Although it's been discussed before, and many people (including myself) have houseruled against allowing more than 1 IP at meat-body speeds to apply to AR actions, we now have this official clarification from the SR4 faq.
The developers are ok with Wired 2 users operating the matrix at hot sim speeds without compromising their personal health. No addiction, no dumpshock, no blackout, no black hammer, no psychotropic IC, and no uncertainty about the status of your meat bod.
Now, the clarification makes sense: you're acting in the physical world, so you should get to act as fast as your body can. But you can see where it leaves us: hackers who trade in their 2 dice bonus for immunity to personal harm.
After reading the matrix chapter, AR's immunities seem balanced around it being the slowest mode, which it is, unless the user has jacked up reflexes. Taking away the risk of damage just completely changes the cybercombat dynamic. It's acceptable when you can pretty much guarantee a win for the 3 IP hot sim user against a 1 IP AR user, but take that away and you're left with one combatant risking his life against a nearly equal opponent who risks only an icon crash.

AR users need to be handicapped in another way that makes the non-VR interface a hindrance. A 2 dice difference from AR to hot VR doesn't cut it.
One idea I'm tossing out there is to disallow use of the Cybercombat skill in AR. The hacker would have to rely on Program ratings and Computer attributes alone. This would be the same as if a copy of his icon in an inactive window was under attack, only he'd be able to take action.

Eh, it seems like full time hackers work on efficiency though, and thus AR would be the way to go.

Well, that, or magic. Yeah. Cyber gives 4IP, magic gives 4IP, techno's get 4IP. Everyone gets 4IP except hackers and riggers.
A little bit of cyber, or maybe an expensive commlink add-on that gave +1IP when VR would go a long way towards evening them up, and I think it's just a question of whether we'll see it in Augmentation, Arsenal, or Unwired.

Uh huh. Except that we're talking about 7 BP's worth of resources and 3 essence on an archetype for which essence is not an overly valuable commodity. And the day your group's hacker get it is the day you can erase "life threatening cybercombat" from your list of possible threats. The hackers that don't have this either cannot afford it, or are putting themselves at risk needlessly.

Remember, standard grade Wired 2 is available at chargen for 32,000; just under 7 BP's. That's all you need to get hot sim speed with immunity to dumpshock and black IC. . . . an extremely worthwhile hacking investment. . .

I suppose that 7 BPs could have been put to more hacker related uses, though. That could almost get you 2 points of a skill, or 7 or more programs. The thing is though, it's a huge boon and not at all in character for hackers. Wired Reflexes is the signature samurai piece of cyberware. It shouldn't be something so good for hacking too.

No sir, I do not!
But at least it would be a step-up from now, where the speed of thought is considerably slower than the speed of meat.

Negative, I think it was a bad call on the devs. Even with today's computers, if someone with ungodly typing skills were to type as fast as they could, the computer wouldnt be able to keep up with it. A direct link from brain to computer should be a hell of a lot faster than a I/O keyboard or gloves...
Think about how much a VR person sacrafices to have that increased speed in the matrix and how little the AR person does... Not being able to act in the real world while messing around in the Matrix is huge...

Aside from Ultraviolet hosts and whatever unseen mysteries await us in Unwired, I believe AR users can access and do anything VR users can. Accessing matrix nodes in AR can be like browsing futuristic web pages, I suppose. You'll have a list of icons within the node youre accessing, representing applications you can access, hyperlinks to other nodes, programs running on the node, and users accessing the node. How you present that info is up to you.

you mean *a* test. one which should not involve you facing any IC, for that matter.

what really boggles my mind is this: how does wired 2 help someone with a DNI and sim module manipulate AR faster? unless it is speeding up their thoughts...

anyways, +2 dice is a pretty big deal, imo. it's a substantial boost. and really, is there a huge difference in level of screwed over between "i took some damage from black IC" and "i just screwed up royally and now alarms are going off all over the system because i was 1 success short".

if you really want though, i suppose you could do something similar to what vehicle skills do; using VR instead of AR reduces thresholds by 1. this is a bonus worth having (hotsim would still also give +2 dice still).

how does that sound?

After thinking about it some though, there are some body functions that react faster than your consious thoughts, but most of those are instinct like catching a ball or blocking something headed towards your face.
Consious thoughts should be alot faster than consious actions, due to the time it takes for your mind to transfer the signals to your limbs and whatnot, though that is the who think Wired or Boosters effect, which creates a sort of loop in the argument.
Thought should be faster than meatbody actions, but the ware's whole purpose is to make your body operate close to the spead of thought...

