Speeding Up Hacking, A Matrix rant Options Track this topic Email this topic Print this topic Download this topic Subscribe to this forum Display Modes Outline Switch to: Standard Switch to: Linear+

[Garrowolf]

I was just looking at cetiah's post of his hacking rules as a way of speeding up hacking and I thought I would say something about speeding up hacking.

I understand that the official position of Fanpro is that hacking occurs by proxy of personas because the matrix just moves that fast. I don't disagree with the thought that computers will move faster and faster but I don't like the consequences of the way they thought this out.
Okay if they are saying that the persona is the one actually doing things because we are too slow then why not do that all the way? Make hacking a function of agents and not people. Then you can throw away all the matrix rules and have an agent roll. The rest occurs behind the scenes.

> Well that wouldn't be fun and it would take away a character type. People who are interested in computers like to be able to deal with the matrix.

But the matrix system doesn't reflect actual computers. If you know much about computers then you know that most of this doesn't make any sense.

>But it could make sense in the future!

SO your making a detailed computer system to please the people who are interested in computers by making one that doesn't make sense to people who know computers? ( See Lewis Black for an expression about this logic, the one with the confounded jowl shaking)

I think that computers will be fast and are fast now but they still depend on people. They will be limited to what their computer is telling them. No one can stare at something at the rate these people are talking about. Making a perception test several times a second against all the traffic in a system for a normal 8 hour shift? Think about that for a second. You will end up will a drooling mess that can see anything anymore. It won't work. You are effectively increasing the time that they perceive by a factor of their initiative increase. So they are staring at something for effectively 24 hours! Even staring at the same area for more then a few minutes normal time will wear out a person. How is it going to feel with high resolution hyperactivity of the brain from all the input?

So we go back to programs making the perception tests. The spyder only pays attention when the programs tell him something. That way the poor spyder doesn't fall unconscious with a few minutes of his shift starting.

Now programs can make constant perception tests. Okay so for one why would the roll vary? They are artificial so they would notice the same amount of information all the time. So take it's average successes as a threshold.

So we have eliminated the problem of multiple perception tests by the system. If you are going to do something that they might think is strange then you just have to beat a perception threshold with your stealth.

We have sped things up alot so far! Now you don't have to worry about making perception tests for every second.

More in a bit.

[cetiah]