 smartlink in SR4 can it be the same as in SR3? |
 Aug 23 2006, 06:07 PM
Post
#1
|
|
|
Target  Group: Members Posts: 8 Joined: 20-September 05 Member No.: 7,764  |
the title really does say it all. i haven't found any reference to this one way or another in the rulebooks, but can a smartlink be run through the wires and the datajack like in SR3?
|
 |
 
|
 |
Replies
(1 - 24)
|
Aug 23 2006, 06:29 PM
Post
#2
|
|
|
Moving Target Group: Members Posts: 502 Joined: 14-May 03 From: Detroit, Michigan Member No.: 4,583 |
My impression was yes, but the rules to support it aren't there.
I'd just take the original smartlink essense cost from SR3 and use that instead. |
|
|
|
|
Aug 23 2006, 06:40 PM
Post
#3
|
|
|
Shooting Target Group: Members Posts: 1,754 Joined: 9-July 04 From: Modesto, CA Member No.: 6,465 |
You could just Skinlink the weapon (+50 :nuyen: iirc) and turn-off the wireless functions of your Smartgun-link.
|
|
|
|
|
Aug 23 2006, 06:46 PM
Post
#4
|
|
|
Moving Target Group: Members Posts: 502 Joined: 14-May 03 From: Detroit, Michigan Member No.: 4,583 |
Skin-links prevent signal interception and Jamming. ( electonic warfare )
I haven't read anything that says they prevent hacking or detection in a high security site designed to detect unauthorized wireless noise. And if you turn off the wireless aspect can you still control the smartlink directly? |
|
|
|
|
Aug 23 2006, 06:50 PM
Post
#5
|
|
|
Mr. Johnson Group: Dumpshocked Posts: 3,148 Joined: 27-February 06 From: UCAS Member No.: 8,314 |
As far as I can tell, the smartlink system is explicitly made up of two parts: the smartgun weapon mod, and the smartlink visual enhancement. If you've got one, and the other, and can they can talk to one another, you get the +2 dice. If that communication is accomplished via wire and datajack, so be it.
It would also appear that the smartlink visual enhancement can be purchased as a stand-alone system, without cybereyes. Its entry in the table on page 332 of your hymnal reveals an Essense cost in addition to a capacity cost, which I believe means it can be installed alone. The biggest change in the smartlink system that I've seen from SR3 to SR4 is the gun camera. Well, that and the wireless remote control. |
|
|
|
|
Aug 23 2006, 07:02 PM
Post
#6
|
|
|
Running Target Group: Members Posts: 1,150 Joined: 19-December 05 From: Rhein-Ruhr Megaplex Member No.: 8,081 |
There is absolutely no reason why the the old induction pad in the hand wouldn't work any more (if that was the question ;))
I think about 500-2000 NY and 0,1 essence. |
|
|
|
|
Aug 23 2006, 08:17 PM
Post
#7
|
|||
|
Mr. Johnson Group: Dumpshocked Posts: 3,148 Joined: 27-February 06 From: UCAS Member No.: 8,314 |
Wouldn't that be, for all intents an purposes, a skinlink? |
||
|
|
|
||
|
Aug 23 2006, 08:47 PM
Post
#8
|
|
|
Moving Target Group: Members Posts: 316 Joined: 18-April 05 From: France Member No.: 7,343 |
Not realy : the palm would induced the signal through a small wire under the skin.
It could not be directly hackable by someone touching your skin |
|
|
|
|
Aug 23 2006, 09:01 PM
Post
#9
|
|||
|
Mr. Johnson Group: Dumpshocked Posts: 3,148 Joined: 27-February 06 From: UCAS Member No.: 8,314 |
Ah, so one could apply existing rules by adding a datajack to the hand? |
||
|
|
|
||
|
Aug 23 2006, 09:18 PM
Post
#10
|
|
|
Target Group: Members Posts: 8 Joined: 20-September 05 Member No.: 7,764 |
at least i am not going blind in my old age...
