House Rule Thoughts, SR4 hacking issues Options

[Koekepan]

I'm pulling together a game of SR4.

The system isn't too bad, and I can kind of forgive (or work around) a lot of issues, but one in particular gripes me, and I'm thinking of houseruling it, but I thought I'd ask the hivemind's opinions:

First off, technomancers suck the tailpipe of a garbage truck, so I'm nixing them. They just don't exist, and never did.

VR hacker combat is waiting its turn to suck on that tailpipe right after the technomancers. It is a lousy metaphor for actual electronic conflict, and still a game process beast (although less of an excuse for everyone else to take off for a pizza than in previous editions).

So here's what I'm thinking: you can operate in cold or hot sim, or AR (or on a freaking terminal, if you want to), but gibsonian VR combat just doesn't apply any more. No black hammers, no tarbabies. I'm stopping electronic conflict at duelling exploits, and I'm looking at making hacking more of an add-on skill that any other template (probably riggers and faces, mostly) could pick up and use. The expense of being a hacker will drop, because you will spend less on software and hardware, and your skill emphasis will change.

Simultaneously, to make it less magicrunny, I'm looking at a fairly gentle nerf for magicians: The default time to cast a spell is really a minute. If they want to cast it at combat speed, they cast it at a penalty (I'm thinking -2 or so).

Any thoughts? Any other suggestions?

The campaign will be black trenchcoat, mirrorshades, with extra grit in the trenchcoat's pockets. Tactical intelligence and strategic thinking are to be rewarded, and neither magic nor electronics are to be easy substitutes for anything.