -- seven Decking dice, plus four from my Hacking Pool. This is also a Slave operation, so my TN is similarly high. I roll: 10, 9, 9, 5, 5, 4, 4, 3, 3, 2, 2. Most likely three successes.

The difficulty, of course, is that the host may continue to rack up successes against my (non-Sneaky) utility, since my DF is only 9. And the more it gets, the harder life gets for Cheng, and the less chance there is for her to successfully pull this op off without a hitch.

"My DF is only 9..." *rolls eyes at his own silliness*

[hobgoblin]

[gknoy]

[Lilt]

Oh yes, that's another thing; By my book the Renraku Kraftwerk-8 has availability 10. It seems to have exactly the same stats as Kurukami's Renraku Kraftwerk-1. What makes the difference between the Kraftwerk 8 and the Kraftwerk 1 to bring the availability down by 2?

[Kurukami]

[spotlite]

I posted on this thread here here which might be of interest to those reading this thread as its related decker ideas. But it's too long to post here without breaking this thread up ridiculously, so I'm being polite and hoping this hyperlink works...

Most of the thread is irrelevant to the discussion at hand. Its about purchasing cash with karma. I've suggested some ways I think make it seem less cheesy (at least for deckers in this case) than just 'buying a lottery ticket', assuming you allow the option of selling karma or trading in cash in the first place!

[Baphomet]

Synner....

Yoo-Hoo...

[Synner]

Matrix Overwatch Walkthrough
Back in the YACP host...

Cheng waits a second and then plunges the skewers into the coding behind the virtual fence panel and shifts around the HoloLISP code rearranging it...

Cheng doesn't know it but she's facing a Slave subsystem rating of 11 and that her initial roll produced 2 successes. However the host makes the Opposed portion of the System Operation Test with its Security Value (10) and gets 1 success with a Target Number of 9 (Cheng's Detection Factor). That reduces Cheng to 1 net success which is still enough for her to gain control of the fence slaved to the security system. It also increases her Security Tally by 1 more point.
Now inside the coding she makes her second test to Edit the system to remove the current but make it appear as if it is still on. Cheng rolls 3 successes and gets lucky when the Host fails to roll even one.

Cheng breathes deeply - somewhere else - as the telltale on the panel flickers through the milisecond on/off positions as she tests her control. She now has the perimeter cameras looped and the fence under control. No guards are in the vicinity, the only roving patrol having just walked round the corner of the building should only be back in 12 minutes according to Mr J's dossier. The team is still a minute and a half out. Confident she prepares for her next move...

[Kurukami]

After a enjoyable Thanksgiving break, I resume where we left off...

Ninety seconds left until the anticipated incursion. Plenty of time. Cheng quickly examines the current inputs from the pressure pads beneath the manicured lawn, trying to determine whether or not they are sensitive enough to register the impacts of the raindrops. If so, she'll need to take that into account to properly bollix the sensors. The mere thought of some alert guard examining the security readouts and discovering the breakin from such clues ( "On the southwest perimeter, light pressure from rain, within tolerances. On the south perimeter, light pressure. On the southeast... it's not raining? What the...?" ) makes her frown.

As she maintains her code-hold on the perimeter cameras and the fence, she prepares her utilities for an attempt to convince the pressure sensors that all is as it should be.

Once again, the Spoof utility needs to be used. After maintaining my monitored operations with Free Actions, I will attempt another Edit Slave operation to convince the lawn pressure sensors that all is well. Seven Decking dice, plus four from my Hacking Pool, roll to produce: 8, 8, 5, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 2, 2, 1. Metagaming-wise, I know that the effort garnered me two successes, but the system still might be able to block my efforts.

If it does, I'll likely be in even deeper trouble than I was before... Cheng's Security Tally, I believe, is already at 15, and if she racks up any more it's very likely that the system will go to Passive Alert. That'll make any tests much more difficult, in addition to dropping more IC in my lap.

Over to you, Synner.

[Synner]

Matrix Overwatch Walkthrough
Cheng stabs her Spoof-sticks into the virtual control panel for the sensor pads, letting the intrusive software twist and edit the code to register only varying tolerances between the appropriate weights, reminding herself to revise if the rain lightens up too much.

The host rolls its Security Value for the Opposed portion of the System Test and gets no successes (rolling 3 eights against Cheng's DF of 9!). Cheng succeeds with two net successes and without raising her Security Tally further.

External security disabled Cheng's ready for the next phase... Sparks (the teams' tech expert) will have to handle the sidedoor's maglocks since they're apparently not linked through the host.

[Kurukami]

Now that the pressure sensors have been handled, the cameras concealed in the topiary and by the maglocked entrance are next on the agenda. After quickly doublechecking the cycling of the "no worries" code she's placed on the external cameras, fence, and lawn sensors, Cheng begins the delicate process of spoofing the second and third line of perimeter surveillance.

So, here we go with another round of the Edit Slave operations. As in previous rounds, first I use Free Actions to maintain my existing control over slave devices, and then I try to tinker with the newer targets. First on the list is the cameras concealed in the lawn shrubs.

As before, I'll use my seven Decking dice with four dice from the Hacking Pool, and wait to recover my full Pool before moving on to the next target. I roll: 9, 5, 4, 4, 4, 4, 3, 3, 1, 1, 1. Spirits, what an unimpressive result. I'm very likely going to need to reroll that one, and so I will await Synner's host response.

Your move, Synner.

[Synner]

Matrix Overwatch Walkthrough
I think you should have to reroll it too except...

The host rolls the Security Value (10) against Cheng's DF (9) and gets no successes (two 8's though).... this means she gets one success on the Edit Slave System Operation and the Spoof does it's job on the second set of cameras.

With a nanosec tweak of the relay coding Cheng loops the videofeeds from the camera hidden in the lawn shrubbery and pulls her Spoof-sticks out of the panel. Two down, one more to go...

Somewhere else the commlink crackles into life as Roller's drones move into position and establish a secure radio link between the ground team and the dish relay hidden on the safehouse's antenna-graveyard roof, "Hook to Jolly Roger, direct commlink activated, encryption on. Approaching target on sidestreet, 200 meters out, Tinkerbell deployed for astral recon. On site in one minute Jolly Roger, hope you've done your magic."