so consensus says that a smartlink connected to a datajack with a cable (pretty much a short version of the old rules) would work just as well as its wireless cousin in the SR4 rulebook... err hymnal rather. alternately a skinlink could be used to make the connection. or will it still need to be wireless for that to work? i think the biggest thing that is throwing me with the SR4 rules right now is how the wireless stuff interacts with the gear i used to know and love so well... thanks for chiming in, now i just need to tottle off and find my GM... |
|
|
|
|
Aug 23 2006, 10:24 PM
Post
#11
|
|||
|
Shooting Target Group: Members Posts: 1,754 Joined: 9-July 04 From: Modesto, CA Member No.: 6,465 |
I had trouble with this at first too, but it just another way your stuff can talk to each other w/o needing routers and other messy cyber stuff. With wireless features all turned on, all those devices can all talk to each other. Each device is connected to every other device within it's range (usually singal 0). This is in essence your PAN. With wireless features selectively turned off (your Smartgun Link), you need an alternative way to send/receive data. Skin link works good but the potential exists they can hack it if they are touching you. You could use pure-DNI but would need an interface to the weapon. Good news is, SR3 SGL required lots of essence because of the limited simrig, but it looks like that's been eliminated in SR4 or at least moved to the weapon itself so probably an extra .1 or so for the Induction Pad interface. |
||
|
|
|
||
|
Aug 23 2006, 10:38 PM
Post
#12
|
|
|
Great Dragon Group: Members Posts: 7,089 Joined: 4-October 05 Member No.: 7,813 |
honestly, i wouldn't worry too much about someone hacking you through your skinlink, even if they do have someone else touching you to act as a channel (so that it isn't their hacker in melee with you).
it's gonna take two or three actions to get anything done at the very least, by which time you should probably have dealt with the problem anyways. |
|
|
|
|
Aug 23 2006, 11:35 PM
Post
#13
|
|||
|
Hoppelhäschen 5000 Group: Members Posts: 5,807 Joined: 3-January 04 Member No.: 5,951 |
Additionally, skinlink seems to modulate a signal onto the EM field of the body, thus working at touch range: It would extend far enough to use gloves... of bug your coat to get access to the skinlink. |
||
|
|
|
||
|
Aug 24 2006, 12:10 AM
Post
#14
|
|||
|
Shooting Target Group: Members Posts: 1,754 Joined: 9-July 04 From: Modesto, CA Member No.: 6,465 |
Yeah I always chuckle at players who get worried about someone being able to hack their skin link gear since if they are close enough to be touching you, you've got bigger problems. ;) But alas, some players go to extremes trying to make themselves, comlinks or drones hack-proof. Interestingly enough, if someone has enough time to probe you, you get auto-hacked for the most part. :cyber: |
||
|
|
|
||
|
Aug 24 2006, 12:54 AM
Post
#15
|
|
|
Moving Target Group: Members Posts: 451 Joined: 8-May 06 Member No.: 8,533 |
This reminds me a lot of something I pulled in-game.
Me: I hack his skinlink with my shotgun. GM: How do you do that? Me: I shoot his gun. |
|
|
|
|
Aug 24 2006, 01:09 AM
Post
#16
|
|||
|
Moving Target Group: Members Posts: 132 Joined: 24-August 05 From: Luxembourg, Luxembourg Member No.: 7,611 |
I didn't see a cost reduction or increase. I would house rule it costing the same for the sake of simplicity. As for essence the additional .1 seems fair. On the other hand, it could be interpreted as no change in any of the numbers as they might have put in optional wired rules otherwise. |
||
|
|
|
||
|
Aug 24 2006, 03:47 AM
Post
#17
|
|||
|
Target Group: Members Posts: 8 Joined: 20-September 05 Member No.: 7,764 |
the problem we had initially with was, do the benefits for using a smartlink still count? we both agreed that there had to be some way of getting the information that the gun wirelessly sends to the headware while the weapon's wireless is turned off. i guess the real question that we were trying to wrap our brains around was"can't i just plug it into the datajack and call it good?" i figured out another way around it though: ambidexterity quality and a ruger super warhawk w/o a smartgun... if you're trying to hack the gun, you probably won't see the other one until its too late. |
||
|
|
|
||
|
Aug 25 2006, 05:50 PM
Post
#18
|
|
|
Target Group: Members Posts: 77 Joined: 30-June 06 Member No.: 8,813 |
I always invisioned the proper components for a complete smartgun rig called for the following:
1. A weapon with a smartgun link modification (either attached or intergral) 2. Some form of Image link (whether its on glasses, in a cyber eye, or an implant in an organic eye) 3. The smartgun link cyberware implant. (note: I've never looked at this implant as something that goes in someone's cybereye.) The first two are pretty straight forward....the last one is kinda vague in how its described in the manual. I might be kinda confused, but I sorta look at the smartgun link cyberware is everything required to connect the firearm to the imagelink. Its what interprets the targeting data from the firearm and sends it to the image link. I always interpreted the smartgun link implant as wired/skinlinked through induction using DNI. But in SR4 I would think this could be wireless if specified by the player. A wireless smartgun link, in my game, would be suseptable to hacking as any other wireless communication is. I wouldn't think that wireless smartgun links would be a very "smart" thing. Before you know it, an enemy hacker could hack the connection and have the implant start feeding the gunner's image link bogus targeting data, resulting in minus dice on the to hit roll. Am I missing something with how this is supposed to work? |
|
|
|
|
Aug 25 2006, 06:06 PM
Post
#19
|
|||
|
Target Group: Members Posts: 77 Joined: 30-June 06 Member No.: 8,813 |
Just a quick realization. The smartgun link doesn't necessarily have to be an implant. It could be a mod to glasses or goggles like imagelink can (I believe this is specified in the BBB). In that case, if you didn't want a wire going from your glasses to your firearm, it would need to be wireless. It would be hackable, but that's the price you pay for not spending the essense loss by getting the smartgun cyberware implant. Makes sense to me. *shrug* |
||
|
|
|
||
|
Aug 25 2006, 11:09 PM
Post
#20
|
|
|
Great Dragon Group: Members Posts: 7,089 Joined: 4-October 05 Member No.: 7,813 |
or you just make your glasses *also* skinlinked, and turn off their wireless too.
