I'm playing a Technomancer character and our team recently came into a substantial pile of cash. I have a plan but I'm not quite sure how to go about it.

Im looking to kit out the safehouse with a high-end computer system for long-range Matrix support. I'm looking for something beyond your average flat 6's. How do you get a system beyond just the full 6, even by two points.

I had originally planned to buy a couple of fully loaded nexi and cluster them, but the rules for clustering seem to render that idea somewhat useless.

Hm Hm... well, i would say: two medium nexi are pretty much all you need for practical applications. Make sure the processor limit is up to 50... more than enough for running a full suite of programs for a task. The second one you can load with agents and support software and command them. The one thing this setup is bad with is initiative. But some boosters can fix that up a bit.

Also with the ratings: There is this weird ... hm, schism(?) in the rules & fluff that says rating 6 programs and hardware is military-cutting edge stuff... all while other rules imply that they are VERY easy to duplicate and surpass. The REALLY heavy programs are more rating 10+. It is feasible, under the current rules, to have some AI on homenodes or exceptionally programmers on souped-up nexi to run programs of rating 15. Yet only rating 4-6 gets mentioned.

Clustering Nexi isn't really that good of an idea i guess (You need to upgrade every single one of them, can only have a "net" optimized for one task, opposed to several nexi all for different tasks) and you already have a insane high processor limit. COMLINKS on the other hand...

One good Nexus with a high process limit/program load(whatever its called), pirated programs and agents at 6.
In a life style with Fung Shui(hacking is a technical skill), In Tune(all resonance related stuff, such as cf's +2), and Privacy Screen(matrix) 3 (because Stealth is a perception threshold while hacking or probing)
Done.

Maybe Resonance Well if you're feeling like pimping out your safehouse.

Nexi aren't useless. They ignore the 'system limits program rating rule'. Grab a nexus, throw it full of rating 6 programs, and don't forget to Ergonomic all the common use.

May question would be...what do you want with a pimped nexus? Sprites and CFs don't care about the system you run them on. Well, you could say that the whole computing power ist a prequisite for something like a Resonance Well.

AFAIK, Technomancers can still employ Agents, in addition to sprites.

Could also be a hidden TM trying to provide a realistic reason for their Matrix skills by creating a believable false-hacker front.

Im trying to get a high-end system that can handle lots of high rating programs as well as keep me fairly safe in the Matrix.

Because you may only have one Compiled sprite. Registering sprites beyond that limit takes time, and each time you want them to do something, it uses a Service, and you'll never have more than 9/10 of them if you min max.
Linking them takes gobs of karma, too.

A nexus, on the other hand, can be chock full of agents and IC, only uses money to advance(not karma), and doesn't care about services at all. It doesn't even have Resonance signals that can be traced back to you.


One of the main benefits to having Sprites is that they're Intelligent. They have edge, don't need to make dogbrain tests, have decision making capabilities. More importantly, you don't need to Issue Commands to them: A free action to Transmit Phrase is all you need to use to say "Hey! Gank that user!" because... they're smart, and will understand. They also share a Sprite/Technomancer mental link.
What this means is a TM, using a nexus full of hackware can do, is put a Sprite in charge of the nexus as a sort of chief. It just kind of sits there, on a remote service, waiting for orders. Such as "Tell my agent to look up information on *blank*."

High rating programs: That's what you have threading for.
Keep you safe in the matrix: I'm sorry, could you elaborate on that?

It seems to me that you have just encountered the problem of most TM characters: There is not much you can actually do with all the money you earn, except buying loads of drones or maybe bankrolling a submersion group. Programs, hardware, ammo, implants et cetera are no concern if all your power is in your brain, even foci or ritual materials don't exist. But you know, there are some problems in life you simply have to take like a man



That's like saying "a sam can only have 0.5 Essence worth of implants". A TM simply needs a couple of registered sprites, because only registering gives you access to the fun stuff.

Are you sure of that? It sounds like an interpretation, not quite the rules. After all, spirits are intelligent too, so the same would apply to them.

A big advantage to a Sprite defenders is the Shield CF, attack powers like Electron Storm (effectively Black IC that affects any type of icon and stacks with Black IC), and if you can get a rating 9 sprite a stupidly large dice pool with an insane # of optional powers. Then spend 9 karma to link that rating 9 sprite and for 256 days it's there 24/7 doing one task.

Sprites make great bodyguards and bouncers and could be used as a Fetch Module on crack cocaine.

And yet Technomancers aren't broken how?

You mean other than Corporate "Headhunters" that are going after them faster and harder than against Magicians?

Except you need a high rating system to run these programs. A system of flat 6's will only let you run Rating 6 programs/forms. Even if your program/form is Rating 12, a system of flat 6's will only run these programs/forms at Rating 6

Nope, TMs run programs off of their brains, which are not limited to the system of the node their persona is active in.

