 Problem with subscribed devices, and hacking them |
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 Nov 7 2005, 10:04 PM
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#26
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Moving Target  Group: Members Posts: 268 Joined: 26-February 02 From: Brisbane, Australia Member No.: 78  |
Well its one real advantage is that it can't easily be taken off you. It can be hacked though, just like a skinlink. If you've got a commlink that's got wireless connectivity, then anything subscribed to it can be hacked, even if it's skinlinked or cyberware
It doesn't say that it has to be registered to the commlink, and in fact the subscribing example explicitly mentions a smartlink that isn't subscribed to a commlink. You perfectly happily subscribe the smartgun and vision link to your smartlink. The problems with doing this are numerous though 1) How do you control the gun, ie eject clips etc? You could be wearing trodes, and subscribe the trodes to the smartlink as well, but then I hope you're not wearing anything else that needs trodes to work, or you'll have to subscribe the trodes to that item as well, and then you've got a PAN anyway. If you're not wearing subscribed trodes, then you can't send commands to the smartgun, so you lose functionality. 2) If we can assume that your smartlink system isn't the only device you've decided not to attach to your commlink, protecting yourself from hackers gets very hard. You have to load firewall software, maybe some IC and various programs on each bit of tech. Subscribing them all to a commlink means that you only have to load the protection in one spot. 3) Pathetic signal strength. Some of the smartlink versatility comes from the inbuilt camera, the ability to send commands at a distance (ie disable the gun if your enemy picks it up), shoot remotely etc. Given that cyberware typically has a signal of 0, you have a very limited range you can do all of this in 4) Interactivity. Say you want to send a copy of the camera feed from your smartgun to your Johnson to prove that the target is dead, or to a reporter so you can earn some money on a "real life shadowrunner docudrama" or whatever. You can't really do that with this setup, because you have no matrix connectivity, and depending on the GM, you may not have enough storage space to record it in the first place There are some positives to having your cyberware set up in this way though 1) It will confuse hackers. The hacker will search for your commlink, and assuming it's turned off, or even better, turned on but connected to nothing, he will have waster valuable time, and will then have to go searching for your gear. If he doesn't know what gear you've got, it's a threshold of 15 to find it. It's only a threshold of 4 if he works out you've got a smartgun system though 2) Pathetic Signal Strength. To hack your system in the first place, the hacker has to be within signal range of your gear. If that's signal 0, it means he's got to be within 3 meters of you. 3) Modularity. The same setup that means that it's a pain in the ass to defend and interact with, means that it's limited in what a hacker can do once he is in. If he hacks your smartgun, that's all he can fiddle with. To hack your cybereyes, he has to hack another system altogether. This links back to point 1 in the disadvantages though. It's very important that you have all of your subnets separate. If you have two different subnets (say your smartlink net, and your cybereyes) accessible from the one set of trodes, then you've just linked both subnets and got rid of the one main advantage of not having a commlink in the first place. The same applies if your cybereyes have an image link that your smartlink also talks to etc |
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Nov 7 2005, 10:22 PM
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#27
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Neophyte Runner Group: Members Posts: 2,086 Joined: 26-February 02 Member No.: 364 |
The assumption that I make is that the external smartlink accessory has just enough trode functionality to let you issue DNI commands to the gun and to pipe the tactile sensations of the smartlink interface into your brain. |
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Nov 7 2005, 10:24 PM
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#28
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Moving Target Group: Members Posts: 268 Joined: 26-February 02 From: Brisbane, Australia Member No.: 78 |
I'd probably let someone do that with a cyberware smartlink system (giving it another advantage, which it badly needs) and force someone using a wireless system to use some other kind of interface. |
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Nov 7 2005, 10:33 PM
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#29
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Neophyte Runner Group: Members Posts: 2,086 Joined: 26-February 02 Member No.: 364 |
Alright, but I belive that if they wanted to have trodes be a requrement for the external smartlink accessory, they would have explicitly stated such. |
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Nov 7 2005, 10:43 PM
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#30
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Moving Target Group: Members Posts: 268 Joined: 26-February 02 From: Brisbane, Australia Member No.: 78 |
I tihnk it's one of those things that got brushed under the carpet of assumption. The assumption is that everyone will have a commlink, will have their devices subscribed to the commlink, and will thus control their devices through it, so whatever controls your commlink controls your smartlink. When you start doing things differently than that, I honestly think it's a GMs call, because most interperatations can be argued for and against :) |
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