given the amount of money a sammy spends on cyber, i find it hard to believe that they'd be too upset over paying the 50 :nuyen: for skinlinking some rather important gear. |
|
|
|
|
Aug 26 2006, 06:56 PM
Post
#21
|
|||||
|
Moving Target Group: Members Posts: 132 Joined: 24-August 05 From: Luxembourg, Luxembourg Member No.: 7,611 |
We just treat it as the same SL only it isn't wireless. So they get the same +2 dice. |
||||
|
|
|
||||
|
Aug 28 2006, 03:29 AM
Post
#22
|
|||
|
Moving Target Group: Members Posts: 502 Joined: 14-May 03 From: Detroit, Michigan Member No.: 4,583 |
The best way around that is to hack the target's commlink. Your average commlink has a signal range of 400 meters. From the commlink you can connect to any of the target's cyberware. I houserule that the cyberware and commlink combine to form a solitary node. But even if you don't it's a 2 step process. Example: Riff the hacker, sends a stealth drone to tail a security guard of a corporate warehouse as he goes home between shifts. Both the drone and the security guard's commlink have a signal of 3. Riff manages to break into the commlink node undetected. He then hacks the security chief's smartlink cyberware and edits the personal data on the smartlink so that the tracking will be off by several meters for several hours that night. That night the security guard is on his standard patrol route ( a tendency not to vary his route is what got him targetted by Riff in the first place ) when he sees the runners escaping from the warehouse. He fires several shots but never comes close. The same holds in reverse. If a runner team is detected in a sparsely populated site then the security deckers who aren't even physically present in the facility can start doing sweeps for unauthorized wireless signals in the area that the runners are in using signal repeaters that are connected to the facility securty node. They may even be able to break into their commlink nodes and through them the cyberware undetected so that when the sec guards ambush the runners they're all set to do all sorts of mischief. |
||
|
|
|
||
|
Aug 28 2006, 03:49 AM
Post
#23
|
|
|
Great Dragon Group: Members Posts: 7,089 Joined: 4-October 05 Member No.: 7,813 |
honestly, if the sec hackers have noticed your commlinks, that probably means you're either set to public mode (and you're doomed to die horribly anyways, because clearly you are completely clueless), or the hackers knew you were coming, and you're walking into an ambush anyways (in which case the least of your worries is someone messing around with your smartlink, because you've got more immediate concerns (things like multiple guards surrounding you with tripod mounted heavy weapons for example).
|
|
|
|
|
Aug 28 2006, 09:57 AM
Post
#24
|
|
|
The back-up plan Group: Retired Admins Posts: 8,423 Joined: 15-January 03 From: San Diego Member No.: 3,910 |
Booklord--Why is it automatically presumed that my Cyberware is affiliated with my commlink? If I just use my link for phone calls and sim-porn, do I really need it to talk to the flarecomp in my cybereyes?
That's why I have glasses with an image-link afterall... |
|
|
|
|
Aug 28 2006, 07:56 PM
Post
#25
|
|||
|
Moving Target Group: Members Posts: 254 Joined: 26-February 02 Member No.: 1,768 |
Associating stuff with your commlink is basically a security measure. A commlink can be made more secure than a piece of cyberware, and associating the two also means a hacker has to get through your commlink before attempting to hack your cyberware (or whatever other piece of electronic equipment you're carrying). |
||
|
|
|
||
 |
|
Lo-Fi Version | Time is now: 3rd November 2025 - 08:10 PM |
Topps, Inc has sole ownership of the names, logo, artwork, marks, photographs, sounds, audio, video and/or any proprietary material used in connection with the game Shadowrun. Topps, Inc has granted permission to the Dumpshock Forums to use such names, logos, artwork, marks and/or any proprietary materials for promotional and informational purposes on its website but does not endorse, and is not affiliated with the Dumpshock Forums in any official capacity whatsoever.