Wouldn't that be, for all intents an purposes, a skinlink?

Ah, so one could apply existing rules by adding a datajack to the hand?

I had trouble with this at first too, but it just another way your stuff can talk to each other w/o needing routers and other messy cyber stuff.

With wireless features all turned on, all those devices can all talk to each other. Each device is connected to every other device within it's range (usually singal 0). This is in essence your PAN.

With wireless features selectively turned off (your Smartgun Link), you need an alternative way to send/receive data. Skin link works good but the potential exists they can hack it if they are touching you. You could use pure-DNI but would need an interface to the weapon.

Good news is, SR3 SGL required lots of essence because of the limited simrig, but it looks like that's been eliminated in SR4 or at least moved to the weapon itself so probably an extra .1 or so for the Induction Pad interface.

Additionally, skinlink seems to modulate a signal onto the EM field of the body, thus working at touch range:
It would extend far enough to use gloves... of bug your coat to get access to the skinlink.

Yeah I always chuckle at players who get worried about someone being able to hack their skin link gear since if they are close enough to be touching you, you've got bigger problems.

But alas, some players go to extremes trying to make themselves, comlinks or drones hack-proof. Interestingly enough, if someone has enough time to probe you, you get auto-hacked for the most part.

I didn't see a cost reduction or increase. I would house rule it costing the same for the sake of simplicity.

As for essence the additional .1 seems fair. On the other hand, it could be interpreted as no change in any of the numbers as they might have put in optional wired rules otherwise.

the problem we had initially with was, do the benefits for using a smartlink still count?

we both agreed that there had to be some way of getting the information that the gun wirelessly sends to the headware while the weapon's wireless is turned off.

i guess the real question that we were trying to wrap our brains around was"can't i just plug it into the datajack and call it good?"

i figured out another way around it though: ambidexterity quality and a ruger super warhawk w/o a smartgun... if you're trying to hack the gun, you probably won't see the other one until its too late.

Just a quick realization. The smartgun link doesn't necessarily have to be an implant. It could be a mod to glasses or goggles like imagelink can (I believe this is specified in the BBB). In that case, if you didn't want a wire going from your glasses to your firearm, it would need to be wireless. It would be hackable, but that's the price you pay for not spending the essense loss by getting the smartgun cyberware implant.

Makes sense to me. *shrug*

We just treat it as the same SL only it isn't wireless. So they get the same +2 dice.

The best way around that is to hack the target's commlink. Your average commlink has a signal range of 400 meters. From the commlink you can connect to any of the target's cyberware. I houserule that the cyberware and commlink combine to form a solitary node. But even if you don't it's a 2 step process.

Example:

Riff the hacker, sends a stealth drone to tail a security guard of a corporate warehouse as he goes home between shifts. Both the drone and the security guard's commlink have a signal of 3. Riff manages to break into the commlink node undetected. He then hacks the security chief's smartlink cyberware and edits the personal data on the smartlink so that the tracking will be off by several meters for several hours that night. That night the security guard is on his standard patrol route ( a tendency not to vary his route is what got him targetted by Riff in the first place ) when he sees the runners escaping from the warehouse. He fires several shots but never comes close.



The same holds in reverse. If a runner team is detected in a sparsely populated site then the security deckers who aren't even physically present in the facility can start doing sweeps for unauthorized wireless signals in the area that the runners are in using signal repeaters that are connected to the facility securty node. They may even be able to break into their commlink nodes and through them the cyberware undetected so that when the sec guards ambush the runners they're all set to do all sorts of mischief.

Associating stuff with your commlink is basically a security measure. A commlink can be made more secure than a piece of cyberware, and associating the two also means a hacker has to get through your commlink before attempting to hack your cyberware (or whatever other piece of electronic equipment you're carrying).

The point is, most cyberware works just as well without wireless at all, by using DNI. So, by switching of wireless there is no way anyone can hack your cyberarm or cyberears, for example.

I wasn't just talking about cyberware, but about equipment in general. Most cyberware really has no business having online capabilities, but there are plenty of items who do. In such cases, it makes sense to route them through your commlink.

Devices can host their own IC. You could treat each piece of 'ware as it's own node making a Tier/Mesh PAN instead of just one generic PAN. Biggest drawn back is most common device ratings are low but nothing is stopping you from loading *some* sort of IC in it.