It started when I was reading the rules for crashing programs. I saw that crashing an OS forced a time consuming reboot, but any other program could simply be reloaded 3 seconds later. That hardly seems a fair trade for an extended test with a 1 combat turn interval. Maybe it would take 6 seconds: a simple action to deactivate and a complex to run the program again. Even that's not a fair trade. What's the point of even having rules for crashing programs? Then I had an idea. What if crashed programs were frozen and couldn't be deactivated? You could load a new instance, but the crashed program would just sit there taking up a slot in the system. At least then a hacker would have the satisfaction of affecting response (albeit slowly). And why just for the Crash Program action? Why shouldn't crashed Agents and IC also be frozen and hog resources? Of course they could all be cleared with a reboot.

The more I thought about it, the more I liked the idea. What's more frustrating than defeating the dreaded IC in cybercombat only to see it pop up again moments later with absolutely nothing to show for your hard work?

Now the questions for Dumpshock.
Is this a good idea? (At the moment I'm thinking they should errata or more likely FAQ it into effect.)
Is this fair? Will it change too much? Is it even worth the hassle? Will it change too little? Would this change your hacker's strategy in the Matrix? How?

Lastly, has this already been proposed and hashed over, or is this the way it already works? If so, sorry.

I'll be back after a good days sleep to see how much y'all hated this!

Use analogies. If my cyber dragon is fighting a Renraku samurai program and I crash his attack program that would be like a real world fight where one guy knocks a weapon out of another guys hand right? So why couldnt the guy just pick the weapon back up(or load it up in matrix terms)??

Im not familiar with the matrix at all but are you saying that if my Cyber dragon attacks and kills the Renraku Samurai it can just reappear 3 seconds later??

You were talking about stuff coming back just 3 seconds later.... I mean unless your facing another hacker a system wouldnt be smart enough to know a IC/agent died and to reload it. A IC/agent wouldnt be smart enough to know it lost a program and reload it. Not until you trigger more alarms or something or if the system is on alert and maybe not even then.

This really isn't spelled out the book says some programs automatically reboot, but doesn't specify. It probably falls under the "wait for unwired" catagory.

For now when IC crash I believe most people just have it be dead. Why? Just because they like how that plays.

Now if you crash a spider they can obviously log in again and give things another go. However they will have to beat your stealth again and they either have to use slow AR or suffer dumpshock every time you drop them. Plus you might have taken them out with something on the darker side in the first place.

From RAW what you should do is use a quick "delete" edit action after you've crashed something to "finish it off". Of course you have to be in the appropriate node for that.

Analogies are pretty, but one should look at the mechanics of the Matrix as described in the book if you want to understand how things are supposed to work.

And yes, I'm saying that another copy of IC that looked like a Renraku Samurai could be loaded with a complex action on the node's part. I have to clarify that I was mistaken in my OP. I was thinking in terms of Combat Turns. A node "acting at digital speeds" gets 3 actions/CT. It would take around 2 seconds to deactivate the crashed IC (simple action) and then run new IC (complex action).

Even my system is smart enough to realize when a program is not responding. I can't imagine nodes would be more stupid in 60+ years. If crashed programs are easily deactivated and re-run, I can't see any alternative for a hacker but to do 1 or 2 quick actions after crashing IC and then bail.