Hey, another thread that has questions about linking sprites! Yay! So anyway, I've been skimming through the search engine and many of the answers I seek were not among those that were answered... A few were, but I desire some clarification on some of those. So here goes:

1. Lets say I want to tote around a rank 1 Sprite who is himself toting my threaded up Stealth rating. The two of us go and play around in a node. He doesn't do anything that affects the node while I of course do. Is there a good chance that it'll be found while sustaining my Stealth rating, or will it (for the most part) go unnoticed? Same thing if I were to, say, register a rank 9 Paladin to constantly use Castling on me. Yeah, it's 9 karma, but yeah, it's a rank 9 -paladin- holding on -castling- over me.

2. Threading is basically a non action, I get that... It's not even a free action. So lets say I don't have the previously mentioned rank 9 Paladin following me around and I'm suddenly attacked and hit by an IC that I didn't notice before. Do I, before rolling my defense dice, thread up my armor a bit higher and take the damage from it in reply, then on my action, simple action: call up a sprite in my stable to hold that higher rating Armor for a nice sustained Armor rating until/unless that sprite is killed?

... Well, I have more questions, but those are the most pertinent to my TM at the moment.

Nothing about sprites exempts them from the requirement to run a Stealth CF or be spotted by the first Analyze check in the node, regardless of whether or not they're doing anything to it.


Sure, that works. Remember that you're going to have to make your Fading roll and then also resist any damage that gets through your boosted Armor, so you might not necessarily come out ahead. Are you talking about linking the sprite or just assigning it the task of "sustain this threaded Armor until I say otherwise?" Because I don't think you can link a sprite during combat, though I may be wrong.

I'll reply in reverse: On the second answer you gave me: I was talking about "sustain this threaded Armor until..." You are correct from what I can see, you can't link a sprite during the middle of combat. The way I see it, linking a sprite isn't something you can 'just do' by paying karma.

On the first part, awesome. That keeps me from running with the idea of linking a rank 1 sprite and have it follow me around with my boosted stealth. I was actually worried that it -could- happen.

Thanks for the clarification and information.

Wow, replying to my own old post concerning this.

I've been reading through the forums and have been noticing that a lot of people are saying that they can keep their sprites in their biological node and can then run their threaded up programs, castling, and so forth from there instead of being physically (or matrix-lly) in the same node that your active persona is in. Is this so, is it not so? I haven't seen a clear answer from my late night searches on the forums... Yet.

It has been my thought that when sprites are running inside your biological node, sustaining threads on you, that they could only be seen if the biological node gets noticed.

So, to answer my question through your answer: I can have a sprite sustain a thread while in my own biological node while I'm actively doing stuff elsewhere? The description of where they need to be does specifically state that they must be with you, so I suppose that is the correct interpretation? But what about (again) Paladin Sprites? If I had a Linked Paladin Sprite would I be able to have him "Constantly Protect me" in my biological node, get hit up in combat in some random 'other node' and it still be able to disrupt my net ID from its current location? It would know I'm being attacked because of our resonance link, so it would know to disrupt my network ID from where it is sitting at, right?

Sorry, I was confusing the biological node with the biological Persona. I would rule that the sprite cannot be identified while a technomancer is hacking into a node, because the sprite isn't doing anything to the node. It is just sustaining the complex form for the techno. When the hacker gets into the node, such as by gaining a admin account, the sprite can enter with him, as the sprite is running on the same Access ID as the technomancer (like an agent with a hacker).

Edit: Also, for a Sprite to sustain a threaded complex form on you, the Sprite has to be registered first. Registered sprites do not have be in the same node as the technomancer, because they are registered.

Because you can be in multiple nodes at the same time, running essentially the same copy of a program in each, it isn't necessary for your rating 1 sprite to ever enter the node you are at present hacking into. They could be in your biological node or anywhere else you have a persona.

Yes, you can have as many personas (biological or not) active in any number of nodes as long as you have the subscriptions available. So a TM should pretty much always have two personas running - one in his bio-node, and the other one taking care of business. Since the bio-mode is effectively unhackable unless you're running against another TM, it's a safe and easy way to benefit from your Sprites.

that said, imo the paladin sprite has to be in the same node to use castling. imo, the target is not the persona of the TM it is protecting, but rather the attack that it is protecting the TM from. some sprite powers could potentially be useful from the TM's biological node, because they target the TM. others target a node, or some piece of data, or an icon/persona within a node, etc.

Awesome. So if I were to be spotted and someone launched an attack, I'd have to spend my first initiative phase calling the Paladin Sprite (probably 2 sprites with 2 simple actions) and then likely have to thread up my Armor or Shield until the Paladin Sprite can get around to Castling which would be the next initiative pass, correct?

Just trying to get a clear line as to how I'd operate if instead of jacking out, I decided to defend myself against a hacker, IC, or other TM.

perhaps you should work on aquiring a virus that infects systems to not detect your paladin sprite(s) then? (sadly, you cannot thread them unless you're dissonant, but you *can* buy them or even write them yourself using the normal rules)

If I know or am anticipating fighting then I'll probably already have my Paladin standing nearby, all castled up. At this point in the thread, I'm really mainly wondering how people get the Paladin to be there right when they are needed IE: The first combat phase. As the attacking hacker, I'd probably try and have a Black IC attack on the defending hacker (the one who broke into my node) to keep him from jumping out of the node. And as a friend of mine recently said: Shut down the node.

Which leads me to another question: Compiling, Fading, and Registering. Would you get the +2 dice bonus for being in full VR? Or would it not be considered a matrix action?


Edit: I know you'd get the +2 for compiling, but just wondering (actually) about Registering. Fading of course would't give you the +2.

Compiling and Registering are both Matrix Actions, so they would benefit from the bonus to Hot VR...

Keep the Faith