QUOTE (Cain @ Nov 11 2008, 06:18 PM)
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I did. Data Searching as a specific skill didn't exist in SR3. It was folded into the Computer skill, which just about everyone had. With the Computer skill and a cheap cyberterminal, anyone could handle a basic matrix search. You didn't even need a Browse program, since all Browse did was locate paydata.
Your objections to the changes ring hollow. First off, a data-search test in SR3 was handled by Etiquette(Matrix), not computer skill. It took 2d6 hours of continuous search time, and you could not add your hacking pool to this test. So basically everything you said about how data-search was handled in SR3 is wrong. Well I guess you didn't need a program, which costs all of what 400Y for a rating 4 program? A big expense there. So as others have been saying, if anything data-search is a much more accessible option to other characters in SR4. Indeed, my impression from reading the two rule sets is that while in SR3 data-search is intended primarily for hackers, in SR4 it is meant for more general application.
In addition, the ambiguous wording in SR3 could lead a foolish GM to put all legwork data up on the matrix if he was so inclined. "Virtually any information can be found in the Matrix, if the character knows where to look and has the time." Of course a rational person would still be able to read that sentence and determine that no, not EVERYTHING can be found on the matrix, but then again, that doesn't appear to be your mindset when you looked at the SR4 rules.
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Compared to a Contact test, that's lightning-fast. The interval for a contact test is 1 hour. In that same amount of time, a decker can easily run 60 tests, even if they take more than 1 interval; odds are that the contact will need more than 1 interval as well. So, it could take you several hours to get info on one subject, or one hour to get info on lots of subjects. That, of course, presumes that the decker is searching the entire matrix, and not a dedicated network such as Shadowland. That would be even faster, being able to complete 2000 tests before the contact could even find anything.
Quite an assumption to assume that a player can narrow down his information to residing on a specific network. Even more so a players access to such network is completely at the GM's discretion. Access could be given out freely, treated as an asset the player had to purchase with karma/nuyen, or even like a contact.
But this entirely misses my point. Which wasn't so much about the speed of data-search itself (which is rather fast). But the amount of time you seem to have characters casually using a dangerous and addictive substance (Hot Sim).
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Do you ask you players, each and every time, if they're using Hot Sim? Do they explicitly tell you each and every time what sim level they're using?
At any event, if players are using hot sim to carefully probe a target, then spending an hour or less doing a hot sim data search isn't such a big deal.
I don't have to ask them, they explicitly tell me in the first place. Is that so strange? The same way they would tell me before using cram or some other drugs to boost their stats. In fact we have a habit at my table of rattling off our dice-pools and where we get them from as we roll them, but even if we didn't, I would still expect to know,
each and every time, a character started using hot-sim. It is after all a dangerous and addictive.
This includes if a player is using it when probing a target. And yes I would consider dragging out the specter of addiction then as well. Probing is designed to be a slow, careful analysis of a system looking for weaknesses. It's another situation where granting a bonus for hot-sim is questionable, but if you did decided to grant it, bring in worries about sim addiction would certainly be applicable as well.
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Sending a bot out requires taking up a subscription slot, possibly a program slot, and takes an action to communicate with. Agents also don't know what information to go after unless you tell them, and as established, they're significantly weaker at it than a good decker. While it's sometimes a good idea to have an agent in a well-placed node, reporting back to you as needed; a constant stream of agents telling you everything that moved is not practical.
Agents have some intelligence, depending upon their rating, so one could expect them to provide some filtering. But in any case it only takes an action to issue them a command, there is no action necessary to receive an alert or something of that nature. Observing their data in detail might be an action, if necessary, but just getting a message from the certainly is not.