Hello everyone...

In my last session of shadowrun, I tried to be my super hacker best. Unfortunately the dice disagreed and denied me my time in the lime light. I tried to compile a Rating 5 Sprite with a resonance of 5, a compiling of 4 and a technomancer bonus of 2... for a total of 11 dice

The sprite got two hits and I only got three. The result was a rating 5 sprite with only one task owed to me so I sent it on a remote task of tagging all smartlinked guns so I could track them later... This got me thinking, what is the optimal power to task ratio for compiling sprites.

Looking over the sprites got me thinking on the type of task that they can accomplish.

A rating one sprite could be registered in one hour (a minor inconvenience) and can be loaded full of task by reregistering it. The rating one Sprite could just be used for sustaining complex forms that have been threaded up.

This got me thinking about an elf Technomancer that relies on "housing" seven to eight registered sprites with low ratings and have them perform things like data-searches, Tagging Comms for future searches, and other menial task, while he can focus on more important things with his unregistered Sprite with a low amount of task and a high rating.

Optimal is defined by the circumstances.

Sometimes you just need that one kickass sprite to perform one standard task.

Sometimes you just need a sprite, any sprite, rating 1 will do. Buy the hits for compiling and fading.

Sometimes you need one at force three for that little optional Power.

Sometimes you need one at force 6 because you need two of the optional powers at once.

Choose what's best for your needs.

Your needs will change.

If you do have a single need most of the time, then you can optimize for that. But that's dependent on what you think your needs are.

I reckon this is as much a matter of Charisma as anything else. You can only have so many Registered Sprites so you need to have a clear plan what they all do for you.

Rating 1 is certainly the sweet spot for Sustaining Threading. The higher a Sprites Rating the quicker the number of services you add every time you re-register it tails off. You are pretty weak in terms of Compiling/Registering Dice so anything above Rating 4 starts to become Risky.

Bear in mind also that while a Rating 1 Sprite can sustain a CF threaded all the way from nothing to double your Resonance you are skill going to have to Thread that CF. The limiting factor here is not your Software Skill but your Fading Pool.

A higher Rating Sprite can Assist Operations for the same length of time that it could Sustain Threading but the value of the bonus would be defined by the Sprites Rating rather than your Software Skill and Fading Pool and isn't limited by twice your Resonance.

Another factor is that most CF's do not need to be sustained when you thread them. Most CF's are one shots, you use it, you get a result, you move on. It's stuff like Stealth and Armour that need to be sustained but not necessarily at the same time.

What CF load-outs are you actually using? Do they change during the mission? That'll tell you which CF's you want to be threading and how many you really need to be threading at the same time. I wouldn't be at all surprised if you only really used two Threaded CF's at any one time which would allow you to dedicate Sustaining to only two Rating 1 Sprites that you keep hovering at about 40 services.

That'll buy you two minutes of Sustaining.

That's enough time to buy a controlling interest in Ares if you are good enough.....

Heh...the optimal rating is 7...without a little bit of GM handwaving you can't even attept to register an 8 (they only last 8 hours max, and it takes (rating) hours per attempt to register.)

A common house-rule I've seen is to waive that time limit for registring and for binding: you always get one attempt, as long as you start immediately after compiling/summoning, but not if you start trying after doing anything else.

SR4A clarifies this - a sprite will stick around for the whole registering attempt even if that extends past its normal service duration. So RAW is now a bit more generous than the house rule you mentioned. I'm not sure if this applies to binding spirits as well, but in the interest of fairness I think it probably should.

I would pick up Analytical mind but my Gm said he does not see that happening... The other quality (home ground I think) is a little to hard for me to do right now because I was kicked out of my corporate enclave.

So other than boosting my Electronics,Compiling and registering to a higher level... is there anything else I could pick up to boost my compiling skills?

Well, Homeground can apply to a Virtual location, like The Nexus for example, which would allow you to gain the bonus by just Mentally travelling to it. As a Technomancer you can do that at will so long as you have Matrix access.

In Tune is an excellent Advanced Lifestyle quality which would give you a bonus to all Resonance activities, regardless of where your mind is, so long as your body is physically within the 'In Tune' environment.

Safehouses with said quality are pretty cheap, particularly if you join a network that sets them up as part of a 'joint' lifestyle.

