[X] My Assistant

[Nightwalker450]

Some things in the rules are not laid out as well as they could be. And as such there are rules that are just not well known. So if there is some obscure rule that completely changed your view on how something worked post it. It might help clear up things for some of the others around here.

Example: Method posted this on the Illusions forum... Little to say my hacker is now underskilled dramatically..

BBB p.125 under the forgery skill

Note that some forgeries will require additional skill tests in
order to pull them off ; the quality of the forgery (hits scored) will
be limited by the complementary skill hits. Forging a painting,
for example, requires an ability to paint—the hits on the Forgery
Test cannot exceed the hits scored on the Artisan Test to create the
painting. As another example, doctoring an image would require a
Computer + Edit program Test in addition to the Forgery Test.

[Nightwalker450]

[Feshy]

I doubt that would apply to commlinks, as they are full fledged computers that may very well have legitimate uses for other levels of access. Think corporate computers for traveling salesmen, for instance. You want your IT security to be able to lock the device down and make sure it stays secure even if your salesman is likely to download some garbage from the matrix, so you don't give him full access.

Drones would likely have other access levels as well. For instance, I could see corporations allowing every security grunt to have "read only" access to the drones to get tactical information, while only the security riggers get full command access (admin)

Admin-only I tend to think applies to "simple" devices -- like toasters, MP3-playing underwear, and other things that do not have a stat listing for either pilot or system.

[Fortune]

[Nightwalker450]

The salesmen would log onto his companies network. Not have all the companies data on his commlink.. Unless he door-to-doors in a deadzone, in which case its really not a problem at all. As to drones they can give a readout without providing access, just as you can link your cybereyes input to teammates without them controlling your eyes.

So yes, I think when these were written it was very much intended for drones/commlinks/vehicles... Most drones/vehicles though don't have analyze or systems very high. I think the ruling is they use pilot for everything, so upping your pilot is useful to protect it, but it already comes with a +6 due to ADMIN only.

Anyways don't want to argue, I want more rules that have been overlooked in the books! (I'll get the exact page/quote out of the book when I get home, so I can update my prior post)

[Redjack]

[augurer]

[knasser]

How do you figure that raising your access level is easier once you're inside? All that hacking yourself access at Public level before you hack yourself Security or Admin access does, is throw in an extra hacking attempt during which you may be detected.

[Fortune]

I don't see what is to be gained from a normal commlink having more than Admin level access.

Oh, and knasser ... I was under the impression (through your pdf stuff) that you were in agreement about commlinks and admin access. Hmm ...

[Jaid]

[knasser]

[knasser]

[Jaid]

i agree with you conceptually (that is, i agree that the rules *should* work like that), but i'm not sure that they do. iirc, you can attempt any test while in a node. if you are acting within the privileges of your account, you use your computer skill. if you are going beyond them, you use hacking.

i certainly can understand *why* you wouldn't want to allow that kind of nonsense though.

[Dashifen]

For what it's worth, I think it would be a Hacking + Edit test but, because a general user account wouldn't have access rights to that file, the system would get to try and detect either (a) the change or (b) the action that's causing the change or © both, depending on how strict the security is going to be.

I've even run some extremely secure hosts as systems which continue to add any new hits on analyze tests to the original hits to prevent hacking (whether on the fly or probing the target) which has almost always made things very tense on the team's hacker!

[knasser]

@Jain: Okay, well I guess we're allowed to play differently. :) There are lots of easy fluff explanations for any particular Matrix rules, though. So I see no need to let someone with a few preconceptions about how computers work alter elements of the rules.

@Dashifen: By the time you've added in those counter-tests, it's starting to look a lot like the original hacking on the fly rules anyway. ;)

One important difference between the Internet of today and the Matrix of tomorrow, is that today we deal with static files. A video is a video, an access list is an access list. In the Matrix, we're living in an always-on, distributed computing, post-DRM, post-P2P, post-Virutalisation re-designed from the bottom up infrastructure. Static files are a thing of the past. I envisage almost everything as a running process, handed from node to node (I also picture the Matrix 2.0 to have strong countermeasures built into it to prevent runaway replication). This is why agents can travel from node to node, editing a file is akin to interacting with a separate program. It's why IC can be embedded in a file to prevent it being copied.

I can zip up an entire virtual machine as a file and send it to you, complete with all the installed preferences, programs and conceivably processes. It's a small step from there to making the freezing and re-starting of that virtual machine invisible to the user. With SR2070's cannon technology, we can justify, and justify very well, any aspect of the Matrix rules we like.

Long-winded way of saying if any player thinks they're going to type their account name into a permissions file somewhere and become an Admin, they're out of luck. ;)

-K.

[Jhaiisiin]

So I'm fairly knowledgeable on computers, but only basic info on networking security, so decided to ask a buddy of mine who knows more than is probably healthy on networking and security. I specifically asked why it'd be easier to upgrade access once inside as opposed to attacking the higher level from the outside directly. This is basically what he told me:

When attacking from the outside, you're basically fighting a login prompt. One way or the other, you have to pass that. Generally speaking, user access will be easier to get to due to social engineering and such, and because general users frankly don't pick good passwords as a rule. Admin access is typically harder to break through simply because the passwords are generally much better. (Obviously only talking general, not specific people right now) Once inside however, even at the user level, now you have access to the OS, the programs, whatever. There are more points of exploitation, more things you can use against the system to help give you more access.

So basically, yes, when you're inside, apparently it would be easier to get more access. The exact hows and whys are subject to interpretation and fluff, but the mechanics should show that it's slightly easier from inside than out. Interior walls of a house are never as sturdy as the exterior walls is a good analogy I guess...

[Nightwalker450]

[Aaron]

Okay, let's take a crack at it. Some of these are just things I discovered after running the game for a while, and kinda surprised me.

• If someone ducks behind cover, it becomes more likely that your EX ammo will explode in your weapon. I think we all knew about this one, though.
• Treating a magically active person's injuries with First Aid or Medicine imposes a -2 dice pool penalty.
• Fake SINs tend to be disposable, since they only roll their ratings, which increases the chances for a glitch.
• Tests made with SkillSofts can't have Edge added to them.
• The threshold for determining whether a hologram is real or fake is 2.
• Characters using a shield take a -1 dice pool penalty to all physical actions.
• A dice pool of 2 glitches more often than a dice pool of 1.
• A Body + Willpower (2) Test is required to successfully stand up.

[Tarantula]

Wheres that stand up rule?

[Method]

[Ryu]

The basic (and really obscure to me) problem is that everyone is checking the integrity of your SIN. The part where they check if YOU match up with YOUR SIN is actually left alone.

How can the whole economic system be based on a number that does nothing for business except linking data (can be done without SIN today), and that basically noone has trust in? Plus, I calculated that a rating 6 SIN will fail against a rating 1 scanner about 3% of the time.

[kzt]

No SR designer would have passed a basic statistics class.

[Aaron]

[Aaron]

[Moon-Hawk]