MATRIX & REALITY, What equipment can link the two things? Options

[hobgoblin]

err, did nobody read my post or something?

given the extra equipment table in matrix you can equip your deck with a simlink. then have a person get simlink and simrig implanted and presto, you have a setup that about 100% the same as the one in neuromancer.

only problem may be flux, but that just depends on where the decker is compared to the person with the rig (may be a bit hard to do it across town unless you go high flux).

the snakeyes trick is a rigger variation on the theme, here the person becomes a spotter "drone" in the drone network. may be cheaper but is limited to a drone network (unless you can pull of a rigger emulation hooked to a cyberdeck, radio and some sort of utility and hit captains chair. i dont recall that being a option tho).

[Luca]

Well, it seems I was wrong.
Non snake Eyes but the only things one nees are a chummer with Simrig + simlink jacked to the cyberdeck.
The option of linking simlink receiver to a cyberdeck was already mentioned in the Core Rules p.289 under the label "simlink". That's fine and resolves a lot of my troubles.....
...I have only one big doubt: it is about the dealing with the meatworld penalities:
Initiative penalty of 1d6 in the Matrix while one is jacked but try to keep notice of the meatworld and +8 tn of meatworld test-skills while a RAS is on.
I was thinking that one can switch from On and Off the Simlink while he is jacked on the Matrix (like Casey did in neuromancer). If the Simlink is off no -1d6 penalties. If the simlink is on - 1d6 penalty to initiative.
Furthermore one should have the +8 Tn penalty for the simlink perception test while he is jacked.....but if one has such a monstrous penalty what's the advantage in having the simlink while he is jacked?
It is probably better to assume that when the simlink is on the Matrix is off and the +8 tn penalty too is off??
(while he should keep the +8tn penalty to perception tests of what is near the physical body of the decker, not the matrix or the simlink....after all the SImlink too as a RAS which affetcts no-simsense senses...)
WHat do you think about all of this stuff????

[Shockwave_IIc]

As many have mentioned the Snake-Eyes Package is the same thing as in Neuromancer, However your decker will need to modify his or her decker to take advantage of that.

It is However not really worth it. Something along the lines of Cyber Eyes + Ears and a Biomoniter with something that can transmite those signals is all your really needing. The Simsense Rig is a little OTT.

[hobgoblin]

in fact, given that casey could feel the pain that molly was feeling i would suspect that for a perfect recreation a simrig is needed (ie he didnt just have a readout in a corner, he shared her senses)...

[hahnsoo]

Not to mention that Molly was once a meatpuppet and probably had a simrig or something similar installed.

[Shockwave_IIc]

I have no doubt that "Snake-Eyes" is what Molly Had. Just that to get most of the "wanted" effects you don't need to spend 2.5 Essence and over a third of a Million Nuyen, unless you are wanting to feel the pain of a gunshot wound, and no rigger or decker would want to unless they are masocistic.

[Necro Tech]

You can also just use a cyber-eye camera hooked to a head ware radio or datajacked out to a physical radio. Much less essense cost. Or, get a shoulder cam (think Aliens Colonial marines) with a wirless transmitter or have the decker get a Remote control utility for his deck and have the team carry a spider drone attached to one of them. There is no penalty for any of this because it is coming in through the deck in a pop up window.

[Luca]

no: this solution, although beautiful, sucks.
Matrix p. 73 says EXPLICITELY that using a Remote Controll Utility make you not to you the Hacking Pool while your are using the drone. Furthermore it is NOT said anywhere that teh vision of teh drone appears like a windows. Mroe probably you must swicth betwwn Materxi vision and Drone vision.
I prefer the solution of simrig+simlink.
My question is what do you think about the division between marix andSimlink. Do you think taht one could witch between the two (as Casey did)?
Furthermore what do you think about the use, with simrig, of the -1d6 Init & +8TN of meatworld skills?
Read my previous posts for my opinion.

[mfb]

when using the Remote Control utility, the only rigging mode you can use is Captain's Chair. all you can do is issue orders to the drone, can't jump into it or directly control it at all.

[Luca]

Captain chair means also that you do not see what's going on with the drones: you cannot see directly through drones'cams. The drones use their active sensors telling you if they see something.
Am i wrong???
Furthermore rmains the problem that when you use the remote control utility use cannot do anything with hacking pool in the matrix.
Anotehr problem: IT IS NOT SAID ANYWHERE that there is a windows pop up (as Necro tech supposes.)
Am i wrong again?

[mfb]

actually, you are wrong on several points. R3 page 11 describes captain's chair mode as being an ASIST construct similar to the virtual dashboard, but with pop-up windows that thow the sensor inputs from all drones, as well as a top-down map showing the location of all drones.

as for hacking and control pools, the description in the remote control utility says that you can't use it while controlling the drone. you can, therefore, give the drone an order (during which action you can't use your hacking or control pools), then take other actions. during these other actions, you can use hacking pool and control pool (assuming you're hooked into both a cyberdeck and a VCR at the same time).

