We all remember those great cyberpunk movies with the totally unrealistic VR interfaces and giant viewscreens that served no purpose other than showing the totally unrealistic cyber-action to the audience. At least, we should.
The above quote from Hackers sums up what makes cyberpunk Matrices so fragging cool. It sums up exactly what the current wireless matrix is not. Since the posting of house rules has become popular, I've decided to create a framework within which the cyberpunk flavor can be re-established. I hope this works.



Supplementing the comlink

A) Comlinks are expensive, they really are. A few hundred nuyen doesn't seem like much at chargen, but for a 5 per hour soy flipper, it is damned outrageous. The cheapest comlink system, including easily lost interface devices, costs 450 . That's a month's wages for some people and doesn't even include program costs, which are another 150 minimum. And don't even get me started on nanopaste trodes which cost :100: nuyen whenever a character wants to use a DNI device because there is no way in hell that the paste is reusable.

I also dislike the very idea of a fully decentralized network global as being very un-cyberpunk.


Thus: Divide User Interface Decive (AR gloves, trodes, Matrix goggles, etc.) costs by 10.

and

Public Terminals

The most common Matrix access device is not the personal comlink; it is the Public Wireless Matrix Terminal. Terminals are, in essence large comlinks, physically anchored to a location to avoid theft, which anyone can access using AR gloves, wireless keyboards, trodes, or other access devices. Most Terminals also have physical ports for wired device, though these are limited in number. For DNI access, all terminals have their own built-in cold Sim Modules.

Any individual can subscribe an interface to a public terminal and use it though software alterations to the terminal itself are impossible without administrator access and all activity is typically logged and spydered for suspicious activity. Terminals come with all Common Use programs at (Rating) and wireless connections to a terminal are automatically encrypted with the terminal's Encryption program. There are two common flavors of Public Terminal. A (Standard) Public Terminal can support up to Rating x 20 Subscribed users at once. A Mass Public Terminal can support up to Rating x 200 users.

Is that a Credstick in your pocket
Despite the desire of some to phase out the credstick in favor of the personal comlink, it is still the most popular identification and payment device due to the ubiquity of public terminals and the potential dangers of transmitting financial data wirelessly.

Agents are users (Cutting Agent Smith's hamstring)
Agents interface with the nodes that they run on using User Interface Device protocols rather than as a program, which means that they count against the node's subscription limit.

My Icon or Yours
Every node, device, user interface, drone, or agent, subscribed to a node (comlink or terminal) has its own icon within the node and counts against the node's subscription list subscription. Icons represent a connection. Users accessing remote nodes through the matrix will have two icons, one their home node and one on the remote node.



Crash & Suppression

There are two Matrix Condition Monitors, Icon Monitors and Persona Monitors. Both are calculated using the Matrix Condition Monitor rules on SR4 p. 231
Each Icon has its own Icon Monitor and all icons from a home node share the same Persona. Icon Damage overflows onto the Persona Monitor


New Attack Programs
Suppression
Suppression damages an Icon's condition monitor.

Mass Suppression
Can target (Rating) Icons at once.

Crash (Formerly Attack)
Directly damages a Persona's monitor

Mass Crash
Can target multiple icons at once.

[b]Things to do with a suppressed Icon[b]
Once suppressed, an Icon cannot take any action, including logout.
A suppressed icon may be kicked from a system (a forced disconnect which causes dumpshock) by any other icon on that system with a complex action.
A suppressed icon may be hijacked to gain access (or high level access) to its home node. This requires a (Exploit + Hacking) vs (Firewall) test. Successes give access equal to the Icon's user level.
Suppressed icons remain vulnerable to all attack programs.

I don't know. These ideas sounded better before I wrote them down. Its 3 AM and I'm probably not thinking straight, and these are just preliminary. I was really hopping for something more complete but I had to cut out a lot of material due to unacceptable unintended consequences.
Feedback is appreciated.

Such as?

This doesn't do what you think it does.

Either:

A) I can denial of service any arbitary node by using all my agents (and thus ICE?) to hog all the subscription slots. Also, in this case they can still attack, but it's less good.

Caveat to A: Also, lots of cyber attacks can be launched without being subsribed. If they can not, you end up with B

B) I can make completely unhackable nodes by putting devices together and subscribing them to each other and me. So all the riggers drones are now completely immune to hacking by the simple expident of him subscribing them all to each other under and the RFID tags in his udnerwear until the sub limit is maxed out.

