[X] My Assistant

[lunavoco]

Once I'm hacked into soemone's PAN can I command their comlink to switch them to VR mode, assuming they have a simrig?

It'd be lovely to shut someone down physically like that for even one turn.

[Draco18s]

If they're capable of going full VR, odds are they're already trying to hack something and will already be in VR. Most gunbunnies don't go into combat wearing a simrig.

[DWC]

You don't need a simrig to get into VR. You need a sim module, which is far more common. I'd imagine that a lot of people use cold VR fairly often.

[Nows7]

If they're capable of going full VR, odds are they're already trying to hack something and will already be in VR. Most gunbunnies don't go into combat wearing a simrig.

My Face adept has no computer skill, yet he has a simrig for Knowsofts, Linguasofts, and when the group gets a tac net.

When I bought it I told my GM I was getting one with a manual mode change only - IE if i want to go full VR, I have to physically flip a switch. Some company in the Sixth world cranked out a bunch of them during that whole Technomancer scare.

[lunavoco]

I also see that switching that between AR and VR is a free action :'(

Maybe it would impose a small 1 turn dice penalty, but I'm not even sure of that.

Back to the drawing board.

[DireRadiant]

Blackhammer your momma time...

[SpellBinder]

Not necessarily back to the drawing board. Depending on what cyber gear or other gear is linked up to their PAN, VR isn't always going to be an option. But if there's other cybernetics you could potentially have lots of fun.

If you're in someone's PAN and they've got a smartgun subscribed to it, you can mess with the images the gun's camera gives or just disable it in general. Maybe they've just got an image link? Make it go solid black to practically blind the person. Got more time? Make like The Laughing Man (GitS:SAC) and just edit the feed from their eyes to make you invisible by hiding behind icons that look like the real world.

If the person has reaction enhancers or some other full body invasive system you could theoretically do worse to them. Imagine if you had a corrupted version of a skillsoft you were able to upload into someone's skillwires that would make all of their muscles contract at once. Heck, might not even need such a skillsoft...

Problem is time, though. A push of a button, or if you've got DNI a mere thought, and their PAN's switched off and you might be reeling from a dumpshock.

[Garou]

It says on somewhere that you have to be AWESOMELY godlike with an edit program to alter someone's visual feed with an EDIT action. not with my books near me now, so i can't really remember where. I guess it was done so players can trust their own senses. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[SpellBinder]

Considering that Laughing Man was pretty much godlike in his hacking skill, I can accept that. Kinda why I said "Got more time?". Figuring it's easier to just blunt or negate a sense by switching the input off than it would be to edit it that input on the fly.

[Saint Sithney]

If you look at the technology today, an Edit like that seems like it would be cake.
For example, if you combine the tech Microsoft acquired for creating digital 3D infinite zoom models from multiple 2D images, then you've got an auto-completed 3D representation of whatever environment a person might see which you can then overlay on their vision. Then it's just a matter of magic-wanding yourself out, or transposing objects so that the person sees things incorrectly.

That kind of procedure should be able to be thrown together on the fly with little more than a thought. It also lets pure hackers compete a little bit on the combat stage so that they're not always bored in meatworld.

[lunavoco]

I'm familiar with the GitS: SAC series. That was the original inspiration for this character. I posted a while back about making a super class A hacker like motoko a while back. I'm still looking into how to pull it off ingame. The character's dobe (we start into runs this Wed) and i'm finishing up the novel of a back story i have prepared. When i finish it this weeken i'll post both in the original thread.

My GM has ruled that live footage manipulation would require a program other than Edit. We spent the better part of an evening going back and forth on it. In the end, it was decided that a completely new program be created. We are currently looking for a name for this new program that would be limited to doing on-the-fly video edits. Any sugestions?

(found the original thread here)

[Lok1 :)]

I once had a team that for an extraction hacked there targets comlink, put him into VR and slapped Blackout on him. (works in Coldsim), the mark was out cold in a round then they moved in to take him. (of course his bodyguards were there, but without him moveing it was an much easer job.

[lunavoco]

Well, that's promising.

But what are it's effects in RAW?
Can I even trigger the jump to VR by hacking his comlink?

Let's say I can. I drop him in VR and his body goes down. Next person's turn.

Finally, it rolls to the Mark's turn. He spends a free action and drops out of VR and into AR. He spends (standard?, Complex?) action to stand back up, or stay prone and quick draw/shoot.

Sound about right? Net gain, 1 wasted free action, maybe a wasted standard?

[Udoshi]

I also see that switching that between AR and VR is a free action :'(

Maybe it would impose a small 1 turn dice penalty, but I'm not even sure of that.

Back to the drawing board.

With Admin access you can always Change Interface Mode(a free action) for someone else, and then Encrypt(a simple action) the controls to it in the same pass. Wham, blam, welcome-to-vr-ma'am.