Except your mental attributes still dictate System Attributes and Complex Forms still are subject to the System rating of the Technomancer's biological node. Willpower serves as the System rating so with a Willpower of 6, your System rating is 6 and you can only run complex forms at 6 or lower. Yes you can boost your Willpower up with 'wares or drugs, but you arent going to get it much higher than 6.

Incorrect. You can only have a base CF of up to your resonance, your CFs are not limited to system or response. You can thread a CF up to 2x Resonance and it runs at that rating while you sustain it, but you take a -2 penalty to actions that don't involve that CF. Please read your main book for more information strictly regarding technomancers and not hackers.

Note that if a TM has a resonance of 5 and thus CF's capped at 5 they could still get a rating 14 CF using a Registered Sprite doing Assist Operation. The Resonancex2 limit is for when its threaded so if you can get above Resonancex2 using ONLY Assist Operation that perfectly ok. Yet another reason TM's are best built as summoners.

(not directed at X-Kalibur, just adding to the RAW he shared)

(Double Post)

Yes: 4a 299: You speak a text or phrase as you would in the physical world(see p146), only to one or more recipients over the matrix. This may also be used to have an agent or device start or stop executing previously issued orders, such as having a drone launch an attack on a prearranged target or an autocooker start a pre-programmed dinner.
(edit: damn dumpshop, premature ejacu-posting. Fixing)

Sprites are not spirits,despite the rules similiarities. You can indeed set things up to respond to transmitted phrases.



Partially correct. TM's CF's are limited by Resonance.
Unless they're threaded, in which case its twice resonance.
Also, a Threaded + assist operated CF is...... still limited to twice resonance. Because its threaded.

Previously issued orders? But then you've already allocated those tasks, just with a condition of "but wait to do X until I say Y" attached. I suppose the same is possible with spirits; in either case you're sacrificing flexibility (more unallocated services) for speed.

And just for completeness, neither are sprites.

Well, actually, after everything said about the TM abilities, you can just get a nexus with a high processor limit. Thus you'd be able to run lots of high-level (up to level 6 without GM fiat) programs on it.
Why would you want that is another question - but oh well, you could be running the team's tacnet from it, for example.

Unfortunately I don't think tms get to benefit from programming suites and nexi made for programming, cause the dice bonus and 50 percent reduction in interval is certainly useful to hackers. If they did, I'd certainly see the benefit in throwing together a nice home nexus.

Where does it say that complex form's effective rating isnt limited by the System rating of the system it's deployed in?

CFs always run on the Bionode. A nexus is of no use for CFs.
Also, programs aren't capped by the System of the node they're used in, but by the node they're being run from.

Really the only uses for a nexus to a Technomancer would be as Resonance well or to host Agents, since Technomancers can still use Agents, they just can't run them on the Bionode.

A technomancer’s complex forms can be used without limitation

Straight from my SR4 (old) Technomancer section on CFs.

Where in SR4 does it say that? I've looked but been unable to find it.

Page 233. Complex form ratings. Full text dump.

Complex Forms have ratings just as programs do, chosen
during character creation or bought/improved with Karma
during gameplay. A complex form’s rating may not exceed the
technomancer’s Resonance.
A technomancer’s complex forms can be used without limitation;
running too many at once does not affect Response.
Note that all technomancers have an inherent Biofeedback
Filter complex form as part of their living persona, equal to
their Charisma (they may not learn that form separately).

Is that all? I saw that but it seemed a little vague to mean CF's could be used at any rating.

A further question would be how would I be able to create a higher end system (better than flat 6's) for mundane programs and agents? Is it something I could just throw cash at or would I physically have to build it myself?

Why wouldn't they?



Also, see above about programming; then, you can use it as a well-protected central point for your tacnet; you could run Sensor software analyzing team stream input on it (if your GM allows), and etc.


I'm afraid you're building (and coding) it yourself, or you could try getting it from someone who already has it - but it won't by any means be an easy task, since the guys in possession of such things are mostly corps and militaries.

A safe central point is pretty easy actually;
- Every teammate gets a TacNet Client Commlink slaved to your Bionode. Only Emerged beings can attempt to hack the Bionode.
- A sprite in your Bionode encrypts the Bionode every turn and all connections every turn, with R6 encryption. That requires 12 hits on an Electronic Warfare+Decryption (1 turn) test to break. A new code is used every turn, so if you can't break it immediately it's useless. And if you can't beak it then you can't spoof orders to the clients or attack the Bionode.

Or course, step two can be done by a hackers too.

How are you running the tacnet on a bionode? Where are you getting the CF?

Encrypt is a simple action. You can't possibly encrypt the node (I'm not sure you can encrypt bionodes at all, actually) and all the connections every IP with your two simple actions per IP.
And even if you could - good hackers and technos have 4 to 5 IPs easily, so that gives them 3 IPs (3-5) to accumulate those 12 hits - not TOO easy, but doable.

Roll Resonance + Software

Per SR4A, code-breaking is rolled once every turn, while encryption takes only a simple action. And the target number is high enough (12) that you're not going to succeed in a single turn.

