Combat Tactics for Hackers, Post your Tips and Tricks Options

[Androcomputus]

Fire fights are a natural occurrence in a game of shadowrun... but usually it means you got caught doing something you were not supposed to be doing.

My biggest Fear right now for my T-Mancer are Firefights because he is mainly all mental stats and a 1 in strength, 2 in agility and reaction, and a 3 in body...

I did a practice fight with my friend who is a Street Samurai and he took me out in one salvo of gunfire... Naturally I told him that the first action he needs to do if a fire fight is approaching, is to push me into cover.

I know that I can just Hack my way into Cyberware as a TM but what if I am dealing with professionals like the Red Samurai, who will take the necessary precautions in protecting their cyberware. I imagine that they will need to communicate with each other and will have their Commlinks on, and loaded with ICs and Firewalls, not a trouble as I can Compile a Sprite to handle the security and I am pretty strong at Cybercombat. I suppose through the Commlink I could send a Fault sprite to the leader or to a single Red Sam, take him out of the fight and thus "pull my weight"...

Regular Gangers do not have nearly as much Cyberware but I do not worry as the Street Sam could Deal with them... Finally Riggers are my choice opponent as I could turn their greatest asset against them.

My group consist of a Street Samurai,Physical Adept (Troll, of the Dark king I believe), an Occult Investigator (so mainly support spells but maybe one offensive spell or combat skills) and me the TM.

Any additional hints, tips or tricks to prevent your latest hacker from becoming a blood stain on the wall, and a person to toast to after the run...

[BlackJaw]

For my hacker character, if he is going into combat he sticks near the back and uses infiltration to make sure he doesn't look like the first person you'd want to shoot at. If it's an intentional firefight, he'll bring a combat drone with a repeater on it so he can hack out of it and help in combat without being in the line of fire. If it's a raid on a very dangerous place but still the kind of run where the hacker can't help remotely, he might get a drone with a rigger pod (I'm partial to the Evo Orderly from Arsenal) to ride in too. Make sure to modify the drone you pick for stealth (both in software and hardware).

On a recent run where speed was a concern, we stuck him (well everyone had one) on a Cyclopes Monocycle. It's gyro stabilized so he can be in full VR on it without falling over, electicalry powered and noted for being very silent, and was a really good idea when the force 11 blood spirit apeared (which alerted the guards in the towers with the LMGs, and the various combat drones, and the baracks full of guards... I hate Aztechnology by the way, and yes we completed the obective of that run.)

Another idea is to get yourself a directional jammer or HERF gun. These kinds of "weapons" can do a lot of nasty things to your target without having to hack them. Hacking is subtle, but if you're in a fire fight subtle isn't really needed. While hacking the fly might let you get into the target's gear quickly, it will still take a couple of initative passes to locate their signal and hack in... then you have to deal with IC, maybe, before you can mess with a target's gear. That's a few initative passes of people potentialy shooting at you.

Lastly, there is always the Nanite option. Get hacker nanites and put them in a squirt gun, gas grenade, capsual round, or dart gun. Now you can shoot a target and the hacker nanites will attempt to slave his gear and cyberware to you. It's expensive but quick and effective.

[Cthulhudreams]

If you're not in a team with a rigger, gunnery 4 (+2 ballistics) and a R6 command program is free and awesome, so just have that.

[Wiseman]

I know that I can just Hack my way into Cyberware as a TM

Our technomancer suffers similar issues, and getting close enough to the cyberthugs to hack their cyberware directly is usually more risk than he can handle, and thats if they're unsecured to begin with.

Support characters are usually targeted first, because they're squishy, and the team is so much weaker without them (if they can be identified).

So how to contribute as a straight up Matrix Specialist without a lot of offensive or defensive skills? use creative problem solving.

There was a good thread a little bit ago talking about program tactics, and there was a nice post about a situational hack involving strung out "chipheads" being force fed a rage BTL.

Take control of a nearby vehicle and ram it into a grouping of the enemies, or use it as cover for wounded teammates during a fire fight.