[Necro Tech]

Thank you MFB. The question was alternate ways to keep tabs on your team. Since a decker can't ever jump into a drone, he just watches through its feed from captains chair mode. Mounted on a team member, no commands are ever needed.

I have always veiwed the matrix as the artwork suggests, a virtual place. When you interact with the outside world, an interface pops up thats is thematically consistant with the host. When using drones, your icon might have a virtual drone following him around with a viewscreen mounted on it to convey info. A security camera the same way.

[Luca]

OK, thanks a lot for the clarifications: i am not such an expert of the sr rules and I am just trying to swim and survive through the sea of things which is the Sr system.
Why the SR rules do not explicitly say anything about all these systems of linking Matrix & Reality?
I hope something is in the MrJohnson book but I still do not have it (could anyone owning the book say anything about that sourcebook' suggestions?).
I think that these systems are the key to integrate the decker in the group and not making him simply the one who play alone.
summarizing this really interesting (at least for me) topic we found different methods to link matrix & Reality:

1) Control the cams of the building where runners are running through the Control Slave operation (well no penalty.....but one must remember that possibly there are no cams or they are not sited where one need them).

2) Radio transceiver (but speaking with radio can make you loose the 1d6 initiative)

3) Simsense linked with simrig to the deck(but I am not so sure about how it really works, does it means that one can switch the attention from matrix ti simsense?)

4) Drone (or cam) & Remote control utility (through this "drone method" can one use both active and passive sensors tests?)

Final question: in all these methods how work the -1d6 initiative penalty and +8 TN of real-world- skills?
Is around any other people more expert than me in SR rule who can answer me or suggest other alternative methods?

[mfb]

the SR books don't mix meat and matrix very often because, honestly, it wasn't something the original authors put much thought into.

unfortunately, there really aren't many ways to handle it any better than it currently works. it's my hope, however, that once the WMI stuff comes out, the kind of thing you're talking about will become easier.

[Luca]

Sorry for my ignorance: what is the wmi?
A found another probable (not sure!!) "bug" in the "drone method".
Matrix p.73 ("Remote Control" utility) says that you need that utility + a "rigger protocol emulation module" whose characteristics are not shown in Matrix.
What is that?
In Rigger 3 Revised, page 94 I found a cyberdeck accessory called "system-control rig emulator" (SCRE). Is this SCRE the solution? I think not because the description states explicitly that "...dos not work with.....remote-control networks" in other words: it dos not works with drones you command through remote control but only through the CCSS(close-circuit simsense system): In other, other words: this module cannot be used with the remote control utility.
conclusions: what kind of module the remote control utility requires???
Please answer also to my questions in my previous reply.

[hobgoblin]

wireless matrix interface, its hinted at in shadows of europe i think. kinda like umts today only useing matrix tech :P

rigger protocol emulation module you find on page 98 of rigger3.

it would be interesting to see a system where you could kinda suspend your icon and move about in the meat. maybe a variation on the null ops. call it and your senses and movement ability is freed from the asist while your icon sticks around. that, a cellular interface (p.60 matrix) or radio interface (and hooking up the radio interface to the first accesspoint you can find inside the facility) and one is ready to go. maybe make it a addon to the normal asist and useing the normal null ops to initiate.

hmm, this could actualy work!

[Necro Tech]

You only have a +8 to tests and lose 1d6 initiative if you use your meatbody to interact with the outside. If you are using your persona to do it on-line, there is no penalty. If you are running DNI and using stuff hooked to your deck, there shouldn't be any penalty because your body can stay motionless and eyes closed to avoid over lap.

[Kanada Ten]

[hobgoblin]

hmm, this made me think about how cp2020 handled "decker" meat interaction. if you where after a simple security camera then you just fired up a program while haveing access to the net. higher prgram rateing, higher chance that you found the camera. maybe a bit to simple?

[Luca]

[Fortune]

It's an add-on for a Cyberdeck that emulates (or imitates the function of) some of the functions of a Rigger Control Deck.

[mfb]

no. in SR3, there's no deck component that fills that function. the RPEM on page 98 of R3 is a component for remote control decks, and it's used for infiltrating CCSS networks and performing MIJI attacks.

however. on page 61 of Matrix, it says that "any device may be adapted for a cyberterminal as long as the gamemaster approves and it can be somehow wired to a cyberterminal connection." the gamemaster that rules that RPEMs cannot be wired into decks is flat out retarded. another alternative is to get the cybernetic version of the RPEM.

[Herald of Verjig...]

The decking to rigging item is on page 94, not 98. SCRE, but it seems to only apply to CCSS, not general rigging uses.

[mfb]

indeed. s'not what the Remote Control utility calls for.

[Fortune]

Hmmm, interesting. I don't normally deal with deckers, so have always been under the (apparently mistaken) impression that the RCEM was exactly what I listed above.