first of all, the limitations to black hammer only apply to black hammer. secondly, black hammer can still do damage to cold sim users, it's just that it deals stun instead of physical. damage is still dealt, therefore psychotropic option kicks in.

and secondly, you're gonna have to come up with a better similarity than 'they both use ASIST'. a smartlink and a simchip with the latest karl kombatmage both use ASIST, but that doesn't mean i can slot karl kombatmage and get +2 bonus dice on certain firearms tests.

SmartGun Links use ASIST? Citation if you can?
Then we agree to disagree then.

WMS

had forgotten the new edition lets you do it with just image link (though simsense is still an option in SR4). no real significant difference though. the same point applies if i had used skillwires/activesofts and the simsense recording of karl kombatmage. the recording doesn't grant you any actual skills, whereas skillwires with activesofts do.