On sim-modules: IIRC the version without is supposed to be official.

If you want a price structure that makes sense, the cybercommlink will come with a sim-module. As has been said. I personally envision the cyberware as a port for modular cybercommlinks, but that is not supported by the rules.

At the very least, external sim-modules are available on chips (ie direct-input BTL chips, main book), and therefore should physically fit into a datajack (balancing aspect: can be taken away).

Well, if you want to sim it properly, each of your subscriptions rolls your commlink's Rating vs. a number of hits based on how many you're over; anything that doesn't make it gets disconnected. If you still have too many, keep rolling. Yes, this means you might lose more connections than you should - when things crash, you kinda lose control over what happens next.

?

When a Persona's subscriptions exceed it's System x 2 each subsequent subscription counts as an additional program for the purposes of figuring response degradation.

Unwired p55, Subscriptions.

Thanks crizh! Thats useful to know, not only for Nuke.

Option 4:
Use databombs. You can put them on your Comm, according to my 1st printing BBB. Once the Firewall (or an Agent running Scan or other detection software) declares the connection to be illegal, the bomb goes off. I suppose it would give you one chance to enter a password before detonating, but it's still a nice way to drive off hackers. And while you can only have one databomb per device, you can have one databomb on each file, meaning that accessing Paydata becomes painful, or at least time consuming, as you have to Defuse each bomb.

Sure, they're more or less illegal but that doesn't really apply for the execs, Johnsons, and runners.

OK, here's one.

Agent's can't using Hacking and may, optionally, not be allowed to run Attack.

IC on the other hand can run any form of Combat Program and does not appear to be limited to not Hacking. In fact a number of the IC packages include Hacking Programs or are explicitly described as Hacking. Juhseung Saja I'm looking at you...

So why would anyone buy an Agent?

When one could buy, for example, a Singularity Encore and get all the unlocked glory of an Unrestricted Agent at a 10% discount?

You mean IC at a discount instead of an unrestricted agent for 120% base price? Good thinking.

Because IC is limited in other ways: it can only operate on your commlink's node.

Yeah, to some extent I can see why Frank thought it was a bad idea for the individual Freelancers not to be able see and comment on each others work before Unwired went to print.

But, then again, the real world is full of similar examples of products that make no sense compared to other methods of achieving the same ends that people buy in droves because it just never occurs to them to approach the problem from a different direction.

Said who? When? Where?

You do know that IC tands for Intrusion Countermeasure.

Incorrect; there is plenty of errata integrated with the 5th printing.

That is very wrong.

IC is limited. However they can leave the node.

However, IC are designed to do specific things. Stray too far out of that parameter and their usefulness falls way below that of even restricted agents.

For example, I don't think that the Three Musketeers would be at all useful for Data Searches.

SOME IC can leave the node under specific circumstances. But if one is going to make up rules about IC being unrestricted by the same legalities as mooks, Then I'm gonna slap a different restriction on them.

Any IC can Access another node or load itself onto another node if it is instructed to. Feel free to house-rule differently or change the availability and cost of either IC or restricted agents. I would probably recommend that you do so, in fact, that was the point of the initial post.

But why are there alterations in the 5th printing that are not in the errata?

I disagree somewhat. I think that the Three Musketeers would be excellent for Data Searches, but first they'd have to be reprogrammed to do something other than attack, trace, and crash. Then they'd be great.

If, by 'reprogramm' you mean 'load a Browse utility', then indeed.

Maybe in your game, sure.

In mine, I look at where pilot programs (such as those in IC) are "dog brains." So the Three Musketeers IC, which are a trio of "dogs" that have been "trained" to smack hackers need to be "retrained" to Browse the Matrix, similarly to how a police bomb-sniffing dog would have to be retrained to work as a sheep dog or a seeing-eye dog.

It might go something like:
PC: Porthos, find me information on Necronomicorp.
Porthos: Right. Find Necronomicorp and crash its programs. Where's the Attack program?
PC: No, Porthos, I need you to use this Browse program to find information about Necronomicorp.
Porthos: Right, use this Browse program to find programs to crash in Necronomicorp. Where's the Attack program?
PC: No, Porthos, just a Data Search, please.
Porthos: Right! I'll start looking for programs to crash now. Where's the Attack program?
PC: ARGH!!
Porthos: Your last command is confusing to me. Where's the Attack program?
PC: *shuts down Porthos program*

Kinda like asking a protocol droid to act as a member of the Rebel Alliance. Wackiness may ensue.

LOL.

But, house-rules aside, all IC are, RAW, just Agents in Wolf's clothing.

But still dog-brained ones, also according to your hymnal. After that, it's interpretation.

I concur. No better than their scripting.

I just ruled that if you need IC that can do hacking or optionally use attack programs, then you have to pay the same 20% cost as unrestricted agents, and if you care about legality, you need the proper paperwork.

