If you don't want to invest in the computer skill, it seems to me that for a reasonably small outlay of BP's you can install an upgraded headware Comm Link, and install a pilot program up to level 4 due to availability at character generation.

You can buy the required programs and autosofts, and for want of a better term basically have a semi intelligent familiar to do most if not all your Hacking tasks. If you purchase level 5 or 6 programs it seems like your little buddy could have 9 or 10 dice to do most tasks. It would not have any imagination, and would take your orders literaly, but you could give it verbal orders and it would carry them out.

I probably would not want it to hack into a mega corp, but it seems like it would be pretty competent at basic tasks. If you buy the replication Autosoft you could have the little fella download himself into other nodes, or even some drones, and not even risk the program running in your head.

Does anyone have any comments?

Immediate comment is...pilot 4 is pretty good. That's how likely it is to understand your orders, if we applied the same rules to some players logic, it would understand the commands better

One thing to bear in mind is that you can't move it over to other vehicles out of the same type (can't refer to a book right now, sure it says just this in core). So you can't have it pilot a car then a vtol craft then a boat. If I remember right, it might even suggest moving from a car to a van is a no no.

replication autosoft?

It's called Hacker-In-A-Box. Best used for basic defensive or simple tasks, or drones. Not great at offensive side.

But yes, cheap.

On a metagaming level ir lowers the barrier for everyone to be modestly effective at using the Matrix. Thus making the Matrix more a part of the basic game.

Are you sure? What if you give it the correct Auto soft to be able to do those things? I believe it states the pilot can work independant of you, or use multiple nodes, that count towards your subsciber limit.

It seems like if it went against a normal wage Hacker with a 4 stat, and a 3 skill it might do pretty well at combat, or if it needed to hack into another groups equipment that did not have a Hacker on their team.

Absolutely, just had a quick check. I was actually thinking about the autosofts, not the pilot(AI). My apologies!

Thanks for the input.

One comment I can add is aboutt he replicate autosoft (tbh, I didn't know it existed until now). It does require the copy protection to be broken, which is a bit annoying IMO. Programs "degrade" once broken (because they aren't auto updated). Updating the program yourself is HUGELY time consuming, but you can "share" the program to get others free yourself. But in general, this is not something I tend to do. For a one off use, yes, overload a node and lower it's response...lets you get away with a ton of things as it checks on you less often.

Can you clarify the above? If not I will asume it is in unwired

Thanks

the more stuff you run on a node, the lower it's response will get. if you massively overload the node by running dozens of agents on it, you can drop it's response to 1 or even 0.

anyways, i don't think you want a pilot program for your commlink, you actually want an agent. pilots are clarified as being somewhat tied to the device, and they actually are vehicle/device type specific in the latest version of the rules iirc.

I am sure you are right I think the book labels them as Agent/pilot or somesuch, but I get the idea.

I need to dig into the rules see how everything works. I wanted to see if it was a viable idea.

Does the Pilot rating limit the rating of programs it runs? I thought Pilot rating (or Agent for that matter) = System rating= max rating of program?

I thought that would be the system rating of the comm not the agent.

Yes, this is in unwired (page 108 covers legal vs pirated). To copy a program, you need to break it's copy protection. Once you do that, it no longer updates (which they are always assumed to do) and they "degrade" or become more obsolete. Hacking and malware drop 1 from rating per month. All others degrade at a rate of 1 point per 2 months. So your rating 4 program becomes 3 after 2 months and no longer runs after 8 months.

My understanding is that system limits the maximum of a program. Rating 6 OS needed for rating 6 programs. An agent can only use up to it's rating of effectiveness (again, will have to check). It's also important to remember that Agent Rating +...response...I think....is needed to understand what to do in certain situations. This shouldn't mean it doesn't do what is told...but if it can autonomously do something it wasn't specifically told.

As a player I don't like this, but it is a reasonable rule to keep things within limits.

I was always a SR3 guy, but SR4 is beginning to grow on me.

Think how I feel...I hacked all my programs in living to share them (rating 6's all round, folks!) then read that rule. I asked for contributions from the group, I can tell you!

It'd be pretty crazy without degradation, because piracy means you get 90% off everything.

Yeah, and when you consider the considerably low price to get yourself a full set of rating 6 programs, it really isn't that much of a problem for people who have done a few runs.

don't most people invest in an agent program for their commlinks? it seemed a pretty obvious choice for everyone other than hackers and riggers. the few bps it costs in nuyen is way cheaper than buying all the skills it can duplicate and its even more tempting if you have a low logic attribute too. arent there some hacker-in-a-box type packages available too??

There's the RAW problem: as per Unwired Errata, you shouldn't get a Profession Autosoft for Hacking.

Which is strange as Agetens have the same skill by default, but so is RAW. Of course, Agents lack the Electronic Warfare skill and can't get it (only drones get the EW Autosoft) - so as this a a non-defaultable skill, they are not able to decrypt anything.

There is a precanned Pocket Hacker agent that's not too bad not something that would stand up to a dedicated security setup but it could very much supplement the skills of a character who is savvy enough to know about the matrix and know that's where a lot of the good stuff is but can't or doesn't rely solely on the team hacker. Also those same lines I highly recommend the pre-packaged search bot agent, good for characters without data search skills but at the same time won't automatically outshine a dedicated information specialist. On the whole i'm fine with people using these prebought programs because it will make a dedicated hacker look even better when they eat these agents for breakfast.

In my opinion, hacking is a little narrow anyway. In the official missions, hacking varies so much it makes a hacker scared to even touch a node! And it's VERY hard to boost your dice pool. You assume a rating 6 program, 6 skill, 2 for VR, 2 for encephalon...and 2 from hot sim (off the top of my head...as it's what my living character has). That gives 18 dice and I can't see a way to increase it at the moment. This may seem nice, but my pool is no good to stop me getting spotted. Assuming the node scans every turn(big assumption, I know...but this has been the case) against my 6 stealth...it's going to spot me pretty soon. Then add in a honey pot...a spider....and hacking really becomes not worth it.

well.... if we assume a pirate network, you could look for a stealth 7 optimizard 1 program, or somesuch. but yeah it is very hard to boost your rating past those dice. the problem is that setting demands hackers/deckers to exist, while the rules continue to make it difficult to be a skilled hacker.

you can optimize your commlink for one program, and you can specialize. so you could get 21 dice with one thing, before we start looking at qualities. optimized stealth seems like one of the more sensible things to do imho.

Agreed. It's a big hit amongst the infiltrators and faces at my table. Even the Agent's modest dicepools can pay off when combined with Hardware and a li'l stealth or social engineering.

I wouldn't even bother much with social. If you want to cover the basics, just get a rating 6 Empathy soft and you should have an ok dice pool for most things (6+cha-1 for not having the skill. So 6 dice for someone incredibly inept).

It doesn't work like that, you can only pick up a number of dice from the social softs (or any other supplement) equal to your pool so at max it's cha-1X2.

Except for the optional rule which allows for 20 dice (which is standard in missions).

The 20 dice is a max cap, it doesn't override the emo softs cap.

That's how I read it when I first understood the optional rule was going to be used, but then I read it again. Let me paste it here for reference...

Optionally, gamemasters may choose to cap dice pools (including modifiers) at 20 dice, or at twice the sum of the character’s natural Attribute + Skill ratings, whichever is higher.

I stand corrected!

My whole group read it as a 20 dice hard cap(I guess it's what we all expected) so I can't blame you for reading it like that. The way it currently is kinda shocked me.