...hot damn! That has been one of my real sore points with previous location source material, particularly SoE & SoA. For my RiS campaign ended up buying Euro road maps (& these are not cheap) so that I could give the players correct travel distances and times to get from one place to the another. Heck, even had to go on EBay to get a decent map of Zagreb.

No.

You will note that though there's some history to Horizon and some details on the big names the focus is definitely on the group's local infrastructure. For the global picture and more secrets you'll have to wait for the next corp guidebook...

Contrary to popular opinion we do listen to what the fans are saying - we might not agree but we do listen. In this particular case though, "the Fall" as depicted in Corporate Enclaves was pretty much mapped out this way since SR4 came out, though Jay Levine certainly enhanced and filled out the original concept with his contribution in Street Magic.

Seriously? Let's look at these thought out and space knowledgeable critiques.

Perhaps you should read System Failure for the context and circumstances in which satellites were forced "out of orbit, where they burned" on the way down (or to save you time: during the Crash 2.0 the Second Virus/Jormungand purposefully forced satellites and a few stations to fire directional thrusters to push them out of orbit and down to Earth).

Solar sails (as detailed in previous Shadowrun books and IRL) can be used as energy collection devices as easily as a propulsion system (in fact they're more efficient as the former than the latter) - though a lot of popular sci-fi overlooks the former. Many of the solar powersat projects on the drawing board do in fact refer to their solar panels as sails since they are used to both collect energy and make orbital corrections.

The solar sails described in Corp Enclaves are identified as such because they are made from energy-collecting nanotech fabric, stretch for a couple of klicks, and also function as light sails allowing for orbital course corrections without additional energy sources.

I'm pretty sure you're mistaken on this one too, you're probably confusing "geosynchronious" with "geostationary".

While equatorial orbit is a circular (read: perfect) geosynchronious (and possibly geostationary) orbit, it is not the only geosynchronious orbit possible (for instance: the Tundra Elliptical Orbit).

To borrow a definition "a geosynchronous orbit is an orbit around the Earth with an orbital period matching the Earth's sidereal rotation period. This synchronization means that for an observer at a fixed location on Earth, a satellite in a geosynchronous orbit returns to exactly the same place in the sky at exactly the same time each day" (Wikipedia) and is not restricted to an equatorial orbit ). In practice pretty much any elliptical orbit can be geosynchronious and be placed anywhere over the Earth - say like over Neo-Tokyo.

I believe you are confusing "geosynchronious" and "geostationary," since the satellite is to function as a surveillance platform. However, given that even an artificial geostationary orbit can be accomplished off the equator through constant corrections, the only thing really stopping us from doing so these days is the power requirements. Given that this satellite's solar sails allow for the constant corrections necessary to maintain its otherwise eccentric orbit over Neo-Tokyo it is both geosynchronious and geostationary.

As for the satellites value as a surveillance platform, there is no reason why it would be limited to optical observation instead of using a combination array of multiple sensors that make the distances involved far less of a barrier.

Maybe, in hindsight, you should be less anxious?

instead of only the RL Names of the Authors your Aliases should come in too.
That would probably seriously calm down those things because most people on dumpshock know you guys and thus know that if your name is used then it's probably correct . . and if not, they know who to ask if they are not certain and can get an actual intent from you guys . .

wait what? where? when? why? how?
i seem to have totally missed that . .

Okay, let's revisit a basic concept here: the same people don't write everything. I, for example, didn't write the bit in SR1 where Japan fields a fleet of solar sats to meet its power needs, nor the bit in System Failure where the terrorist group Winternight organized hundreds of sats to fall out of their orbits as best they can. Obviously they weren't completely successful, for many reasons-including the ones you pointed out.

See, SR freelancers have to adapt what they write to the background as best as they can, and we offer up explanations when necessary and prudent-and, most important of all, when we have wordcount. I'm sorry if we didn't go into full detail on everything for you, but there are limitations involved.

Popular conception more than anything. Most people don't really grasp the physics and logistics of satellites, they just wonder why their GPS/phone isn't working right now.

'cause for most people, it does not. Sad to say you're in the minority friend, but the number of people complaining about geosynchronous sats is about on par with, say, people complaining about the square-cube law with respect to critter sizes, and far less than people complaining about the nomenclature of a new Awakened virus as regards to current naming standards for viruses. Everybody has their specialty, or eccentric hobby, or field of truly arcane knowledge where they think they know best (and, in some cases, may well indeed know best). I know it can be frustrating at times, but it's like getting an unexpected result in the lab: if you accept that it happened, the question to ask is why.

If people only knew how brilliant that line is. My hat is off to you, sir.

Again, your gripe is with System Failure not specific to Corporate Enclaves.

For the record, firstly in SF it was mainly small and low-orbiting satelites that made forced reentry during the day of the Crash. Whatever big stuff came down did so later - and even then it was because the crew and computers systems were dead (as depicted in one fiction segment). Second, you are mistakenly assuming orbital engines powered by contemporary systems when there fusion reactors and solar sails have been available for years - they're not that too far advanced but they are a lot better than today. Third and finally, you're disregarding artistic license, for all the grief I've had for the stuff in my section of System Failure the "rain of stars" hasn't been one of them.

Read the entry in context, as Ancient has explained its intended for the uninitiated and posted by a non-specialist.

Furthermore, as all the authors (and the editor) have explained it was put in layman's terms since its actual position is pretty irrelevant as long as it's looking down on Tokyo with a wide array of sensors. Opticals might not look through buildings but various types of radar, thermal imaging, radio scanning, etc and a number of other systems do.

I myself like the art throughout the book (except for the cover, which makes me in the minority, I guess). The gangbangers just inside the front cover are great, and the saxophonist and the family-in-a-shack in the LA section are quite evocative, IMHO. The only real pieces that don't do much for me are the building landscapes in the "Company Towns" chapter and one artist's insistence for transposing English words and phrases into Greek characters (p.129). The art's better than many pieces in the Core and in Augmentation. de gustantibus non disputandum est, I suppose!

strike two for the HUH?-Squad . .

Marko (and his wife) does cover art and more recently interiors for Marvel Comics.

His first(?) variant cover for Thunderbolts is actually similar in design to Steve Prescott's one-page image in Dragons of the Sixth World of the Draco Foundation board of directors.

I blame The M.A.N. from S.H.A.D.O.W. and his secret underground military experiments on lizard people and giant scorpions.

You might not have read System Failure, where it is described in (a little) more detail, but there is some data on this very subject right in the core SR4 rule book, so it isn't some kind of super big secret.

There are also over a dozen threads right here on Dumpshock discussing the matter in various stages of outrage.

The 'fluff stuff' is what separates Shadowrun (regardless of edition) from all the rest.

The shaded areas on pg 12's map are urban areas, which show the sprawl of the cities. You'll notice the shading around Las Vegas and Phoenix, too, which are not flooded.