So that means that a cyber commlink comes with a integrated Sim Module?

RunnerPaul looked at his copy of 5th printing and it states that a cyber commlink has a sim module. Please tell me what the final ruling is. Thank you

Correction: I looked at a copy on a store shelf. Didn't actually buy it.

Incidentally, whats stopping me 'stealing' agents. As they move their .exe around, carn't I just create a honey pot, wait for agents to move into it, disconnect that node from the intertubes, and hack the agent until it follows my commands.

Also, can I not get other agents to do that?

Thats why a hard-coded controlling ID would have been more restricting for agent smith. Plus you might actually want to have that.
Instead of setting up a honey pot, you can wait for a probe with an agent ID, analyse (to avoid accidentially assaulting GridSec), take over the agent, then extract its botnet program and encryption codes. The agent is likely running on a low-powered system, and therefore easy prey.

They are two separate implants.

funny thing is that the implant comlink in the gear section have never stated that it came with a sim module.

that little entry only shows up in the matrix section, page 228, virtual reality, iirc...

That's all well and good, Muspellsheimr, but the text in question doesn't come from the gear chapter, it comes from p.228 in the Virtual Reality section of the Wireless World. Since you have a 5th printing handy, would you care to confirm for everyone what the second sentence in the second paragraph under the Virtual Reality header reads?

and thats why you dont use agents to do a hackers job. who knows when it will show up on your (virtual) doorstep, bringing "gifts"?

Word. Botnets are for hackers. The very idea of using them for a mass probe is... unnerving.



The German first printing has an internal sim-module for the cybercommlink mentioned in the gear chapter. Thats the only justification for the price IMO.

Some questions that come up inn discussions about technomancer:

1. Does the Swap Echo reduce the overall Modification for sustained complex forms (e.g. you sustain 3 CF and only get -4 instead of -6) or for each sustained complex form (which means,you get no mod for sustaining any more)?

2. Can you thread a CF over and over again until you reach the max (Res*2) or can you only thread each complex form once?

3. Can you thread the emulated Skillsoft CF to get higher ratings (e.g. Skillsoft rating of 7 or more are possible)?


would like to get an official answer.

thx
Tycho

Sounds like the sixth world equivalent to 4chan's Anonymous.

The german printing is an abomination.

Going through Unwired a second time and I noticed this one: The Defragment echo that allows a TM to heal matrix damage done to their persona. But, SR4 tells us that TMs don't have a matrix condition monitor because there's no hardware, only wetware. Thus, all matrix damage is converted to stun damage for TMs. Does the Defragment echo allow a TM to "heal" stun damage assume that said damage is incurred as a result of a non-black-IC matrix attack?

Matrix damage still causes technomancers damage. If you turn to page 233 in your hymnal, you'll find that Matrix damage is automatically treated as Stun damage for technomancers. So if you're a Defragmenting technomancer, and you get three hits, and you've taken two Stun damage from IC and four from a Stunbolt, you only heal two of those boxes: the ones incurred by Matrix damage.

That's my reading of it, anyway.

Seconded.

I agree with this reading, too, it was just jarring to see it handled that way. I think I had conceived that TMs don't get matrix damage not having a matrix condition monitor.

I sort of skipped over the entire degradation debacle, but I think I have a pretty good idea of why it's there. It's purely a game balance issue, so looking for plausible in-character reasons for why all software degrades is futile.

Shadowrun (like most RPGs) is still very much tied to the "old school" paradigm for gear: it has to cost money, or it's "unfair". In other words, monetary cost is considered the main balancing factor for the benefit a given piece of gear gives you. Software breaks this expectation, since in the real world you can get it for free even if you stay away from warez: there's everything from shareware to Free and Open Source Software.

What happened is that the developers were more worried about keeping the game balanced according to the traditional paradigm than having it make real-world sense.

Just the collateral damage is insane, especially for illegal gear and cyber. Or Activesoft chips becoming useless after 8 in the drawer.

it's still matrix damage, whether or not the TM has a matrix damage track. think of it as being like a medicine that treats burns and thus would heal fire damage; there is no 'fire damage' track, nevertheless this theoretical medicine (or whatever it is) would be able to help with fire damage, but not with, say, a stab wound.

What about a Techno with Defragmentation and Mesh Reality?

It specifically states it doesn't work for Black IC programs. So the Stun damage would have to come from an Attack program, not a Blackout program. So you'll have to keep track of what stun damage was caused by attack programs, vs blackout or stunball

Not really. You only have to track Attack and Not-Attack. What specifically caused the Not-Attack damage doesn't matter since it can't be defragged.

Databombs too.

Standard ones, anyway.

Good point. Still, the point remains that you don't need to keep track of every possible source of stun damage if a TM has defrag at your table. No more problematic than having to remember what damage was from drain so that it cannot be healed.

Bah. Avoid damage. Befriend a Paladin Sprite.