Reprogram common trash disposal or household drones to go beserk and inhibit them in any way conceivable.

If a fight is going badly, call in a false (or somewhat true) report to Lone Star or whatever relevant security to put the pressure on everyone to end a fight. (cover your tracks though)

Note the access ID's of the enemy commlinks to possibly frame them later (not helpful during the fight, but revenge can be just as sweet as outright victory). Probably shouldn't wait too long though, as they'll likely cover their own trail, switch SINs, etc..

Throw gernades (especially EMP), which usually doesn't take too much skill to have decent effects (just really try to avoid your teammates in the AoE)

Ultimately your mileage will vary depending on the encounter or situation, but any decent GM should allow you to contribute in other ways that can sometime change the whole outcome (if not the current tempo) of the fight.

Cover is your friend since you will usually be best served by spending the more IP's doing matrix-y things than 1 IP doing physical actions. (unless you have acceleration echoes).

[Jaid]

if you're trying to contribute in a fight, your best bet is to ignore the enemy's cyberware and focus on the environment. shutting the door on your enemies to block them from being able to attack you, or shutting the door behind them to make sure they can't call for reinforcements. opening the door behind you so that your own team can get through. directing the facility's automated defenses against it's own security forces. keeping track of enemy locations through cameras. that sort of thing. by the time you can get through to hack someone's cyber, assuming you can even get to it from a safe location, that person could have been shot half a dozen times and killed 3 times over. much better to use the environment, and if the environment where you're going doesn't have something to let you do, then bring something along that you can use (like the drones that were mentioned).

[Androcomputus]

Unfortunately I built my Technomancer to be a single purposed Hacker... the only other ability that does not include hacking is just speed reading and photographic memory... This was brought up to me as I was being chased down by 4 Go-gangers who wanted to use me as the ball in Orc Ball. They had nothing to hack, my character was too frazzled from finding out his parents have gone missing, and the company he has trained and grown up in no longer recognizes him as a future employ or a resident, to think of something clever other than trigger his Doc Wagon via spoofing my bio-readings... Luckily it played out that the group met by this circumstance and I diverted the signal to save my future teammates...

Then again I hear reading/memorizing 9600 words a minute, and reducing the threshold for memory by one while throwing 10 dice could lead up to badass bookworm territory provide I come to the Table with a head full of fluff and 8-10 hours of sleep...

As a side note, If the Gm offers Down time, is it too cheesy to compile and register all the sprites you can? Is it too cheesy if I exploit potential lulls in combat, action, and interaction by compiling and registering all the sprites I can...

What cheap, effective, easy to access drones can be purchased at character creation... Ideally less than 12 availability and no license required...

[toolbox]

As a side note, If the Gm offers Down time, is it too cheesy to compile and register all the sprites you can?

Hell no. Or rather, whatever the GM says, but it sounds reasonable to me. Registering a decently powerful sprite takes a while; do you really want to have to do that multiple times while on the job?

[The Jake]

Back in SR3, I played an otaku who never once attended a physical meet. His whole team got decimated and he survived all because no-one could track his physical location.

I understand wireless changes things somewhat but not radically. I still don't see why it can't be done that way.

If you really needed a physical presence because of an isolated node, get a team mate (e.g. a street sam with MBW2 and an Hardware Rating 4 ActiveSoft) to physically wire up the device you need to hack. He fits it with a wireless transmitter, already subscribed to a dedicated (hacked) node. When the job is done, he can either remove the hardware or you can set it to self-destruct and remove the logs from the compromised node. I mean seriously, all he needs to do is plug it in and you can play.

- J.

[toolbox]

If you really needed a physical presence because of an isolated node, get a team mate (e.g. a street sam with MBW2 and an Hardware Rating 4 ActiveSoft) to physically wire up the device you need to hack. He fits it with a wireless transmitter, already subscribed to a dedicated (hacked) node. When the job is done, he can either remove the hardware or you can set it to self-destruct and remove the logs from the compromised node. I mean seriously, all he needs to do is plug it in and you can play.