Truthfully, they should have just said that AR can only handle 1 action per turn, just to keep VR a viable tactic. Though they CAN go back and edit the FAQ, if they wish to accept that the first decision they came to was the wrong one for the balance of the game.

hmmm... i kinda like that... it lets you do some rather impressive things.

the question is, is that too much?

(i'm inclined to say no at first, but it's best to think it through before saying anything is all...)

Since all it will do is speed up getting through overly complex security while the team either waits or fights, I'd say no. I'd even go so far as to suggest using cold sim doubles your regular IPs and using hot sim triples it. That, at least, would allow hackers with better mental reflexes to deal with oncoming problems more realisticly.

well, no... it means that you can make two gunnery attacks per round, as compared to a non-VR user's one. and so forth. it's really extremely powerful in any situation where you aren't facing extended tests with set intervals.

Good point. I always forget about rigging.

we are here talking about a mobile phone with a screen the size of a wall, and any number of specialized keyboards and other interfaces

isn't AR grand?

If I'm in the middle of a run where I need to pay attention to my surroundings for my own safety, it's not worth the risk to me. Just being able to move while hacking at hot sim speeds could be huge!
If I'm on a dedicated matrix run where my meat bod is safe, I'll take that 2 dice advantage, thank you very much. . . until cybercombat starts. I'd rather have immunity to death than 2 bonus dice, thank you very much.
Also, since it's a free action, you can switch states often; several times within a combat round if you so choose.

And since you are always running at 3IP in both meat or matrix, unless you somehow have 4IP in meat, you dont lose any IP in switching.
For the most part though, I can see anyone with 3IP+ in meat just working in AR. Hell, I could see mages with improved reflex spell sustained while they hack away in AR, with a couple of spare spells, they could be a really great mage/hacker team member.

You mean the speed of Metal. Or the speed of Magic, or the speed of E-thought (TMs).

It's not as bad as it sounds.

Mr. Meat-boy ain't keeping up with you on the matrix while you are VR and He is AR.

rigging was just an example. i can't say i have a problem with riggers getting two attacks per IP, 'cause hey, guess what? so do sammys!

however, this also allows the rigger to, say... go on full defense while still shooting. or, alternately, to actually control the vehicle while still shooting.

it allows a VR hacker to attack twice in a round, or to attack once and go on full defense.

it basically turns VR into a "i need to have this" kind of thing, rather than "+2 dice? well, i guess that's useful as long as i'm not in even the tiniest bit of danger".

i'm not sure if it would even unbalance anything... well, maybe the rigger going full defense while still shooting is a bit crazy, but otherwise, it still sounds good to me. particularly since riggers no longer get to dodge with their own attributes, but are instead limited to response.

(on a side note, TMs using a threaded command CF just got even scarier though... but then again, TMs being scary when they are using machines is very reasonable, imo)

Eh, I dunno. My hacker is pretty hardcore. Rather than using a commlink to hack, he just jams a rusty nail into his forhead and the sheer badassery makes all the nodes around him just do what he wants without him having to even say.

Ahh yes. The optional Badassery stat.

I think that was cut from later editions.

Here's the text in my book, which falls immediately after Notoriety.

"While some who run the Shadows do so out of need, there are others who are simply destined to be kings. In the Awakened world, some of them become true royalty, but others simply rule the streets.

Characters gain Badassery much like they gain Notoriety. Badassery may be rolled in place of any opposed test, and a character may roll Badassery in place of any attribute or skill (or both).

Some of the things Badassery is gained for include:
Specializations. These include Unarmed Combat (Ninja), Negotiation (Ahnold), Pistols (Feeling Lucky) and Blades (Dual wield Katanas).
Qualities like Hit Me Again Punk, Is That All You've Got? and Yo Momma.
Having more than 4 ranks in any combat skill except Archery. Archery is not badass.

Badassery is lost for:
Specializations. These include Unarmed Combat (Savate), Negotiation (French), Pistols (Flourescent) and Handle Animal (My Little Ponies).
Being an Elf.
Qualities like Combat Paralysis, Allergy (Leather Jackets) and Addiction (Classical Music).

I think someone needs to watch the Rambo movies again, for he has lost the path.

Indeed there will, and Rambo will be fighting hackers played by Angelina Jolie and her ex-husband Johnny Lee Miller. Ok, not really... he'll be rescuing Christian missionaries from the Chinese in Tibet, but my plot would have been cooler.

i think someone needs to look up a troll archer thread, and observe the fact that *normal* arrows can make the PAC look like a water pistol in shadowrun.

let alone injection arrows.

(besides, you can also use semiautomatic crossbows with the archery skill, can't you? )

Im in ur base, killin ur dudes?