Skip
Sep 21 2006, 04:21 PM
I like having an inside man on a lot of my my jobs, somebody inside to provide a little surprise and make things easier for the main group. Usually this was an adept since he didn't need any hardware and could easily play the "repairman" role to get into a facility.
But having a TM in the group is a huge benefit. Get him in before anything goes down and he can take out or at least occupy much of the electronic defenses before your hacker gets involved. The hacker can then come in for the coup de gras while everyone else gets the goodies.
Yes, TM have many disadvantages, but in the right game with the right player, he can pull his weight and then some.
The Jopp
Sep 22 2006, 07:31 AM
| QUOTE (JonathanC @ Sep 21 2006, 02:48 PM) |
If you're hacking drones, 3-4 is reasonable. The thing is, wouldn't you need to hack the commlink that they're subscribed to first? And that guy sure sure to have a rating 5-6 in everything, he's a professional.
Most of a hacker's time, in my experience, is spent facing off against hardened matrix targets and other hackers. You just can't face that with rating 4 programs and an army of agents. |
True, I would have to hack him if i want to own the drones and replace their subscription list (I personally think that ONLY Rigger commands to drones are possible with spoofing).
The thing is that there are several ways of doing it. Worst case is of course hacking on the fly as the opponent are allowed an Analyze check every time I make an Exploit test. But there are ways you can get around it.
Check out "Intercepting Wireless Signals" at page 225. With a bit of Sniffing and decrypting you have access to the transmissions between a drone and it's controller - now you make an edit to the data flow to have the drone replace the subscription list with your own and then you give the drone to turn off the wireless ability and move to a specific location. You meet up with the drone at the location and get within 3 meters and tell it to reactivate wireless ability.
You now own a drone.
The same tactic can be used to edit the data on a hackers commlink. One cannot datamine the commlink but you can record everything that transmits. For transmission purposes I would advice all runners to invent their own code language when communicating on a job since the chance of intercepted transmissions could be quite high.
Remember, if you cannot face them head-on you need to find another strategy, not all teams have hackers that are on the bleeding edge in skills and programs.
fistandantilus4.0
Sep 23 2006, 02:15 AM
I havea TM that worked out pretty well for me. I made him a dwarf, which helped a lot w/ the attributes. Granted he was a pain in the @ss to start with. I actually put in skill wires to help, which made a difference, even w/ resonance loss. Mostly I stuck to one main hacking skill, to get in and out quietly, and plan on sprite help if I screwed a roll and got in cyber combat.
In physical, I had a couple of sprites that Id send in to screw around with smartgun links and any cyber as much as possible, as well as a michine sprite to run a drone. If it came down to it, I'd jsut blast away with a shotgun (innaccurately) until something (hopefully what I was "aiming" at) went down. It was wuite a pain for a while, but what I eventually decided was basically , threading is your friend. It makes up for a lot of lacking. I jsut worked a lot on my resonance, and kept my skills at 'adequete'. The bulk of what I coulnd't do well, I jsut didn't put points in to , relying mostly on skill wires and teammates, so that I could shine where they needed me to. The first run that I got into any combat with, three times actually, I went down. All three times. Used my HoG on my second run. TM really need to work with a good team, or at least well with a team, and know when to keep their head down.