But there's still jammers, anti-wifi paint and Faraday cages to worry about. Sometimes the hacker really needs to be onsite.

[crizh]

I disagree, with a little patience you can gain remote access to anywhere.

Your toolbox will include creativity, ECCM, Laser Links, mirrors, prisms, fibre optic cable, a common drill, a micro-welder, wireless adapters, Mesh Tags and the certain knowledge that any security system can be defeated.

[toolbox]

I disagree, with a little patience you can gain remote access to anywhere.

Yeah, probably... if you have the opportunity to set it up. Sometimes you won't.

Your toolbox will include creativity, ECCM, Laser Links, mirrors, prisms, fibre optic cable, a common drill, a micro-welder, wireless adapters, Mesh Tags and the certain knowledge that any security system can be defeated.

And teammates who don't mind lugging and using all that gear to keep you from having to join them in facing the onsite security, of course. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

[crizh]

I've built it all into a drone.

It's designed to run point on B&E missions.

Since Unwired came out my main concern on every mission is Telematics Infrastructure. Every door you open, every corner you turn you have about 15 seconds to find it and shut it down. I wanted a radio-silent drone that could ghost ahead of the team, Scanning for TI and allowing me to circumvent it before it tracks down the TacNet.

[Socinus]

Something simple yet effective.

My hacker didnt have spare points for bang-bang so I gave him a pistol crossbow with injection bolts full of cyanide.

Lets see that protected street samurai stay up when he's got 10cc's of cyanide coursing through his veins.

[Androcomputus]

.... I did mention the restriction of gear to things that do not require a license and have less than 12 availability, probable less because he came out of a Corporate enclave...

Sooo... no guns or poisons, maybe I could carry a taser or shock gloves but the taser will only get me harassed by my fellow players... I found out the hard way that I cannot rely on Dodge 1 (ranged) and Unarmed Combat 1 (Parry) to protect me...

[Cain]

If you must take offensive actions, try picking up Automatics and making heavy use of Suppressive Fire. Your lack of skill and quickness won't matter as much when you're sending that much lead downrange.

[The Jake]

I disagree, with a little patience you can gain remote access to anywhere.

Your toolbox will include creativity, ECCM, Laser Links, mirrors, prisms, fibre optic cable, a common drill, a micro-welder, wireless adapters, Mesh Tags and the certain knowledge that any security system can be defeated.

Quoted for truth.

- J.

[Androcomputus]

If you must take offensive actions, try picking up Automatics and making heavy use of Suppressive Fire. Your lack of skill and quickness won't matter as much when you're sending that much lead downrange.

Will take note of it When I can pick up or commandeer a drone with a gun... until then I guess I could purchase some basic Drones for surveillance purposes...

[BlackJaw]

Your toolbox will include creativity, ECCM, Laser Links, mirrors, prisms, fibre optic cable, a common drill, a micro-welder, wireless adapters, Mesh Tags and the certain knowledge that any security system can be defeated.

Man on my last run I would have killed for a good sized length of fiber optic cable. For all the high tech tricks and wackyness people want to pull to get a good hack off, sometimes a simple cable is all you need.

Also think about getting cheap commlinks. We used one on a run on the Seattle Art Museum once. Our GM told us the building was sheilded (to keep AR spam out of the museum mostly) so in order to get a signal in we dropped a cheap commlink inside and used it to get a signal outside. A cheap laser link on a cheap commlink is all you need ot get a signal through a wifi sheilded window, assuming you have a laser link for the outside too. I use a repeater drone for that.

[Byron]

Well, for me, my guy, I spent a little extra and got him a tricked out van and some drones, and he's only needed to fire his pistols like 3 times in 4-5 runs. And that was in an ambush. Get a vehicle and stay in there, you can hack from it and stay relatively close to being onsite, and ALWAYS carry some drones with you, I currently always have at least one lonestar eyeball (with smoke grenade and flash pack) and rotodrones as well as dobermans are you friends, they're not to expensive and really useful. If you're a hacker, it's not hard to be a mediocre rigger for next to no points and if all you need is having a couple drones cover your ass with machine gun fire, that's all you need. Or try a steel lynx, mine helps.