You're justifying a change of costs with the notion that it's too expensive for the common people so that keyboard jockies can go VR cheaper? Well there's a few problems with this:

• The cost of a commlink is directly related to it's uses and are compairable to Smartphones of todays society. I know it may be a shocker, but that $10 cellphone or $100 dollar smartphone actually costs $300-$600 without the contract. These prices are even closer if you use the iPhone as an example, and it doesn't even do really freaking cool crap like a Commlink.
  
  
• The Common people wont use VR. There's no need it. Augmeneted Reality is good enough, costing a one time fee for the glasses, and it gives +3 dice in certain tasks, out stripping the VR bonus.
  
  
• Datajacks are a cheap, 'need only do once', type thing if they DO need to VR or PDNI link.
  
  
• When your player can create cash from thin air (Paydata) they probably wont care about the 100 for the paste.
  
  

I thought you just made it cheaper to do...Ok, well lets assume the first was justified. Why this? No decker/hacker will ever use this, specially when a toaster can be turned into a hacking device.

I think people are misinterpreting the idea on a transfer of funds. When someone buys something, the 'money' doesn't go floating out in air space. A little encrypted note (Different per bank)goes out to it's bank saying, "-5 Nuyen for blahbalh" and the bank sends to X other bank's bank account: '+5 nuyen'. Intercepting this data is, of course, useless.

To say this cuts down the Agent Smith is to say that the internet is made of fairies. The breaking point is when you have *multiple unlinked commlinks*. Now, if by 'run on' you mean the 'targets' commlink? That's freaking retarded as well. I have to be on your computer before I can hack to get into your computer?


Look. I know FrankTrollman said he wanted to have other make Matrix alternatives, but that's a stupid damn idea. He spent two years betaing these ideas for Hackers. Most people on DS have barely heard about SR4 for more than two years. All that will come out of it are alternatives that have not thought about every consequence (Cthulhudreams made a DAMN good point that I missed) of their rules. Because Ftrollman's such an asshole people will do this more so

Coming up with new alternatives is a stupid idea? Posting raw forms for constructive criticism and revision doesn't help address the time issue? And Frank's an asshole for asking people to try?

Seven-7, are you sure you're not the one treading the sphincter path...?

Of course, this all falls apart because no one writing SR has a clue why and when people really use cryptography and the vast implications of not having it work.

So you have to fix that little rules idiocy first.

I have to disagree with you here. Franks system has problems, mostly some of relatively unpalatable axioms on which he designed the system. He does outline several alternative premises that are equally valid presumptions to design a set of rules on. Because of the unpalatable axioms his rules are certainly not the SR4 great pancea or anything.

I think people's *problem* when they go to write alternative matrix rules is that they fail to come up with a set of underlying presumptions to underpin their ruleset and provide guidance.

This might take the form of something like (borrowing heavily from franks rules)

Wireless power generation and wireless point to point transmission works by a new form of teleportation. This allows arbitary circuits to be bridged together by teleportation.

Computing power materially requires the human brain. Anything that takes actual decisions in the extremely complex environment of the matrix at large actually requires a human brain to fuel the decision making process. Thus ICE is trapped on its home node, and Agents require someone to use a DNI and then lend brainpower to the agent.

The matrix is everywhere because it is awesome. IF you are 'trixing it the hell up, whatever electronics etc you can throw together give you a +4 modified for having hotsimsense signal going, +3 for coldsim, +2 dicepool modifier if you use a DNI for AR, +1 if you use googles. This makes it totally essential to use the matrix for the average joe to use a DNI and have a simsense signal going, because it takes his dicepool from 6 to 9 and that is quite a difference. This replaces things like smartguns, but works for everything - so if you are matrix connected when dodging bullets from that assault rifle, you get +3 dice to your reaction roll.

It also means I can blackhammer your mum, but as hotsim is illegal, I'll probably only knock her out. Lots of people will value that extra +1 dice though.

Area Crash: Area jammers shut down devices that rely on wireless transmission. But lots of people still use wires - shame that doesn't help them. You can crash systems in arbitrary area (this needs to be defined, but it should be large) with the 'area crash' program and a sufficiently powerful transmitter. However, firewalls can protect you from this. This can be defended against by signal defense.

For some sort of system that encourages people to use the matrix. the only problem is, as frank points out, that I've jacked all the dicepools up, probably have to do something about that.