The Divine Comedy(OOC), Snowfall Options

[Fuchs]

From what I recall, we used the teamwork rules RAW there - I remember getting 2 Dice from "help".

Honestly, if people can have 18 dice on hacking on the fly tests with agents, then there is no need for PC hackers at all. Even with a specialisation in exploit, and maxed programs, and going full VR, and having an optimised commlink for exploit, I only reach 16 dice.
Of course, I could use an agent army as well, DD has enough money to buy a commlink for them to run on, but that's DP inflation at its worst.

[crizh]

As I recall you were getting 2 Dice per Assistant which amounted to 4 Dice at one point for Jake and an Agent.

I'm easy either way. I am however always in favour of playing the rules until they prove to be a problem rather than knee-jerk assuming that they are.

In particular I am vehemently opposed to one player asking for the goal-posts to be moved once we are in play and everybody's character has been created based on the assumption that we are playing by a common set of rules.

Bad experiences in PnP I'm afraid.

[Divine Virus]

Non-technomancer hackers are basically obsolete anyways. I mean, consider what a TM can do. A 400 BP TM I built who specialized in spoof had a base 18 DP, bumpted up to 22 with average threading results (and on average no fading from threading). While I picked spoof, I could have done that with exploit easily. Or, Hell, consider a sprite. Tere is nothing a R6 sprite can't do better than a hacker, no matter how much skill or tech the hacker might have. And it is not hard for even a starting TM to be able to compile a R6 sprite.

[Fuchs]

In my tests there, I had +2 for help, not +4: Link.

And I'd say agent smith tactics are a problem. I certainly did not assume that hackers could be replaced by a few agent smiths, or I'd have made another character to start with.

[crizh]

In my tests there, I had +2 for help, not +4: Link.

And I'd say agent smith tactics are a problem. I certainly did not assume that hackers could be replaced by a few agent smiths, or I'd have made another character to start with.

You are correct, I apologize.

It was however a flat +2 for the single assistant rather than a normal Teamwork test.

[cndblank]

On checking the orc's aura out, 3 success on 8 dice for the assensing the target (checking for any unusual cyberware and any magical traces.)

[Fuchs]

You are correct, I apologize.

It was however a flat +2 for the single assistant rather than a normal Teamwork test.

I thought that was for Jake and DD's agent.

[crizh]

Nope, just Jake.

[Coldhand Jake]

I tend personally to re-mechanic actions to account for player tactics. If you have three Monkey agents, One can be spoofing access, one can be scanning for IC, and one can be diddling himself till they get in. Once inside, they can do simultaneous different tasks...I'm not worried about the mechanics so tightly, he's unleashed agents in a commlink no one's hooked to, they either get fried by IC or set off data bombs, or figure stuff out eventually.

[crizh]

They're scripted to Break in, Disarm the Nodes Analyse program and then Hack legitimate Admin accounts before deleting every other legitimate account. Then they can change the alert script, dump every other user and clean up the Access log after making certain they aren't Databombs.

I suppose it would be reasonable to split up to perform those tasks while in the Node.

[Fuchs]

Main problem I have is I feel my character is rather obsolete if she has to risk her neck by going VR, and still is worse off for hacking a node or commlink than a couple agents.

And, I wonder what happens if I buy a bunch of such agents - or rather, crack one - and then simply have them add to DD's test. Where is the line drawn in additional Dice? Can I run 2 commlinks, with 8 agents in total? 4 and 16?

I mean, am I the only one who thinks this kind of DP inflation is wrong? Or can I assume with a bit of time, and a number of commlinks, I can agent smith every node?

[crizh]

Can I run 2 commlinks, with 8 agents in total? 4 and 16?

You might need a few more comm-links than that for so many agents.

This has nothing to do with 'Agent Smith' it is something common to any circumstance where Teamwork is allowed.

Either it is or it isn't allowed, I'm easy either way but I'm not sure this is the place for having such a debate.

[Fuchs]

Where else then? The ooc thread is for ooc issues, IMO.

[Coldhand Jake]

Let me be clear here, and then we move on, because we're not even -in- the plot yet...10 Agents do not equal one hacker. Even if it's a factor of mechanics supporting it, screw that. You guys don't have an AI with you, you have talking batch files. No agent is going to intelligently loop video, or intelligently address half the crap I throw at hackers. The main reason I'm not even bothering looking at the rolls here, is because Vasily's commlink is a damn dinosaur with giant exploit holes that look less like swiss cheese and more like Goatse.cx. If there were any resistance, he'd find his monkeys fragged, and having to do things personally. We clear?

And yes, you put enough processing power and you can do a fuckload to a node, that's what Cray computers are for nowadays. But there's still a ton of processes they can't do. 1 million agents on 1 million nexii won't understand that to get through a node connection, you have to hand the Babe Ruth icon a baseball bat icon. That's what the difference is.

[Fuchs]

Clear.

[Coldhand Jake]

Hope everyone got out and voted today.

[crizh]

If only.

I imagine more folks here would turn out for your elections than for our own....

[Fuchs]

I am glad elections don't matter that much here - we get to vote on almost all important things directly (taxes, new laws, additions to the constitution, expenses of a town, etc.)

[Coldhand Jake]

I always wonder, now that W. is GTFO, what sci-fi will say about him? Think about it. Shadowrun has to look back at our world now, so...what would Jackpoint say about these last 8 years?

Looking at that now...

[DWC]

I love that there's an entry for Charles being crowned king of England.

[Mickle5125]

Hope everyone got out and voted today.

Heading out to do so after lunch

[Shalimar]

There are already reports of voting issues, sigh. When will we get with the program and do what all the other advanced nations do and use paper ballots marked with pencils and pens? Scantron works (even with pens), and you can go back and rescan it as many times as you need to plus do manual counts. We need a paper trail to keep the fuckers honest.

[Coldhand Jake]

The Alabama Ballots -are- paper and black marker. Basically, Scantron.

[Mickle5125]

same with Illinois, although I'd put it more along the lines of cardstock than paper...

[Divine Virus]

Well, Canada uses paper and pen, but that didn't stop a few whole boxes of ballets to go missing and never be found (IMG:style_emoticons/default/frown.gif)