[Socinus]

.... I did mention the restriction of gear to things that do not require a license and have less than 12 availability, probable less because he came out of a Corporate enclave...

Sooo... no guns or poisons, maybe I could carry a taser or shock gloves but the taser will only get me harassed by my fellow players... I found out the hard way that I cannot rely on Dodge 1 (ranged) and Unarmed Combat 1 (Parry) to protect me...

Then you might be SOL.

Injection Arrows/Bolts are 8R and the pistol crossbow is 4R which shouldnt be THAT hard to get your hands on.

Even if you cant get Cyanide, a solution of lye, bleach, or even just water mixed with very fine metal shavings would work just as well. Even if you just had the injection bolts empty, you could inject air into your target's bloodstream which would basically instantly stop the heart.

The whole smack will run you probably 300. 800 if you have to buy your way around some security checks.

Beyond that, you may just not be able to take part in combat.

The only thing simpler I could think of is throwing knives which are just Avalibility 2 but I'll tell you right now, unless you've got a serious arm on you or some Adept powers, throwing knives may be a waste of IP.

If I've got a troll with a strength of 10, a throwing knife is STR/2+1 P. So that means if I hit, the most I can do is 6P damage. Thats with a troll and an awesome strength rating. The ammount of tweaking you'll need to do to be effective with throwing knives is a waste of BP.

Your best bet is a pistol crossbow with injection bolts. Have another member of your team buy one and the bolts FOR you. You wont do a lot of direct damage but I'll tell ya 10 cc's of lye in a guy's bloodstream will seriously ruin his day.

[crizh]

.... I did mention the restriction of gear to things that do not require a license and have less than 12 availability, probable less because he came out of a Corporate enclave...

Sooo... no guns or poisons, maybe I could carry a taser or shock gloves but the taser will only get me harassed by my fellow players... I found out the hard way that I cannot rely on Dodge 1 (ranged) and Unarmed Combat 1 (Parry) to protect me...

You said 'ideally'.

If that is a hard rule you are in trouble.

Grenades are your best bet. Flash-paks are un-restricted as are Gas/Splash Grenades.

Flash-paks are good for providing visibility penalties to the bad guys and Gas/Splash Grenades full of Pepper Punch are perfectly legal and only 25 (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nuyen.gif) each.

edit

Adhesive Solvent for Freeze Foam might be legal and KE IV certainly is.

Neither is hugely useful until it is.

[Androcomputus]

thanks for the response on the legal weapons I could use... My Gm will allow me to purchase things out of the 4e core book as long as they are Legal, and have an availability less than 12... My Gm is not vindictive but merely enforcing my backstory of a 16 year old corporate kid...

[Androcomputus]

thanks for the response on the legal weapons I could use... My Gm will allow me to purchase things out of the 4e core book as long as they are Legal, and have an availability less than 12... My Gm is not vindictive but merely enforcing my backstory of a 16 year old corporate kid...

[Androcomputus]

Thanks for the response on the legal weapons I could use... My Gm will allow me to purchase things out of the 4e core book as long as they are Legal, and have an availability less than 12... My Gm is not vindictive but merely enforcing my backstory of a 16 year old corporate kid...

[Jaid]

the ares supersquirt is 100% legal. pepper punch is legal, and qite inexpensive. also, i find it hard to believe that you couldn't have other drugs, provided they're not some sort of horribly toxic substance... sure, you won't be getting any seven-7 or anything, but lael is much more plausible imo. KE IV is cheap and not restricted, and DMSO is also not very expensive (and perfectly legal) if you want to make some pretty deadly gas grenades (surprisingly, gas grenades are also cheap and legal). aisa is cheap, legal, and does +3 stun damage per dose beyond the first, plus hits people with overdose rules for drugs... too bad you can't mod that supersquirt for FA mode, but i'm sure you can still find some use for that...