Okay, help me understand something all you John Does and Jeri Does. Is says that people have AR "icons" or "Avatars" that come preloaded in their commlinks. So, let's say Kyoto Kid has his icon loaded for everyone to see...

In AR do we see him walking around looking like whatever his icon looks like (ala Who Framed Rodger Rabbit where toons play in the real world) talking to me like any other person, or do I see in my field of vision KK's icon with a box of text saying "Yo, Doc Funk is Black Hammering your mom... in the face... for fun and profit."

The reason I ask is because I'm playing a Technomancer who hates the meat and spends all his time assisting the Runners from the Matrix. His persona looks like the cartoon guy on page 209 of the ol' SR3 book with the Slam-O bat. All his Complex Forms look like cartoon items that he just pulls from the front of his trousers.

Attack - The Slam-O Bat (the higher rating he uses, the bigger the nail)
Black Out - A black rubber mallet, when he successfully knocks someone out a light bulb lowers from nowhere and he pulls the chain and the everything goes black for the victim.
Analyze - A magnifying glass that makes his eye HUGE!
Armor - A rather comical suitof knights armor with a helmet visor that won't stay open.
Browse - Launching a dresser from his pants (meant to symbolize the node) he begins to browse occasionally pulling out garments (other's dirty laundry) that he casts aside if he's not interested.
Exploit - Seemingly from nowhere a Sweatshop of sprites is pulled from his trousers and they vigorously work to help him gain access to a node.
Decrypt -Large gaudy decoder ring, pulled from a box of cereal everytime he uses it.
Edit - A crooked polotican sprite pops up and hands him the edited copy of the file/program/etc...
Scan - A large eyeball drone zooms in and displays all apprpriate info (incuding HP/MP totals, Elemental Weaknesses, Gold for defeating, EXP gained, and any dropped items )
Stealth - A Minja (mini ninja) leaps from his trousers, pick him up and carries him around.
Track - Yanking a trio of blood hounds from his pants they get to work sniffing out what he's looking for.

Now if the AR happens like what it seems like is described in the book, then well, this character is gonna be a hoot to play (considering all he does outside the Matrix is sleep), especially if the characters can see him in his 'Persona' form, doing his thing, providing he's not going fully VR.

The way they describe AR it seems like things like this Technomancer are possible, but I'm not 100% sure.

The guy with the Slamm-O bat is a decker who calls himself Slamm-O. He's the kid of a decker, too, and everybody's favorite (or most hated) snot-nosed hotshot decker.

In terms of what you see? In AR, you're likely to see whatever you WANT to see, based on your preferences. You may choose just to have an icon and some text pop up when he talks. You might choose to have the text be audio. You could even get Slamm-O's icon to walk next to you while you talk to him. The stuff we do know about how AR looks indicates you get as much or as little sensory integration as you'd like to have your HUD display.

NM, I misread something

[major edit]

...uh, how did the short one get pulled into this?

Anyway,

In AR I would think it would appear more like a message board today with the Icon in the corner of the page of a normal text window by whatever post she wrote. There may be some animation but from what I gather about AR is that it is more like a souped up version of a present day GUI.

Now, in VR her icon could appear as a full motion version of the rootin toot'n six gun shootin' Bushido Cowgirl capable of conversing directly with another user's icon.

What I meant by that statement is that the user determines the level of detail they recieve in AR, not what the AR looks like in terms of icons. If a user wants to only recieve text and audio, they can. If they want touch, vision, sound, smell, taste, and full-surround visiuals integrated with the real world, they can get that, too. Provided they have all the gear for it, anyway.

...in past editions the reality filter had a negative effect on your performance in the matrix. I am still at work and don't have access to my books at the moment. but I remember there was a distinct reason why Diamond ICe never had one. Now it just takes up a programme slot.

One out of 5 slots before even the fastest available commlink experiences slowdown.

the thing to have in mind is that the icon of a program or agent, and its function is not linked.

so when a reality filter makes all black hammer attacks look the same, they become easier to recognise.

its similar to how all cars have the basic controls in the same place and working the same way, it becomes simpler to drive a unfamiliar one.

or how in windows things should be in the same place on fresh installs.

but when the reality filter cant make heads or tails of what the node tells it, you get inconsistent behaviour, and your response time suffers.suffers.

edit: oops...