Hosts and AR, I just melted my brain Options

[Azrael]

I can't find anything in the rules as written (admittedly, long day) that answers this question for me:

I'm in a host, full VR. Various personas in the host are giving me grief, I want to bug out, so to avoid dumpshock I switch to AR.

MY meat body is currently hiding behind my friendly neighbourhood troll sam in the middle of a gun fight. When I drop to AR, which set of icons do I see - those within the host, those on the battlefield within 100m of me, or both?

If the answer is both, can they see each other?

[Jack VII]

Per RAW, you would still be in the Host, so you would see those icons rather than the ones in meatspace near you. You would have to exit the host in order to see the ones on the battlefield.

It doesn't really make that much sense.

[Lobo0705]

For me, the best way to explain it conceptually is that the Matrix is like another universe overlaid on top of our own, and each Host is like its own pocket universe inside the Matrix.

So, if I am in AR, and not in a Host, my meat eyes perceive the world around me, and my perception of the Matrix is that of the "Matrix Universe" per se - all the non-silent running icons within 100 meters of me immediately show up, but I can still see Matrix icons that are further away from that, should I make a Matrix Perception test. The Host icons, floating in the Matrix "sky", are like entrances to those little pocket universes. I can't see into them, nor can anything inside see out of them.

If I am in full VR, my meat body perceives nothing, and all I can see is that Matrix universe - i.e. all the non-silent running icons within 100 meters of me immediately show up, but I can still see Matrix icons that are further away from that, should I make a Matrix Perception test. I can still see the Host icons, but can't see inside them.

Now, should I enter a Host in either AR or VR, my meat perception doesn't change (in AR I still see the stuff around me, and in VR, I still don't see anything), but my vision in the Matrix changes so that now I can only see things inside this little pocket universe (Host), and not the stuff outside of it (the Matrix at large).

Does that help?

[BlackJaw]

Lobo0705 is dead on, and here are the page quotes from the book to back him up:

As we’ve described, AR is normal living in physical space with an AR heads-up display. You can see the Matrix if you like, either by creating a virtual window or display screen and viewing it like a camera, or by overlaying device and host information on your normal vision. Your persona can go anywhere in the Matrix using this view. You can even enter hosts, although your icon will appear jerky and slow compared to a VR user in the same node.

The virtual space inside a host is separate from the outside grid. When you’re outside of a host, you can’t interact directly with icons inside it, although you can still send messages, make commcalls, and that sort of thing. Once you’re inside, you can see and interact with icons inside the host, but not outside (with the same caveat for messages, calls, etc.).

As for your follow up question, the entities in the host can't see the icons outside the host, and the entities outside the host can't see those inside. Therefore, the gunmen shooting at you and your troll friend don't see the IC closing in on you, and the IC doesn't see or care about the gunmen.

[Azrael]

Thanks people, that's what I thought, it just made sense and didn't make sense at the same time, wanted a second opinion.

[hermit]

It's basically the old 3e tortoise Matrix mode.