A single sprite/agent with 3 IPs - the standard - can keep 6 things encrypted; and you can't spoof connections unless you've cracked the encryption, nor can you try to hack encrypted nodes until you've cracked the encryption.

A Programming Suite isn't a CF so it would use the non-Resonance version of the Software skill. TM's can explicitly learn and use these skills they just usually don't.

So that then means a Living Persona that has it as a meat skill (or has emulated it so they can use it via Biowire echo or loaded it into skillwires/move by wire) could certainly do it.... limited by their Living Persona' Response of course since its not Resonance based or the TM can just load a regular persona like a hacker while coding and have Registered Sprites like Code Sprites and Machine Sprites aid his non-Living Persona icon as if it was an ally hacker.

Yeah, my bad - I misremembered that it took IPs, not turns.
Still,

Okay, in that case a constantly re-encrypted non-Bionode is even more secure than a Bionode.

Except there are rules for live encrypting
and they're not nearly as nice as this

pg 66 Unwired:

I'm not sure the unwired way of doing things entirely replaces things; that's needlessly complicated. What I mean is just setting a completely new encryption on a connection once per turn, the way it's described in SR4A.

The problem is that you will not be able to use the connected device (Whatever it may be) until the Encryption is completed, and if you re-encrypt it each Turn, you have effectively rendered the device useless...

How do you mean?

Suppose Node A and Node B have a connection they wish to secure. A spends a simple action in Turn1IP1 to engage Encryption using Key 1. I'm not aware of any rules that say B needs to spend any actions to continue using the connection.

Now on Turn2IP1, A just uses the Encrypt simple action again on the same connection, so that A and B are now using Key 2 to communicate.

Any attempts by C to crack Key 1 are now worthless, since Key 1 isn't being used anymore. But since any check to crack Key 1 takes a whole turn, it's unlikely C cracked Key 1 in time to get any use out of it.

What does this cost A and B? A simple action every turn by A, and it an encrypted connection eats up a Subscription slot (#ystemx2 available) and a program slot (#System available). That's really pretty cheap for an encryption you can't hack in time to gain real-time access.



It gets even nastier if you try to secure your commlink; simply have an agent in your node use R6 Encrypt every turn at IP 1. The only way people can hack your node is if they fulfill all the below:
- Get 12+ hits on Electronic Warfare+Decrypt in Turn T=-1
- Win initiative in Turn T = 0 against your R6 agent (who can profit from your Response Enhancer to have an Initiative of Rating+Response+Response Enhancer = 15)
- Brute-Force hack your node in a single Complex Action

At this point, and only then, you get to wonder what happens to people in a node that becomes encrypted if those people don't know the encryption key.

Well, if you are securing a Connection, as opposed to the node, then that connection cannot be used until the secure connection has been re-established. As Such, when you switch encryption schemes every 3 seconds, you downline that connection so that the Connection may be encrypted. Kind of hard to use something that is constantly going on and off line every 3 seconds.

Notes:

Signal Encryption may be Restored/Re-encrypted by: Close Subscription (Log Off Action), Re-establish the Subscription (A Log On Action) and then Re-Encrypt the Subscription (Simple Action FROM EACH SIDE of the Link)... at that point, you are not actually able to use that Subscription AT ALL... Better to just use a HIgh Level Encryption and deal with any Intrusions that make it through (That is what a really good hidden databomb on the access ports are for after all).

Node Encryption is restored after you Reboot the Node (Complex Action, plus boot time) and then Re-encrypting the node. Strong Encryption makes this an even longer proposition. IF you are continuously re-encrypting the node, it will be as if it did not exist at all...

Both rules can be found in the Decryption Section of Unwired, Page 66.

Ah, yes. A well-hidden rule, and a rather weird one; you can encrypt an unencrypted connection, but you can't encrypt a decrypted connection without resetting the connection. Isn't that rather strange? Likewise, you can encrypt an unencrypted node while it's running, but the only way to change the encryption is to reboot!

It looks like a pretty clumsy way to fix a major rules exploit.

Naah... It isn't that bad really. Decrypt does not actually decrypt the Node, File or Subscription Channel (Signals Encryption) for everyone, just the person who actually decrypts. Booting him off forces him to decrypt again, so it is always more effecient to have your ARC set to Kill Intruder Access, while an Agent is used to alert other Agents/Spiders.

Anything else is unplayable as using RL security quickly eliminates the HAcker as a viable Archtype... I can live with it...

I'm pretty late to this, but I just wanted to point out the Rating 6 is not military-grade hardware *or* software; Rating 7+ is.

What I mean is, it's weird that you can encrypt a running node, but you can't re-encrypt a running node. The conditions for when you can begin encryption should be more consistent; only encrypting nodes at boot time for example.

You can't re-encrypt something that is encrypted (At least in Shadowrun anyways), which is where they are coming from.
Not that big of a deal, really...

Except for Dynamic Encryption
which.. does exactly that.. sorta.