I initially thought that the Widget Crafting Echo was rubbish but on closer examination I've revised that opinion. Carefully planning there can net you several extra dice just where you need them.

Unwired has Paragons. Some paragons may offer a boost to compiling.

If you routinely use a rating 1 sprite for the same thing consider using "Linking" on that sprite.

[Unwired, p154]

It costs Karma equal to Rating and is limited to those tasks a compiled sprite can perform because it is a compiled sprite made with compiling and not registering.
It lasts 256 days and doesn't count against your number of registered sprites.

If you give its task set parameters that are useful to you then they are worth pretty good mileage but the looser the definition of parameters the more likely they are to be exploited by an intruder.

Example linked task:
[Machine Sprite] Use the Stability power on every icon sharing a node with you as long as they are not using a Stealth program, Stealth CF, and also have a datafile loaded on their persona containing the string 10101001010111001 somewhere inside it giving preference to the one that compiled you if you are unable to provide the Stability power to them all. {best 1 karma ever}


[Any Sprite] Alert me using our sprite-technomancer link if an icon loads a datafile onto this node. {drop box}


[Any Sprite] If I give a command to any sprite that is not on the following list then use the sprite-technomancer link and alert me that "Spoofed command may be present in node x" and include the designation of the sprite receving the suspected-spoofed command. {additional security}

Ah, linking.

God, I love linking.

Stick a Rating 6 Tutor/Machine Sprite with First Aid and Medicine into an Evo Orderly. Link it to keep the occupant in peak physical condition to the limit of it's capability.

You can be pretty sure of being able to ignore 4 points of Fading damage.

This is how horror-movies begin. Next time you want to get out of the Orderly, it sedates you, keeps you wrapped up inside. Screaming: "It is much more better and safer in MEEEEEE". And then it begins to improve you... by cutting out the emotions of your brain. DO NOT TRUST your sprites. (PARANOIA)

I'm pretty sure this is how the Borg will begin and I for one welcome our new cyborg overlords.....

Get some platelet factories and you can bump that up to 5 points of fading that you can ignore.

I'd also recommend upgrading the medkit in the orderly from rating 4 to at least rating 6. (why Valkyrie modules don't come with a rating 6 kit by default I will never understand. It's not that much more expensive.)

in general, no essence lost is often a really good idea for technomancers.

But if you're going to lose some, then it's best to do it before you spend karma on raising your resonance. Besides, the trauma damper and platelet factories help A LOT when dealing with the damage you will inevitably take when dealing with fading and cybercombat. Also, in that one point of essence you can also fit a few genetic optimizations so that you have a higher cap on the attributes that matter most to you. Yes it reduces your power curve a little bit at the start, but the increased resistance to damage doesn't actually cost you all that much.

I've been crunching numbers lately and the bottom line, it almost invariably works out better to buy Resonance up to Rating 6 at chargen and forgoing cyberware.



Can you be more specific? From a conceptual perspective I think its great but in practise I would think it is not cost effective.

- J.

At first glance it is a bit pants. The Threshold is double Rating and the period is an hour. Then you have to contend with the Fading which is also double Rating which seems pretty harsh.

But then on second glance it started to grow on me. It is unfortunately like much of SR4 in that the checks and balances are only really effective against beginners. As soon as you can reliably soak 10 boxes of Fading it starts to be a much more attractive prospect.

It's a bit like Probing a Node but much more effective.

Spend an hour or two whipping up a Debugger 4 Widget and then with your extra 4 dice of Software you can whip up a Rating 4 Benchmarking, Cheat and a couple of RAM's in only an hour each. I might even be inclined to bash out a RAM 6 as well.

After your done with that you have a good couple of hours in which you are nigh on unstoppable. It rapidly gets to the stage where it just ain't funny anymore.

With a Stealth focussed build you can be pushing 20 on your Stealth CF and be rolling 30+ Dice to avoid detection. No mundane Hacker or IC stands a Whelks chance in a Supernova of catching you. You greatly outclass even SR4 AI's and could probably slip past the likes of Morgan or Deus no problem based on a very rough translation of their effective power levels.

I think it is probably time I looked at creating an Analyze focused TM to use as a Spider...

I know this is a little bit necromancy considering it's almost a month ago since this was posted in last, but how are you reliable soaking ten boxes of fading as a Technomancer ?