[Valashar]

The effects of flipping someone into cold sim VR and nailing them with Blackout? You've got an unconscious target who can't pull themselves back out of VR (black IC jams open their signal and prevents logout) even if they get revived.

As for that program you mentioned? The one the GM ruled would be needed to change a hacked target's sensory feeds? How about UnSight?

[Rotbart van Dain...]

Of course, encrypting the controls won't mean they can't turn it off by manual trigger (button), automatic trigger (biomonitor) or DNI trigger, even if it's implanted.

Generally, though, this is an excellent reason to have no active network interfaces on your Sim Module running Knowsofts and use <sense> links to get your AR fix.

[Valashar]

Just thought of another aspect of the interface mode swap tactic. If you've got a bead into their tacnet via the PAN of one or more of their 'periphery' members (if you're going after the hacker that's acting as Overwatch, then more power to you but good luck)... DON'T USE IT right away. Just be there and use their feeds to give you information about what their doing. Heck, if your team is running their own tacnet, you can use your opposition as extra sensors.

Then, later, if they've got you on the run, a quick interface change flip done to someone running at full tilt after fleeing shadowrunners will have that person laid out on the ground as their sim module cuts out their motor functions. Even if you do nothing else, that's going to cause some rug burn and a wasted combat turn as they have to swap back out, pick themselves up, and catch up again. Extra kudos for hitting more than one at a time. This 'stringless marionette' method can be used in multiple ways where a sudden loss of motor skills can be a hazard, and is just one reason why the Resonance Trodes echo is so dangerous in the hands of a close combat trained technomancer.

[nemafow]

The effects of flipping someone into cold sim VR and nailing them with Blackout? You've got an unconscious target who can't pull themselves back out of VR (black IC jams open their signal and prevents logout) even if they get revived.

As for that program you mentioned? The one the GM ruled would be needed to change a hacked target's sensory feeds? How about UnSight?

Actually thats a good point, free action to swap them to VR, then hit them with Black IC, and they are stuck in VR till you stop, and chances are he wont have the programs to fight against the IC, so you go for knock out and then choose another target

[Valashar]

Actually thats a good point, free action to swap them to VR, then hit them with Black IC, and they are stuck in VR till you stop, and chances are he wont have the programs to fight against the IC, so you go for knock out and then choose another target

And let this be a cautionary tale for the Runners out there: Make sure you let your hacker load up your link and ware with whatever defensive works they've got available. Even if it's just a biofeedback filter to help protect your brain. If you've got the space, have them load up one form of icebreaker agent or another. And if your hacker is a TM with sufficient charisma, having a defensive sprite loaded up into each team member's PAN hub does the same trick.

If the GM is feeling frisky (as ours was), and if your team TM has both the TM and normal versions of the software skill, you could even work out a way to make a standard version of the Shield complex form (it's a sideline of our current campaign that several folks are working on this, but it's a long road due to how different standard code protocols are from complex forms). Having this active adds to your matrix defense test so that initial black IC attack might not stick at all.

[Rotbart van Dain...]

Even putting the Biofeedback Filter on the Sim Module doesn't help if it's slaved when your commlink is compromized:
It's just a Simple Action to unload it, then a Free to enable VR, then a Simple to order the Gray IC to blackout you.

Lessons learned: Sim Module linked to Commlink = Bad. Sim Module slaved to Commlink = Worse.

[Valashar]

That's easily taken care of by a competent device user. Change settings so that only your hacker's encrypted feed is allowed to make changes like unloading programs, and link that to a hardware key.

Is this foolproof? Absolutely not. But it does add a relatively low-cost means of protecting from the kinds of quick in, quick result attacks we've been discussing in this thread. If the attacking hacker takes the time to do the needed work-around (decrypting the slave link to get the authorized hacker's ID and spoofing the hardware key authorization), then I would HOPE that the defending team's hacker is on the ball enough to have noticed the in-progress attack and start dealing with things personally. If he's not... well, that's what you get. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[Rotbart van Dain...]

That's easily taken care of by a competent device user. Change settings so that only your hacker's encrypted feed is allowed to make changes like unloading programs, and link that to a hardware key.

That's neither possible by RAW, nor desireable by in-game perspective: No-one should have a master key, ever.

[lunavoco]

Ok, new question then.

Since I've spent ALL of my time pouring through the matrix rules and practically none on the cyberware sections:

Why would Joe average samurai have a sim module? And if he does, will it by necessity be linked to his comlink?

[Rotbart van Dain...]

For Knowsoft. And no, it would most likely have even internal networking shutdown.

[Saint Sithney]

Ok, new question then.

Since I've spent ALL of my time pouring through the matrix rules and practically none on the cyberware sections:

Why would Joe average samurai have a sim module? And if he does, will it by necessity be linked to his comlink?

Without some form of DNI, he can't control his smartgun except by analogue. If you want an arsenal of weapons controlled by murder thoughts, then you need a sim module.